THEN, his body was exhibited at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace in Pyongyang. The practice of preserving state leaders have done since the days of Lenin in 1924 and Stalin in 1953. Stalin’s body was placed next to Lenin in a meal at Red Square Moscow, but eight years later moved and buried beside the Kremlin wall. Apart from Stalin and Lenin, the bodies of Chinese leader Mao Zedong and Ho Chi Minh Vietnamese leader also embalmed.

Before embalmed, it is necessary bloodletting until exhausted. This process can last for a year and cost expensive. Embalming Kim Il-sung in 1994, the cost 1 million U.S. dollars. To preserve the Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s biological structure brings experts from Moscow, Russia. While Kim Jong-il is still unknown. Besides embalmed, North Korea plans to set up a statue for remembering figures Jong-il.

Official language: Mandarin (Northern Chinese)

Land area: 3,691,943 sq mi/9,562,088

Population: 1,355,350,000

Dominant Religions: Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism

Capital: Beijing

Current leader: President Hu Jintao

China is a large country in eastern Asia. It is the world’s largest country in population and the third largest in land area. Only Russia and Canada cover greater landmass. It is one of the world’s oldest countries, with a history dating back as much as 10,000 years.

 China borders more countries than any other country in the world. It is bordered by Mongolia to the north; Russia, North Korea and the Yellow Sea to the northeast; the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait to the east; the South China Sea to the southeast; Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India and Bhutan to the south; Nepal and India to the southwest; and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to the west. The mighty Himalayas form its entire borders with Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan. 

 More than 90 percent of China’s people live in the eastern half of the country. Western China has far fewer people and resources. Most of the country’s minority groups live in the western half. Most Chinese along the coastal areas are urban dwellers and Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are among the world’s largest urban areas, having a combined population of nearly 80 million.

 There are more than 50 ethnic groups living in China. Han Chinese make up 92 percent of the population while the rest of the population consists of Kazakhs, Mongols, Tibetans, Uygurs, Zhuang and others.

 China’s economy, one of the world’s largest, is mostly manufacturing-based. It produces more steel than any other country. Its factories also turn out products such as aircraft, automobiles, cement, fertilizer, military equipment, ships and trucks. In recent years many companies, especially clothing and apparel corporations, have been using China as their main manufacturing due mostly to the cheap labor.

 Since the early 1990’s China economy has been growing at near-unprecedented speed but many have complained about the distribution of the country’s wealth. Most of the economic growth has been confined to the coastal areas, especially cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. As a result, while citizens of these cities enjoy standards of living nearly on par with industrialized heavyweights such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan much of the population further inland, especially in rural areas, continue to live in Third World conditions.

 Throughout much of its history China has been one of the world’s most powerful and advanced countries. The Qin dynasty, which ruled the country until 206 B.C., created the world’s first paper currency. It also created the Great Wall, the humongous fortification that stretches about 5,500 to keep out invaders.

 However, during the 1200’s, the Mongols swept through and ruled the country from 1279 to 1368. It was during Mongol rule that Europeans became more interested in China. Italian explorer Marco Polo brought back glowing accounts of his journey there.

 Increased contact with foreigners began bringing western influence and humiliation to China. After the First Anglo-Chinese War in 1842 it lost Hong Kong to the United Kingdom. It lost Korea and Taiwan to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. An violent attempt by some Chinese to stop the spread of western influence during the Boxer Rebellion resulted in an military invasion by eight countries. Shanghai all but became foreign-occupied.

 More suffering awaited. In the 1920’s, the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, began turning on its Communist allies, led by Mao Zedong, igniting a war and in 1931 Japan invaded and occupied Manchuria. In 1937, even as the Nationalists and Communists continued to fight for control of the country, Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China and within a year had occupied nearly all of eastern China. In 1941 China joined the Allies – the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union – during World War II.

 Soon after the war ended, the Nationalist and Communists began a large-scale civil war which ended with Communist victory in 1949. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up a government-in-exile, continuing to claim itself the legitimate ruler of China. During the 1950’s and 60’s Mao Zedong attempted to move China ahead with programs such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, both which turned to be disastrous. During that period an estimated 30 million Chinese died through overwork and starvation.

