In the first place, there is context. Life in the China of the first half of the 20th century was cheap, as writer Lu Xun wrote after witnessing the nationalists clinically murder students in Shanghai in 1926. After the imperial throne fell on New Year's Day 1912, China imploded into territories dominated by warlords over whom the nationalist government never established proper dominion.
China was in economic stasis. The Confucian gentry - mandarin
officials, landlords and merchants - had so effectively delivered
the stability that hundreds of millions of peasants craved, that
together they became an obstacle to vitally needed change. The
peasants were wedded to obsolete farming techniques on tiny plots;
the Confucian gentry were wedded to a system that allowed them to
become absentee landlords for around half of China. They continued
to run the country at the behest of the warlords, still
genuflecting before Confucian maxims that were now hopelessly
outdated. Japan's invasion in 1931 could not be effectively
opposed.
There was a craving for a decisive rupture with all that had
produced this. Radical egalitarianism, a kind of transformed
Confucianism, seemed the only way to respond. The Confucian
mandarinate had to be broken. The land had to be taken off absentee
landlords. Savings had to be mobilised in a collective effort to
create a modern industrial base. There seemed no other viable
prospectus.
Mao gave vent to this ambition. The negative side of the Maoist
balance sheet is well-known: mass murder, famine, injustice, and
economic waste. But there are less well-known positives. Industrial
output climbed 13-fold, albeit from a tiny base. The rail network
doubled. Half of Chinese land became irrigated. There was a
dramatic lowering of illiteracy. Near universal healthcare was
established. Life expectancy rose; and despite Mao's appetite for
imperial-style concubines, women were given the same right to
petition for divorce and education as men. Their position was
transformed.
And if Mao created an economy that while desperate for reform at
least existed to be reformed - a statement that could not be made
in the hyperinflation of 1949 when the Communists took over - he
also bequeathed an ideological legacy that would permit reform. The
Maoist communist concept of the so-called mass line meant that
ideology and policy would emerge from respecting local differences
and conditions. As a result, state planning and collectivisation of
agriculture could be reversed more quickly in China than in the
Soviet Union, under the guise of respecting local autonomy and
creating local responsibility. Deng Xiaoping, the mastermind of the
reform programme, was punctilious in describing the first phase of
market-led reforms and decollectivisation in these Maoist
terms.
Few western critics today appreciate the scale of the task
confronting any moderniser of China in 1949. Western economies
created the surpluses to finance industrialisation through
incredible exploitation - of their own working class, and in the US
via slavery. It was never likely that China could achieve
self-sustaining economic growth without great collective pain to
achieve its own surpluses, or that this could be done without the
involvement of the state. Spontaneous market-led industrialisation
is a myth.
This is certainly how Mao saw the task, with egalitarianism and
collectivism the means. The German sociologist Max Weber, in a
famous essay, argued that statesmen facing these kinds of
challenges - of winning a war or of master-minding economic
development - have to be judged by different moral criteria. Their
decisions are means to achieve this ultimate end, and their choices
have to be judged by this criteria rather than their inherent moral
worth. Truman, for example, justified dropping the atom bomb on the
Japanese because of the value of the ultimate end. Mao would
justify his radical egalitarianism in the same way. We know that he
was wrong. He, authentically and passionately, did not.
Yet that is insufficient excuse. The superiority of liberal
democracy over communism is that when politicians take ultimate-end
decisions they know they will have to justify them before a wide
and critical audience - which means they must have very good
arguments to justify them. Truman's nuking of Japan is still
questioned, tribute to the vigour of democracy. Mao only had to
justify his decision to himself, or arrest or kill his critics.
Even today's Chinese communists recognise it is an inadequate
framework.
The condemnation of Mao that convinces the majority of Chinese they
need to change has to be more subtle than simply joining, say, Jung
Chang and Jon Halliday in their book on Mao and seeing him as
unrelievedly evil. Most Chinese are never likely to accept the
verdict, not least because it is only a partial version of the
truth. The better course is to build on Deng's description of Mao's
Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution as China's "
treasure", because they proved that radical egalitarianism was
wrong.
But the lesson Deng drew - that the party can remain in Leninist control of a market economy that needs no democratic institutions -was as wrong as Mao's. Today's China is in many ways going back. The healthcare that covered nearly all of rural China under Mao now covers just 5%. China spends less on education than other developing countries. Inequality is high. The country is sliding down international indices for good governance, corruption and business competitiveness. To return to Mao's solution to these issues would be wrong and immoral; but neither can China continue as it is. The best option is to embrace democratic institutions - and the path to doing that is not to repudiate Mao but to see him for what he was. Wrong and cruel, but part of China's groping to find a way to cross the river.
The Chinese economic reform (simplified Chinese: 改革开放; traditional Chinese: 改革開放; pinyin: Gǎigé kāifàng; literally: 'reform and opening-up'; known in the West as the Opening of China) refers to the program of economic reforms termed "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of China (PRC) which reformists within the Communist Party of China—led by Deng Xiaoping—started in 18 December 1978.
Before the reforms, the Chinese economy was dominated by state ownership and central planning. From 1950 to 1973, Chinese real GDP per capita grew at a rate of 2.9% per year on average, albeit with major fluctuations stemming from the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. This placed it near the middle of the Asian nations during the same period, with neighboring capitalist countries such as Japan, South Korea and rival Chiang Kai-shek's Republic of China outstripping the PRC's rate of growth.Starting in 1970, the economy entered into a period of stagnation,and after the death of Mao Zedong, the Communist Party leadership turned to market-oriented reforms to salvage the failing economy.
The Communist Party authorities carried out the market reforms in two stages. The first stage, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, involved the de-collectivization of agriculture, the opening up of the country to foreign investment, and permission for entrepreneurs to start businesses. However, most industry remained state-owned. The second stage of reform, in the late 1980s and 1990s, involved the privatization and contracting out of much state-owned industry and the lifting of price controls, protectionist policies, and regulations, although state monopolies in sectors such as banking and petroleum remained. The private sector grew remarkably, accounting for as much as 70 percent of China's gross domestic product by 2005.From 1978 until 2013, unprecedented growth occurred, with the economy increasing by 9.5% a year. The conservative Hu Jintao's administration regulated and controlled the economy more heavily after 2005, reversing some reforms.
The success of China's economic policies and the manner of their implementation resulted in immense changes in Chinese society in the last 40 years, including greatly decreased poverty while both average incomes and income inequality have increased, leading to a backlash led by the New Left. In the academic scene, scholars have debated the reason for the success of the Chinese "dual-track" economy, and have compared it to attempts to reform socialism in the Eastern Bloc and the Soviet Union; as well as to the growth of other developing economies. Additionally, these series of reforms have led to China's rise as a world power and a shift of international geopolitical interests in favour of it over Taiwan.
The reform era has been said to end during the leadership of Xi Jinping,who generally opposes the reforms and has rolled back many of the Deng-era reforms as the Communist Party reasserts control over different aspects of Chinese society, including the economy.In 2018, China expert Minxin Pei has argued that the Chinese economy is currently the least open since the reform era began in the 1980s. This de-liberalization is seen by one Hong Kong commentator as part of the subject of the present US–China trade war,in which the United States alleges the Chinese government is giving unfair and discriminatory competitive advantages to Chinese state-owned and private companies.
China's economic growth since the reform has been very rapid, exceeding the East Asian Tigers. Since the beginning of Deng Xiaoping's reforms, China's GDP has risen tenfold. The increase in total factor productivity (TFP) was the most important factor, with productivity accounting for 40.1% of the GDP increase, compared with a decline of 13.2% for the period 1957 to 1978—the height of Maoist policies. For the period 1978–2005, Chinese GDP per capita increased from 2.7% to 15.7% of U.S. GDP per capita, and from 53.7% to 188.5% of Indian GDP per capita. Per capita incomes grew at 6.6% a year.[38] Average wages rose sixfold between 1978 and 2005,[39] while absolute poverty declined from 41% of the population to 5% from 1978 to 2001.Some scholars believed that China's economic growth has been understated, due to large sectors of the economy not being counted.
Comment on Chairman Mao’s contribution to laying the foundations for China’s future prosperity, in spite of...
Below is a recommended topic for this discussion. If your instructor chooses a different “Making the Connection” from this weeks’ readings or another alternate discussion topic, his or her chosen topic and any required work in MyEconLab or elsewhere will be in the instructors’ first posting. Read the Making the Connection short case titled Can a Recession Be a Good Time for a Business to Expand? in Chapter 21 of our textbook, and also be sure to watch the video...
Case assignments must be completed with a written 2-page study on the assigned case questions in the textbook. The format requested for these assignments is based on elaborating and including two basic parts in the essay: 1) in a bullet presentation style (one phrase each bullet), list a summary of the key issues, situations, problems, opportunities and threats you may identify as relevant; 2) answer all the questions listed in each case in two or three sound paragraphs. Use the...
What did you learn from HSBC’s case when applying concepts and theories from this chapter?( I want more 600 word) PROFESSOR'S GUIDANCE FOR THIS WEEK'S LE: You should know that HSBC has always been one of the most controversial banks worldwide. As an example, one can refer to HSBC to pay $101.5 million to settle fraud charges. Such a large global bank is worth a fair amount of investigation before attempting to post. CASE STUDY HSBC in 2015: Complex Global...
What did you learn from HSBC’s case when applying concepts and theories from this chapter?( I want more 700 word) PROFESSOR'S GUIDANCE FOR THIS WEEK'S LE: You should know that HSBC has always been one of the most controversial banks worldwide. As an example, one can refer to HSBC to pay $101.5 million to settle fraud charges. Such a large global bank is worth a fair amount of investigation before attempting to post. CASE STUDY HSBC in 2015: Complex Global...
1. Analyze the major challanges USB faced in the last 5 years, in your opinion, what were the crucial factors in the banks downturn? 2. what are the main triggers to change the banks approach to communication and what is different today regarding the dealings and relationship to its share-and stakeholders? 3. How would you evaluate the constant replacement of the banks chairman and CEO? 4. in view of the future strategy of USB, what are your suggestions in order...
1. Analyze the major challanges USB faced in the last 5 years, in your opinion, what were the crucial factors in the banks downturn? 2. what are the main triggers to change the banks approach to communication and what is different today regarding the dealings and relationship to its share-and stakeholders? 3. How would you evaluate the constant replacement of the banks chairman and CEO? 4. in view of the future strategy of USB, what are your suggestions in order...
I need Summary of this Paper i dont need long summary i need What methodology they used , what is the purpose of this paper and some conclusions and contributes of this paper. I need this for my Finishing Project so i need this ASAP please ( IN 1-2-3 HOURS PLEASE !!!) SPECIAL ARTICLES tole of Monetary Policy C Rangarajan What should be the objectives of monetary policy? Does the objective of price stability conflict with the goal of achieving...
Already in all African countries, Coca Cola has committed $12 billion to invest in the continent between 2010 and 2020. Why does Coca-Cola show such strong commitments to Africa? Founded in 1892, Coca-Cola first entered Africa in 1929. While Africa had always been viewed as a “backwater”, it has recently emerged as a major growth market commanding strategic attention. Of the $27 billion that Coca-Cola’s chairman and CEO Muhtar Kent promised to invest in emerging economies between 2010 and 2020,...
Read the Article posted below, then answer the following questions: Mergers & acquisitions are a major form of corporate diversification strategy, identify and discuss the top three reasons why most (50-60%) of acquisitions fail to create shareholder value. What are the five major components of “CEMEX Way” and why has this approach been so successful in post-acquisition integration? In your opinion, what can other companies learn from the “CEMEX Way” as a benchmark for acquisition management? Article: CEMEX: Globalization "The...
Carlsberg in Emerging Markets A breeze of optimism blew through the office of Carlsberg A/S’s CEO, Jørgen Buhl Rasmussen. After finally gaining 100 percent control over the giant Russian brewery Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH), and with the investments in Western China beginning to bear fruit, the newly appointed CEO was confident that the Danish brewing company’s intensified focus on emerging markets would pay off. The company was counting on tapping the massive potential in emerging markets in order to achieve...