Political Economy in Post-1949 China Essay

Social Science Approach to the Study of Political Economy in Post-1949 China In order to understand the political economy of China in post 1949, The Great Leap Forward, this essay will discuss three key points.   It will start with examining the theories and concepts.   Then it will evaluate the literature and online resources from Western and Chinese (translated) sources.   And lastly, it will look at the problems of research methodology. Theories and Concepts Theories and concepts about the political economy of China after the 1949 revolution revolve around who will take control of the Chinese Government and solve the economic problems of the country.   Chinese leaderships, which is consisted by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, Chen Yun, and Chu Teh, consolidated power quickly moved apparently to gain the confidence of Chinese population.   In order to resolve the economic problems, especially food shortage and high food prices, they need to reestablish the social relationships in the countryside to gain their support and produce larger quantities of agricultural products.   Here enters a new concept – the restructuring of and implementations policies. [1] The Great Leap Forward was a new approach that was believed by the Chinese leaders to concurrently grow modern and traditional sectors – industrialization and agriculture. This new approach did not actually balanced the two sectors rather it only gives both of them the importance. More importance was still given to investment but unlike in Soviet model, the Great Leap Forward did not concentrate on few lines of investment. Making the investment lines for them was pushing the ceiling upward. On the other hand, agriculture was given an added importance. Under the new approach, labor was the idea to substitute capital. Likewise, another idea was to substitute surplus labor to capital formation. These two ideas were conceptually based on labor absorption and employment generating effects of industrialization. Under the Great Leap Forward, the solution imposed by the Chinese leaders was creation of communes. Communes are the state-feudalism form of solution thought by the leaders. According to Gabriel in 1998, the prevalence of the communist fundamental class process is reflected in communes. This happens because of the main reason that institutions are being created in communes. However, communes were not achieved. Collective appropriate and distribution of the surplus product made within the enterprise by the direct producers was .implied in the process. In effect, the workers had no power to control their collective surplus. Another reflection is that unlike in capitalism, workers are paid according to the number of hours and days they give their service. Therefore, capitalist institutions were not communes. Workers from the rural settings worked with obligations. The government was the one made the appointment of the commune management. It was during the later period of the Great Leap Forward when all the management is all from the urban. The government is the institution that controls the surplus from the communes. The feudal relationship reflected in this scenario between the government and the workers was the obligation of the workers to work in communes. The government was reflected as the feudal lord during the approach in the Great Leap Forward. From communism, CPC wanted to transform the country to socialism. Socialism is the social state between communism and capitalism. The exact meaning of Socialism was not understood in China. In fact, its meaning had liberty on different interpretations. For instance, the construction of socialism by the Soviet Union means rapid industrialization and strict centralization. On the other hand, leader Mao Zedong viewed socialism as intellectual foundation of the left-wing of the CPC.   The difference on the vision of Mao Zedong on socialism required the wholesale destruction of pre-revolutionary institutions. According to Mao, feudal lords and social structure had to be removed. For Mao, new political, cultural, and economic order must be created. In addition, Mao’s proposal requires new people’s army.   Accordingly, the proposal also requires the jurisdiction of the people’s court that must at all level. Lastly, the association of peasant must be all the way through the countryside and considering the workers, a well established council in industrial enterprises is also needed. The revolutionary transformation proposed by Mao was followed by their government. Lands from feudal lords were taken possession of, and farmers gained more control on their productive capacity. There was also a better market for economic and social exchange. The communist party officials aimed for every Chinese village to have its cadres. This was part of the agenda of the government to encourage greater cooperation among farmers. The party still feared the intervention of foreign countries. In effect of this approach, the central authorities provided eyes and ears within the countryside. Accordingly, the approach the government gave the rural producers available markets for their products. Those policies of the government were essential in achieving the goal of unifying China under a central authority. The land reform significantly reduced hunger and malnutrition in the countryside of China. This was proved after the implementation of the revolutionary transformation. There were no significant detrimental impacts of feudal lords after the lands were confiscated. Accordingly, rural farmers were able to put better use of their resources and its reproductive potential. Through elimination of feudal lands, the excess/surplus output was allowed to be invested. If they were not invested, they were used to finance the new social institutions and public goods. Consequently, life and work of rural direct producers were made easier. More so, increase in the living standard due to the revolutionary transformation was delivered and reached many rural direct producers and their families.   