History UsefulNotes / ToGetRichIsGlorious

Despite China's insistence that it remains a "Socialist" country, most economists consider China to have a mixed market-economy, a type of economy common in many western states including the US. The main difference now seems to be political rather than economic. Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, China did not implode following the Cold War. Instead it managed to reform its economy while keeping its political system largely intact, with the Chinese Communist Party still firmly in control of the country. This has been an uncomfortable fact for many in the West, where it was long assumed that free markets made free people. China (and to some extent Russia) seem to be presenting an alternative model - one in which it is possible to have a largely free economy while maintaining a largely ''un''-free political system. Following the economic recession of 2008 and seeming political disarray in the US and EU, some see China as presenting something more stable than the endless crises and internal strife of western liberal democracies. Of course China's economic growth has presented its own problems, including staggering wealth inequality and corruption (greater even than in the US), and pollution has also become a widespread problem, with China's legendarily smog-filled cities famous the world over. Also while income has shown fantastic growth and China created one of the largest and fastest-growing Middle Classes in history, there is still a human cost to all those cheap products, which are so cheap partly because things like workplace safety, labor rights and living wages fall by the wayside.

In practice, when performing any discussion regarding to China, it is very important to distinguish political bias and actual reality. For example, it is easy to believe China is successful because "they cheated". The reality is, any significant and long term success is unlikely to be result of some type of gimmick.

In 2013, Xi Jinping[[note]]with help from Li Wei, former secretary of former premier Zhu Rongji, and Liu He, a veteran 'liberal' reformer who serves as the key economic adviser to Xi Jinping[[/note]] developed a plan of measures known as the [[http://www.cnbc.com/id/101173066 "383 Plan"]], which will involve [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24803431 a greater opening of the market, some transformations in the government and a reformation of enterprises in order to boost innovation on various levels]]. The eight key areas to tackle are: cutting administrative approvals, promoting competition, land reform, opening up banking including the liberalisation of interest rates and the exchange rate, reforming the fiscal system including setting up basic social security, reforming state-owned enterprises, promoting innovation including green technology, and opening up the services sector. Within these, the plan identifies three major breakthroughs to be achieved: lower market barriers to attract investors and boost competition, setting up a basic social security package, and allowing collectively-owned land to be traded. With this, the government hopes to diminish inequality, inefficiency and the enormous levels of corruption. The success or failure of these measures will likely determine Xi Jinping's (and China's) future.

Despite China's insistence that it remains a "Socialist" country, most economists consider China to have a mixed market-economy, a type of economy common in many western states including the US. The main difference now seems to be political rather than economic. Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, China did not implode following the Cold War. Instead it managed to reform its economy while keeping its political system largely intact, with the Chinese Communist Party still firmly in control of the country. This has been an uncomfortable fact for many in the West, where it was long assumed that free markets made free people. China (and to some extent Russia) seem to be presenting an alternative model - one in which it is possible to have a largely free economy while maintaining a largely ''un''-free political system. Following the economic recession of 2008 and seeming political disarray in the US and EU, some see China as presenting something more stable than the endless crises and internal strife of western liberal democracies. Of course China's economic growth has presented its own problems, including staggering wealth inequality and corruption (greater even than in the US. Although this remains debatable since anti-corruption laws are much more strict in China, many behavior considered normal in US (such as political donations from corporations) are considered to be serious case of corruption. Essentially, China reports more cases of corruption busted, but the same corruption would have been considered legal in US. Similarly, inequality issue is up to debate. Since Chinese inequality mainly stem from geographical inequality, ie some regions are more developed than the others since China's industrialization is much more recent. China also has better social mobility than US, which reduces the inequality between different income group.), and pollution has also become a widespread problem, with China's legendarily smog-filled cities famous the world over. At the same time, China is also the world's leading investor into clean technology, such renewable energy, electric vehicle. Due to its stronger central government, implementation of environment initiatives, such as clean energy, reforestation, are also more effective. Also while income has shown fantastic growth and China created one of the largest and fastest-growing Middle Classes in history, there is still a human cost to all those cheap products, which are so cheap partly because things like workplace safety, labor rights and living wages fall by the wayside. (However, an alternative indicates that China's productivity is not simple case of "human cost". China's safety, labor rights and living wage has been much better than other third world countries such as India or southeast Asia for two decades. In many aspect, the safety, labor rights and living wages have also been catching up with its US and European counterparts. Yet, the Chinese industry is continuously expanding its market share.)

In practice, when performing any discussion regarding to China, it is very important to distinguish political bias and actual reality. For example, it is easy to believe China is successful because "they cheated". The reality is, any significant and long term success is unlikely to be the result of some types of gimmick. This is because gimmicks are easy to learn and there is no reason someone else can't come along and do the same thing. Yet, no other country has been able to replicate the Chinese success.

In practice, when performing any discussion regarding to China, it is very important to distinguish political bias and actual reality. For example, it is easy to believe China is successful because "they cheated". The reality is, any significant and long term success is unlikely to be result of some type of gimmick.

Despite China's insistence that it remains a "Socialist" country, most economists consider China to have a mixed market-economy, a type of economy common in many western states including the US. The main difference now seems to be political rather than economic. Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, China did not implode following the Cold War. Instead it managed to reform its economy while keeping its political system largely intact, with the Chinese Communist Party still firmly in control of the country. This has been an uncomfortable fact for many in the West, where it was long assumed that free markets made free people. China (and to some extent Russia) seem to be presenting an alternative model - one in which it is possible to have a largely free economy while maintaining a largely ''un''-free political system. Following the economic recession of 2008 and seeming political disarray in the US and EU, some see China as presenting something more stable than the endless crises and internal strife of western liberal democracies. Of course China's economic growth has presented its own problems, including staggering wealth inequality and corruption (greater even than in the US), and pollution has also become a widespread problem, with China's legendarily smog-filled cities famous the world over. Also while income has shown fantastic growth and China created one of the largest and fastest-growing Middle Classes in history, there is still a human cost to all those cheap products, which are so cheap partly because things like workplace safety, labor rights and living wages fall by the wayside.