Most western countries continued to recognize the Nationalists in Taiwan as the legitimate government of China but in the 1970’s they began switching diplomatic recognition to the Beijing.

 In the late-1980’s more Chinese began demanding democracy and in 1989, the military brutally crushed a demonstration at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, killing thousands of protestors in what is now known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre. While most of the west harshly condemned the crackdown it was not enough to stop increased relations with China.

 In the 1990’s China instituted economic reforms, leading to rapid economic growth.

Image by Jorge Lascar via Flickr

 Mao Tse Tung led the Chinese Communist party to victory in a civil war. The Kuomintang( Nationalist) party had to flee China to Formosa and Mao now ruled the roost in China. But a fact that is known but not well documented is that Mao launched some hair brained schemes like the ‘ Cultural revolution and ’let a hundred flowers bloom‘ policy. The result ? Twenty million or maybe twenty five million Chinese ordinary citizens died of starvation and prison and executions. This is so monstrous that even Hitler’s  crimes pale before killings of this magnitude.

 Mao has gone and so called pragmatic socialism is ushered in. This has the trappings of a capitalist state, but the results are achieved by forced labor and unfriendly labor laws, where even a strike  which is a legitimate  right of the working class is severely curtailed on pain of death or banishment to a concentration camp. Wither the theories of Karl Marx? Dictatorship of the Proletariat ? Its simply not there in China.

To talk that China is making great progress in the economic field are not aware of the ground realities. All dissidents are behind bars and many who oppose the Communist system are simple sent to concentration camps. The Chinese are an occupying force in Tibet and the heritage of Tibet is getting destroyed. Vietnam is worried about China and so is Japan. The Chinese Industry though churning out cheap goods is doing it on the back of slave labor. Thousands nay millions slog for a pittance so that Chinese goods can be competitive in the world.

All this will have its repercussions and Newtons law that to every action there is an equal reaction will hold. The back lash will sting China. For after all the mono-lithe Soviet state collapsed. China can’t be far behind.

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            History covers a long period of time, Chinese history especially, but in the long flow of history China’s struggle with the problem of modernity is a relatively new one.  Forced into the modern era in 1840, China has had a mere 170 years to cope with the cataclysmic changes that have since taken place.  Two moments in time stand out in particular following the 1911 revolution.  The May Fourth movement and the Chinese enlightenment in general differed somewhat than other efforts to deal with the problem of modernity, for instead of dealing with the problem of practical (e.g. economic, military, government institutions) changes the movement’s proponents sought to rework the intellectual landscape of the country; for them, the problem may not have been a failure of reform so much as a failure to reject obsolete ways of thinking and adopt a more modern viewpoint.  The ushering in of the neoliberal era in China, represented by such events as the Third Plenum of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CCP in December 1978, marked yet another “qualitatively new time in modern China.  The changes brought about during the ensuing decades of reform constituted not only a stark departure from the immediate past of the early socialist period but also arguably a break from the regular Chinese pattern of dealing with the problems of modernity thrust upon China since her forcing into the global system following her first major clash with the West in 1940.

Stirrings: The May Fourth Movement

            How can the May Fourth Movement be characterized as a break from the past and a harbinger of modernity in China?  If colonialism and imperialism can be considered manifestations of modernity, May Fourth and that event’s legacy are a modern response to the problem, beginning as it did as an anti-imperialist demonstration protesting the decisions of the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference as well as Japan’s Twenty-One Demands.  Both of the above things impacted China’s territorial integrity and autonomy (perennial concerns since 1840).  Thus, at one level the May Fourth protest was just another jiuguo or aiguo protest like many of the others that permeated the late Qing period (e.g. the Railway-Rights Recovery Movement) and the 1930’s.

            The temporal newness of this event is found in the transformation of the movement from a mere protest over political developments into one of political and cultural reawakening.  In the past, Confucian intellectuals thought they had found the solution in facing up to the problems of modernity in the idea of tiyong, or using Western learning and technology to promote practical reforms while simultaneously maintaining the superiority of Chinese learning as the base of Chinese society.  The students of the May Fourth movement rejected the notion of Confucian cultural superiority and their advocacy of taking a critical look at these deep-rooted values and throwing out those portions that would hold China back from the move towards a stronger (and by extension stronger) China transformed the intellectual landscape of the nation.  They hoped to change the way the Chinese people thought as a whole but jump-starting the creation of a modern intelligentsia was achievement enough.