Incomes of the rural direct producers were improved by the significant improvement of the products they were producing. In general, nourishment, clothing, shelter and health in line with production were achieved by the rural community. In accordance to the revolutionary change, the expansion in the role of women in economic and political life was given importance and improvement. The state recognized both labor coming from males and females. For the state, both labors are valued in the national economy of China. In 1953, Mao proposed the Five-Year Economic Plan or the FYEP via the central plan. Under the plan, production quotas were expected but no quality standards were required. Consequently, the impact on demand was negative. According to Gabriel, â€Å"the motivation system created significant waste of inputs, unhappy consumers, unhappy wage laborers, and unhappy rural direct producers.† [2] In addition, the government bureaucrats were unhappy due to the failure of their plan. During the recognition of the failure of the plan, Mao called for a movement. The liberty in expressing unhappiness of the Chinese public was collectively joined through the â€Å"Hundred Flowers Movement†. The second Five-Year Economic Plan or the SFYEP were then taken advantage of Mao and his fraction. Literature Review Like other literature about China, literature about this theme on political economy of post 1949 China were mostly written by Western people.   Thus, it is more on Western perspective.   And like any historical data, literature about this topic is mostly descriptive. There are few that are analytical in nature and that could be found in the form essays.   And because it is more on descriptions and chronology of the events, it failed to give the deeper overview of the essence of the topic in history. Likewise, there are literatures that are either biased or shortened.   An example is the article about the Chinese Leader Mao Zedong.   Many writers wrote Mao who was accused of â€Å"Famine Death†. One-sided story was delivered and presented in the Chinese public. Only the problems that occurred during 1959 until 1961 were understood by them. The relationship between success and failures were not given. There was improvement in the life of the Chinese public that should be recognized along with socialism. The methodologies of the research conducted in proving Mao’s accusation of famine death were biased and shortened. Deaths due to natural disasters were accountable on what the people and other research claimed to be Mao’s failure on implementation of policy. Policy error during the Mao’s regime was what the common research claimed. According to Ball (2006), â€Å"millions of lives of Chinese people were saved.†[3] More or less 16.5 Million Chinese people were recorded in official Chinese sources. The release was in line with the ideological campaign against the inheriting the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The problem and issue on validity of the figures presented were questionable. There is anonymity on how the data were gathered. In addition, data and its preservation also seek for validity.   The sources and figures which claimed the statistical count for the death during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution were released only twenty years after it happened. This figures and sources were obtained from the researches conducted by America, in which, as stated by Joseph Ball in his article, the American researchers increased the figure by 30 million – a combination of Chinese evidence with their own speculations from China’s censuses.’[4] Ball used statistics from China’s census and was able to gather the true figure. He also used other publications like Jung Chang and Jon Halliday’s book. In their book â€Å"Mao: the Unknown Story†, it was reported there that 38 million deaths from the Great Leap Forward was included in the total of 70 million Chinese people who were killed by Mao during his regime. The controversy regarding the origins of Chinese communism has not been completely resolved but nonetheless ended as the government strengthens the revolutionary struggle.   The generation of the specialists who followed and are much more trained as social scientists than historians, faced the challenge of documenting the Chinese communism development which, in many respects, is similar to its Soviet predecessors.[5] Those who are in contemporary Chinese studies field faced another controversy when the event of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution which came along with communism perspective needed to be explained.   There are renewed interests and disagreements as well which aroused over the continuing importance of indigenous political traditions.  