In 2013, Xi Jinping[[note]]with help from Li Wei, former secretary of former premier Zhu Rongji, and Liu He, a veteran 'liberal' reformer who serves as the key economic adviser to Xi Jinping[[/note]] developed a plan of measures known as the [[http://www.cnbc.com/id/101173066 "383 Plan"]], which will involve [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24803431 a greater opening of the market, some transformations in the government and a reformation of enterprises in order to boost innovation on various levels]]. The eight key areas to tackle are: cutting administrative approvals, promoting competition, land reform, opening up banking including the liberalisation of interest rates and the exchange rate, reforming the fiscal system including setting up basic social security, reforming state-owned enterprises, promoting innovation including green technology, and opening up the services sector. Within these, the plan identifies three major breakthroughs to be achieved: lower market barriers to attract investors and boost competition, setting up a basic social security package, and allowing collectively-owned land to be traded. With this, the government hopes to diminish inequality, inefficiencey and the enormous levels of corruption. The success or failure of these measures will likely determine Xi Jinping's (and China's) future.

The actual phrase, "To get rich is glorious," is a translation of the Chinese expression, "致富光荣" (zhìfù guāngróng). While it has been attributed to Deng Xiaoping,[[BeamMeUpScotty there's no evidence that he ever really said it.]] What we know he ''did'' say is posted above, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white -- so long as it catches mice," indicative of his view that Socialism was not incompatible with a market-economy.

The actual phrase, "To get rich is glorious," has been attributed to Deng Xiaoping, but [[BeamMeUpScotty there's no evidence that he ever really said it.]] What we know he ''did'' say is posted above, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white -- so long as it catches mice," indicative of his view that Socialism was not incompatible with a market-economy.

Despite the disaster of the Great Leap Forward and the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution, Mao was able to remain in power until his death in 1976. While major economic reforms did not begin until after his death, Mao began opening China until in 1972 when he and President Nixon restored diplomatic relations between the US and the PRC. Immediately after his death, Mao's wife Jiang Qing attempted to maintain control and undermine Mao's official successor, Hua Guofeng, together with three close associates known as the "Gang of Four." The power struggle was short. Less than a month later all four were arrested and later sentenced to lengthy prison sentences, with Jiang Qing herself committing suicide. During the trial the four were accused of political abuses and the persecutions of 750,000 people, including ~35,000 deaths. It was during this trial that Jiang Qing said, "I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite." While acknowledging Chairman Mao's "great contributions," the Chief Prosecutor stated Mao nevertheless bore some responsibility for the "plight" of the people during his tenure. It would be the closest China would come to justice for the Cultural Revolution.

Despite the disaster of the Great Leap Forward and the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution, Mao was able to remain in power until his death in 1976. While major economic reforms did not begin until after his death, Mao began opening China until in 1972 when he and President Nixon restored diplomatic relations between the US and the PRC. Immediately after his death, Mao's wife Jiang Qing attempted to maintain control and undermine Mao's official successor, Hua Guofeng, together with three close associates known as the "Gang of Four." The power struggle was short. Less than a month later all four were arrested and later sentenced to lengthy prison sentences, with Jiang Qing herself committing suicide. During the trial the four were accused of political abuses and the persecutions of 750,000 people, including ~35,000 deaths. It was during this trial that Jiang Qing said, "I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bit." While acknowledging Chairman Mao's "great contributions," the Chief Prosecutor stated Mao nevertheless bore some responsibility for the "plight" of the people during his tenure. It would be the closest China would come to justice for the Cultural Revolution.

Despite China's insistence that it remains a "Socialist" country, most economists consider China to have a mixed market-economy, a type of economy common in many western states including the US. The main difference now seems to be political rather than economic. Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, China did not implode following the Cold War. Instead it managed to reform its economy while keeping its political system largely intact, with the Chinese Communist Party still firmly in control of the country. This has been an uncomfortable fact for many in the West, where it was long assumed that free markets made free people. China (and to some extent Russia) seem to be presenting an alternative model - one in which it is possible to have a largely free economy while maintaining a largely ''un''-free political system. Following the economic recession of 2008 and seeming political disarray in the US and EU, some see China as presenting something more stable than the endless crises and internal strife of western liberal democracies. Of course China's economic growth has presented its own problems, including staggering wealth inequality and corruption (greater even than in the US), and pollution has also become a widespread problem, with China's legendarily smog-filled cities famous the world over. Also while income has shown fantastic growth and China created one of the largest and fastest growing Middle Classes in history, there is still a human cost to all those cheap products, which are so cheap partly because things like workplace safety, labor rights and living wages fall by the wayside.

Perhaps most striking were China's new "Special Economic Zones." These were cities, mostly along China's coast, which would be opened up to direct foreign investment. These zones included lower wages and taxes, among other reduced regulations in order to be especially attractive. The focus would be on light industry producing products for export. Subsequently these regions would experience stunning economic growth, helping fuel the rest of China's economy. (In an uncomfortable historical coincidence, many of these cities are the very same which were forcibly opened to western investment by European imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries - a source of resentment for many Chinese.)