            Vera Schwarcz, in his book on the Chinese enlightenment, does an interesting comparison between Chinese May Fourth intellectuals and the proponents of the eighteenth-century enlightenment movement in Europe, noting how enlightenment “connoted a refusal to abide by Christian dogma and to search for truth through reason and experience” (Schwarcz, 11).  Similarly, “May Fourth intellectuals [...] called for a critical evaluation of traditional ethics [rejecting Confucian dogma!]” (Schwarcz, 288) and “used ‘critical reason’ as a code word for activity best suited to the talents and needs of intellectuals [as opposed to the former practice of subservience to the ruler and tradition]” (Schwarcz, 292).  Well, one might ask, what is the significance in changing the way of thinking of a mere few thousand that make up a nation’s intelligentsia; how can changing such a small group impact a nation of millions?  Jonathan Spence in Ch. 22 of his book provides clues to an answer, noting that one reason for China’s partial opening up to the world in the early 1970’s was a need for foreign technical expertise.  Intellectuals are indispensable to any modernization program, versed as they are in technical knowledge gleaned from the intellectual environment of a university.  Even today “it has become even clearer that the more China wants to modernize, the less it can risk to [sic] alienate its modern intellectuals” (Schwarcz, 293).

            How can May Fourth be temporally linked to that event’s immediate future (from 1919 on) as well as our own future?  The ideals stirred and people inspired by the May Fourth movement went on to impact yet more “qualitatively new times” in Chinese history.  Such individuals as Li Dazhao (librarian at Beijing University where the movement originated in 1919) and Chen Duxiu (Dean of Humanities at Beijing University) went on to help found the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.  Beijing students such as Xu Deheng (who was among those students that broke into and vandalized the home of the pro-Japanese official Cao Rulin) and Zhou Enlai found further vent for the nationalistic feelings awakened within them as Communist revolutionaries (as evidenced by Xu’s eventual sitting as vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Political Consultative Conference and Zhou’s premiership in the PRC central government).    Moving beyond individual experiences to a more general view, an intellectual movement and push for cultural reawakening could in this context be seen as forerunners of later political upheaval and revolution (i.e. Establishment of the PRC).

            In addition to its influence on Chinese socialism, May Fourth continues to impact the political and cultural aspirations of some today.  Born amidst a pessimism emanating from the apparent failure of the 19911 revolution to fundamentally transform China, some proponent of the May Fourth legacy still await an enlightenment exalting not only critical thought and freedom from obsolete tradition but also the democratic environment of individual freedom that allows such ideals to flower into their fullest manifestations.  For such a dream to be realized may require a venturing into yet future realms of temporal newness.

The Painful Transition: From Superiority Complex to Modern Neoliberal State

            Throughout its history, China had clung to the idea of its own innate strength and the superiority of Chinese civilization over that of others.  Other manifestations of this basic premise would continue throughout the modern era despite this viewpoints glaring lack of providing effective ways of addressing the problems of modernity and realizing the ultimate goal of establishing a modern Chinese state.  The late nineteenth century saw the promulgation of the idea of tiyong, which – as had been the case throughout much of Chinese history (i.e. nothing very new here) – emphasized the preeminence of Chinese ways of thinking while allowing for the use of Western learning in areas of practical reform.  The 1930’s saw the rise of the National Products Movement which emphasized the buying domestically produced goods; the movement was yet another manifestation of turning inward and Chinese self-reliance.  This ancient mindset was still evident in the People’s Republic of China despite the upheavals that rocked China during the long struggles preceding and following the PRC’s establishment in 1949.  The socialist period was touted by the CCP as a new era qualitatively different from prior eras in Chinese history and yet this air of Chinese superiority and the self-reliance born of this attitude are clearly visible during the mass mobilizations of the Great Leap Forward or the constant exhortations to learn from Dazhao and Daqing; China is still seen as superior and in little need of outside help or contact in order to achieve the at that point unfilled dream of modernization.

