China occupies an important position in human history with its vast territory, dense population and the civilization it has developed. The Chinese nation, which for centuries had a land-bound lifestyle, was unable to catch up with the technological and economic developments that began in Europe in the 18th century and continued throughout the 19th century, like many other Asian countries, and faced serious social crises in the middle of the 20th century. After the death of “Leader” Mao, the Chinese political authority changed its governing mentality, revised the method of socialism that had been practiced since 1945, integrated into the market and succeeded in becoming one of the world’s largest economies. The main actor of this period of revision (or reformation) that began in the 1980s was Deng Xiaoping, who became theGeneral Secretary of the CCP until 1987 and continued to influence China after his tenure. The policies that transformed China can be analyzed under two main headings: support for private enterprise and open policy towards the West. As far as the rhetoric adopted is concerned, it can be stated that this reform process was skillfully managed without using accusatory language against the previous leader and without being stuck in the past debates.
At the dawn of the 21st century, China has experienced a crucial economic and political transformation, known as the ‘revision/modernization of socialism’ or ‘Chinese-type socialism’, and one of its two main pillars has been to ensure the existence of private enterprise (Xiaosi, 2001). In order to better understand the political and economic transformation that China has experienced, it is necessary to look at the general characteristics of the twentieth century world and Mao’s China. The 20th century was a century of significant political transformations in many parts of the world. In the first half of the century, humanity witnessed two major world wars and experienced a major transformation: industrialization, which had flourished firstly on the European continent, began to spread throughout the world and societies experienced structural-ideological revolutions. China was one of these countries. In 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was founded and, after long internal struggles, the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949 under the leadership of Mao Zedong. Mao’s period of rule can be analyzed under 3 sections: First-Five Years (1953-1957), Great Leap Forward (1958-1961) and Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) (Beck et al., 2008). While agricultural output grew very slowly in the first five years, during the Great Leap Forward period, the Chinese people faced a vital famine and China lost the dynamism of its founding years. During the Cultural Revolution period, Leader Mao regained the influence he had lost during the famine by taking radical measures, and this radical stance led to a socio-economic chaos throughout the country. In such a chaotic environment, dissenting voices began to rise and after Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping took over as a result of various political events and signaled the beginning of a new era by abandoning the economic policies that destroyed the Chinese peasantry and eliminated the famine, allowing goods to flow more freely, allowing private enterprises (townships, which were ‘communes’ before) to sell their goods (Ponting, 2001). This was the first part of a major political-economic transformation. But it must be emphasized that during Deng’s time and at no time was Mao’s personality directly targeted in a negative sense. Those who made the transformation, Deng and his cadres, saw that the Stalinist Socialism adopted by Mao (Mao practiced it in his own way, that is, he differed from Stalin on some points) did not benefit the country and preferred to revise socialism rather than abandon it. The fact that Mao was not targeted ensured that political stability was not disturbed during the transformation process and prevented a possible public backlash (Coase & Wang, 2012).
The second pillar of China’s economic-political transformation (or in other words, ‘modernization of socialism’) in the 1980s was the ‘opening to the West’. After 1976, political authorities sent delegations to many ‘capitalist’ countries and asked them to prepare reports on their economies. Based on these reports, it was decided to adopt the technological progress of the West and to establish special commercial areas to develop trade, the first of which was Senzhen. This settlement, which was visibly small, grew 6-fold economically within 3 years of being declared a special economic zone and became China’s first settlement with an annual output per capita exceeding $10,000 (Xiaosi, 2001). Its population also grew over time from 26,000 to over 10 million. This positive attitude towards the West, i.e. the effort to establish new (trade) relations and to adopt Western production mechanisms and adapt them to Chinese socialism, literally transformed China and made it part of the market. In addition to this policy, it should also be noted that during this period, the political discourses of the Mao era were replaced by other discourses, which was one of the political indicators that a different era had begun for China [Under Mao, the discourse of class struggle, permanent revolution under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, and decentralized socialism was radically adopted; after Mao’s death, the dominant political discourse was shaped around the ‘four modernizations’ (agriculture, industry, defense, and science-technology), and the decentralization mentality diverged from Mao’s] (Coase & Wang, 2012).
To summarize, the People’s Republic of China was ruled under the absolute rule of Mao and his Stalinist Socialism between 1949 and 1976, and during this period, it gradually lost the dynamism of its early periods and saw its economic bottom levels, which had appeared as famine. The wrong policies adopted necessitated economic transformation and the transformation started after Mao’s death, but this alteration was tried to be made by not leaving the ‘socialist framework’. Opening the doors to the West and opening the way for private entrepreneurs in the country shows that the country is now completely included in the market. This Chinese type of socialism has saved the country from its former disgrace and made it one of the world’s greatest economic powers.
References
Beck, R. B., Black, L., Krieger, L. S., Naylor, P. C., & Shabaka, D. I. (2008). World history: Patterns of interaction (1st ed.). McDougal Littell.
Coase, R. H., & Wang, N. (2012). How China became capitalist. Palgrave Macmillan.
Ponting, C. (2001). World history: A new perspective. Pimlico.
Xiaosi, R. (2017). Çin rüyası (D. Kassymov, Trans.). Yeni İnsan.
Comments