Just finished watching Mao’s bloody revolution video. I have to say, it is intriguing to witness through video the remaking of Chinese culture from the past century. Mixed with a beginning of imperialists, with a movement towards a republic with a break out of civil war, China has seen numerous conflicts that I think ultimately influenced the current political environment in China today.

The cultural revolution and great leap “forward” were the most intriguing aspects to Mao’s reign over the Chinese people. The emphasis of remaking the culture of the Chinese people was widespread. It enforced a radicalized version of Communism throughout the country, that ultimately reinforced practically religious loyalty to Mao, so much so that the people were constantly overthrowing party leaders while maintaining their reverence for Mao. In the process of this “purge”, religions both traditionally Chinese and foreign alike were thrown out of the communist state, and in its place was a manufactured worship of Mao himself. This was interesting too as millions upon millions of people died either from persecution, purge or famine, which were truly a direct result of Mao’s failure in leadership. Yet still the people believed in him, still they followed him, and still they obeyed his word as though it were gospel.

It is important to note that the Chinese people, even today, revere Mao as a leader who stood against the corruption of the west and stood up for Chinese exceptionalism. However, while China has maintained this reverence, the government has eased up quite a bit on traditional communist values. This has resulted in a strange type of Authoritarian Capitalism with strong evidence of communistic principles and values still being maintained.

China has learned from its past, however they are unapologetic it would seem for the past, choosing instead not to study its most recent history, at least not the disastrous pieces of history.

By far, China has a very unique and complex system of politics that have been in rapid change for the last 100 years. It is crucial to understand the concepts of the Chinese political history as it will help in the further study of Chinese politics in the present day.

Today I witnessed a speech given by the President of the Peoples Republic of China, and I have got to say I found it kind of unnerving the context many of the Presidents words were used in building up a unity and support for the Communist Party and agenda.

In a way, it seemed as though he was attempting to rally the people around the party, making it seem as though everyone was a big family, where hard work and loyalty are the keys to success in the Chinese land. It was really in depth, discussing topics such as not being pushed around by outside influence (which I would assume is the US), asserting their superiority and imparting their “wisdom” to the G-20, which they apparently hosted in 2016.

They talked about their economic plans, using the traditional communist “5 year plan” format, which lays out the goals and ambitions behind their economic actions. Furthermore he briefly discussed how great their environmental engineering was becoming, and how happy the people were because of it.

He also made a quick note that in the coming year that those who failed to stand with the Chinese people and the Communist Party would be faced with retaliation. I wonder, could this potentially be a foreshadowing of an increase in repression and a limitation in democratic sympathizers in the State? Only time will tell…