China has a great tradition going back 4000 years and an empire lasting 2000 years. The dynasties were in power and they were one of the most powerful and advanced civilisations in the world. But Europeans had gained influence at the start of the twentieth century by using force and this meant the Chinese empire had become weak. Between 1900 and 1949 China had gone from being one of the most powerful and advanced civilisations in the world to being considered a weak civilisation with very little power. The Chinese Communist party came into power in 1949 after winning the civil war against the Kuomintang. China is now one of the very few countries still under Communist rule. But the paradox of the situation is why do the Communists encourage private enterprise in industry, commerce and agriculture but does not give the people democratic rule? This is a paradox as it is not clear why the Chinese do not give the people democratic rule, even though democracy would help business advance even more.
China has a great tradition of authoritarian rulers with an empire that goes back 2000 years. There had never been any democratic rule in China before 1900 when it was a powerful and advanced civilisation. During the times of the dynasties, the Chinese people could not choose who led them and who was in charge of the country. But they did have private enterprise in commerce and agriculture. This led to the country being powerful and advanced. The CCP might not want to give the people democratic rights but encourage private enterprise in industry, commerce and agriculture as this style of rule was in force for thousands of years when China was a powerful and advanced civilisation. The CCP wants to return to those ways as they were so successful for the country and its people lived in prosperity and happiness. Also, as the country has not been democratic for nearly all of its history, very few people in China would have experienced democratic rule. Ways of live and tradition have been moulded around authoritarian rule. The CCP could think that if the country went to democratic rule, these ways of life would have to change and tradition would be lost.
When China was an empire, it based its values on Confucianism. It is a set of values that frame ideal behaviour. Confucianism was key to the success of the empire as all Chinese people followed the set of values in Confucianism. This means that everyone was loyal to the empire and there was peace within the empire. This led to the success and prosperity of the empire. Today, the CCP may look at how Confucianism influenced the people in the empire. It may also look at the success it had in making people loyal to the state. But why can’t Confucianism be followed under democratic rule? The CCP may think that Confucianism has to be followed under only one leader/organisation. If it isn’t, then the organisation in charge could scrap it. This could then lead to a decline in the success of the country. Also, if Confucianism is followed whilst private enterprise in industry, commerce and agriculture is taking place the rewards could be much greater as if Confucianism wasn’t followed. This is because of possible infighting between different businesses which could lead to a decline of products that are produced and traded.
Between the years of 1900 and 1949, China experienced anarchy, civil war and foreign intervention. By 1900 European intervention had made China very weak. European powers had gained influence in China with the use of force. This caused many of the Chinese to resent Europeans. The Boxer rebellion was the first movement against the Europeans but it was viciously restrained by the European forces. But in 1911, a revolution took place. The “constitutional republic” was set up in 1912. But by 1914 the National Assembly had been dissolved. Yuan Shikai was in government for the next 12 years and then after that there was the fighting between the warlords for many years after. This experience may compel the CCP not to make China into a republic as it is possible that it could happen again. This would set China back many years in its advances to become an economic power. During the civil war which lasted between 1945 and 1949, the Communists made important reforms in liberated areas. This made their popularity among peasants grow greatly. The CCP may see that there could be fighting between political groups to gain power if other political groups were allowed to grow into powerful organisations. They may also think that they were the ones who helped the peasants during the civil war and gained their support. This should therefore mean that the peasants do not want a change as that support would be pasted down from generation to generation those peasant families. They believe that Communism sorted out their problems in the past and could therefore do it again in the future.
When the CCP won the civil war in 1949, they had many followers in the “liberated areas.” Peasants supported them as they had given peasants the chance to own some land which could be farmed. This means that they could provide their family with the food that they needed. The CCP may think that it has the political right to rule China as it won the civil war representing the Chinese people. They may believe that they ended the years of fighting in China and they came out on top. This would therefore mean they have the right to rule the country. They deem that if they stay in power they have done and will continue to move the country forward. They believe that the introduction of private enterprise can keep order and control in the country. At the start of their reign they believed that getting rid of reactionaries was important as they were their opposition and therefore their threat to power. When they got rid of them they believed that their position as the leader of China was secure. They thought that getting rid of the reactionaries would make China a stable and prosperous country.