Reforms continued apace, even after Deng Xiaoping's death. Today China has largely privatized, with almost all former state enterprises, with a few exceptions, now in private hands. Since the late '70s China's economy exploded, surpassing Japan in 2010 to become the 2nd largest economy in the world - with many now seeing the #1 spot not beyond its reach. China's export-driven focus paid dividends, having since become "the world's factory." Turn over your mouse or keyboard. Look under your desk, lamp, or chair. Check the bottom of your mug. Odds are almost certain at least one of those things (if not more or even most) were made in China.

Despite China's insistence that it remains a "Socialist" country, most economists consider China to have a mixed market-economy, a type of economy common in many western states including the US. The main difference now seems to be political rather than economic. Unlike the rest of the Eastern Bloc, China did not implode following the Cold War. Instead it managed to reform its economy while keeping its political system largely intact, with the Chinese Communist Party still firmly in control of the country. This has been an uncomfortable fact for many in the West, where it was long assumed that free markets made free people. China (and to some extent Russia) seem to be presenting an alternative model - one in which it is possible to have a largely free economy while maintaining a largely ''un''-free political system. Following the economic recession of 2008 and seeming political disarray in the US and EU, some see China as presenting something more stable than the endless crises and internal strife of western liberal democracies. Of course China's economic growth has presented its own problems, including staggering wealth inequality and corruption (greater even than in the US), and pollution has also become a widespread problem, with China's legendarily smog-filled cities famous the world over.

Reforms continued apace, even after Deng Xiaoping's death. Today China has largely privatized, with almost all former state enterprises, with a few exceptions, now in private hands. Since the late '70s China's economy exploded, surpassing Japan in 2010 to become the 2nd largest economy in the world - with many now seeing the #1 spot not beyond its reach.

-->-- '''[[MagnificentBastard Deng Xiaoping]]'''

->''For [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing a capitalist restoration, and constructing socialism]], the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has been absolutely necessary and timely.''
-->--'''Mao''', Directive of 30/10/1967

The UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution was so 'necessary' by the dictates of the Maoist worldview, and so monstrous in its implementation, that when taken together with the CCP left-faction's failures in the Great Leap Forward it completely discredited them. After the Great Leap Forward Maoists had still been able to claim that the Maoist Marxist-Leninist ideology was still fundamentally good in principle, and had just been badly implemented. After the Cultural Revolution, they were unable to defend themselves from the accusation that in its purest practical expression Maoism had shown itself to be rotten to the core. Yet with Mao and his eminently charismatic no.2 Zhou Enlai still alive and heading a senior national and party leadership full (after the purges) of Maoist faithfuls or those too afraid to challenge him, Liu Shaoqi dead (while under house arrest, in suspicious circumstances), and Deng Xiaoping under house arrest, there was no room for dissent or change. The Maoist order continued to lock the nation into a state of cultural and economic stasis even after the Cultural Revolution was declared successfully completed and ended through the suppression of the Red Guard movement by the PLA in 1971.

But after Liu Shaoqi and Mao died of natural causes in 1976, Deng quickly moved against the febrile and increasingly isolated Maoist faction headed by Party Chairman Hua 'Two Whatevers' Guofeng[[note]] "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave" [[/note]] and Mao's final wife (and architect of many of the Cultural Revolution's initiatives) Jiang Qing. Some within the party leadership, especially with the PLA, had actually remained sympathetic to State-Capitalist 'Socialism' throughout the Revolution and had avoided being purged through [[TheGenericGuy their sheer force of lack of personality.]] Within two years they staged a coup, and Deng Xiaoping assumed control of the country from the shadows.

In foreign policy terms, the most important developmemnts were first Sino-American and then Sino-Soviet Détente. At the turn of the 1970s foreign policy experts in the USA finally came around to the view - after twelve years of border skirmishes and constant, hysterical anti-Soviet rhetoric - that maybe the Chinese and the Soviets weren't actually steadfast allies. In their defense, this is the same foreign policy establishment that had so wisely predicted that UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar had been and remained winnable - so it's quite unfair to expect them to have picked up on something so much subtler. [[note]] at the time and subsequently, including under George Bush Junior re: Iraq, the community prized loyalty over analytical or predictive accuracy. This proud tradition remains to this day, and is a leading cause of the country's perennial inability to accurately assess the internal situation of other countries or design policies relating to them which successfully advance US interests [[/note]] In 1972 the PRC and USA normalised relations, with UsefulNotes/RichardNixon and his ruthless associate Henry Kissinger being subjected to the charms of the personable Zhou Enlai and the ruthless Chairman. The Chinese categorically refused to 'liberalise' their economy by selling off every sector of their economy to American multinational corporations, but did agree to sell raw materials to the USA in return for industrial goods. When Deng took control in 1977-8, Sino-Soviet relations were also normalised and a measure of raw-materials-for-industrial-goods trade resumed.

Under Deng the country effectively reinstated Capitalism by allowing private ownership of Capital (the non-labour inputs which create 'value') including companies, land, tools, and large sums of money in general and particularly within zones opened to foreign investment in local-foreign joint-enterprises. These Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were mostly coastal cities with some fairly UnfortunateImplications given that many had been "treaty ports" leased under duress to European colonial empires as semi-colonies in wars including the two Opium Wars. However, the ends justified the means: the non-existet safety regulations and lower wages that they could dictate to Chinese workers legally forbidden to unionise, whose unending attempts were (and still are) crushed by yet more UnfortunateImplications police repression in favour of the foreigners, caused many foreign multinational corporations to set up shop there. For instance, turn over your mouse or phone and examine it - chances are it was made in China, though the clothes that you may be wearing were probably made somewhere with even more non-existent safety regulations and wages such as Bangladesh. As almost inevitably occurs in Capitalist undeveloped countries which don't limit elite wages, local elites invested some of the gains from the industrialisation and increase in trade within the country - but more and more of it went abroad.

