In the summer of 1989, the Tiananmen Square protests threatened the legitimacy and power of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In response to the protests, the Party declared martial law and brutally decimated the defenseless demonstrators. This event caused international commotion, but more importantly, resulted in major internal change within the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Progressive reforms were halted and some were even rescinded. Then, in December of 1991 the Soviet Union officially dissolved and the United States emerged as the lone superpower. Seeing the decline of communism, and further rise of Western states, the PRC had to reinforce its internal power and structure. The source of the PRC’s power has always come from within. …show more content…
On his idea of “consultative democracy,” Xi Jinping says “the whole of society will be consulted about the interests of the whole country while people in a certain area will be consulted about local affairs and a certain group of people will be consulted about affairs relevant to their interests” (Dickinson 278). Xi Jinping’s statement aims at pleasing the people by saying that the Party will listen to their concerns, but this is highly doubtful as his descriptions are very vague and provide little direction for concrete action. Instead, the Party uses propaganda and censorship to control most of the population. For example, “The Great Firewall” restricts internet use to the “world’s largest number of Internet users, estimated at over 630 million people” and “the PRC is ranked near the bottom in the world for media and Internet freedom… Blocked sites include international human rights websites, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, New York Times and Bloomberg” (Lum 11-12). Lum then notes how internet usage can be completely shut down in certain regions as it was for ten months in Xinjiang. Thus, the CCP chooses repression as opposed to cooperation with the majority of its citizens. It is strange, however, that “not everyone is bothered by it. When asked how they felt when they encountered censorship online, almost half said ‘it doesn’t matter,’ suggesting that people have become …show more content…
Recruiting the brightest young students has been a successful strategy that should be continued if the Party wants to seize the best available human capital. This strategy will ensure that the smartest citizens will look to work with the CCP and not against it. In dealing with the masses, the CCP can continue to be successful by issuing fresh propaganda. However, the Party must tread carefully with its censorship practices. With the world being more intertwined and globalized than ever before, it might get difficult for the CCP to censor foreign ideas and promote its core values. This is problematic for the party because censorship has been a pillar for the success of the Party. As discussed in class, Chinese citizens continue to find ways around “The Great Firewall” through unconventional methods (such as internet memes). Furthermore, “the government exercises less control over news and information than it did a decade ago, due to the commercialization of the press, the development of the Internet, and the rise of social media” (Lum 11). This means that keeping strict censorship is already proving a challenge for the party. For the Party to keep its power in the long run, I believe the CCP must look to “achieve its goals through cooperation instead of repression” (Dickinson 301). By doing this, the CCP can allocate its resources on more necessary tasks for
Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the International Herald Tribune, a prestigious scholar claimed that all of China’s tragedies are ‘sustained by a mistaken belief in the correctness of the 1949 revolution’ and that the future progress of China depends on the recognition that the revolution was a failure. However, the CCP government was certainly not perfect and its most significant failures were its political failures such as the Anti-rightist movement and the Cultural Revolution and also economic failures such as the great leap forward. Millions of peoples were falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement.
Everyday people in China are suffering from their government. From being wrongly accused to being executed for petty crimes. In a country where you cannot speak your opinions, talk poorly about government officials, speak about Chinese communist failures, or even browse the internet freely. China has kept its citizens in the void. One example is the great firewall of china, which sensors most social media and other sites. This essay will go into some individual stories of the Chinese government's unfair social injustices towards its people.
...) and bring China under uniform thought as well. Thus, in his attempt to accomplish his goals he placed less emphasis on freedom and more on developing a sturdy political backbone. Deng, on the other hand, wanted to thrust China in the global community for economic fortune at the expense of everything Mao had established. In the process, he brought a freedom and wave of democracy to the People's Republic, endowing the Chinese citizens with dreams of wealth and prosperity that were never even considered in the time of Mao. As China, progresses further into the twenty first century, its role seems quite unclear. A return to Post-revolutionary authoritarian communism seems unlikely, as does the institution of a true democracy but perhaps a new form of stability will arise to grant greater liberty to individuals or possibly even another Tiannenmen lurking in the future.
