Blog Discussion Group Eight
Blog post due at 11:55pm on March 26 and comment due at 11:55pm on March 29.
China
- What changes did Mao make to Marxism and Leninism to make them more appropriate to the Chinese setting?
- Is it still appropriate to think of
- Discuss the possibility of
Question One
ReplyDeleteMao molded communism to fit China. The first part of that is the “peasant revolution.” Having been one himself, he took the transformation to leveling the economy with aggressiveness. He defended the notion they had gone too far with this, “A revolution is not the same as inviting people to dinner or writing an essay or painting a picture or embroidering a flower; it cannot be anything so refined, so calm and gentle.” When young, Mao had written that for change to come about, China must be “destroyed and reformed.” He now realized that only the peasantry could bring that about. From the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, Mao led an increasingly strong and efficient party and army that survived the anti-Japanese war and then defeated Chiang and the K.M.T. in the civil war of the late 1940s. Mao started the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to dispel the “miasmal mist” of Soviet-style “revisionism” from the C.C.P. He always emphasized that China would have to experience regular Cultural Revolutions. In these ways, he took the principles of Marxism to blend in with the needs and culture of China.
Macfarquhar, Roderick. “How Mao Molded Communism to Create a New China.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/23/opinion/how-mao-molded-communism-to-create-a-new-china.html.
Question 2: Is it still appropriate to think of China as a “communist” country?
ReplyDeleteChina has been governed by an authoritarian regime since Dr. Sun Yat-sen took the position as president of the country. Only in 1921 was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) established and China officially became a Communist-Party State (pg. 646). Communist ideologies have ruled China since then, with little uprising or rebellion in return (except for Tiananmen in 1989) (pg. 649). With the shift from Revolutionary leaders to Technocrats (those who started with "lower-level" jobs and have worked up the ladder), new changes came about in China. "Under Jiang Zemin’s leadership, China continued its economic reforms and remarkable growth... But the country also faced widening gaps between the rich and the poor, environmental degradation, and pervasive corruption" (pg. 650). One of the main goals of Communism is to create and maintain total economic, political, and social equality. One is not above another, nor another above anyone else. Social classes are non-existent because there are no rich or poor individuals. Everyone works and is paid the same. If a social and economic gap exists between individuals in the first place, is China a true Communist Party-State? Decades ago, it was, but now China seems to be transitioning towards capitalism due to the exposure from other countries (namely the U.S.). There's a good chance that capitalism could be followed by democratization, but China's citizens still suffer repression from the state to this day.
Despite Xi Jinping's efforts to maintain the Communist State, I believe that due to the apparent social and economic classes that exist in China, the country should no longer be considered "Communist."
Citations: Kesselman, Mark, Joel Krieger and William A. Joseph. “Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas.” Cengage Learning, 7th ed., BryteWave, 2016. Chapter 15: China.
Although most businesses are still run by the government, there are many private companies in China now. However, there are still elements of communism embedded in those private companies so - are they really private? China can now be called communist with a twist of socialism but at its root, it is still a communist country and that will most likely not be changing anytime soon.
DeleteWhat changes did Mao make to Marxism and Leninism to make them more appropriate to the Chinese setting?
ReplyDeleteCommonly referred to as Mao Zedong Thought (synonymous with Maoism in some circles), Mao adapted the concepts of Marxism and Leninism to fit the specific needs of China at the time. These amendments included the guerrilla tactic of People's War, which is essentially the idea that the rural people of the countryside can be utilized against the proletariat through the use of guerrilla warfare and other such tactics. This was used against invading Japanese forces in WWII. Also included is the "New Democracy," which posits that some bourgeoisie groups can be used to aid the proletariat in their struggle against such concepts as colonialism, imperialism, etc. Essentially, sometimes some bourgeoisie can be allied with to attain the goals of the proletariat, as was seen with the Balli Kombetar in Albania. This is a temporary system, as the bourgeoisie will eventually have to be crushed to attain "true communism." A third aspect of Maoism is the Three Worlds Theory, which designates the US and the USSR as the superpowers of the first world, developing countries that are under the exploitation of the first world as the second world, and countries which do not have the means to exploit and which are exploited by both the first and second worlds as the third world. This was in opposition to the Three Worlds Model, which placed Capitalist countries in the first world, Communist countries in the second world, and nonaligned or economically underdeveloped countries in the third world.