A very little-known turning point occurred in 1985. At the time no country had ever (successfully) negotiated a transition from an economy with zero Capitalist elements to one which contained its destructive tendencies and harnessed them to the benefit of the general population, rather than simply enriching a tiny elite through what was effectively state-sanctioned theft (this is precisely what later happened in the ex-Soviet Union). [[https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/cruise-changed-china Enter Janos Kornai, Hungarian 'State Capitalist' Socialist, and other semi-exiled intellectual giants of (neo-)Keynesian economic interventionism.]] The head of the Chinese government Premier Zhao asked them for their help in reforming their political economy.

->''"The Prime Minister of the largest country on earth, canvassing advice from an assorted group of foreign economists [...] Where else would one find a Prime Minister inviting advice from abroad?”"''
-->-- '''"Sir Alexander Cairncross"''', Chancellor of Glasgow University, diary entry of 31/08/1985 [[note]] In all fairness there ''were'' some quite brilliant Chinese economists versed in Capitalist economics present, it was just that their entire field had been [[UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution quite frowned upon]] in the period 1966-76 [[/note]]

Admitting that they were unsure of their particular goals and leaving the discussion open-ended, the delegates muted their excitement at Janos Kornai's well-argued case for a whole-of-country 'State Capitalist' political economy which would use Keynesian measures to prevent or fix depressions and recessions. Although he could not promise them that it would work, the examples of the admittedly tiny contemporary island-nations of Singapore & Taiwan and the sound nature of the economic platform meant that it should work in theory.

It has, albeit imperfectly. The final doubters were convinced by the disastrous uncontrolled transition from Socialism in the former Soviet bloc, where former party elites reaped massive profits from buying up state-owned enterprises sold at ludicrously low prices (set by accident and by design) which only reflected tiny fractions of their real value. This was the ultimate vindication of their own model, in which party elites merely became fantastically wealth through the perfectly acceptable means of massive corruption. By most measures, since the dawn of TheNewTens the economy has still managed to take off big-time despite the dampening effects of burgeoning wealth inequality and corruption. China is a massive economic powerhouse, considered to be a rising superpower, a space power, and generally, an amiable enough member of ''non-Pacific'' international community. In its immediate neighbourhood its rise is generally viewed with trepidation, such as in Singapore, or open terror as in Taiwan. With futuristic skylines rising from the cities, where a growing urban middle-class works and plays, just like their peers in Japan, Europe, and north America.

For the USA, the refusal of the country to 'go democratic' violates the country's [[UsefulNotes/PoliticalIdeologies legitimating ideology of Neoliberalism/'Market Liberalism']]. This belief system was propagated by the country's government and business community, and asserts that when a country's economy is controlled by the wealthy and/or (US) corporations then it becomes a representative democracy where the wealth trickles down to ordinary citizens. Many US citizens genuinely believed, and some still do, that the Communist bloc's political suicide was in fact a 'victory' by Neoliberalism which signalled that there was no ideological alternative, on the basis that that the entirety of human history before 1989 doesn't count. It's particularly troubling for US citizens who lived through the triumphal, gloriously vindicating feeling of 'winning' the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, since they believe that that 'communist dictatorships' (yes, they don't see the difference between that and dictatorial State Capitalism) are doomed to fail - so why haven't they, goshdarnit?

Even outside the USA, the country's refusal to fail and implode spectacularly is troubling for Liberal idealogues. This is because many of those people came to believe Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History' thesis that the collapse of the Soviet bloc proved - in contradiction of traditional Liberal thought which considers the control of a society by government (always evil) and by wealth (always good) as incompatible - that Liberty/Freedom and Democracy/Communism were not merely ''not opposed'', but that they were ''complimentary''. Today, continued dictatorship in China and the rollback of democracy across the globe including within the USA itself gives the lie to this rather a-historical notion, and Liberals are re-stressing the fundamental incompatibility of rule-by-wealth (good) and rule-by-government (evil). The renewed emphasis on the Freedom vs. Democracy/Communism debate in Liberal circles may be why sales of pro-Freedom publications like that of Creator/AynRand seem to be picking up again in the USA, as Liberal centrists move to the nationalist-plutocratic 'right'. On the other hand, sales of pro-Democracy/Communist publications such as Joseph Stiglitz's are also increasing due to Liberal defections to the socialist-populist left.

However, things are very far from being fine and dandy. Even though the modern People's Republic is very tolerant of artistic expression and a ''certain'' degree of outrage at corruption compared to the Good Old Days of Maoism, it experiences something on the order of dozens of protests or demonstrations by groups of more than 50 people every day. Culturally, the end of the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution may have ceased the overtly political-economic attacks against Chinese heritage, but there's little anyone can do when gorgeous classical architecture is demolished on purely economic g rouns to make way for freeways and apartment blocks needed to accommodate the growing urban population, or when the people dump traditional ways in favor of emulating the imported culture they pick up on TV. UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}, the "Bicycle City", is now full of cars, and hence, pollution and smog clouds. China has ten of the world's most polluted cities, and much of the inner countryside is under threat as natural environments are chopped down and turned into farmlands or mines. There has been a growing WasItReallyWorthIt sentiment among some of the Chinese citizenry who wonder if their society has lost something in their relentless pursuit for getting rich, especially in the aftermath of the [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15398332 Wang Yue]] [[ApatheticCitizens debacle]].