Since 1979, the Chinese government has bought in many economic changes. The reasons for this may include the failures of the great leap forward and the Cultural Revolution. The great leap forward attempted to develop agriculture as well as industry. Communes controlled every part of people’s lives. So when they contributed to the backyard steel campaign that was very wasteful, this had a shattering impact on other areas of production. The food run out and millions starved. The failure of the great leap forward may have caused the Chinese government to change its economic thinking as it was such a big disaster. Mao’s ideas were complete failures and China could not afford for another failure like this. After this fiasco, people will start to lose trust and faith in the CCP. Economic change would be needed sort out the fiasco to keep the population on their side and not to turn against them. The Cultural Revolution started in 1966 and was designed to educate the Chinese youth about Communist ideas. Schools and collages were shut down so that the curriculum could be rewritten to make the youth more aware of Communist ideas. The Red Guards (students who were formed into military groups) were influential in promoting Mao. But they started to use violence and ran wild with Mao’s full support. The revolution was called off in 1967. Millions of young people were now illiterate and farming had been severely disrupted. This second big failure may have caused the Communists to make economic changes. In the short run the political instability and the constant shifts in economic policy produced slower economic growth. There was also a decline in the capacity of the government to deliver goods and services. Another reason that the Chinese government has bought in economic change since 1979 is because of the failure of traditional Communist economic planning. The five year plan was due to run from 1953 to 1957 and it gave main priority to the heavy industry (steel, coal and machinery). They then tried to spread the land evenly between peasants and then join them in cooperatives to get them to work for the state. This plan failed and they were struggling for money. The government could of changed their economic planning because they needed more money, and to obtain more money they needed to promote private enterprise which would obtain more income. Overall, their past economic planning obtained too little money for the state to help and provide for the peasants. But with private enterprise introduced, this could bring in a lot more money in for the state. This would help in providing the country with the services it needs.
China’s economy has rapidly grown over the last twenty years. This is proven by the article in The Times on the 16/02/04 called The Rise of China. Graphs on this page clearly show how both imports and exports have risen, as has employment, disposable income in cities, GDP, foreign direct investment and mobile phone subscribers. Another article, also in The Times, on the 09/09/03, clearly states how China is experiencing urbanisation and is being industrialised. Although it said that many farmers have been pushed off of their lands, the country is still experiencing the urbanisation and industrialisation that is needed for the countries economic growth to continue. I believe that these reasons legitimize the rule of the CCP for many different reasons. The CCP has lead China to great economic success. It has become the leading manufacturer of mass produced goods in the world. Even despite bad ideas by Mao (the great leap forward and the Cultural Revolution) which set the party back along way, a lot of Chinese people have become prosperous. A helping factor for the CCP is that they have allowed private enterprise to flourish. This means that they are not just working for the state, but they are also working for themselves. This means that they have an extra reason to work very hard to get the biggest profits possible. This is probably the main reason for China’s increase in imports and exports. If the CCP continue to encourage private enterprise, then more businesses will be set up, meaning more imports and exports meaning more economic growth. This will ultimately meaning that the Chinese people will become richer and the quality of their lives will improve.
But there is a problem with the CCP staying in power. In China today there are great challenges in the political, environmental and social areas. It is possible that only a strong central government could face these challenges. The CCP may have produced economic prosperity for the country, but a lot of people are still not happy with them. In The Sunday Telegraph on the 11/04/04, it clearly shows how the Communists have banned many different faiths and parties. This includes the Roman Catholic faith and have taken hostage or possibly killed an underground Bishop. This clearly shows that the CCP will not allow for any possibility that someone or some other party/faith to challenge their leadership. If the people are not allowed freedom to express themselves, then they will turn against the CCP and this could lead to many riots and possibly deaths. This could progress even further and the economy could start to collapse which would strike disaster for the country. There is also a lot of evidence from an article in The Spectator on the 08/01/05 by a journalist called Martin Vander Weyer. He uses the evidence of Taiwan to great effect. He states that as Taiwan refused to be a part of China, they have achieved prosperity and democratic progress. He also used Japan as an example, saying how that in many visits to Tokyo, he read many books by American gurus who were clearly predicting that Japan would the great superpower of the 21st century. This is because Japan has a democratic government who have been chosen by the people, and are popular with the people. The evidence in the paragraph shows that if the CCP do not introduce democracy soon, then the country will not advance greatly from the position that it is in now. This would mean that China will not become the great superpower that it has the potential to be.
But another line to the argument about introducing democracy is the great problems that the country could encounter if they throw off one party rule. A great example of this is Russia (USSR). Since they threw off one party rule in the early 1990s they have encountered great problems. The main problem there is how corrupt the political system is. The Russian peoples’ pensions are very low and a lot of the country is in poverty. There is also a lot of crime there, including the selling of illegal weapons and the producing and selling of oil. China would not like to have those problems that Russia face. At the moment the CCP are doing well in their encouragement of private industry and the welfare of their people. This argument is backed up in an article in The Observer on 21/09/03. It says how the economy has trebled in twenty years and is still going. Also cheap labour with western style production will raise the living standards. An article in The Guardian on 04/07/01 says how the CCP wants to let the country develop freely, the peasants have a new wealth, that Communism has created a pathway to prosperity. It also says that they have allowed businesses to keep growing meaning that the economy will keep growing. If the CCP continue to do all of these things then there is no reason in running the risk of converting the country to democracy. The country could encounter problems such as the ones that Russia has encountered which would damage the economy and many people would be living in poverty. China has already tried to introduce democracy back in 1912. But this was a complete failure with just another dictator coming out. What’s to say that that won’t happen again meaning that all of the good work that the CCP have done could be completely undone.
Overall, I feel that the CCP is wrong not to give its people democratic rights. This is because the people of China have the right to choose who leads them into their future. I think that it is correct to say that democracy may have a few problems in establishing itself when it is introduced. But I do not think that it will fail as democracy is what the people truly want. There would also be outside help from other countries in establishing democracy. This would mean that it would be unlucky that democracy would fail, as it did back in 1912.