            The death of Mao, the ouster of his supporters, and the consolidation of power into the hands of the more practically-minded Deng Xiaoping finally set the stage for China to break out of this trap of her own setting.  From the policy direction promulgated at the Third Plenum and in Deng’s speeches outlining the “Four Modernizations” to Deng’s southern tour and victory over the Marxist hardliners at the Fourteenth Party Congress (both occurred in 1992), China went through the throes of yet another “qualitatively new time in her history.  Many of the changes which came forth during the ensuing fifteen years were generally economic in nature and involved the solving of old problems or achieving old goals utilizing new methods.

            For instance, state control over the economy, a hallmark of Chinese economic activity since mining and salt production became dynastic monopolies a couple millenia ago (and throughout the Mao era manifested via the auspices of Soviet-style central planning), came to be increasingly displaced by private control over economic activity and regulation through market forces.  Where before the Qing and Nationalist governments worried over such things as liquan (as evidenced during debates among government officials concerning the erection of telegraph lines in Qing China) and autonomy (e.g. launching the National Products movement as a result of fears of foreign encroachment on China’s economic sovereignty), Deng and his successors was and continue to be open to any foreign contact which will serve to strengthen the Chinese economy.  Mass movements and political revolutions/upheaval, hallmarks of the 1911 revolution and the Cultural Revolution, had been condemned at the Third Plenum in 1978 and replaced with the subordination of almost every other consideration to economic considerations.  The changes discussed above are representative of an amazing about face in the way China had hitherto reacted when the country was suddenly thrust into the modern world, and in many ways these changes represent a counterweight of success countering a burden of disappointing past failures.  If the Qing dynasty was paralyzed by the problems of building a state and Mao did not “seem[] to know how or where the nation should be heading” (Spence, 617), the events of the Deng era launched China into a new period of moving forward with purpose.

            The “newness” of the Deng era reforms and the enthusiasm and support these changes had garnered are seen in the statements of several CCP leaders at the time.  Hu Yaobang told SEZ local authorities in 1983 that “’since the special economic zone is a new emerging thing, we must be bold in exploring and blazing new trails’” (Marti, 13).  Yang Shangkun, head of the PLA until his retirement in 1992, also spoke concerning the SEZ, saying that it “should not be too conservative but should constantly seek progress in its construction” (Marti, 88).  During his historic southern tour in January 1992, Deng Xiaoping himself emphasized the importance of and his commitment to his policy of “Reform and opening, stating: “In reform and opening, it is necessary to be bolder and to open on a larger scale; without carrying out reform, China will not have a bright future.  Reform and opening up is China’s only option.  If China does not carry out reform, it will just move into a blind alley” (Marti, 87).  In the late 1800’s, Qing officials had cautioned against adopting Western technology and resistance to modernization efforts abounded; Maoists of the early socialist period had equally decried such things as corrupt bourgeois influences.  A new moment and chance to realize a possible solution to several of the problems of modernity had finally been seized and embarked on by Deng at the Third Plenum in 1978 and enshrined as the CCP’s basic party line by the conclusion of the Fourteenth Party Congress in late 1992.

            The impact of the events of the Deng era has become firmly enough entrenched that what was once a “qualitatively new time” in China has since become a norm in China.  Deng’s successors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao continue in the spirit of that man’s economic program and such formulas as the “Three Representations” and the “Harmonious Society” are meant to calm social tensions and allow the economic to continue smoothly along.  These are manifestations of the new way of doing things just as “national products” and learning from Dazhao” were manifestations of the old; when the next significant “new time” in Chinese history appears, what will the exhortations that escape people’s lips be then?

Conclusion

            No matter which moment in modern China one may study, the manifestations of modernity are visible and intertwined within such moments.  The May Fourth movement was born of nationalistic outrage and the inability of China to decisively resolve issues of continuing Western and Japanese imperialism/colonialism; the movement’s fruits were a transformed intellectual climate in China which not insubstantially included the birth of the CCP..  The Deng Xiaoping reform era, kicked off by the Third Plenum in 1978, represented in many ways a clear break from set patterns of the past and a bold venturing into the realm of genuine reform and opening up to the world, as well as setting a new stage in the development of “Chinese-style socialism”.  Considering the multi-faceted nature and linkages between historical moments such as these, it may be safe to say that instances of “qualitatively new time” aren’t limited to mere events or moments in time but can also be fluid and lurk beneath the onward flow flow of history, ready to reemerge in new yet at the same time eerily familiar manifestations.