The government [[BannedInChina occasionally cracks down]] on the population again, disturbing to citizens of the "free world" who feel that it's their outsourced dollars that are allowing it to do so. With the current economic troubles in the West, many feel it's only a matter of time before ChinaTakesOverTheWorld, for better or for worse. Though, at the moment, China still only has a level of national wealth comparable to that of the USA or UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion, and a level of wealth inequality on-par with the USA (and therefore much higher than that of the EU). Despite becoming the world's greatest user of Green Energy (in terms of raw output) and producer of Green Tech its reliance on Natural Gas and Petrochemicals is increasing, rendering it economically vulnerable to a blockade of supplies shipped from The Middle East (through the perilously narrow and well-defended Strait of Malacca).

In 2013, Xi Jinping[[note]]with help from Li Wei, former secretary of former premier Zhu Rongji, and Liu He, a veteran 'liberal' reformer who serves as the key economic adviser to Xi Jinping[[/note]] developed a plan of measures known as the [[http://www.cnbc.com/id/101173066 "383 Plan"]], which will involve [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24803431 a greater opening of the market, some transformations in the government and a reformation of enterprises in order to boost innovation on various levels]]. The eight key areas to tackle are: cutting administrative approvals, promoting competition, land reform, opening up banking including the liberalisation of interest rates and the exchange rate, reforming the fiscal system including setting up basic social security, reforming state-owned enterprises, promoting innovation including green technology, and opening up the services sector. Within these, the plan identifies three major breakthroughs to be achieved: lower market barriers to attract investors and boost competition, setting up a basic social security package, and allowing collectively-owned land to be traded. With this, the government hopes to diminish inequality, inefficiencey and the enormous levels of corruption. The success or failure of these measures will likely determine Xi Jinping's political future. And China's future.

But what ''is'' China, anyway? Is it a centralized bureaucratic empire ruled by tradition? A zealous communist police state? A MadScience experiment obsessed with progress at all costs? Probably nobody knows anymore -- not even the Chinese themselves -- but we'll go the easy route and say it's somewhere in between.

The government [[BannedInChina occasionally cracks down]] on the population again, disturbing to citizens of the "free world" who feel that it's their outsourced dollars that are allowing it to do so. With the current economic troubles in the West, many feel it's only a matter of time before ChinaTakesOverTheWorld, for better or for worse. Though, at the moment, China still has a very bad wealth to population ratio (ranked 90th in the world, whereas the US is 6th) and its economy is still well less than half the size of UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates or UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion. It remains a powerful importer and exporter of natural resources like oil, gas and coal, and many speculate that China will become ''the'' importer and exporter of resources like oil, gas and oil, replacing the United States in that department.

In 2013, Xi Jinping[[note]]with help from Li Wei, former secretary of former premier Zhu Rongji, and Liu He, a veteran liberal reformer who serves as the key economic adviser to Xi Jinping[[/note]] developed a plan of measures known as the [[http://www.cnbc.com/id/101173066 "383 Plan"]], which will involve [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24803431 a greater opening of the market, some transformations in the government and a reformation of enterprises in order to boost innovation on various levels]]. The eight key areas to tackle are: cutting administrative approvals, promoting competition, land reform, opening up banking including the liberalisation of interest rates and the exchange rate, reforming the fiscal system including setting up basic social security, reforming state-owned enterprises, promoting innovation including green technology, and opening up the services sector. Within these, the plan identifies three major breakthroughs to be achieved: lower market barriers to attract investors and boost competition, setting up a basic social security package, and allowing collectively-owned land to be traded. With this, the government hopes to diminish inequality, inefficiencey and the enormous levels of corruption. The success or failure of these measures will likely determine Xi Jinping's political future. And China's future.

->''For consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing a capitalist restoration, and constructing socialism, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution has been absolutely necessary and timely.''

For the USA, the refusal of the country to 'go democratic' violates the country's legitimating ideology of Neoliberalism/'Market Liberalism'. This belief system was propagated by the country's government and business community, and asserts that when a country's economy is controlled by the wealthy and/or (US) corporations then it becomes a representative democracy where the wealth trickles down to ordinary citizens. Many US citizens genuinely believed, and some still do, that the Communist bloc's political suicide was in fact a 'victory' by Neoliberalism which signalled that there was no ideological alternative, on the basis that that the entirety of human history before 1989 doesn't count. It's particularly troubling for US citizens who lived through the triumphal, gloriously vindicating feeling of 'winning' the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, since they believe that that 'communist dictatorships' (yes, they don't see the difference between that and dictatorial State Capitalism) are doomed to fail - so why haven't they, goshdarnit?

For the USA, the refusal of the country to 'go democratic' is very challenging to the country's belief system. Many US citizens believe the rhetoric propagated by their government at home and abroad, which asserts that Capitalism/wealth engenders democracy on the basis that that the entirety of human history before about 1914 doesn't count because the USA wasn't around to inspire other countries by example. Its particularly troubling for US citizens who lived through the triumphal, gloriously vindicating feeling of 'winning' the UsefulNotes/ColdWar, since they believe that that 'communist dictatorships' (yes, they don't see the difference between that and dictatorial State Capitalism) are doomed to fail - and promptly, gosh darnit.

