As I read the first 30 pages in “Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip by Peter Hessler,” the first thing that struck me was China seemed as a nation in the midst of extreme transition. The author allows the reader a scaled down my personal experience with the tumultuous years of rapid growth in China by examining the expansion of automobiles in the PRC. The first aspect that truly stood out was the lag time between the expansion of automobiles and the automotive policies of the PRC. From its questions of the Chinese driver examination, which at times were quite humorous, to the cloverleaf traffic patterns that the author described as having been possible designed by M.C Escher, the government of the PRC seems out of touch with what is necessary for a something running  automotive based society, like those found in the United States, Canada and Western Europe. This was perfectly illustrated when the author was planning his trip using a Chinese road atlas. In the United States, for example, there is a clear hierarchy of roads from the Interstate System, to Federal and State Highways down to municipal streets. All of these routes are both named and numbered to prevent confusion. However in China only the largest roads are named and smaller roads have no description or identifying factors on a map. This can lead to several problems from the ability to determine location to anticipation a paved road and finding yourself traveling down a dried creek bed. The author also described the effects the communist revolution has had on China by interviewing everyday people as he traveled across the state. He stated that during the cultural revolution, where Mao advocated the destruction of anything that can be seen as anti-communist. This included not only rightist activists but also anything pagan including most cultural traditions and religions and even ancient structures such as temples and the Great Wall. Much of ancient Chinese culture was lost and knowledge of the past can sometimes be found in village elders who remember the days before the revolution.

In his chapter, “The People’s Republic of China: Sixty years of Political Development,” Yu Keping, describes the advancements and shortcomings of the People’s Republic of China( PRC) and the Chinese Communist Party(CCP) from 1949- 2009. This period of Chinese history was perhaps the most transformational of all time for the Chinese political structure, civil society and economy. These pivotal sixty years can be divided into two thirty year periods that are vastly different, the age of Mao and the period following the death of Mao. Mao Zedong led a successful communist revolution in China in 1949  under the doctrine of Marxist Revolutionary theory. Mao and his subordinates adopted a Marxist theory of “permanent revolution” where radical political campaigns would continue indifferently to achieve a perfect communist state. This is where the separation between a revolutionary leader and a political leader comes to the forefront. While Mao was able to establish a stronger China free of semi colonization by European powers he failed to see the long term effects of his system of constant revolution. Yu points out that the purpose of revolution is destroy existing political structures, not strengthen them. That despite the fact that revolution can provide short term economic growth, it can not sustain it, only political stability to do that. These points coupled with the horrific, “Cultural Revolution” where over seven million people were killed on suspicion of being right wing sympathizers, began to shed doubt on the policies of the paramount leader among senior cadre of the party. It can be said that while Mao was an excellent revolutionary leader his skills in governance left much to be desired. Mao was a political master but for only the benefit of himself. His political savvy allowed him to stay in power for decades even when there was much doubt in his policies among senior cadre members. His presence allowed no challenges to his polices until after his death. Mao’s policies of permanent revolution were a best misguided and at worst seriously detrimental to Chinese political development. Immediately following Mao’s death the CCP went about removing the theory of permanent revolution from the government of China. Deng Xiaoping was appointed to paramount leader as the successor to Mao. Deng saw the power in social, political and economic reform and set china on the path of incremental reform. This included transitions from struggle to harmony, dictatorship to democracy, from rule of man to rule of law, and from centralization to decentralization. Perhaps one of the key aspects to the changes in political structure developed by the CCP was the idea of collective leadership. This is where the power in the government is spread out among the party instead of in just one paramount leader.  However while Yu insists that this process is continuing to this day there may be evidence to suggest otherwise. The Economist Published an article entitled “Xi who must be obeyed” in it they describe how while the new Chinese President Xi Jingping has been continuing reforms and removing corruption he has been dismantling the system of collective leadership. Xi has been consolidating leadership at the top and removing senior government officials. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing for china’ s hopes of a free society.  Kenneth Lieberthal in his comment on the chapter by Yu insists that it is necessary for China to transition to democracy to achieve further economic and social development. However, this appears to be an oversimplified and extremely western, and even more so American,  way of thinking. As the have been both non liberal democratic regimes, such as the United States before Universal voting rights and the Civil Rights movement, and liberal authoritarian  regimes, such as former monarchies in Europe. In China today it is truly up to President Xi whether China will continue on the path of social, economic and political development.

Below links to articles on the Chinese Cultural revolution and The Economist Article on President Xi have been attached.

http://www.economist.com/news/china/21618882-cult-personality-growing-around-chinas-president-what-will-he-do-his-political

http://www.history.com/topics/cultural-revolution