Continuity and Change in China 1950’s to Present

Continuity and Change in China 1950

?s to 1990’s Today, a nation like China is the most influential on the Earth with a diverse economy, a billion population, considerable technical ability and innovation, and the most striking military power in Asia. It is believed that China will overtake the United States as the world’s preeminent superpower. China’s strength which is seen today is a positive impact of many years of historical hard times.A few centuries ago, beginning from the 1950s, China as a nation was still following the doctrine of communist (Leutner, 2007, p.

14). At this time the Nation was under Mao Zedong (Wade-Giles: Mao Tse-tung) and Chinese Communist Party who emerged victorious after the surrender of Japanese rule in 1945.

Jiang Jieshi who was the Japanese ruler in China fled to island province which belongs to Taiwan with his cohort, but after flying, they were still claiming to be the rightful rulers of China (Zurndorfer, 1989, p.79-111).The victorious Mao Zedong and Chinese Communist Party came to power and declared the formation of the People’s Republic of China which mark the fate of China fortune. Mao Zedong who had been a hero in communist revolution faced challenges when he tried his leadership career of revolution in the new society. Mao Zedong challenge came when he decided to come up with industry and radical agricultural reforms “Great Leap Forward” to enable China to catch up with the western nation (Szonyi, 2017, p.176). Economic policies that Mao Zedong came up with were very naivety and political genius which turn to achieve an insignificant outcome and cause the nastiest famines in humankind history that China has never come across as a nation. Few leaders who were present at the China nation famine were not able to survive but to Mao Zedong was a political genius.

Also, Mao Zedong took advantage of the of few leaders who did not survive the deadly famine by exploiting party functioning excluding and isolate opponents and also separated himself from the deadly disaster of famine. This for a time caused Chinese Communist Party and Mao Zedong hierarchy to be unpopular in their nation, but they never surrendered his grasp on the wheels of power. In 1966 Mao Zedong and acolytes came up with Cultural Revolution “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” which was meant to campaign for purifying revolution and its target, but in reality, the campaign was intended to bring back reinvigorate Mao Zedong’s regime by yoking the eagerness of young socialist Red Guards. This Cultural Revolution paved Mao Zedong into power where he came to be the Centre of penetrating personal cult enmity of Joseph Stalin, a Soviet Dictator. Following the launch of Cultural Revolution, many people lost their lives in the process.

It is estimated that 1.5 million persons were murdered and a million of others suffered imprisonment, general humiliation or torture and seizure of belongings. The Cultural Revolution brought a short and long-term effect that will mainly be felt in cities in China for the future decades. The ideology and legacy of Mao Zedong came to be a sacrosanct to criticize them or question because someone may be risking persecution re-education, denunciation or even followers may cause death. In 1972 a man called Nixon paid a visit to China and brought changes. By Nixon visiting, China made a significant step in sea change by slowly opening up its boundaries because isolation was not present again against China. China had remained under danger of Russian attack for several years, but following Nixon visit, China-United States relationship healed. At this time China had an opportunity to participate in elusive diplomacy with United State and Russian which were then the only world super authorities. As China remained to increase its world reunion, the initiators of the People’s Republic of China were gradually dying, and one of them is Mao Zedong.

In 1976 September Mao Zedong died, and his absence in the Earth unfettered china from a strange frenzy of adoration, mass obedience loyalty, and mob rule. Mao Zedong dead brought power struggle between Mao Zedong supporters lead by Jiang Qing and Den Xiaoping. In the similar year, student marches to Tiananmen Square in solidarity of Zhou Enlai death, a man who was in Mao Zedong regime and which caused a fault in Jiang’s authority. Deng Xiaoping saw an opportunity when Jiang’s authority flaw to bring younger men with his views to power and seized power. In 1982, Deng Xiaoping came up with new rules that govern the party and also new state constitution (Miller, & Wich,2011, p.15). Deng Xiaoping’s plan was founded on four transformations of industry, national defense, science/technology and agriculture. A few year later, Deng Xiaoping retired leaving Li Peng and Zhao Ziyang to become premier and general secretary respectively.

After the power struggle between Mao Zedong followers led by Jiang and Deng Xiaoping, China continued to be quiet for a few years, but in 1989 China arose again to the world’s eyes when Tiananmen Square event happen, (Rosker, & Suhadolnik, 2013, p.111). The Chinese soldiers attacked and killed students who were demonstrating in the streets of Beijing which lead nations within the world to query China’s view of freedoms and human rights. In 1990 China population significantly grew and its economy back borne was primarily based on Agriculture. It gave a window for emerging question about the future of China regarding being industrialized, bringing significant impact on global trade because it had the workforce to build and natural resource which could enable to possess the biggest economy in the biosphere.

This query is left to be determined by the existing conflict between the communist China and Taiwan Nationalist. In relation to the historical context for many years, China has made a significant vast improvement regarding the economy. After the formation of the Nation of China by Mao Zedong, there was an implementation of the five-year plan which was to deal with five sectors such as cultural reform, economic planning, social reform and land reform. The implementation brought about an absolute change in geography and culture which leads to initiation of Great Leap Forward and Great Proletarian Cultural Reform (Wright, 2003, p.84). The economy largely depends on initiated reforms because, for example, land reforms improve agriculture until it became the back born of China’s economy.

To a large extent, enhancement in agriculture production leads to improvement in a living standard which also triggers the upsurge in the percentage of growing population. The improvement of the living standard, a positive impact on the workers who are employed in the state-owned enterprise because they can earn a living. In 1978, the social reform brought significant improvement to China’s economy when Deng Xiaoping categorical open up a nation of China by incoming the World Trade Organization which expose the state-owned enterprises to an international rivalry.[bookmark: _GoBack]In conclusion, continued historical outcome brought positive changes to the nation of China because every regime came up with new reforms such as social reform, economic reform, land reform and cultural reform. These reforms made China be the powerful nation in the word in all sectors.

References

Leutner, M. (2007). Rethinking China in the 1950s. Berlin, Lit. Miller, A. L., & Wich, R. (2011). Becoming Asia: change and continuity in Asian international relations since World War II. Stanford, Calif, Stanford University PressRocker, J. S., & Suhadolnik, N. V. (2013). Modernisation of Chinese culture continuity and change. Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&AN=860091 SzonyI, M. (2017). A companion to Chinese history. Wright, D. B. (2003). The promise of the revolution: stories of fulfillment and struggle in China’s hinterland. Lanham, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10658611Zurndorfer, H. T. (1989). Change and continuity in Chinese local history: the development of Huizhou Prefecture, 800 to 1800. Leiden, E.J. Brill

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