Other articles by this author:

The Tools of Liberation and The Tools of Control: Two Sides of The Same Coin?

Methodologies in Researching Communication in China

Gender Construction in China’s Late Imperial Period

About the author:

Name: Mike

Country: United States

Interests: numismatics, reading, history, Star Trek, computer games, Chinese

Blogs: coming soon!

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The dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, whose disappearance in April caused an international outcry, resisted intense psychological pressure during the 81 days he was held in a secret place and still faces the threat of prison for alleged subversion, said a source familiar with the facts to Reuters.

In the first comprehensive account Ai treatment during his detention since he was released in June, the source, who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals, said the artist of 54 years was interviewed 50 times by police while was kept at two secret locations.

The interrogation focused on his alleged role in protests in China’s “Jasmine Revolution” Arabesque style in February and in his writings that could be deemed subversive, the source said.

That account contradicts repeated statements by the Chinese government’s arrest was based on Ai alleged economic crimes.

“What they are doing is illegal,” Ai said the police at one point, the source said. “They said, ‘You know that before dying Liu Shaoqi held to the constitution … talk about illegality, there is no difference between the country in which we are now and the time of the Cultural Revolution.”

Liu, a former president, was ejected and died in prison during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when Mao Zedong’s top leader turned against his comrades in the name of the insurrection.

In the second whereabouts, where Ai was 67 days, the artist famous for his work at the Olympic Stadium “Bird’s Nest” in Beijing, was guarded by two policemen 24 hours a day, often with their faces inches from the you, watching every move even when asleep.

Ai had to ask permission agents for water and using the bathroom and was not allowed to speak and when to sleep demanded that he should put his hands on the blanket, the source said.

“It was a huge psychological pressure,” the source said

Under the terms of his release, Ai can not be interviewed by reporters, meet with foreigners, using the Internet or contacting human rights defenders for a year, he added.

During his detention, Ai was fed well and could take long walks, the source said.

Ai was a prominent government critic, and for a time many believed that Ai was somewhat protected by his fame as the son of the famous communist poet Ai Qing.

The police told him, even the day of his release, he could face 10 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power”, a generic accusation that China often uses to punish dissidents.

The artist was best known international character of human rights activists detained in China in February. His family has repeatedly said that he was a target of the authorities for his outspoken criticism of censorship and control of the Communist Party.

photo sources: www.britannica.com

The word communism was brought into the acquaintance of Chinese citizens by a person named Mao Zedong. He was an intellectual personality though had no academic knowledge. He left his home at an early age and soon became a member of Nationalist army during 1911, when the insurgency started in China. During that period he was introduced to Marxism and he becomes highly prejudiced by it.

During 1900 Boxing Revolution started in China, with the objective of riding off foreigners from Chinese territory and annihilating all missionaries and Christian converts. Chinese citizens suffered from starvation, extreme poverty and grief due to the loss of many lives. There was a state of chaos in China. This gave a platform for person like Mao Zedong to start a revolution and follow the footsteps of Karl Marx. During 1916 Chinese citizens had already experienced a beating from the hands of landlords. Hence more and more Chinese people started to join the revolutionary groups or became a member of any political parties with a view to re-establish peace in China. Around 1918 china saw several movements which strongly encouraged a path into communism. Many movements like dictatorship by rich peoples were eradicated from the Chinese soil; hence it proved to be fruitful for Chinese citizens

The state of chaos and anguish started and citizens of China started to mentally accept the concept of communism. Within no time almost 90% of Chinese people were in support of communism. It was during that particular period when Zedong founded a society to study and scrutinize the concept of Marxism and in the year 1921 the members of the society formed Chinese Communist Party. After successfully defeating the nationalist, Mao Zedong led the communist party. Mao Zedong became a popular stature and the Chinese citizens gave him ample support for the betterment of China. 

