Modern China

Emergence of a World Power

Republic of China• 1912• Sun Yat-sen sets up a Western

republican government• Forms China’s first political party

– Guomindong• Also known as the Nationalist Party or the KMT

• When Sun Yat-sen dies, Jiang Jieshi (or Chang Kei-sheck) takes over the KMT– Chang Kei-sheck attempts to kill the CCP

leadership and succeeds, opening the door for junior CCP leaders like Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong)

The CCP (Chinese Communist Party)

• Formed in 1921• Soviets advise

although the party later split over proletariat issues– Urban vs.

agrarian

• CCP unites with the KMT to fight the Japanese and later replace the KMT as the people’s party

The Long March• 1934• Mao marches with party members• Takes over 1 year and spans 6,000 miles• When completed, 5/6 of the members had

died• Critical for Mao because it indicated the

self-reliance of his faction of the CCP

The Sino-Japanese War

• 1931: Japan invaded Manchuria• 1937: War• CCP and KMT unite

– CCP better at fighting the Japanese; KMT suffers huge losses

• Over time, people favor the CCP since they were defeating the Japanese

• 1945: CCP runs the Japanese out of Manchuria and confiscates a lot of Japanese weapons

Bye Bye Bye• After the war, the

KMT and CCP had nothing in common– CCP come out

stronger, experienced and more popular

• Also better disciplined and equipped

• October 1, 1949, the CCP took over and Mao declares the People’s Republic of China (PRC)

• The defeated KMT and Jishing fled to Taiwan where they declared the Republic of China (ROC)

Great Leap Forward

• 1958• Plan to accelerate Chinese industrialization• Take Stalin’s socialism in 1 country program BUT

not to rely on the urban proletariat (because there was so few in China) and instead rely on party activist and the peasantry

• Disaster– Industrial production fell by as much as 50% in

a program that was supposed to accelerate it– Induced a famine in which some 20-30 million

Chinese died• By 1960 even Mao recognized what a failure

it was and called the GLF off

Ping Pong Diplomacy

• Gets name from the PRC’s decision to allow a US ping-pong team to travel to China and participate in a ping-pong tournament– 1st time China had officially welcomed a

US delegation since 1949

• Zhou Enlai emerges as the 2nd most powerful man in China (one of Mao’s closest advisors)– Foreign minister– Helps arrange one of the most stunning

political events during the Cold War• Nixon’s visit to China in 1972

Cultural Revolution• 1966-1976• Ideological crusade to restore the

zeal of the CPP• Like the Great Leap Forward in that

both were campaigns of mass mobilization and utopian idealism but fundamentally diverged tactically and strategically– Far more violent that the GLF but

strategically sought not to accelerate industry, but to ideological purify

• Led by the “Gang of Four” (the principle leader being Mao’s wife)

• Mao sat most of this out• Ended in 1976 when Mao and Zhou

died– The Moderates leapt to take

advantage of their deaths and had the Gang of Four arrested, tried, and imprisoned

4 Modernizations• Deng Xiaoping becomes leader and

embarks on his plan• Catch China up to the West with

his 4 Modernizations plan– 1. Agriculture– 2. Industry– 3. Space– 4. Military

• Also institutes the controversial One Child Policy to deal with the population explosion that would kill the modernizations– Very high rate of abortion as a means

of birth control– High level of female infanticide

Tiananmen Square• Spring 1989• Students agitating for

political reform to match economic reforms

• Gathered to protest as Tiananmen Square– At one point the

protestors reached 1 million

• June 4th: The Chinese government lost its patience and unleashed the PLA (Peoples’ Liberation Army)– Crushed student

protestors (death toll still a state secret in China)• Probably in the high

thousands• Stunts any efforts in

reform

Most recently . . . .• 1997: Hong Kong was formally returned to Chinese

authority– Viewed with great concern because it is one of the

most prosperous and thoroughly capitalist enterprises in the world

• Also in 1997, Deng Xiaoping died– Last of the great revolutionary leaders– All of the ‘old guard’ from the Long March and the

victory in 1949 (that generation) dies out• 2007: Toy recall crisis

– Industry has increased and the world has come to rely on China for production, however there are no environmental safeguards, human rights watches, or quality control on products