NEW CHINA- AGRARIAN SOCIETY TO INDUSTRIAL BEHEMOTH IN 30 YEARS
The New China did not just happen overnight.
We have to thank the 1949 Revolution and the preceding revolutions for the current modernization period. Without these there would be no New China
After 1949, the Chinese some how came through 60 years of major political and social upheavals and now we have state capitalism despite the efforts of the Cultural Revolution.
The greatest credit to the still modernizing China is the people’s determination to overcome their centuries old curses and feudal burdens. This was a process that went through a couple of thousand years of suffering from feudalism and superstitious believes.
But China was so big (population wise) and weighed down by so much baggage that only a revolution, nay many revolutions, could drag its people out of the feudal age.
First they had to overthrow the oppressive foreign Manchu 300 years domination and also later Western domination. The success of the Sun Yet Sen-led 1911 Revolution was the foundation for greater change. The 1911 Revolution was the continuation of so many revolutions and people’s uprisings like the Taiping Revolution. If the Taipings had succeeded this would have seen China become a rather strange sort of Christian kingdom dominated by Hakkas- another northern tribe like the Manchus!
Underpinning the great changes is the Qin administrative system and culture which survived 2000 years. It is the template for the modern Chinese society. However this template had to be modified for the new world. They also say Chinese society has 3 great pillars- Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. Buddhism was the gentle foreign faith which the Indians must take credit!.
But in the 19th Century China was subjected to more violent foreign assaults. Whether they like it or not Chinese society went through dramatic changes under Western imperialist attacks on their land and culture. Japan was able to transform itself into an industrial nation a century before without destroying its feudal structure. China went for an almost complete re-make of its system.
The most infamous period of Western attacks on China was the series of Opium Wars and imposition of Unequal Treaties in the late 19th Century.
Britain had an over surplus of opium grown by Indian slaves and wanted forced China to buy its opium. This was called “international trade” making Britain the biggest drug dealer of all time. Like modern day drug dealers Britain used violence and killed many thousands on the battlefields and in the opium dens to make money from the Chinese. This is commonly called “blood money” and “thuggery” – a term the British borrowed into the English language from colonized India. The British then sent in missionaries to rectify their sin.
The Chinese resisted and the Western imperialists nations of the time ganged up and attacked and divided up part of China with western enclaves like Hong Kong and in Shanghai. China was made to pay “compensation” to the Western imperialists for resisting their encroachment on China! It was a huge burden on a bankrupt and utterly corrupt Manchu regime and economy.
The Westerners killed many innocent Chinese (what is new?) and also robbed the Ching Imperial Court of many priceless treasures (now in their museums or private collections) and have been robbing China one way to the other ever since. (This we have seen in Iraq and now Libya).
The capitalist revolution in China is so big that is has actually created a cultural revolution affecting almost every country round the globe. Nevertheless, despite the glitz it is still “developing” third world country. The next revolution is that hopefully state capitalism will bring greater economic and more political freedom to the majority of the Chinese population yet to “see the benefit” in a socialist framework.
On the up side Chinese produced goods and Chinese businessman become “ambassadors” of Chinese industriousness and productivity. The good have allegedly stabilized and even upgraded western society with cheap well made (and also shoddy) consumer goods.
China also follows a policy of non-interference with other countries’ internal affairs for 60 years. With the same policy it built a close trading relationship with most African nations and increasingly with South America and the Pacific. China owns USA paper.
This came about even though China did not send gunboats to impose trade agreements on these Westerner countries which had original used gunboat diplomacy . The West go back what they have for centuries imposed on others.
The speed of Chinese western style economic development “with Chinese characteristics” is so fast that it has caught up in many aspects and even surpassed the West at its own game in the space of just some 30 years.
On the down side China has also became dependent on exports and is becoming colonized with good and bad western ideas. Both the East and West have mutual benefits! The West is now typically screaming capitalist competition from China is not fair. What’s fair about capitalist completion? (And if the Western economies crash …….)
To conclude we must not forget to thank Chairman Mao Zedong and the Communist Party for making it possible.
Salute!