Sources:
http://www.china.org.cn/china/CPC_90_anniversary/2011-06/29/content_22885514.htm
Kesselman, Mark, Joel Krieger and William A. Joseph. “Introduction to Comparative Politics: Political Challenges and Changing Agendas.” Cengage Learning, 7th ed., BryteWave, 2016. Chapter 15: China.
First off Mao used a lot of Marxist values and combined those with the fundamentals of Chinese thought and culture. This new brand of Marxism became known as Maoism. One of Mao’s biggest concerns was to keep the interest of the working class. Mao believed the at the proletariat or working class are the only ones that would be capable of regenerating China and contributing to the revolution. Mao believed that industrialized countries where the proletariat or productive force was higher were the countries that were going to be the leading and pushing forward with the revolutionary movement and those who are more colonial would have to be carried along. He resisted any ideas that communism would be dependent on the growth of the bourgeoisie and promoted heavily for the proletariat. One of the mistakes that Mao made while trying to push socialist rule was that he overestimated the importance of economic laws at the expense of political ideologies. This lead china to have inadequate progress in assessing racism on a global scale. However he was able to stress the importance of culture and give importance to talented writers. Yet the cultural revolution that Mao attempted to uphold failed it made people who committed minor errors to be branded as capitalist roaders and instead of having a cultural unity they were mistreated by the members of the working party.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.marxists.org/history/erol/uk.hightide/mao.htm
Although I believe that China becoming democratic is highly unlikely, there are certain scenarios that could possibly trigger demand for some form of democracy.
ReplyDeleteAccording to TheDiplomat.com, one possibility is that one-party regimes tend to suffer from organizational ageing and decay. As leaders get progressively weaker, the regimes tend to attract careerists and opportunists who view their role in the regime from the perspective of an investor. These people will want to maximize their returns from their contribution to the regime’s maintenance and survival. This can eventually result in escalating corruption, deteriorating governance, and growing alienation of the masses. China’s one-party regime does however still have adequate resilience to endure decades of rule due to the CCP’s proven capacity for repression, its ability to adapt to socioeconomic changes, and its track record of delivering economic improvement as a source of legitimacy. But this socioeconomic change –rising literacy, income, and urbanization rates, along with the improvement of communications technologies — greatly reduce the costs of collective action, de-legitimize autocratic rule, and can possibly foster demands for democracy.
Chris, I think it's definitely possible for China to become a democracy in the future. Maybe not within the next 5-10 years, but, as you said, the demand for democracy is beginning to rise, therefore the day will come when "communism" no longer works in China. Chinese administrative rule (in terms of economic and industrial growth) has been effective since CCP was created. However, democracies have something that China's authoritarian regime does not: "a built-in course-correction mechanism. When policy goes awry, the incumbents responsible for the mistake can be, and often are, voted out of office, to be replaced, in principle at least, by more competent rivals" (Eichengreen). If Chinese leaders do not admit to their mistakes and adjust policies accordingly, then citizens of China may start rebelling against their government and demand a more fitting form of rule (such as democracy). China can also be affected by democracies directly simply by opening its financial market. In doing so, it exposes their economy to that of democratic countries.
DeleteWith these ideas in mind, it's hard to doubt China's possible democratic government rule in the future.
Citation: Eichengreen, Barry. "China and the future of democracy." The Japan Times, 14 May 2018, Web. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2018/05/14/commentary/world-commentary/china-future-democracy/#.XJ6YBJhKjIU. Accessed 29 Mar 2019.
I think you make some very well informed points in question of whether China is a communist country or not. I do think though that they should still be considered a communist nation based on the fact that the current president is a member of the communist party and supports its principles. I do believe that the economy is changing, but the majority of the country still subscribes to social and economic equality, which is a communist ideology. The government still owns and controls the majority of business and still controls the media, which are also communist philosophies. Therefore, I would disagree and say that china is a communist state.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-13017877
http://fortune.com/2018/11/29/communist-china-billionaires-jack-ma/