The People's Republic

Outline

1) Capitalist Communists and Communist Capitalists

2) Thinking about China

a) The Basics

i) The world’s largest country

ii) Ethnic homogeneity

iii) The Middle Kingdom

iv) Poverty and prosperity

b) Key Questions

i) Can global influences be limited to the economy?

ii) Will the state continue to be able to suppress dissent?

iii) Where will future Party leaders come from?

iv) What will the fourth generation of Party leaders be like?

3) The Evolution of the Chinese State

a) The broad sweep of Chinese history

b) Failed revolution

c) China stands up

d) Factionalism

e) Since Mao’s death

4) Political Culture and Participation

a) A Blank slate? Cultural Revolution?

i) Collectivism

ii) Struggle and activism

iii) Egalitarianism and populism

iv) Self-reliance

v) diversity

b) Participation from the top down

c) Change in the countryside

d) Dissent

i) Democracy Wall

ii) The Democracy Movement

iii) Falun Gong

5) The Party State

a) The Basics

b) Variations on a theme

6) Public Policy: Perestroika Without Glasnost

a) Economic reform

i) Agriculture

ii) Private enterprise

b) Foreign policy

Commentary

When in May 1999, NATO airplanes bombed the embassy of the Peoples Republic in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the Chinese government had little trouble rounding up incensed students to demonstrate outside the U.S. embassy in Beijing. The students paraded and threw rocks through windows. The government even found a contingent of Buddhist monks to demonstrate in Beijing. To describe the demonstrators as “rounded up” is not to discount either the anger or the sorrow the Chinese felt. What the government tapped was a sense

of nationalism long-held by Chinese people. Since the Chinese discovered unpleasantly that their Middle Kingdom (Gonghe Guo, the name they gave themselves) was neither the center of the world nor the greatest power on earth, many urban and educated people have been firmly nationalistic. When the Ch’ien Lung Emperor wrote to King George III in London that even though the “tea, silk, and porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces are absolute necessities to European nations,” there was “no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians” to China*, he was saying more than just “Pay cash, only!” (although that was one of his messages).

When the government bused students from campuses to the U.S. embassy, it was not exploiting the students as much as facilitating the expression of outrage. The danger for the American ambassador was from rocks flying through windows. The danger for the Chinese government was assisting student protests just ten years after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and only a month before May 4th. The demonstrations after the 2001 collision of a Chinese military jet and a U.S. spy plane were limited to apparently spontaneous "frenzied activity" (according to the Washington Post) in some Chinese Internet chat rooms and "angry rhetoric" in the state-run press (according to the New York Times). The Chinese government had, of course, had to deal with Falun Gong demonstrations by then. In a nation which pauses to note the student-led May 4th Movement of 1919, enabling student activism which might recall earlier anti-government protests can be dangerous. In 1999, the demonstrations outside the U.S. embassy stopped after a few days. The sense of persecution by the West did not. That was what showed up in response to the spy plane incident. The students knew all too well how the Chinese policy of “cash only” helped lead to the Opium Wars in which Britain prevented the Chinese government from enforcing its prohibitions on drug smuggling.

All of this suggests that to understand what is happening in China today, we have to pay attention to a lot of its 2,000 - 4,000-year history. In fact, thinking about the present in historical terms is frequently helpful. While the Communist regime in China has paid attention to peasants in ways ancient emperors would find distasteful, thinking about the Chinese Communist Party as the latest of China’s Imperial Dynasties can open to door to insights. I first had this thought in 1989, when I heard a Western journalist interview a protesting student in Tiananmen Square. At a time in the demonstrations when the government did not seem to know how to respond and workers were joining students in the square, the student said he hoped there would be an earthquake somewhere in China. “Then,” he said, “everyone would know that the Communists have lost the Mandate of Heaven.” In the ancient Chinese political culture, natural disasters would signal the need to change the government. Without the Mandate of Heaven, a dynasty could not long survive. Maybe the student was right. Maybe an earthquake would have changed the way the Tiananmen demonstrations ended.

As it happened the demonstrations ended in tragedy for many students, exile for others and a crackdown on dissent and free thought everywhere in China. But if the Communist Party had trouble recruiting members in the early 1990s, by the end of the decade students were clamoring to join and to add to their records participation in demonstrations against the U.S.A. and its NATO allies. And the Party was anxious enough for their participation that Jiang Zemin invited capitalists to join.

The key to stability seems to be economic growth. While the rest of Asia caught the economic flu, China’s economic growth only slowed. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji said the country needed to maintain growth at 8-12% a year or face real difficulties. In the years since 1998, growth has not met that lofty goal, although China has not suffered the recession and malaise of other Asian economies. Does the appearance of Falun Gong have any relation to the slower growth? Are other challenges to the Party state going to arise if growth falters?

In spite of the 1999 bombing, the 2001 spy plane incident, and the January 2002 bugged plane incident, the U.S. consistently supported China's efforts to become a member of the World Trade Organization. Membership is seen by China’s leaders as a vital part of maintaining economic growth. Now that China has been approved for membership, the transition to a WTO rules is going to be difficult. The Communist Party leaders don’t want their political power threatened by loss of economic control or by social unrest. But, membership in WTO will require more restructuring. Where is a Communist to turn?

On September 3, 1998, the New York Times ran a story about a young Chinese professional couple (and their one child) in Shanghai who had bought an apartment and filled it with imported Ikea furniture. (No small feat, even for employees of American companies, in a nation where mortgages are unknown and the cash price for the 500-square foot apartment was the equivalent of $50,000.) The growing opportunities, illustrated in the newspaper with colored photos, seemed to be buying political complacency. The couple may be economically ideal, but will they remain politically reliable? Will the next generation of political leaders be reliable?

