Download Chapter 10: China Part 1 “Let China sleep. For when China wakes, it

China
Part 1
“Let China sleep. For when China wakes, it will shake the world.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
Mao Zedong
Sovereignty, Authority, and Power
• until 20th century, Chinese history characterized by
dynastic cycles
– family rule
– mandate of heaven
• centuries of highly centralized power
• Emperor and bureaucracy
• chaotic beginning to 20th century
• 1949: Mao Zedong took over China,
introduced new regime whose values
often conflicted with traditional concepts of
power
• China’s political structure: shaped by
tradition as well as modern influences
Legitimacy
• Dynastic period: legitimacy established through
– mandate
– hereditary succession
• 1911 Revolution  the Chinese Republic and Sun
Yat-sen
• 1949: People’s republic of China  Mao
Maoism
• idealistic, egalitarian
• centralized power exercised through top party leaders but
• the mass line: maintain connection to peasants:
– legitimacy required leaders to listen to/communicate with
the people
– 2-way teaching and learning
• organizing principle for both Leninism and Maoism was
democratic centralism
• role of the military in China
Historical Traditions
• last Chinese Dynasty (Qing) fell in early 20th century,
but several traditions have continuing influence:
• (1) authoritarian power
– Chinese people: subjects, not participants
– competes with tendency toward decentralization
• (2) Confucianism
• philosophical influence on Chinese political system
since 6th century B.C.
• emphasized
– order and harmony
– submission to authority of emperor
– Emperor’s responsibility to rule conscientiously
• (3) bureaucratic hierarchy based on scholarship
– Emperors surrounded by highly organized
bureaucratic elite based on Confucian
scholarship
– highly competitive examination system
– major social divide: uneducated peasantry
• (4) the “Middle Kingdom”
– zhongguo
– China as the center of civilization
– foreigners as barbarians
• (5) Communist ideologies
– intersection between Confucianism and Maoism
– Deng Xioaping theory: perestroika without
glasnost
Confucianism and Maoism
CONFUCIANISM
Mandate of Heaven
(responsibility of ruler to the
people)
MAOISM
democratic centralism
(responsibility of ruler to people)
vision of an ideal society based on vision of ideal society based on
harmony and obedience
self-reliance and struggle
hierarchical social and political
organization; rulers and subjects
necessarily have unequal
positions
egalitarian social structure; mass
line between rulers and subjects
emphasis on loyalty to family: filial
piety
emphasis on loyalty to the state
(Mao)
Geographic Factors
• largest population, third largest land mass
• access to oceans and ice-free ports
• many large navigable rivers
• major geographic/climate differences between north and south
• western part of country geographically isolated
• separated from other countries by natural boundaries:
mountain ranges, deserts, oceans
Historical Eras
• (1) dynastic rule
•
•
•
•
Confucian values
scholarship  bureaucracy
isolationcultural identity
expansion/invasion  ethnic/cultural tension with other
Asian people
• (2) resistance to imperialism
• clash between Chinese nationalism and foreign
imperialism
• century of humiliation
• Revolution of 1911  ouster of ‘foreign devils’
• (3) Maoism
• Marxism/Leninism tailored to suit China
– rejected inequality implied by vanguard of the proletariat
– focused on strength of the peasant and core values:
» collectivism
» struggle/activism
» mass line
» egalitarianism
» self-reliance
– Deng Xiaoping Theory: practical leadership  dramatic
turn-around of Chinese economy
» socialist planning + capitalist free market
» social views continued strict alignment with
Communist tradition
• Chinese Nationalism:
• HAN Chinese: predominant ethnic group in China
– occupied the Middle Kingdom
– force behind ouster of foreign powers,
establishment of Republic of China
• changing views of involvement with outside
world
• Mao vs. Deng
– nationalism on the rise: ‘08 Olympics. ‘10 World
Expo, China’s rising economic star
Political and economic change
• compare to Russia
– long, relatively stable societies which experience
massive upheaval during 20th century, leading to
regime changes
• after centuries of dynastic rule and foreign
invasions, the last Chinese dynasty (the Qing)
collapsed under European pressure in early 20th
century
• initiated a period of radical, violent chaotic regime
change
Imperialism and Revolutionary Upheavals
• 19th century, weakened Qing Dynasty victimized by imperialist
nations
– Carved China into ‘spheres of influence’
• 2 major revolutions – 1911 and 1949
• revolutionary era dominated by 3 themes:
– nationalism: re-establish China as an independent,
sovereign nation
– new political community: competition between Nationalist
Party [Chiang Kai-shek] [Guomindang] and The CCP {Mao]
– socioeconomic development: followed Soviet model until
split in 1928, CCP driven underground
The People’s Republic of China
• Expulsion of Japanese after WWII followed by civil war between
Mao and Chiang
• CCP prevailed, Nationalists fled to Taiwan, PRC established
• 2 phases
– (1) The Soviet Model (1949-1957)
• Land redistribution
• Civil reform
• 5-year plans
– (2) The Great Leap Forward (1958-1966)
• radical egalitarianism
• economic development
• mass mobilization
• political unanimity
• decentralization