Even outside the USA, the country's refusal to fail and implode spectacularly is troubling for Liberal idealogues. This is because many of those people came to believe Francis Fukuyama's 'End of History' thesis that the collapse of the Soviet bloc proved his fellow Liberals wrong - and that Liberty/Freedom and Democracy/Communism were not just ''not opposed'', but that they naturally ''went together''. Today, continued dictatorship in China and the rollback of democracy across the globe including within the USA itself gives the lie to this rather a-historical notion. This may be why there is a renewed emphasis on the Freedom vs. Democracy/Communism debate in Liberal circles. Sales of pro-Freedom publications like that of Creator/AynRand seem to be picking up again in the USA as Liberal centrists move to the nationalist-plutocratic 'right', and a concurrent increase in pro-Democracy/Communist publications such as that of Paul Krugman as a result of defections to the socialist-populist left.

The UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution was so 'necessary' by the dictates of the Maoist worldview, and so monstrous in its implementation, that when taken together with the CCP left-faction's failures in the Great Leap Forward it completely discredited them. After the Great Leap Forward Maoists had still been able to claim that the Maoist Marxist-Leninist ideology was still fundamentally good in principle, and had just been badly implemented. After the Cultural Revolution, they were unable to defend themselves from the accusation that in its purest practical expression Maoism had shown itself to be rotten to the core. Yet with Mao and his eminently charismatic no.2 Zhou Enlai still alive and heading a senior national and party leadership full (after the purges) of Maoist faithfuls or those too afraid to challenge him, Liu Shaoqi dead, and Deng Xiaoping under house arrest, there was no room for dissent or change. The Maoist order continued to lock the nation into a state of cultural and economic stasis even after the Cultural Revolution was declared successfully completed and ended through the suppression of the Red Guard movement by the PLA in 1971.

The UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution was so 'necessary' by the dictates of the Maoist worldview, and so monstrous in its implementation, that when taken together with the CCP left-faction's failures in the Great Leap Forward it completely discredited them. After the Great Leap Forward Maoists had still been able to claim that the Maoist Marxist-Leninist ideology was still fundamentally good in principle, and had just been badly implemented. After the Cultural Revolution, they were unable to defend themselves from the accusation that in its purest practical expression Maoism had shown itself to be rotten to the core. Yet Mao and his eminently charismatic no.2 Zhou Enlai still alive and heading a senior national and party leadership full (after the purges) of Maoist faithfuls or those too afraid to challenge him, Liu Shaoqi dead, and Deng Xiaoping under house arrest. So the Maoist order endured even after the Cultural Revolution was declared successfully completed and ended through the suppression of the Red Guard movement by the PLA in 1971.

Under Deng the country effectively reinstated Capitalism by allowing private ownership of Capital (the non-labour inputs which create 'value') including companies, land, tools, and large sums of money in general and particularly within zones opened to foreign investment in local-foreign joint-enterprises. These Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were mostly coastal cities with some fairly UnfortunateImplications given that many had been "treaty ports" leased under duress to European colonial empires as semi-colonies in wars including the two Opium Wars. However, the ends justified the means: the non-existence safety regulations and lower wages that they could dictate to Chinese workers legally forbidden to unionise, whose unending attempts were (and still are) crushed by yet more UnfortunateImplications police repression in favour of the foreigners, caused many foreign multinational corporations to set up shop there. For instance, turn over your mouse or phone and examine it - chances are it was made in China, though the clothes that you may be wearing were probably made somewhere with even more non-existence safety regulations and wages such as Bangladesh. As almost inevitably occurs in Capitalist undeveloped countries which don't limit elite wages, local elites invested some of the gains from the industrialisation and increase in trade within the country - but more and more of it went abroad.

In foreign policy terms, the most important developmemnts were first Sino-American and then Sino-Soviet Détente. At the turn of the 1970s foreign policy experts in the USA finally came around to the view - after twelve years of border skirmishes and constant, hysterical anti-Soviet rhetoric - that maybe the Chinese and the Soviets weren't actually steadfast allies. In their defense, this is the same foreign policy establishment that had so wisely predicted that UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar had been and remained winnable - so it's quite unfair to expect them to have picked up on something so much subtler. [[note]] at the time and subsequently, including under George Bush Junior re: Iraq, the community prized loyalty over analytical or predictive accuracy. This proud tradition remains to this day, and is a leading cause of the country's perennial inability to accurately assess the internal situation of other countries or design policies relating to them which successfully advance US interests [[/note]] In 1972 the PRC and USA normalised relations, with the charismatic UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and his ruthless associate Henry Kissinger being subjected to the charms of the personable Zhou Enlai and ruthless Chairman. The Chinese categorically refused to 'liberalise' their economy by selling off every sector of their economy to American multinational corporations, but did agree to sell raw materials to the USA in return for industrial goods. When Deng took control in 1977-8, Sino-Soviet relations were also normalised and a measure of raw-materials-for-industrial-goods trade resumed.

->''"The Prime Minister of the largest country on earth, canvassing advice from an assorted group of foreign economists [...] “Where else would one find a Prime Minister inviting advice from abroad?”"''
-->-- '''"Sir Alexander Cairncross"''', Chancellor of Glasgow University, diary entry of 31/08/1985. In all fairness, Capitalist economics had been [[UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution quite frowned upon]] in the period 1966-76

The UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution was so 'necessary' by the dictates of the Maoist worldview, and so monstrous in its implementation, that when taken together with the CCP left-faction's failures in the Great Leap Forward it completely discredited them. After the Great Leap Forward Maoists had still been able to claim that the Maoist Marxist-Leninist ideology was still fundamentally good in principle, and had just been badly implemented. After the Cultural Revolution, they were unable to defend themselves from the accusation that in its purest practical expression Maoism had shown itself to be rotten to the core. Yet with Mao and his eminently charismatic no.2 Zhou Enlai still alive and heading a senior national and party leadership full (after the purges) of Maoist faithfuls or those too afraid to challenge him, Liu Shaoqi dead, and Deng Xiaoping under house arrest the Maoist order endured even after the Cultural Revolution was declared successfully completed and ended through the suppression of the Red Guard movement by the PLA in 1971.

