HISTORY
Dynastic
Period
China is the oldest continuous major world civilization, with
records dating back about 3,500 years. Successive dynasties developed
a system of bureaucratic control that gave the agrarian-based
Chinese an advantage over neighboring nomadic and hill cultures.
Chinese civilization was further strengthened by the development
of a Confucian state ideology and a common written language that
bridged the gaps among the country's many local languages and
dialects. Whenever China was conquered by nomadic tribes, as it
was by the Mongols in the 13th century, the conquerors sooner
or later adopted the ways of the "higher" Chinese civilization
and staffed the bureaucracy with Chinese.
The last
dynasty was established in 1644, when the Manchus overthrew the
native Ming dynasty and established the Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty
with Beijing as its capital. At great expense in blood and treasure,
the Manchus over the next half century gained control of many
border areas, including Xinjiang, Yunnan, Tibet, Mongolia, and
Taiwan. The success of the early Qing period was based on the
combination of Manchu martial prowess and traditional Chinese
bureaucratic skills.
During
the 19th century, Qing control weakened, and prosperity diminished.
China suffered massive social strife, economic stagnation, explosive
population growth, and Western penetration and influence. The
Taiping and Nian rebellions, along with a Russian-supported Muslim
separatist movement in Xinjiang, drained Chinese resources and
almost toppled the dynasty. Britain's desire to continue its illegal
opium trade with China collided with imperial edicts prohibiting
the addictive drug, and the First Opium War erupted in 1840. China
lost the war; subsequently, Britain and other Western powers,
including the United States, forcibly occupied "concessions"
and gained special commercial privileges. Hong Kong was ceded
to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking, and in 1898, when
the Opium Wars finally ended, Britain executed a 99-year lease
of the New Territories, significantly expanding the size of the
Hong Kong colony.
As time
went on, the Western powers, wielding superior military technology,
gained more economic and political privileges. Reformist Chinese
officials argued for the adoption of Western technology to strengthen
the dynasty and counter Western advances, but the Qing court played
down both the Western threat and the benefits of Western technology.
Early
20th Century China
Frustrated by the Qing court's resistance to reform, young officials,
military officers, and students--inspired by the revolutionary
ideas of Sun Yat-sen–began to advocate the overthrow of
the Qing dynasty and creation of a republic. A revolutionary military
uprising on October 10, 1911, led to the abdication of the last
Qing monarch. As part of a compromise to overthrow the dynasty
without a civil war, the revolutionaries and reformers allowed
high Qing officials to retain prominent positions in the new republic.
One of these figures, Gen. Yuan Shikai, was chosen as the republic's
first president. Before his death in 1916, Yuan unsuccessfully
attempted to name himself emperor. His death left the republican
government all but shattered, ushering in the era of the "warlords"
during which China was ruled and ravaged by shifting coalitions
of competing provincial military leaders.
In the
1920s, Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in south China
and set out to unite the fragmented nation. With Soviet assistance,
he organized the Kuomintang (KMT or "Chinese Nationalist
People's Party"), and entered into an alliance with the fledgling
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After Sun's death in 1925, one
of his protégés, Chiang Kai-shek, seized control
of the KMT and succeeded in bringing most of south and central
China under its rule. In 1927, Chiang turned on the CCP and executed
many of its leaders. The remnants fled into the mountains of eastern
China. In 1934, driven out of their mountain bases, the CCP's
forces embarked on a "Long March" across some of China's
most desolate terrain to the northwestern province of Shaanxi,
where they established a guerrilla base at Yan'an.
During
the "Long March," the communists reorganized under a
new leader, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung). The bitter struggle between
the KMT and the CCP continued openly or clandestinely through
the 14-year long Japanese invasion (1931-45), even though the
two parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese
invaders in 1937. The war between the two parties resumed after
the Japanese defeat in 1945. By 1949, the CCP occupied most of
the country.
Chiang
Kai-shek fled with the remnants of his KMT government and military
forces to Taiwan, where he proclaimed Taipei to be China's "provisional
capital" and vowed to re-conquer the Chinese mainland. The
KMT authorities on Taiwan still call themselves the "Republic
of China."
The
People's Republic of China
In Beijing, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding
of the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.). The new government
assumed control of a people exhausted by two generations of war
and social conflict, and an economy ravaged by high inflation
and disrupted transportation links. A new political and economic
order modeled on the Soviet example was quickly installed.
In the
early 1950s, China undertook a massive economic and social reconstruction
program. The new leaders gained popular support by curbing inflation,
restoring the economy, and rebuilding many war-damaged industrial
plants. The CCP's authority reached into almost every aspect of
Chinese life. Party control was assured by large, politically
loyal security and military forces; a government apparatus responsive
to party direction; and the placement of party members into leadership
positions in labor, women's, and other mass organizations.
