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Deng Xiaoping

and the

Transformation of China

Ezra F. Vogel

Introduction

Major Themes

  • Development
  • Opening to the West
  • Urban Culture
  • National Identity

But First - Who is Deng?

  • August 1904 – February 1997
  • Mao's protege
  • Instrumental in China's modern development
  • Traditional, yet modern
  • Continued Hua Guofeng's "Reform and opening" policy

Deng's strengths

  • Confidence, stability amongst rapid changes
  • Progress focused
  • Pragmatist, opposed to Mao's idealist
  • "It doesn't matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice."
  • Negotiating numerous stakeholders
  • Military
  • Cultural Revolution vangards

From Regional to International

Imperial China

  • 1300 to 1900
  • Imperial Tributary system - economic
  • No interest in expanding political power
  • Strictly regional economic power
  • David Kang - Hierachy in Asian IR

China Colonized

  • Numerous interventions by Western powers
  • Loss of sovereignty and territory by Qing Empire
  • Discourse -
  • China was weak, therefore dominated by foreign powers
  • Mao - self reliance
  • Little contact before Deng

Deng's China

Deng's China

  • Leaders finally realised importance of outside contact
  • Obtained political capital to counter Mao's isolationism
  • Overcame "sour memories of imperialist era"
  • "Reform and Opening" Gǎigé kāifàng

International Institutions

  • World Bank
  • International Monetary Fund (IMF) (1980)
  • World Health Organisation (1972)
  • Deng started preparations for entry into WTO (2001)
  • Note mostly Hua Guofeng's work
  • Little political weight initially - focus on domestic
  • But important experience in following international rules and standards

Changes during Deng's administration

  • 1978 World Trade USD$ 10bn
  • 2008 100x
  • Increases in Overseas students
  • Adjusting internal structure to meet international standards

Role of Foreigners

  • Foreign Currency investment
  • Aid local government technocrats
  • "Foreign-Exchange Certificates"
  • Chinese Foreign Ministry
  • Specialised go-between institutions
  • Special Economic Zones
  • Spread of good practices
  • Legal, accounting, orgnaisation
  • Sports competitions
  • Research funding

Local Governance

Politics

  • Under Mao
  • Class struggle, class struggle, class struggle
  • Destruction of old
  • Cultural Revolution purged party -chaos
  • Deng
  • Focused on rebuilding
  • Unified leadership amongst chaos

De-centralisation

  • Imperial system was central
  • Mao further centralised
  • Deng reverse course

De-centralisation

Party Leadership Teams

Party Leadership Teams

Central Govt

Creates Rules

  • Lingdao Banzi
  • Chosen by higher ups
  • Relatively independent
  • Mandate - economic growth
  • Top rarely intervenes, except in high priority situations
  • Central govt can dismiss leadership team members at any time - leverage

Party Leadership Teams

Rules to Directives

Local Govt office

Directives to local policy plans

How to become a CCP official

  • Deng: train, proper selection, supervise
  • Mentor spends significant time monitoring progress
  • Higher ups see potential to succeed
  • Mentor brings selected individual to informal events, gatherings, party retreats
  • Sends to classes at party schools
  • Socialise at schools, perform well in exams

Meritocracy

A definition

An elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth.

A definition

Historical origins

  • Imperial Examination System
  • Mao's China too chaotic for national exam implementation
  • Mao also valued redness (ie commitment) over skill
  • Many of Mao's red army leaders illiterate

Historical origins

Deng's contributions

Deng's contributions

  • Dismissed "class" background
  • Solely capacity
  • Therefore "bad" urban intellectual classes (under CR) benefit
  • All classes of young people became officials
  • Increasing importance of education at all levels
  • Knock on effect of better education - enriched all, not only officials

An Urban Nation

Previously...

Before 1949

  • Population 80% rural
  • Mao keeps a tight control on population movement
  • Goods produced and consumed within walking distance
  • Limited mobility, poor transport network

Previously...

Urban areas

  • Closed, gated communities
  • Difficult for residents to obtain services outside closed communities
  • Mao's closed "feudal" society

After Deng

  • 200 million migrated to urban areas
  • Spread of Urban culture
  • Slowly relaxed housing registration system
  • Unified Chinese identity (that was urban)
  • Unified language putonghua
  • International brand recognition
  • Spread of regional dishes across country

How?

How? - Urbanisation

  • Nitpick - Vogel does not link cause and effect clearly
  • Mao obsessed with steel production. Deng re-prioritised to agriculture
  • Enough food for urban dwellers, allow more rural villagers to immigrate
  • Urban identity not planned by Deng
  • Organic - opportunities in cities, appealed to rural youth stuck in poverty
  • Vogel
  • "Paradoxically, the open mobility that began with the Deng era had a far more revolutionary influence on the structure of society than the so-called Mao revolution that had imposed rigid social barriers"

How? - Unified Identity

  • Youth who moved to coastal cities to work in factories returned to hometowns
  • Brought along new products, ideas, styles from the city, revitalised villages
  • Therefore urban culture spread
  • Where products unavailable, imitations
  • Common education system improved due to need for officials
  • Spread of Radios broadcasting in standard Mandarin, TVs later

Corruption

Initially

  • No rules on
  • Food, Drugs
  • Product, workplace safety
  • Working environments
  • Minimum wages
  • Construction codes

Initially

Why?

  • Markets and development exceeded legislation
  • Local conditions differed, local laws supreme
  • Workers more concerned about work than hours or safety standards

Deng on Corruption

Deng on Corruption

  • Cultural Revoltion destroyed economy, made people fear being branded capitalist
  • Too strict rules, growth slowed
  • Believed that some corruption unavoidable
  • "When you open the door, flies will get in"
  • Incentivise officials to make reforms succeed - they had to benefit too

Penalties for corruption

  • No attempt to protect officials who upset public
  • So long as public was happy, turned a blind eye

The nature of patrimonialism

The nature of patrimonialism

Officials who favoured certain businesses could expect

  • Cars, lavish gifts, elaborate dinners
  • "Red Envelopes" containing cash
  • Jobs for relatives

Land was repossed by government

if in the way of development

Why were the locals tolerant?

  • No independent judiciary, unsure of outcome
  • Needed to do business as well
  • Weak property rights

But

  • Some did complain, particularly if officials flaunted their wealth

Opportunities for Foreigners

  • Cheap labour
  • Low regulation = fast
  • Easy to bribe officials should problems arise
  • If could not bribe, appeal to higher officials

Opportunities for Foreigners

Future Prospects and Challenges

Healthcare

  • Lack of professionals
  • Rural healthcare access
  • Upgrade facilities
  • No safety net

Healthcare

Maintaining Legitimacy

  • Increasingly educated hard to satisfy
  • Too much criticism fear loss of power, or another Tiananmen
  • Internet, publications for alternative expression

Mao - won civil war therefore legitimate

Deng - brings chaos into order

Successors???

Global economic downturn means problems with economic performance legitimacy

Maintaining Legitimacy

Corruption

Aforementioned

  • How much is too much?
  • Easy target for political house-cleaning

Environment

  • Deng took personal interest in reforestation and expanding park areas
  • Industry profit outweighs environment?
  • Reluctance to commit to greenhouse emission targets

Environment

Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

While Corruption in China has helped economic growth in the past, can the same be said today? As it is so ingrained in Chinese business practices, what alternatives/policies can there be?

History has generally been kinder to Deng when compared to Mao. How much of the accomplishments of this period can be attributed to Deng's planning, and how much cannot be (outside forces).

How could Deng reconcile a developmentalist approach with Chinese socialism when he was clearly adopting capitalist policies?

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