Hence Chinese citizens greeted communism in their country with a hope of establishment of equality among all citizens and to overcome the dictatorship of Landlords. Since Mao Zedong was himself from a poor family background Chinese citizens show in him the qualities required in a ruler. Mao Zedong was a person with great intellectual capabilities and was brave in his actions. He defeated Nationalist and was responsible for the downfall of Landlord ship. He gave China a great deal of hope which no one had done prior to him.

photo sources: www.britannica.com

1.) Yao Ming

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Presently, one of the most popular Chinese is Yao Ming. He was born in 1980 and is currently playing as a professional basketball for the Houston Rockets of the national Basketball Association or NBA. He currently holds the distinction as the NBA’s tallest player with a height of 2.29 meters or 7’ 6”.

2.) Bao Xishun

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This very tall man is a herdsman from Inner Mongolia, China is Bao Xishun. He was born in 1951 and was recognized by Guinness World Records as one of the world’s tallest living men. He is also known as Xi Shun or “The Big Guy”. He is 2.36 m or 7 ft 9 in tall.

3.) Sun Mingming

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One of the tallest players to ever play professional basketball is Sun Mingming. He was born in 1983 and stands at a height of 2.36 meters or 7’ 9”. Weighing 168 kg and wears size 20 sneakers, he also makes occasional appearances as an actor.

4.) Liu Xiang

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One of China’s most commercially successful athletes is Liu Xiang. This great athlete from Shanghai, China is the first Chinese athlete to achieve the “triple crown” of athletics: World Record Holder, World Champion and Olympic Champion.

5.) He Pingping

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The world’s shortest man capable of walking according to the Guinness World Records was He Pingping. He was born in 1983 and was once the world’s shortest living man at 74 cm or 29 in until his death in March 2010.

6.) Zhan Shichai

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Zhan Shichai, who was born in 1841 and died in 1893, was a Chinese giant who toured the world as “Chang the Chinese Giant” in the 19th century. He was also known as Chang Woo Gow or Zhan Shi Chai.

7.) Mao Zedong

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Mao Zedong’s rule from 1949 to 1976 is believed to have caused the deaths of up to 70 million Chinese people.

8.) Yao Defen

The world’s tallest living woman is Yao Defen of China. Her verified height according to the Guinness World Records is 2.34 meters or 7’ 8”. This woman who is suffering from gigantism is 200 kg in weight and her feet is 26 (UK) / 78 (EU). She was born in July 1972.

9.) Zhang Juncai

One of the tallest in the world is Zhang Juncai. He was born in 1983 in Shanxi Province and he stands at 2.42 meters or 7’ 11” making him the tallest Chinese.

10.) Zeng Jinlian

The tallest woman ever recorded in medical history is Zeng Jinlian of Hunan, China. She was born in 1964 and died in 1982 and is also the only female counted among the twelve individuals in medical history who reached a verified eight feet or more. She was 2.49 m or 8 ft 1.75 in tall but could not stand up straight due to a severely deformed spine.

11.) Zhao Liang

A circus performer from Henan, China named Zhao Liang is the world’s 2nd tallest living man in the world. He stands at a height of 2.46 m or 8 ft 0.9 in.

12.) Yu Zhenhuan

The hairiest man in the world is Yu Zhenhuan. About 96% of his body is covered by hair.

13.) Xie Qiuping

The woman with the longest hair in the world is Xie Qiuping of China. She has not cut her hair since she’s 13 year-old and now measures 5.627 meters long or 18 ft 5.54 inches.

See also

• Amazing and Interesting Facts About China

• The Human Extremes: World’s Most Amazing People

• World’s Greatest Things That You’ll Find in China

• Interesting Facts You Need To Know About Japan

• 99 Interesting and Random Facts About Places in the World

In the 1950’s Mao Zedong, the Chinese leader, instructed the nation to have as many children as possible. This sent the birth rate to 5.8 children per couple, a level way more than China could hope to sustain. In 1979 when the new leader, Deng Xiaoping came into office, he imposed restrictions on families to control the population. 

 What was the one child policy?

Put simply, the policy limited Han Chinese couples living in urban areas to having only one child. However the rules are far more complicated than this, for example, the policy does not apply to ethnic minorities, which make up 10% of Chinas population.

Two babies were permitted in many areas in the countryside, or if the first child was a female, since Chinese tradition strongly favours male children. Parents were given cash rewards and initiatives to abide by the rule, however breaking the one-child rule would result in a heavy fine, calculated using the family’s income in the year of the birth. Any state officials, or public sector workers such as Police, Politician etc that broke the policy would automatically lose their jobs.