The
"Great Leap Forward" and the Sino-Soviet Split
In 1958, Mao broke with the Soviet model and announced a new economic
program, the "Great Leap Forward," aimed at rapidly
raising industrial and agricultural production. Giant cooperatives
(communes) were formed, and "backyard factories" dotted
the Chinese landscape. The results were disastrous. Normal market
mechanisms were disrupted, agricultural production fell behind,
and China's people exhausted themselves producing what turned
out to be shoddy, un-salable goods. Within a year, starvation
appeared even in fertile agricultural areas. From 1960 to 1961,
the combination of poor planning during the Great Leap Forward
and bad weather resulted in one of the deadliest famines in human
history.
The already
strained Sino-Soviet relationship deteriorated sharply in 1959,
when the Soviets started to restrict the flow of scientific and
technological information to China. The dispute escalated, and
the Soviets withdrew all of their personnel from China in August
1960. In 1960, the Soviets and the Chinese began to have disputes
openly in international forums.
The
Cultural Revolution
In the early 1960s, State President Liu Shaoqi and his protégé,
Party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping, took over direction of
the party and adopted pragmatic economic policies at odds with
Mao's revolutionary vision. Dissatisfied with China's new direction
and his own reduced authority, Party Chairman Mao launched a massive
political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring
of 1966. The new movement, the "Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution," was unprecedented in communist history. For
the first time, a section of the Chinese communist leadership
sought to rally popular opposition against another leadership
group. China was set on a course of political and social anarchy
that lasted the better part of a decade.
In the
early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Mao and his "closest
comrade in arms," National Defense Minister Lin Biao, charged
Liu, Deng, and other top party leaders with dragging China back
toward capitalism. Radical youth organizations, called Red Guards,
attacked party and state organizations at all levels, seeking
out leaders who would not bend to the radical wind. In reaction
to this turmoil, some local People's Liberation Army (PLA) commanders
and other officials maneuvered to outwardly back Mao and the radicals
while actually taking steps to rein in local radical activity.
Gradually,
Red Guard and other radical activity subsided, and the Chinese
political situation stabilized along complex factional lines.
The leadership conflict came to a head in September 1971, when
Party Vice Chairman and Defense Minister Lin Biao reportedly tried
to stage a coup against Mao; Lin Biao allegedly later died in
a plane crash in Mongolia.
In the
aftermath of the Lin Biao incident, many officials criticized
and dismissed during 1966-69 were reinstated. Chief among these
was Deng Xiaoping, who reemerged in 1973 and was confirmed in
1975 in the concurrent posts of Politburo Standing Committee member,
PLA Chief of Staff, and Vice Premier.
The ideological
struggle between more pragmatic, veteran party officials and the
radicals re-emerged with a vengeance in late 1975. Mao's wife,
Jiang Qing, and three close Cultural Revolution associates (later
dubbed the "Gang of Four") launched a media campaign
against Deng. In January 1976, Premier Zhou Enlai, a popular political
figure, died of cancer. On April 5, Beijing citizens staged a
spontaneous demonstration in Tiananmen Square in Zhou's memory,
with strong political overtones of support for Deng. The authorities
forcibly suppressed the demonstration. Deng was blamed for the
disorder and stripped of all official positions, although he retained
his party membership.
The
Post-Mao Era
Mao's death in September 1976 removed a towering figure from Chinese
politics and set off a scramble for succession. Former Minister
of Public Security Hua Guofeng was quickly confirmed as Party
Chairman and Premier. A month after Mao's death, Hua, backed by
the PLA, arrested Jiang Qing and other members of the "Gang
of Four." After extensive deliberations, the Chinese Communist
Party leadership reinstated Deng Xiaoping to all of his previous
posts at the 11th Party Congress in August 1977. Deng then led
the effort to place government control in the hands of veteran
party officials opposed to the radical excesses of the previous
two decades.
The new,
pragmatic leadership emphasized economic development and renounced
mass political movements. At the pivotal December 1978 Third Plenum
(of the 11th Party Congress Central Committee), the leadership
adopted economic reform policies aimed at expanding rural income
and incentives, encouraging experiments in enterprise autonomy,
reducing central planning, and attracting foreign direct investment
into China. The plenum also decided to accelerate the pace of
legal reform, culminating in the passage of several new legal
codes by the National People's Congress in June 1979.
After
1979, the Chinese leadership moved toward more pragmatic positions
in almost all fields. The party encouraged artists, writers, and
journalists to adopt more critical approaches, although open attacks
on party authority were not permitted. In late 1980, Mao's Cultural
Revolution was officially proclaimed a catastrophe. Hua Guofeng,
a protégé of Mao, was replaced as premier in 1980
by reformist Sichuan party chief Zhao Ziyang and as party General
Secretary in 1981 by the even more reformist Communist Youth League
chairman Hu Yaobang.
Reform
policies brought great improvements in the standard of living,
especially for urban workers and for farmers who took advantage
of opportunities to diversify crops and establish village industries.