	Unit Outline China

	Outline 1) Capitalist Communists and Communist Capitalists 2) Thinking about China a) The Basics i) The world’s largest country ii) Ethnic homogeneity iii) The Middle Kingdom iv) Poverty and prosperity b) Key Questions i) Can global influences be limited to the economy? ii) Will the state continue to be able to suppress dissent? iii) Where will future Party leaders come from? iv) What will the fourth generation of Party leaders be like? 3) The Evolution of the Chinese State a) The broad sweep of Chinese history b) Failed revolution c) China stands up d) Factionalism e) Since Mao’s death 4) Political Culture and Participation a) A Blank slate? Cultural Revolution? i) Collectivism ii) Struggle and activism iii) Egalitarianism and populism iv) Self-reliance v) diversity b) Participation from the top down c) Change in the countryside d) Dissent i) Democracy Wall ii) The Democracy Movement iii) Falun Gong 5) The Party State a) The Basics b) Variations on a theme 6) Public Policy: Perestroika Without Glasnost a) Economic reform i) Agriculture ii) Private enterprise b) Foreign policy Commentary When in May 1999, NATO airplanes bombed the embassy of the Peoples Republic in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the Chinese government had little trouble rounding up incensed students to demonstrate outside the U.S. embassy in Beijing. The students paraded and threw rocks through windows. The government even found a contingent of Buddhist monks to demonstrate in Beijing. To describe the demonstrators as “rounded up” is not to discount either the anger or the sorrow the Chinese felt. What the government tapped was a sense of nationalism long-held by Chinese people. Since the Chinese discovered unpleasantly that their Middle Kingdom (Gonghe Guo, the name they gave themselves) was neither the center of the world nor the greatest power on earth, many urban and educated people have been firmly nationalistic. When the Ch’ien Lung Emperor wrote to King George III in London that even though the “tea, silk, and porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces are absolute necessities to European nations,” there was “no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians” to China*, he was saying more than just “Pay cash, only!” (although that was one of his messages). When the government bused students from campuses to the U.S. embassy, it was not exploiting the students as much as facilitating the expression of outrage. The danger for the American ambassador was from rocks flying through windows. The danger for the Chinese government was assisting student protests just ten years after the Tiananmen Square demonstrations and only a month before May 4th. The demonstrations after the 2001 collision of a Chinese military jet and a U.S. spy plane were limited to apparently spontaneous "frenzied activity" (according to the Washington Post) in some Chinese Internet chat rooms and "angry rhetoric" in the state-run press (according to the New York Times). The Chinese government had, of course, had to deal with Falun Gong demonstrations by then. In a nation which pauses to note the student-led May 4th Movement of 1919, enabling student activism which might recall earlier anti-government protests can be dangerous. In 1999, the demonstrations outside the U.S. embassy stopped after a few days. The sense of persecution by the West did not. That was what showed up in response to the spy plane incident. The students knew all too well how the Chinese policy of “cash only” helped lead to the Opium Wars in which Britain prevented the Chinese government from enforcing its prohibitions on drug smuggling. All of this suggests that to understand what is happening in China today, we have to pay attention to a lot of its 2,000 - 4,000-year history. In fact, thinking about the present in historical terms is frequently helpful. While the Communist regime in China has paid attention to peasants in ways ancient emperors would find distasteful, thinking about the Chinese Communist Party as the latest of China’s Imperial Dynasties can open to door to insights. I first had this thought in 1989, when I heard a Western journalist interview a protesting student in Tiananmen Square. At a time in the demonstrations when the government did not seem to know how to respond and workers were joining students in the square, the student said he hoped there would be an earthquake somewhere in China. “Then,” he said, “everyone would know that the Communists have lost the Mandate of Heaven.” In the ancient Chinese political culture, natural disasters would signal the need to change the government. Without the Mandate of Heaven, a dynasty could not long survive. Maybe the student was right. Maybe an earthquake would have changed the way the Tiananmen demonstrations ended. As it happened the demonstrations ended in tragedy for many students, exile for others and a crackdown on dissent and free thought everywhere in China. But if the Communist Party had trouble recruiting members in the early 1990s, by the end of the decade students were clamoring to join and to add to their records participation in demonstrations against the U.S.A. and its NATO allies. And the Party was anxious enough for their participation that Jiang Zemin invited capitalists to join. The key to stability seems to be economic growth. While the rest of Asia caught the economic flu, China’s economic growth only slowed. Prime Minister Zhu Rongji said the country needed to maintain growth at 8-12% a year or face real difficulties. In the years since 1998, growth has not met that lofty goal, although China has not suffered the recession and malaise of other Asian economies. Does the appearance of Falun Gong have any relation to the slower growth? Are other challenges to the Party state going to arise if growth falters? In spite of the 1999 bombing, the 2001 spy plane incident, and the January 2002 bugged plane incident, the U.S. consistently supported China's efforts to become a member of the World Trade Organization. Membership is seen by China’s leaders as a vital part of maintaining economic growth. Now that China has been approved for membership, the transition to a WTO rules is going to be difficult. The Communist Party leaders don’t want their political power threatened by loss of economic control or by social unrest. But, membership in WTO will require more restructuring. Where is a Communist to turn? On September 3, 1998, the New York Times ran a story about a young Chinese professional couple (and their one child) in Shanghai who had bought an apartment and filled it with imported Ikea furniture. (No small feat, even for employees of American companies, in a nation where mortgages are unknown and the cash price for the 500-square foot apartment was the equivalent of $50,000.) The growing opportunities, illustrated in the newspaper with colored photos, seemed to be buying political complacency. The couple may be economically ideal, but will they remain politically reliable? Will the next generation of political leaders be reliable?