Name:__________________________________________________ Block:___________________ Backgrounder/Informal

People and World Cultures (Cote)

Case Study III: China (East Asia)

A Brief History of Modern China

Directions

Read the backgrounder essay. With partners, consider the discussion questions. You will be accountable for this content on upcoming assessments.

Background

China is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. The roots of Chinese civilization have written evidence as far back as 3500 years ago, and artifacts of prehistoric civilization can be dated back to 4000 years ago with certainty. For much of that long history, China was the greatest power and the most civilized power in East Asia. They heavily influenced neighboring civilizations, like Korea, Japan, Mongolia, and Vietnam. The Chinese came to view themselves as The Middle Kingdom, the great civilization at the center of the world. The Chinese emperor was seen as the most powerful person in the civilized world. China had the largest population and the largest economy on Earth. Foreign rulers sought the approval of the Chinese emperor to legitimize their own rule.

The Age of Exploration brought the Western World into direct contact with China. In the 19th century, many Western nations wanted to trade with China. The West wanted luxury goods like tea, silk, spices, and porcelain from the Chinese, and they wanted to sell their own goods to the hundreds of millions of Chinese people. China, however, was uninterested in trade with the West, which had few goods that China wanted. The Opium Wars (1839-1860) ensued between the West, led by Britain and France, and China. By this point, the West had an advantage due to the technological advances of the Industrial Revolution. These wars weakened and humiliated China. Westerners were given special privileges: Westerners could not be tried by Chinese courts, Christian missionaries were allowed to try to convert Chinese people. Some Western empires took land from China. For example, the British took Hong Kong as a colony in 1841.

Many Chinese grew angry with the inability of the emperor to deal with the West, and many rebellions against the emperor broke out in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For example, the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), which killed millions and destroyed much of China, or the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) which tried to drive all Westerners out of China. When the Chinese government was unable to deal with these rebellions, Western empires put troops on Chinese soil and occupied parts of China.

___1) How did the status of China change over the 19th and early 20th centuries?

The Second Sino-Japanese War/World War II (1937-1945)

The last Chinese emperor was overthrown in a revolution in 1911. Dr. Sun Yat-sen united a number of Chinese into a nationalist movement called the Kuomintang, which established the new Republic of China. Other movements than the Nationalists also competed for control of China. An important one was the Communist party, which was led by Mao Zedong. The Republic struggled to control large sections of the country, which came to be controlled by warlords. Under the leadership of President Chiang Kai-shek, China faced civil wars between nationalists and communists, and between the Republic and regional warlords.

In 1931, Japan invaded the northern Chinese province of Manchuria. They established a puppet-kingdom named Manchukuo, ruled by the former Chinese emperor. A divided China was not able to resist Japan effectively.

The Japanese Empire saw an opportunity to expand further into China, perhaps even taking it whole. In 1937, a surprise full-scale invasion caught the Chinese unprepared. Within a year, Japanese forces reached the Chinese capital of Nanjing (Nanking). Japanese forces committed horrific atrocities there, killing about 300,000 civilians. 20,000 women were raped, mutilated, or murdered. Large sections of the city were destroyed. Above: Japanese soldiers execute Chinese prisoners. The Japanese may have expected the Chinese to surrender, but fierce Chinese resistance continued. International condemnation of the Japanese invasion was ignored by the Empire of Japan, which withdrew from the League of Nations instead.

The Empire of Japan soon found itself bogged down in an increasingly brutal war in China. The Chinese abandoned coastal cities and withdrew into the interior to practice guerrilla warfare. The Japanese struggled to pin down and wipe out Chinese forces. Eventually, about 4 million Japanese soldiers would be sent to China. By 1941, just before the US entered World War II, 200,000 Japanese and 2,000,000 Chinese soldiers had died. China would join the Allied nations in World War II and fight until the surrender of Japan in 1945. Left: Chinese Communist forces practice

___2. Why did the Japanese think that China would be easy for them to conquer? How did they try to knock them out of the war?

___3. By 1941, how was the war going for the Japanese?

___4. [Critical thinking] Why do you think the United States supported China in the Second Sino-Japanese War? Why do you think so?

Chairman Mao as paramount leader (1945-1976)

Mao Zedong was the leader of the Chinese Communists during World War II. After WWII, the Chinese Communists won the Chinese Civil War (1945-1950) and drove the Republic of China out of mainland China to Taiwan. To this day, Taiwan calls itself The Republic of China. The Chinese government views Taiwan as a rebel province. Mao declared the People’s Republic of China, a communist government, on the mainland. In Sinology, we call the most powerful person in China the paramount leader. Mao was the paramount leader until his death in 1976

With the help of the Soviet Union, Mao worked to change China into a Communist country. Communism is a political and economic system. In Communism, a single political party controls the government. All property, infrastructure, and resources are owned by the government. For China, Communism meant the dictatorship of Mao.

Before the Communists took control, much Chinese farmland was in the hands of rich landlords. There were some industries and factories in coastal cities, but this was controlled by foreigners. Mao worried that China was not developing quickly enough to keep pace with the United States, Japan, and Europe. He also believed that the Soviet Union did not fully support China. Mao feared that China would be vulnerable to attack and control from outside, as it had been in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Mao wanted China to develop an economy to make China strong. Mao wanted China to be able to take care of itself. Mao’s China withdrew from globalization.