Literature and the arts blossomed, and Chinese intellectuals established
extensive links with scholars in other countries.
At the
same time, however, political dissent as well as social problems
such as inflation, urban migration, and prostitution emerged.
Although students and intellectuals urged greater reforms, some
party elders increasingly questioned the pace and the ultimate
goals of the reform program. In December 1986, student demonstrators,
taking advantage of the loosening political atmosphere, staged
protests against the slow pace of reform, confirming party elders'
fear that the current reform program was leading to social instability.
Hu Yaobang, a protégé of Deng and a leading advocate
of reform, was blamed for the protests and forced to resign as
CCP General Secretary in January 1987. Premier Zhao Ziyang was
made General Secretary and Li Peng, former Vice Premier and Minister
of Electric Power and Water Conservancy, was made Premier.
1989
Student Movement and Tiananmen Square
After Zhao became the party General Secretary, the economic and
political reforms he had championed came under increasing attack.
His proposal in May 1988 to accelerate price reform led to widespread
popular complaints about rampant inflation and gave opponents
of rapid reform the opening to call for greater centralization
of economic controls and stricter prohibitions against Western
influence. This precipitated a political debate, which grew more
heated through the winter of 1988-89.
The death
of Hu Yaobang on April 15, 1989, coupled with growing economic
hardship caused by high inflation, provided the backdrop for a
large-scale protest movement by students, intellectuals, and other
parts of a disaffected urban population. University students and
other citizens camped out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn
Hu's death and to protest against those who would slow reform.
Their protests, which grew despite government efforts to contain
them, called for an end to official corruption and for defense
of freedoms guaranteed by the Chinese constitution. Protests also
spread to many other cities, including Shanghai, Chengdu, and
Guangzhou.
Martial
law was declared on May 20, 1989. Late on June 3 and early on
the morning of June 4, military units were brought into Beijing.
They used armed force to clear demonstrators from the streets.
There are no official estimates of deaths in Beijing, but most
observers believe that casualties numbered in the hundreds.
After
June 4, while foreign governments expressed horror at the brutal
suppression of the demonstrators, the central government eliminated
remaining sources of organized opposition, detained large numbers
of protesters, and required political reeducation not only for
students but also for large numbers of party cadre and government
officials.
Following
the resurgence of conservatives in the aftermath of June 4, economic
reform slowed until given new impetus by Deng Xiaoping's dramatic
visit to southern China in early 1992. Deng's renewed push for
a market-oriented economy received official sanction at the 14th
Party Congress later in the year as a number of younger, reform-minded
leaders began their rise to top positions. Deng and his supporters
argued that managing the economy in a way that increased living
standards should be China's primary policy objective, even if
"capitalist" measures were adopted. Subsequent to the
visit, the Communist Party Politburo publicly issued an endorsement
of Deng's policies of economic openness. Though not completely
eschewing political reform, China has consistently placed overwhelming
priority on the opening of its economy.
Third
Generation of Leaders
Deng's health deteriorated in the years prior to his death in
1997. During that time, President Jiang Zemin and other members
of his generation gradually assumed control of the day-to-day
functions of government. This "third generation" leadership
governed collectively with President Jiang at the center.
In March
1998, Jiang was re-elected President during the 9th National People's
Congress. Premier Li Peng was constitutionally required to step
down from that post. He was elected to the chairmanship of the
National People's Congress. Zhu Rongji was selected to replace
Li as Premier.
Fourth
Generation of Leaders
In November 2002, the 16th Communist Party Congress elected Hu
Jintao, who in 1992 was designated by Deng Xiaoping as the "core"
of the fourth generation leaders, the new General Secretary. A
new Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee was also elected
in November.
In March
2003, General Secretary Hu Jintao was elected President at the
10th National People's Congress. Jiang Zemin retained the chairmanship
of the Central Military Commission. At the Fourth Party Plenum
in September 2004, Jiang Zemin retired from the Central Military
Commission, passing the Chairmanship and control of the People's
Liberation Army to President Hu Jintao.
China
is firmly committed to economic reform and opening to the outside
world. The Chinese leadership has identified reform of state industries
and the establishment of a social safety network as government
priorities. Government strategies for achieving these goals include
large-scale privatization of unprofitable state-owned enterprises
and development of a pension system for workers. The leadership
has also downsized the government bureaucracy.
The
Next 5 Years
The next 5 years represent a critical period in China's existence.
To investors and firms, especially following China’s accession
to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China represents
a vast market that has yet to be fully tapped and a low-cost base
for export-oriented production. Educationally, China is forging
ahead as partnerships and exchanges with foreign universities
have helped create new research opportunities for its students.
The new leadership is also committed to generating greater economic
development in the interior and providing more services to those
who do not live in China’s coastal areas. However, there
is still much that needs to change in China. Human rights issues
remain a concern among members of the world community, as does
continuing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)-related
materials and technology.