Aims-

• To reduce the growth rate in urban China. This will attempt to make their country more sustainable.
• Ambitiously wanted to achieve 0% population growth by 2000.

Advantages/successes:

• The policy has reduced Chinas population by around 250million

Disadvantages/Failures:

• Many baby girls are abandoned, aborted or unregistered as sons are preferable in Chinese families.
• As a result of this China currently has a sex ratio of 117 men per 100 women. This has left nearly 30million men unable to find partners.
• Many men divorce their wives if the child is female. The law then changed to prevent this, however some men now beat their wives after the birth of a girl to force the woman to file for divorce on grounds of domestic violence.
• “Little emperor syndrome’ has become a large problem among the recent generation of Chinese male children. This is the term given to the way in which male only-children now act in China due to their parents and grandparents fulfilling their every wish and obeying their commands in a bid to keep their only child and heir happy and give them the benefits that they never received as kids.
• As baby girls are ‘undersirable’, sometimes they are not even given a name – 6000000 girls in china are called Lai Di (Translates as No name)

Taking into account the rapid and unsustainable rate at which the Chinese population was growing during the mid to late 20th century, a policy of some sort was essential. However I think by making it so that there are whole generations of ‘only children’ who do not have brothers and sisters with which they can talk and play with. Siblings also help children to learn valuable lessons in social skills and older brothers/sisters act as a good role model for their younger siblings. The policy, coupled with the Chinese preference of male children has also meant in the gender imbalance. This is not good for the future population and also meant that 30million men are forced to spend their life without a partner, not because they are ugly, or have a bad personality but because there are simply not enough women.

Although, had the policy not have been introduced, China would not have been able to cope as it did not have the economy or resources to deal with such a population boom. It almost certainly would not have been able to continue its growth to the world power it is today.

A peasant-based revolution, even if it could call upon the great mass of the peasants, would probably fail because it would not control enough resources or hard power to bring down a determined, heavily-armed state government. It takes a significant period of time for a peasant based economy to develop the degree of resources necessary to challenge such a regime. So, Maoist revolutionary strategy evolved to make a possible success from these kinds of conditions.

First, develop revolutionary consciousness in the downtrodden and exploited consciousness so that they are ready to join the movement. Second, take control of certain areas of the country which can be defended against state military assault. Generally, this means finding remote areas with difficult terrain where the superior military state firepower cannot be easily brought to bear. In the revolutionary area, then, a parallel state is created and strengthened over the course of time. As other people, peasants and others, see the success of the parallel state in terms of providing more equality and better living conditions, then the desire for the revolution will spread and this will help in extending the geographical reach while, at the same time, reducing the legitimacy of the state’s ability to rule (since fewer and fewer people support it) and its resources. Eventually, the state will fall like a rotten apple – it may need to be plucked by more revolutionary action or it may fall of its own accord.

Mao was unable to make much progress with the question of what to do with the people who refuse to accept the revolution. Terror and the work camps were used.

Karl Heinrich Marx was born in Trier, Germany (then the Kingdom of Prussia), into a relatively well-off family on 5th May, 1818. His father was a lawyer and he received a good education. During his early years, Marx was influenced greatly by the writings of Immanuel Kant and Voltaire. He eventually joined leftist associations in numerous nations and, together with Engels, was asked to write The Manifesto of the Communist Party, better known today as The Communist Manifesto. Marx was the most prolific Communist writer of his time and wrote numerous papers on abstract topics such as the meaning of life and the current economic systems in various countries. He also is remembered for his work The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon and his inimitable criticism of moribund capitalism in Das Kapital. Marx left this world on March 14th, 1883 and failed to see his vision of a communistic revolution of the proletariat achieved. However, until this day, Marx remains an important political figure and revolutionary.