Ã‚   This was debated by the scholars who are trained with the growing field of political science, and attached with the modernization principles. [6] There are materials written guided by a singular theoretical framework to critique the Marxian theory that shapes the political and economic strategies of the Communist Party of China or CPC.   One of the most serious flaws of Chinese literature which attempts to explain the post 1049 China is illiteracy on Marxian theory of most Chinese who study the Chinese civilization, literature and language.  Ã‚   There is a failure in the knowledge of the differences between various forms of Marxian theory that have deployed and contested in China.   And there are materials which are used in the attempt to make up with these flaws.   These materials provide a critique of ‘modernist Marxism’ in the CPC style, and its rationale for maintaining monopoly control over China.   [7] Methodology Problems There is indeed a problem in research about this topic.   This is due to limited resources that are really reliable to contain facts.   And since it is written on descriptive and chronological manner, our analyses are limited to our understanding, our culture and environment. Going back to the example we gave about Mao, the flaws on the research conducted by the Western focused only on the excesses of the policy during Mao’s regime. These excesses on the policy were then exaggerated. In addition, the researchers did not grasp a thorough understanding on how some policies were developed and for what purpose. Therefore, the understanding on how Chinese people were benefitted by those policies was not understood and was not accounted in the research the western made. Evidences from the peasants were entirely different from the claim of the researches presented by the western. The statistics of the deaths during Dao’s regime were supported by the Chinese census. Only a pure and unbiased research can obtain the true figures and conclusion. However, there are scholars who are not Chinese, who take time to study China through observations, living with the Chinese people, interviewing them especially the rural people, and visit different cities and towns.   These ways of research and study are useful, although there is also a problem when it comes to language.   We know that language is a soul of the country’s culture.   There are parts of the language that change in meaning when you translate in other language.   In here, the flaw comes on the real meaning of the context. Moreover, there is a continuing effort in many scholars in changing the approach of writing and discussing about the history in general.   Their attempts hope to instill critical analysis and more explorations in different context of China. Bibliography Ball, Joseph, ‘Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?’   A Monthly Review, 23 September 2006, retrieved 5 November 2007, . Cheng, Chu-Yuan, ‘The Economy of Communist China, 1949-1969: With a Bibliography of Selected Materials on Chinese Economic Development’, Questia Media America Inc., 1971, retrieved 5 November 2007, . Gabriel, Satya J, ‘The Structure of a Post-Revolutionary Economic Transformation:The Chinese Economy from the 1949 Revolution to the Great Leap Forward,’ Satya Gabriel’s Online Papers: China Essay Series,  1998, retrieved 5 Novemebr 2007, . Gabriel, Satya J, ‘Chinese Capitalism and the Modernist Vision,’ China Essay Series, 2007, retrieved 13 November 2007, . Harding, Harry, ‘Organizing China: The Problem of Bureaucracy, 1949-1976,’ Harry Harding; Stanford University Press, 1981, retrieved 5 November 2007, . Joseph, William, ‘A Tragedy of Good Intentions: Post-Mao Views of the Great Leap Forward,’ Modern China, 12; 419. SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms, 1986, retrieved   5 November 2007, . Lee, Hong Yung, The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Berekeley: Univ. of California Press (1978). Li, Shaomin, ‘Transforming China: Economic Reform and Its Political Implications,’ China Economic Condition 1949 1976 (2003) 10, retrieved 5 November 2007, . Richman, Barry M, ‘Industrial Society in Communist China: China–Economic Conditions–1949-1976,’ Random House, 1969, retrieved 5 November 2007, . Schram, S, The Thought of Mao Tse-Tung. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (1989). The Columbia Encyclopedia, ‘China,’ Encyclopedia article; The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 52323  pgs, 2004, retrieved 5 November 2007, . Perry, Elizabeth J, ‘Introduction: Chinese Political Culture Revisited,’ Popular Protest and Political Culture in Modern China, Second Edition, retrieved 13 November 2007, . [1] Gabriel, Satya J, ‘The Structure of a Post-Revolutionary Economic Transformation:The Chinese Economy from the 1949 Revolution to the Great Leap Forward,’ Satya Gabriel’s Online Papers: China Essay Series,  1998, retrieved 5 Novemebr 2007, . [2] Gabriel, The Structure of a Post-Revolutionary Economic Transformation: The Chinese Economy from the 1949 Revolution to the Great Leap Forward [3] Ball, Joseph, ‘Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward?’   A Monthly Review, 23 September 2006, retrieved 5 November 2007, . [4] Ball, Joseph, Did Mao Really Kill Millions in the Great Leap Forward? [5] Perry, Elizabeth J, ‘Introduction: Chinese Political Culture Revisited,’ Popular Protest and Political Culture in Modern China, Second Edition, retrieved 13 November 2007, . [6] Perry, Elizabeth J,   Introduction: Chinese Political Culture Revisited. [7] Gabriel, Satya J, ‘Chinese Capitalism and the Modernist Vision,’ China Essay Series, 2007, retrieved 13 November 2007, .