Deng’s China, Taiwan, and Tibet

1. Deng’s China, Taiwan, and Tibet • March 25, 2014

2. Review • What was the Great Leap Forward? • What was the Cultural Revolution? • Was China under Mao Zedong a totalitarian state or just an authoritarian state? • Why did Mao launch an attack on his own party and government? • Did China under Mao engage in any wars with its neighbours?

3. Post-Mao Market Socialism • Deng Xiaoping: economic liberalization combined with political authoritarianism. Changed to an export orientation for the economy. • legitimacy of material incentives and profit recognized. (527-529) • private ownership of land and industry co-exists with a major role for the state in the economy. • The Communist Party does not allow any opposition to its control of the government and the country. • The result: China has grown richer overall but the gap between urban and rural areas has grown. (pp.529-30) • Freedom in non-political areas has grown, but political activity is still tightly controlled. • China now suffers from serious environmental problems. (p. 530)

4. Deng Xiaopingand market socialism • How did Deng turn around the problem of rural poverty? (What is the household responsibility system?) (527-8) • How did Deng improve the performance of China’s factories? (What does “the market model” mean?) (p. 529) • Did everyone benefit from the releasing of market forces? (What happened to those who had an iron rice bowl?) • Is the large migrant worker pool a good thing for China? (p. 531)

5. Economic Growth Post-Mao • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_China

6. Income Inequality • The distribution of wealth in China is more unequal than it is in the US (one of the most unequal in the Western world). • In 2012, the average urban income was $4,000. The average rural income was $1,300. • In 2012 there were 251 billionaires in China, and 2,700,000 millionaires. • The new leader Xi Jinping has pledged to narrow the income gap.

7. From totalitarianism to authoritarianism • What happened on June 4, 1989? (p. 537) • It was not an anti-Communist movement. Instead, it called for reform of the Communist Party. • Do economic reforms and political reforms have to go hand-in-hand? • Is China still a Communist country? • Do we find more pressure for democracy coming from the cities, or from rural areas?

8. Democracy • Democracy requires mechanisms for a peaceful resolution of differences of opinion and conflicts of interest. Do we see that in China? • We can’t be certain a country is fully democratic until we see two peaceful transfers of power. Do we see that in China? • A democracy requires freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly so people can express unpopular opinions without fear of being arrested. • Democracy requires the freedom to criticize government policies and government leaders without fear of being arrested. • The Cultural Revolution does not count as an expression of democracy, since it did not involve a peaceful transfer of power (it was quite violent) nor did it allow competing voices to be heard without fear of retribution.

9. Abortive democratization • In the spring of 1989, students and others began demanding that the party be more accountable to the people. At that time, they were not anti-Communist. They simply wanted the CCP to live up to its own rhetoric. • They occupied Tiananmen Square to press their demands. The government reaction was a bloody crackdown on June 4 in which the People’s Liberation Army attacked unarmed crowds. Most of the dead were from the crowds in the streets of Beijing trying to protect the students in the square, not the students themselves. • At least 1,000 died in Beijing. There were demonstrations in around 400 different cities.

10. The Tiananmen Incident • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeFzeNAHEhU

11. The PRC and its neighboursafter Mao • 1979 -invades Vietnam but is forced to retreat. • Recovers Hong Kong (1997) and Macao (1999) • Tibet and Taiwan remain as serious foreign policy issues. Tibetans want real autonomy within China. • Taiwan wants to be recognized as the independent country it is. • Uighur unrest remains a concern. • And there is the matter of China’s South China Sea claim • And it has a dispute with Japan over some islands.

12. South China Seas Dispute • http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2012/08/south-china-sea

13. Senkaku/Diaoiyu Islands • http://sadowa.tumblr.com/post/31330829647/map-senkaku-diaoyu-islands-china-sends-patrol

14. China in the years ahead • How will an economic downturn affect China, now that economic growth and nationalism have replaced communism as the primary legitimizing force? • Will rising unrest in rural areas become a serious problem? What about unemployed workers? • If the economy continues to grow and produce a larger middle class, will pressure for democracy grow as well? • What will be the impact of growing income inequality?

15. Taiwan: a democratic alternative • Taiwan was under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945, during which time it began modernizing, and Taiwanese began seeing themselves as different from other Chinese. • Incorporated into Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China in 1945. Was never a part of the People’s Republic of China • There was resistance in Taiwan to the KMT (Feb.28, 1947) • Was under a KMT dictatorship until the 1990s. • As the KMT became more Taiwanese, it became more democratic. Held democratic election for president in 1996 (after free parliamentary elections in 1992), and won. • 2000--first peaceful transfer of power, to the Democratic Progressive Party. 2nd peaceful transfer occurred in 2008.

16. Ethnic Identity in Taiwan • http://cjip.oxfordjournals.org/content/1/4/481/F1.large.jpg

17. Explaining Taiwan • How can we explain the democratization of Taiwan? • First of all, land reform early in the KMT years undermined the landlord-state coalition that supports Fascism. • The KMT promoted economic growth in a free market (in order to gain legitimacy), creating alternative centres of power. • The Taiwanese were the majority of the population, and the KMT needed their support to continue to govern. (The old distinction between mainlanders and Taiwanese has faded as the post-1945 immigrant generation has died off. Most people in Taiwan now call themselves Taiwanese.)

18. Tibet • Was an autonomous country, though it never received modern recognition as an independent nation-state. • Tibet was invaded by PRC forces in 1950. China, however, promised to allow religious freedom in Tibet and promised that it would not alter the existing political system. • In 1959,when rumours spread that the Chinese might kidnap the Dalai Lama, Tibetans rose up against the Chinese. They were defeated and the Dalai Lama fled to India • Recognizing the Tibet can never defeat China, Tibetans now ask for autonomy within China, similar to the autonomy granted to Hong Kong.