But after Liu Shaoqi and Mao died of natural causes in 1976, Deng quickly moved against the febrile and increasingly isolated Maoist faction headed by Party Chairman Hua 'Two Whatevers' Guofeng[[note]] "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave" [[/note]] and Mao's final wife (and architect of many of the Cultural Revolution's initiatives) Jiang Qing. Some within the party leadership, especially with the PLA, had actually remained sympathetic to State-Capitalist 'Socialism' throughout the Revolution and had avoided being purged through [[TheGenericGuy their sheer force of lack of personality.]] Within two years they basically orchestrated a coup, and Deng Xiaoping assumed control of the country from the shadows.

In foreign policy terms, the most important developmemnts were first Sino-American and then Sino-Soviet Détente. At the turn of the 1970s foreign policy experts in the USA finally came around to the view - after twelve years of border skirmishes and constant, hysterical anti-Soviet rhetoric - that maybe the Chinese and the Soviets weren't actually steadfast allies. In their defense, this is the same foreign policy establishment that had so wisely predicted that UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar had been and remained winnable - so it's quite unfair to expect them to have picked up on something so much subtler. [[note]] at the time and subsequently, including under George Bush Junior re: Iraq, the community valued prized loyalty over analytical or predictive accuracy. This proud tradition remains to this day, and is a leading cause of the country's perennial inability to accurately assess the internal situation of other countries or design policies relating to them which successfully advance US interests [[/note]] In 1972 the PRC and USA normalised relations, with the charismatic UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan and his ruthless associate Henry Kissinger being subjected to the charms of the personable Zhou Enlai and ruthless Chairman. The Chinese categorically refused to 'liberalise' their economy by selling off every sector of their economy to American multinational corporations, but did agree to sell raw materials to the USA in return for industrial goods. When Deng took control in 1977-8, Sino-Soviet relations were also normalised and a measure of raw-materials-for-industrial-goods trade resumed.

The current phase of UsefulNotes/{{Chin|a}}ese history. After the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution escalated UpToEleven, to the point that even UsefulNotes/MaoZedong regretted it, the Red Guards were arrested and subjected to reeducation. Perhaps more important than internal factors, however, would be UsefulNotes/RichardNixon when he visited to China in TheSeventies. Picking up on the fact that China and [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] had gradually fallen out of each other's favor (ironically, the original reason for this was because Mao felt the Soviet Union was growing ''less'' aggressive towards the West under Nikita Krushchev.), Nixon had the idea of courting China into the American sphere of influence. At the time he flew to Beijing and met with Mao, both leaders were unpopular with their people, but their agreement to negotiate ties between their nations would have lasting effects. Trade began to pick up between the two powers, with the positive effects that such trade tends to have.

Soon after, Mao died in 1976, and the reform-minded Deng Xiaoping finagled his way into power. Taking advantage of the changing world, Deng pushed through many economic reforms, arguing that "Socialism does not mean shared poverty," and that experimenting with capitalism was, in a nutshell, the best means to achieve the nation's stated communist ends. Leading the charge were "Special Economic Zones," mostly coastal cities with looser economic controls meant to attract foreign investors (There were some fairly UnfortunateImplications in the fact that many had been "treaty ports" seized by Western powers as semi-colonies events like the Opium Wars, but again; the ends justified the means.); these lessened restrictions plus the much lower wages tolerated by Chinese workers, ironically as a result of poor economics in the many preceding decades, ensured that many foreign corporations would move their operations in. (Turn over your mouse and examine it right now; chances are it was made in China, along with most other things you own.) The enriched Chinese inhabiting the cities were then presumed to reinvest their own money inland.

Intensifying such changes, in TheNineties, the Soviet Union fell, seeming to imply that more hardline communist nations were doomed, and Britain returned control of the rather capitalist Hong Kong to the mainland government, giving considerable influence to the course of greater Chinese affairs. By TheNewTens, things have taken off, big time. China is a massive economic powerhouse, considered to be a rising superpower, a space power, and generally, an amiable enough member of the international community. With futuristic skylines rising from the cities, where a growing urban middle-class works and plays, just like their peers in Japan, Europe and America.

However, all is not fine and dandy. Even though the modern People's Republic is ultra-liberal by Maoist standards, it remains an authoritarian specter looming over the West. It's all the more troubling because those who lived through the UsefulNotes/ColdWar were used to believing that communist dictatorships were doomed to fail. The end of the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution may have ceased the ''political'' attacks against Chinese heritage, but there's little anyone can do when gorgeous classical architecture is demolished to make way for freeways and apartment blocks needed to accommodate the growing urban population, or when the people dump traditional ways in favor of emulating the imported culture they pick up on TV. UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}, the "Bicycle City", is now full of cars, and hence, pollution and smog clouds. China has ten of the world's most polluted cities, and much of the inner countryside is under threat as natural environments are chopped down and turned into farmlands or mines. There has been a growing WasItReallyWorthIt sentiment among some of the Chinese citizenry who wonder if their society has lost something in their relentless pursuit for getting rich, especially in the aftermath of the [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15398332 Wang Yue]] [[ApatheticCitizens debacle]].

