For most of its 3,500 years of history, China led the world in agriculture, craftsand science, then fell behind in the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution gave the Westclear superiority in military and economic affairs. In the first half of the 20th century, Chinacontinued to suffer from major famines, civil unrest, military defeat, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established a dictatorship that, whileensuring China’s autonomy, imposed strict controls over all aspects of life and cost the lives oftens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping decentralized economicdecision making; output quadrupled in the next 20 years.
Political controls remain tight at thesame time economic controls have been weakening. Present issues are: incorporating Hong into the Chinese system; closing down inefficient state-owned enterprises; modernizing themilitary; fighting corruption; and providing support to tens of millions of displaced workers. Natural hazards: frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts);damaging floods; tsunamis; earthquakes; droughts Environmentcurrent issues: air pollution (greenhouse gases, sulfur dioxide particulates)from reliance on coal, produces acid rain; water shortages, particularly in the north; waterpollution from untreated wastes; deforestation; estimated loss of one-fifth of agricultural landsince 1949 to soil erosion and economic development; desertification; trade in endangeredEnvironmentinternational agreements: party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change,Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping,Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands,Whaling Population: 1,246,871,951 Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been trying to movethe economy from a sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-orientedeconomy but still within a rigid political framework of Communist Party control. To this end theauthorities switched to a system of household responsibility in agriculture in place of the oldcollectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry,permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing, andopened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment.
The result has been a of GDP since 1978. Agricultural output doubled in the 1980s, and industry also posted majorgains, especially in coastal areas near Hong Kong and opposite Taiwan, where foreigninvestment helped spur output of both domestic and export goods. On the darker side, theleadership has often experienced in its hybrid system the worst results of socialism(bureaucracy, lassitude, corruption) and of capitalism (windfall gains and stepped-up inflation). Beijing thus has periodically backtracked, retightening central controls at intervals.
In late 1993China’s leadership approved additional long-term reforms aimed at giving still more play tomarket-oriented institutions and at strengthening the center’s control over the financial system;state enterprises would continue to dominate many key industries in what was now termed “asocialist market economy”. In 1995-97 inflation dropped sharply, reflecting tighter monetarypolicies and stronger measures to control food prices. At the same time, the governmentstruggled to (a) collect revenues due from provinces, businesses, and individuals; (b) reducecorruption and other economic crimes; and (c) keep afloat the large state-owned enterprises,most of which had not participated in the vigorous expansion of the economy and many of whichhad been losing the ability to pay full wages and pensions. From 60 to 100 million surplus ruralworkers are adrift between the villages and the cities, many subsisting through part-timelow-paying jobs.
Popular resistance, changes in central policy, and loss of authority by ruralcadres have weakened China’s population control program, which is essential to maintaininggrowth in living standards. Another long-term threat to continued rapid economic growth is thedeterioration in the environment, notably air pollution, soil erosion, and the steady fall of thewater table especially in the north. China continues to lose arable land because of erosion andeconomic development. The next few years may witness increasing tensions between a highlycentralized political system and an increasingly decentralized economic system. Economicgrowth probably will slow to more moderate levels in 1999-2000.
Few Chinese had any illusions about Japanese designs on China. Hungry for raw materials andpressed by a growing population, Japan initiated the seizure of Manchuria in September 1931and established ex-Qing emperor Puyi () as head of the puppet regime of Manchukuo() in 1932. The loss of Manchuria, and its vast potential for industrial development andwar industries, was a blow to the Nationalist economy. The League of Nations, established at theend of World War I, was unable to act in the face of the Japanese defiance. The Japanese to push from south of the Great Wall into northern China and into the coastal provinces. Chinesefury against Japan was predictable, but anger was also directed against the Guomindanggovernment, which at the time was more preoccupied with anti-Communist exterminationcampaigns than with resisting the Japanese invaders.
The importance of “internal unity beforeexternal danger” was forcefully brought home in December 1936, when Nationalist troops (whohad been ousted from Manchuria by the Japanese) mutinied at Xi’an ( ). The mutineersforcibly detained Chiang Kai-shek for several days until he agreed to cease hostilities against Communist forces in northwest China and to assign Communist units combat duties in designatedThe Chinese resistance stiffened after July 7, 1937, when a clash occurred between Chinese andJapanese troops outside Beijing (then renamed Beiping ) near the Marco Polo Bridge. Thisskirmish not only marked the beginning of open, though undeclared, war between China andJapan but also hastened the formal announcement of the second Guomindang-CCP united frontagainst Japan. The collaboration took place with salutary effects for the beleaguered CCP.