In The Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the two German philosophers saw history as the struggle between the working class and the Bourgeois, or middle class (textbook 708). The Communist Manifesto was written in 1848, during the peak of the Industrial Revolution, a time when the Bourgeois made huge profits in manufacturing at the expense of the working class. According to Marx and Engels, the fruits of the Industrial Revolution created a new class of the oppressed modern working class, the Proletariat, which had never before existed because it was neither like serfdom or slave hood in that it was dependent on the Bourgeois to hire them for wage labor. This was the class the two philosophers envisioned would set off a revolution that would overthrow capitalism to end the perpetual class struggle and create a fair society known as Communism.
Throughout, 1900- 1950 there were a number of changes and continuities in China. From the fall of the dynasties to the rise of the Communist Party, these changes shaped China’s government and society. Although, many political changes were made multiple continuities were held constant such as, consistent rebellions and the lack of democracy.
Furthermore, the Cultural Revolution remains one of the most censored and unclear topics in China, indicating that the movement was much more impactful on the CCP’s political strategy than perhaps they would hope to admit. Simultaneously, the Cultural Revolution may also be diminishing in resonance over time, as many young people are simply unaware of the movement occurring at all, or not fully aware of its implications in Chinese
The spread of Communism and its ideals significantly increased during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War which intensified after the Second World War and resulted in a victory to the Communists in October 1949. At this time, the majority of the provinces in China were led by either the GMD or the CCP. However, the civilians in the GMD-ruled cities were suffering rapid inflation, strikes, violence and riots which led to a collapse of public order. Adding to this instability, corruption was rife within the Nationalist party’s lead...
The government in china is very concerned with limiting the freedom of expression for it's citizens in all possible ways. Let's examine first the reason why censorship is such an important aspect for the Chinese government. According to the book “A Short History of China” by Gordon Kerr when the renaissance took place in Europe from the 14th through the 17th century it changed people's view in many different ways because it was “a period of exploration, discovery and advancement in almost every field”(Gordon Kerr 87); it was a rebirth of the ancient traditions. Mean...
In order to have a better understanding about the conflict of Tiananmen and its influence on further American relations with People’s Republic of China, this paper gives a short background of the bilateral relations until 1990. Historically, the United States and China did not have good relations due to the political regime of China. In addition, China was not that developed economically to have trade or any kinds of relations with the US. According to some historical data, the first China-US negotiations at the ambassadorial level started on August 1, 1955. The bilateral relations of America and China consist of several stages. The first stage of the US-Chinese relations started in 1971 when both opened their doors to financial and economic ties. The trading volume of these countries stood at US$ 4...
people on to the side of the CCP. The CCP’s victory was also down to
Thornton, P., (ed.) (2010), ‘Censorship and Surveillance in Chinese Cyberspace: Beyond the Great Firewall’ In Gries, P. H., and Rosen, S., (eds) Chinese Politics (London and New York: Routledge).
Since the initial warming of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970’s, policymakers have had difficulty balancing conflicting U.S. policy concerns in the People’s Republic of China. In the strange world of diplomacy between the two, nothing is predictable. From Nixon to Clinton, presidents have had to reconcile security and human rights concerns with the corporate desire for expanded economic relations between the two countries. Nixon established ties with Mao Zedong’s brutal regime in 1972. And today Clinton’s administration is trying to influence China’s course from within a close economic and diplomatic relationship.
Mao resigned as president of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in April 1959 , after the Great Leap Forward, planning for Chinese production to “overtake Britain in 15 years”, failed and caused a widespread famine in China, where 20-30 million people starved. President Liu and General Secretary Deng began to restore China , while Mao remained ceremonial head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Liu and Deng introduced many liberal and effective policies , which involved stepping back from communist ideals. Collectivisation and communal cafeterias were abandoned and peasants recommenced private, “capitalist” farming. They even rehabi...
Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "China Lists Controls To Restrict the Use Of E-mail and Web." The New York Times, 27 January 2000. Retrieved 26 April 2004.
Interests: China’s leaders desire to improve their nation’s economy while preserving political stability. They want to censor political discussions to prevent “westernization” of China,