Friedrich Engels, along with Marx, co-authored The Communist Manifesto. Following Marx’s death, Engels would solely write the prefaces to the various following editions of the Manifesto and helped edit and annotate the second and third volumes of Marx’s Das Kapital.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed The Communist Manifesto. The duo was exceedingly clear in their utopian vision and I can now see why so many people over the world were seduced by the promises of communism. A recurring message throughout the book is Marx and Engels urging the proletariat to rebel against the oppressive clutches of the bourgeoisie and overthrow them. An interesting tenet of Communism is that a violent revolution is necessary for the proletariat to establish a new socio-economic order. Another fact that I found interesting was the duo’s prediction that a bourgeois revolution would occur first, then followed by a communist revolution. Thus, they believed that Germany had the highest hopes for a communistic revolution as it was on the eve of a bourgeois revolution.

Marx and Engels took issue with the tendency of the class, property and capital-owning bourgeoisie to treat the proletariat and petty bourgeoisie as mere factors of production instead of real people, thus going against Immanuel Kant’s tenet of treating humans “as not only means but also as ends”.  They were angered by the terrible labour conditions that the bourgeoisie imposed on the proletariat and had a glorious vision of a utopian state in which all were equal.

The central principle of the brand of communism proposed by the duo is the abolition of private property. By this, they mean that all forms of privately owned capital should be abolished and be handed over to the State. They strongly believed that the State should have a monopoly in the areas of banking (finance), communication and transportation. Furthermore, Marx and Engels proposed the formation of ‘industrial armies’, especially in the agricultural sector to boost economic productivity. Moreover, they strongly felt that free public schooling should be made available to all children and that child labour in factories and industrial sectors should be banned.

One may think that the duo, being communist, would be pro-proletariat (no pun intended). However, this was not the case. Marx and Engels were also infuriated with the lumpenproletariat, a word that literally means ‘rag proletariat’. By this term that they coined in the Manifesto, they referred to the “refuse of all classes” and the very bottom segments of the proletariat that would be useless in the event of a proletariat revolution. People such as rag-and-bone men, brothel keepers and beggars were subsumed under this category. Although, technically, this class was part of the proletariat, Marx and Engels were exceedingly critical of them – condemning them and publicly declaring their uselessness in a communistic revolution.

Furthermore, Marx and Engels were not against the bourgeoisie as a whole. Instead, they were against the haute bourgeoisie, or the capitalist class. They were not opposed to factions of the bourgeoisie such as the petite bourgeoisie and instead expressed understanding for them. The petite, or petty, bourgeoisie were the class between the mainstream proletariat and the capitalist class. It comprised people like shopkeepers who did not own the means of production but were something of a link between the capitalist class (mainstream bourgeoisie) and the proletariat, thus resulting in the petite bourgeoisie being something of a lower middle class. The duo highlighted the importance of the petite bourgeoisie in a proletariat revolution and encouraged them to take the side of the oppressed proletarian class against the moribund capitalist haute bourgeoisie.

One feature of Manifesto that struck me was its elegant beginning and ending. It begins with the sentence: “A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of Communism. All the Powers of Old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcize this spectre: Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German Police spies.” I exceedingly enjoy this beginning and am of the opinion that it is an excellent way to begin a non-fiction political manifesto. It uses excellent imagery and makes use of literary devices such as clever metaphors and metonyms. This results in the reader being engaged from the first paragraph and looking forward to reading the rest of the Manifesto. Furthermore, this opening paragraph also conveys the inherent power and danger of Communism to existing political and socio-economic orders, thus leading to “Pope and Czar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies” striving to get rid of it.

The emphatic ending of the Manifesto, reads: “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. WORKING MEN OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!” This ending is triumphant and encourages the proletariat to rebel against the ruling, capitalist class. Marx and Engels highlight the plight of the oppressed working class by stating that they have “nothing to lose but their chains”. Furthermore, the proletariat are given a glimpse of how much they can stand to gain from a communistic revolution against the dictatorial bourgeoisie – “a world”. Lastly, the duo drives home their central message by reiterating the need for the proletariat across national boundaries to unite as one and rise up against the moribund bourgeois who exploit them.

            In conclusion, The Communist Manifesto was a superb read and had me hooked form start to finish. With their enticing writings of a classless state in which the proletariat are liberated, Marx and Engels seduce the reader with their vision of a utopia. The Manifesto remains, to this day, one of the most important political manuscripts of all time and inspired major revolutions that changed the face of the world. From Lenin’s Bolshevik Revolution to Mao Zedong’s establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the Manifesto had and still has a profound impact on the socio-economic conditions and geopolitics of our world.