Chinese Economic Reform Under Communist Rule

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Term Paper Title	Chinese Economic Reform Under Communist Rule
# of Words	4432
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	17.73

Chinese Economic Reform under Communist Rule

Chinese Economic Reform under Communist Rule

Two years after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, it became apparent to many of
China's leaders that economic reform was necessary. During his tenure as China's
premier, Mao had encouraged social movements such as the Great Leap Forward and
the Cultural Revolution which had had as their bases ideologies such as serving
the people and maintaining the class struggle. By 1978 "Chinese leaders were
searching for a solution to serious economic problems produced by Hua Guofeng,
the man who had succeeded Mao Zedong as CCP leader after Mao's death" (Shirk 35).
Hua had demonstrated a desire to continue the ideologically based movements of
Mao. Unfortunately, these movements had left China in a state where "agriculture
was stagnant, industrial production was low, and the people's living standards
had not increased in twenty years" (Nathan 200). This last area was particularly
troubling. While "the gross output value of industry and agriculture increased
by 810 percent and national income grew by 420 percent [between1952 and 1980] ...
average individual income increased by only 100 percent" (Ma Hong quoted in
Shirk 28). However, attempts at economic reform in China were introduced not
only due to some kind of generosity on the part of the Chinese Communist Party
to increase the populace's living standards. It had become clear to members of
the CCP that economic reform would fulfill a political purpose as well since the
party felt, properly it would seem, that it had suffered a loss of support. As
Susan L. Shirk describes the situation in The Political Logic of Economic Reform
in China, restoring the CCP's prestige required improving economic performance
and raising living standards. The traumatic experience of the Cultural
Revolution had eroded popular trust in the moral and political virtue of the CCP.
The party's leaders decided to shift the base of party legitimacy from virtue to
competence, and to do that they had to demonstrate that they could deliver the
goods. (23) This movement "from virtue to competence" seemed to mark a serious
departure from orthodox Chinese political theory. Confucius himself had posited
in the fifth century BCE that those individuals who best demonstrated what he
referred to as moral force should lead the nation. Using this principle as a
guide, China had for centuries attempted to choose at least its bureaucratic
leaders by administering a test to...

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