The current phase of UsefulNotes/{{Chin|a}}ese history. After the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution escalated UpToEleven, to the point that even UsefulNotes/MaoZedong regretted it, the Red Guards were arrested and subjected to reeducation. Perhaps more important than internal factors, however, would be UsefulNotes/RichardNixon when he visited to China in TheSeventies. Picking up on the fact that China and [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] had gradually fallen out of each other's favor (ironically, the original reason for this was because Mao felt the Soviet Union was growing ''less'' aggressive towards the West under Nikita Krushchev.), Nixon had the idea of courting China into the American sphere of influence. At the time he flew to Beijing and met with Mao, both leaders were unpopular with their people, but their agreement to negotiate ties between their nations would have lasting effects. Trade began to pick up between the two superpowers, with the positive effects that such trade tends to have.

Intensifying such changes, in TheNineties, the Soviet Union fell, seeming to imply that more hardline communist nations were doomed, and Britain returned control of the rather capitalist Hong Kong to the mainland government, giving considerable influence to the course of greater Chinese affairs. By TheNewTens, things have taken off, big time. China is a massive economic powerhouse, considered to be a modern superpower, a space power, and generally, an amiable enough member of the international community. With futuristic skylines rising from the cities, where a growing urban middle-class works and plays, just like their peers in Japan, Europe and America.

The current phase of UsefulNotes/{{Chin|a}}ese history. After the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution escalated UpToEleven, to the point that even UsefulNotes/MaoZedong regretted it, the Red Guards were arrested and subjected to reeducation. Perhaps more important than internal factors, however, would be UsefulNotes/RichardNixon when he visited to China in TheSeventies. Picking up on the fact that China and [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] had gradually fallen out of each other's favor (ironically, the original reason for this was because Mao felt the Soviet Union was growing ''less'' aggressive towards the West under Nikita Krushchev.), Nixon had the idea of courting China into the American sphere of influence. At the time he flew to Beijing and met with Mao, both leaders were grossly unpopular with their people (This is not true, at least not for Mao. Among actual Chinese population, support for Mao is probably lowest in the mid 90s, but even then it is nowhere close to grossly unpopular.), but their agreement to negotiate ties between their nations would have lasting effects. Trade began to pick up between the two superpowers, with the positive effects that such trade tends to have.

The current phase of UsefulNotes/{{Chin|a}}ese history. After the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution escalated UpToEleven, to the point that even UsefulNotes/MaoZedong regretted it, the Red Guards were arrested and subjected to reeducation. Perhaps more important than internal factors, however, would be UsefulNotes/RichardNixon when he visited to China in TheSeventies. Picking up on the fact that China and [[SovietRussiaUkraineAndSoOn the Soviet Union]] had gradually fallen out of each other's favor (ironically, the original reason for this was because Mao felt the Soviet Union was growing ''less'' aggressive towards the West under Nikita Krushchev), Nixon had the idea of courting China into the American sphere of influence. At the time he flew to Beijing and met with Mao, both leaders were grossly unpopular with their people, but their agreement to negotiate ties between their nations would have lasting effects. Trade began to pick up between the two superpowers, with the positive effects that such trade tends to have.

Soon after, Mao died in 1976, and the reform-minded Deng Xiaoping finagled his way into power. Taking advantage of the changing world, Deng pushed through many economic reforms, arguing that "Socialism does not mean shared poverty," and that experimenting with capitalism was, in a nutshell, the best means to achieve the nation's stated communist ends. Leading the charge were "Special Economic Zones," mostly coastal cities with looser economic controls meant to attract foreign investors (There were some fairly UnfortunateImplications in the fact that many had been "treaty ports" seized by Western powers as semi-colonies events like the Opium Wars, but again; the ends justified the means); these lessened restrictions plus the much lower wages tolerated by Chinese workers, ironically as a result of poor economics in the many preceding decades, ensured that many foreign corporations would move their operations in. (Turn over your mouse and examine it right now; chances are it was made in China, along with most other things you own.) The enriched Chinese inhabiting the cities were then presumed to reinvest their own money inland.

However, all is not fine and dandy. Even though the modern People's Republic is ultra-liberal by Maoist standards, it remains an authoritarian specter looming over the West. It's all the more troubling because those who lived through the UsefulNotes/ColdWar were used to believing that communist dictatorships were doomed to fail. The end of the UsefulNotes/CulturalRevolution may have ceased the ''political'' attacks against Chinese heritage, but there's little anyone can do when gorgeous classical architecture is demolished to make way for freeways and apartment blocks needed to accommodate the growing urban population, or when the people dump traditional ways in favor of emulating the imported culture they pick up on TV. UsefulNotes/{{Beijing}}, the "Bicycle City", is now full of cars, and hence, pollution and smog clouds. China has ten of the world's most polluted cities, and much of the inner countryside is under threat as natural environments are chopped down and turned into farmlands. There has been a growing WasItReallyWorthIt sentiment among some of the Chinese citizenry who wonder if their society has lost something in their relentless pursuit for getting rich, especially in the aftermath of the [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15398332 Wang Yue]] [[ApatheticCitizens debacle]].

Intensifying such changes, in TheNineties, the Soviet Union fell, seeming to imply that more hardline communist nations were doomed, and Britain returned control of the rather capitalist Hong Kong to the mainland government, giving considerable influence to the course of greater Chinese affairs. By TheNewTens, things have taken off, big time. China is a massive economic powerhouse, considered to be a modern superpower, a space power, and generally, an amiable enough member of the international community. It's '''the''' richest country in the world today. Futuristic skylines rise from the cities, where a growing urban middle-class works and plays, just like their peers in Japan, Europe and America.