Thedistrust between the two parties, however, was scarcely veiled. The uneasy alliance began tobreak down after late 1938, despite Japan’s steady territorial gains in northern China, the coastalregions, and the rich Chang Jiang ( ) Valley in central China. After 1940, conflicts betweenthe Nationalists and Communists became more frequent in the areas not under Japanese control. The Communists expanded their influence wherever opportunities presented themselves throughmass organizations, administrative reforms, and the land- and tax-reform measures favoring thepeasants–while the Nationalists attempted to neutralize the spread of Communist influence. At Yan’an () and elsewhere in the “liberated areas,” Mao was able to adaptMarxism-Leninism to Chinese conditions. He taught party cadres to lead the masses by livingand working with them, eating their food, and thinking their thoughts.
The Red Army fostered animage of conducting guerrilla warfare in defense of the people. Communist troops adapted tochanging wartime conditions and became a seasoned fighting force. Mao also began preparingfor the establishment of a new China. In 1940 he outlined the program of the ChineseCommunists for an eventual seizure of power. His teachings became the central tenets of the CCPdoctrine that came to be formalized as Mao Zedong Thought. With skillful organizational andpropaganda work, the Communists increased party membership from 100,000 in 1937 to 1.
2In 1945 China emerged from the war nominally a great military power but actually a nationeconomically prostrate and on the verge of all-out civil war. The economy deteriorated, sappedby the military demands of foreign war and internal strife, by spiraling inflation, and byNationalist profiteering, speculation, and hoarding. Starvation came in the wake of the war, andmillions were rendered homeless by floods and the unsettled conditions in many parts of thecountry. The situation was further complicated by an Allied agreement at the Yalta Conference inFebruary 1945 that brought Soviet troops into Manchuria to hasten the termination of war againstJapan. Although the Chinese had not been present at Yalta, they had been consulted; they hadagreed to have the Soviets enter the war in the belief that the Soviet Union would deal only withthe Nationalist government. After the war, the Soviet Union, as part of the Yalta agreement’sallowing a Soviet sphere of influence in Manchuria, dismantled and removed more than half theindustrial equipment left there by the Japanese.
The Soviet presence in northeast China enabledthe Communists to move in long enough to arm themselves with the equipment surrendered bywithdrawing Japanese army. The problems of rehabilitating the formerly Japanese-occupiedareas and of reconstructing the nation from the ravages of a protracted war were staggering, toDuring World War II, the United States emerged as a major actor in Chinese affairs. As an ally itembarked in late 1941 on a program of massive military and financial aid to the hard-pressedNationalist government. In January 1943 the United States and Britain led the way in revisingtheir treaties with China, bringing to an end a century of unequal treaty relations.
Within a fewmonths, a new agreement was signed between the United States and China for the stationing ofAmerican troops in China for the common war effort against Japan. In December 1943 theChinese exclusion acts of the 1880s and subsequent laws enacted by the United States to restrict Chinese immigration into the United States were repealed. The wartime policy of the United States was initially to help China become a strong ally and astabilizing force in postwar East Asia. As the conflict between the Nationalists and theCommunists intensified, however, the United States sought unsuccessfully to reconcile the rivalforces for a more effective anti-Japanese war effort.
Toward the end of the war, United StatesMarines were used to hold Beiping and Tianjin against a possible Soviet incursion, and logisticsupport was given to Nationalist forces in north and northeast China. Through the mediatory influence of the United States a military truce was arranged in January1946, but battles between Nationalists and Communists soon resumed. Realizing that Americanefforts short of large-scale armed intervention could not stop the war, the United States withdrewthe American mission, headed by General George C. Marshall, in early 1947.
The civil war, inwhich the United States aided the Nationalists with massive economic loans but no militarysupport, became more widespread. Battles raged not only for territories but also for theallegiance of cross sections of the population. Belatedly, the Nationalist government sought to enlist popular support through internal reformsThe effort was in vain, however, because of the rampant corruption in government and theaccompanying political and economic chaos. By late 1948 the Nationalist position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined Nationalist troops proved no match for the People’sLiberation Army (PLA or ). The Communists were well established in the north andnortheast.
Although the Nationalists had an advantage in numbers of men and weapons,controlled a much larger territory and population than their adversaries, and enjoyedconsiderable international support, they were exhausted by the long war with Japan and theattendant internal responsibilities. In January 1949 Beiping was taken by the Communists withouta fight, and its name changed back to Beijing. Between April and November, major cities passedfrom Guomindang to Communist control with minimal resistance. In most cases the surroundingcountryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. AfterChiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Nationalist troops fled from the mainland to theisland of Taiwan, there remained only isolated pockets of resistance. In December 1949 Chiangproclaimed Taipei (), Taiwan (), the temporary capital of China.
Bibliography:
