This introductory chapter shed light to how complex the politics, economy, and government are in China. It starts off by shedding light on the conflict that occurred in Tian’anmen Square and that movement. Then discusses how China can no longer be labeled socialist or capitalist because it has aspects of both. China is a cauldron of a socialist government, market economy, globalization, modernization and traditional culture. People do not see China for all that it is because they have a prejudices or a believed false insight. This book evaluates China in a China-centric approach, so it should be as close to accurate that you can encounter. This book aims to describe the changing politics in China, society, economy and nation globalization through the prism of the neo-socialist experiment and experience, asking questions which start from Chinese realities.

This  chapter did not clear anything up, but just made me more confused. It shed light on the complexity and how biased we Americans feel towards China. I will be  interested to read more about the different topics in detail. Hopefully, I will become a lot less confused at the end of the book.

This article does not point fingers, but looks at who is responsible for this event. Depending on who you ask will change the response. The official records are different then the unofficial record or people’s own personal records of the event. It also is not written in many  Chinese history books. It is the rulers responsibility to nourish his people so he does take responsibility for the event publicly, but not in actuality. He used his local cadre as scapegoats for the event, most of  the blame was placed  on them and they were the ones punished and sent to jail. Many of them faced charges such as violating party policy and crime against the masses. I think that one could argue that although the cadre were the forceful hand they are also the victims in this case. Local cadre had steel quotas and orders they had to meet so they were not concerned with the conditions of the villages. If they did not meet their quotas they would face consequences as well. Intellectuals who were able to escape the villages understand their ignorance in just blindly  following Mao and the Communist party. Peasants were essentially powerless they just executed the orders of the party. They were tortured and beaten and a hunger would be  used as a means to control them.

The famine that was caused by the Great Leap is believed to be 70% man made and 30% due to nature. I think a good way of proving this to be true is that the death rates were significantly different in different parts of the country and not all leadership and villages were run the same. the quality  of the cadre might have greatly affected the village after all. In Bo many villagers die from starvation, but  in the neighboring village where there was a drought that village was able to support themselves. Then you have Villages  like Henan and Xinyang where over 2 million peasants died in each village and the death rate was higher then the national death rate. It is  in villages like these that I question could this really be a “mistake”. No one has taken responsibility for what occurred in Henan, but many local cadre were punished for Xinyang.

In the cases of many famines, cannibalism took place. Villagers would steal grain and food. There was a black market for food essentially. Villagers would be tortured, punished, and maybe killed for committing this crimes, but  they did whatever they had to do to survive  and so they all see  themselves as active victims. Problem one  of the things that makes me question the governments “mistake” in all of this is they then built mass graves to try and cover up the extent of the  famine. Why try and hide something that is evident and if it is if no fault of yours then it doesn’t seem like it should  be a secret. My last comment  on this subject is why was is so dangerous to speak of the famine during that time. With all of  the people already dying killing those that acknowledge the fact people are dying seems unnecessary.

I do not understand the point of  not acknowledging history. I understand when terrible things happen people just want to forget about it, but it seems so obvious that people need to talk about it to spread awareness. It is also crazy to me that Xi Jinping is leading China towards another Cultural Revolution and it does not appear that China is very aware of this change taking place. Xi Jinping fits all the ingredients you need to have a  cultural revolution and although  the motive of Mao is different then the motive of Xi it appears that it will have the same outcome, which is millions of people’s lives that are affected. I wonder whether the Chinese people will realize and do something if it turns into something that mocks Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

It’s interesting that Mao studied Soviet Books and Stalinism as a model for how he was going to rule.  My question for Mao would be when everything he tried to do backfired and he was constantly running into new problems did he  ever think he should not be so stubborn, but try something else? My question for those that followed Mao blindly would  be why did you worship him like a God when he led you in the wrong direction so many times? I could never  imagine living under a government where we are essentially praying to the president and worshipping everything he says or does. It seems like  it is essentially brainwashing a whole population.

It is puzzling that Mao could find bad in a stable country that is developing economically,   that is secure, and that  is working to improve  the standard of living. These are all things that most countries strive for and that China is striving for  now for  the most part. The second  he passed away is when things started to become more relaxed and market economy started to form. It is fascinating how impactful the leadership of the country is on its economy.

After reading this article it would appear to me that China is going  bad. I know that this question is very loaded, but it seems that after studying china for 5-10 years and watching it become more repressive  then it was that it would be safe to assume they are moving in the wrong direction. This article made me aware of how little I know about China and keep up with the news in the country. I was not aware the China had the “Great Firewall”. A lot of our rights such as Freedom of the speech and freedom of the religion clearly do not exist. I could not imagine what America’s news would look like  if  the government placed such strict controls on the media and  news. I feel that  if the government tried to regulate religion as tightly as it is in China right now it would face a lot of protests and lash back.

The anti-foreignism policy seems to come from an extremely paranoid place. Maybe I am just not aware of how many foreign spies are in China, but it seems excessive to assume every nice foreigner or professor might be a spy. The program implemented in Public Schools to make children be able to identify spies even in the ranks  seems like  it could create paranoid children with possible prejudices. I understand that since China’s market capitalization dropped by $40 billion that probably scared the president and he wants to boost his economy, however not allowing his people to buy from the U.S. software  companies and banning Apple products does not seem like a fix to the problem more just short term solution for someone that is scared to loose their economical power to another country.

I will be interested to see if U.S. changes its engagement with China in the next couple years. I believe that if China continues to get more oppressive and closer to it’s Maoist roots U.S. would have to alter its interaction. At the same time I wonder if China’s policy is self-destructing enough to not need to do anything about it. I know that cutting off ties would impact the entire world so that does not seem like the best solution, however I don’t see China compromising or meeting  the U.S. in the middle.

President Xi Jinpig spoke of many things in his 2017 new year address. He said the 13th Five Year plan is coming along nicely. In 2016 they worked towards building a moderately prosperous society, being forefront runners of the world, making strides in their structural reform, making military breakthroughs, enhancing rule of law and judicial/social fairness, implementing a strict discipline of communist party of China, reforming citizenship process to make it easier, and increasing school conditions in poor neighborhoods.. Although they celebrated a lot of other successes  in 2016 these are the ones that stood out to me because he said that in 2017 they must work to continue to improve all of those same things. Xi’s deepest concern is getting those that still live in poor circumstances in better living arrangements. He believes that the answer to this problem is finding the people in these families employment, increasing the education for the children, and creating better housing situations. I know that I know very little about Politics in China and the China government, but his desire to try and solve  the poverty and social gap goes against what I thought about the class and hierarchical situation. I thought that it was similar to U.S. mentality and that there is not such an emphasis placed on the social and poverty gap line.