Mao’s plan to develop China was called the Great Leap Forward (1958-62).. Chinese peasants were forced into communes, or shared farms. These farms were designed to be self-sufficient, producing all their own goods and services. In addition, all Chinese were forced to make steel. Steel was a symbol of the country becoming modern. Furnaces needed to produce steel were set up in the communes, and even hospital and factory workers were sent to make steel. Iron needed to make steel was scavenged from across the country, including even farming tools. As a result, the communes were unsuccessful in producing food and there was a famine.. Famines are when there is not enough food to feed a country’s people. As a result of the “Great Leap Forward,” 30,000,000 Chinese people died of hunger. By 1961, it was clear that the Great Leap Forward had failed. Above: Steel furnaces in a Chinese commune

The failure of the Great Leap Forward turned many Chinese people against Mao. In order to keep control, Mao began the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). Officially, the purpose of the Cultural Revolution was to eliminate the influences of pre-Communist China that Mao blamed for the failure of the Great Leap Forward. A book of Mao's teachings was issued, and all Chinese were expected to follow it. He created militias of young people and workers called the Red Guards. Many young students joined, or were forced to. The Red Guards murdered and terrorized people who were opposed to Mao. Some were sent to re-education camps. Millions more Chinese died in riots and assassinations. Industrial production dropped by 12%. In effect, the Cultural Revolution targeted those who had been critical of Mao or the Great Leap Forward. The Cultural Revolution officially ended in 1969, although it unofficially continued until the death of Mao in 1976.

Left: Children joining the Red Guards and reading from Mao's Little Red Book. The poster in the background is of Chairman Mao.

Nixon Goes to China (1972)

The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution had weakened China. China was also feuding with the Soviet Union over their shared border and their interpretation of Communism. In America, President Richard Nixon saw an opportunity to build a relationship with China. This would weaken the alliance between China and the Soviet Union. In 1972, President Nixon flew to China and met with Chinese Premier Zhao Enlai and Mao. This visit was a surprise, as President Nixon had been a strong enemy of Communism. As a result of this meeting, America and China normalized relations, opening a door to trade and cultural communication with the Shanghai Communique.

President Nixon shakes hands with Mao Zedong

___4. What was Mao’s goal with the Great Leap Forward? What were the unintended consequences?

___5.What were the (stated and unstated) purposes of The Cultural Revolution? What were the consequences of it?

__6. How did the relationship between the United States and China change in 1972? Why?

Tiananmen Square Massacre/ June 4th Incident/ 1989 Democracy Movement

After Nixon’s visit to China, China once more opened to the rest of the world. In the late 1970’s and 1980’s, China abandoned the policies of Mao, and began to reform their economy to something more capitalistic, like the United States. Nevertheless, the Communist Party remained firmly in charge of the government, banking, and important industries. There was much corruption across the country, and the economy of China was still underdeveloped. In 1989, the Gross Domestic Product of China stood at a little over $1 trillion.

In 1989, the Soviet Union and other Communist regimes around the world began to collapse at the end of the Cold War. In April, Chinese students took to the streets in cities across China and protested, calling for economic and political reform. The protests were sparked by anger about corruption. Some protesters wanted a democracy and free speech like America. In Beijing, the Chinese capitol, students and reformers occupied Tiananmen Square. This is a large public square for military parades and other events. For seven weeks, over a half million people joined the protests. Students made a statue of the “Goddess of Democracy” based on the American Statue of Liberty. The Communist Party tried to negotiate with the students, but protesters refused to stop their protest. Finally, the government sent soldiers against the protestors. The Chinese army used bullets and tanks. Thousands of Chinese died. Many who had supported the protests were executed or sent to political prisons. Above: A Chinese citizen stops a row of tanks

After 1989

In the years after the Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government has continued to undertake economic reforms, but politics has remained in the hands of the Communist Party. In China, facts about what happened at Tiananmen Square are heavily censored. Any website or social media account that discusses what occurred, or even mentions the event, is quickly shut down. People who speak out against the political control of the Communist Party are not tolerated.

The Communist Party realized, however, that China needed to be economically successful for them to retain control. Since 1989, the Chinese government has invested heavily in the development of industry and infrastructure, and the cities of the Chinese coast have become major centers of world production. Now, Chinese citizens are allowed to own property and businesses. Chinese banks, controlled by the government, promote the development of all sorts of industry. Today, China has a $12 trillion economy by GDP, second only to the United States. It has increased 1000% in the last 20 years; this is called the Chinese Economic Miracle. China is now a major player in a globalized world. But, even as greater economic freedom and success have spread, the Communist party has retained tight political control of Chinese citizens. Above: The Goddess of Democracy in Tiananmen Square

The current president of China, Xi Jinping, is seen by many as a reformer, taking actions against corruption and pollution. His economic reforms, which aim to improve the lives of all Chinese, has given rise to the term “Chinese Dream.” Nevertheless, many of his reforms have seem to have targeted his opponents, and many of his reforms have increased the power of the presidency. In many ways, Xi is the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.

___8. What happened at Tiananmen Square? How did China change as a result? In what ways has China reformed? In what ways has China stayed the same?