China’s Recent HistoryJune 3, 2014

Orientation for BCFL/VDLC Delegation

Imperialism in the 19th Century

1840 British Empire: First Opium War

• Britain wanted Chinese tea, porcelain and silk but China only wanted silver

• So Britain exported Indian opium to China

• Emperor made it illegal but many were addicted

1840 British Empire: First Opium War

• Result: Hong Kong ceded, opium import legalized

1860 British Empire: Second Opium War

• Old Summer Palace destroyed (modelled on Palace of Versailles)

1894-5 Japan Invaded China

China forced to cede Taiwan to Japan

Boxer Rebellion against foreign oppression, 1898-1900

Eight Nation Alliance Invaded China

• Eight powers invaded: British, Japanese, Russian, Italian, German, French, US, and Austrian troops, the alliance defeated the Boxers and demanded further concessions from the Qing government such as treaty ports

End of Qing Empire

• First Chinese Republic in 1911 with Sun Yat-Sen as President

• Followed by warlordism for a few years

1917 RussiaBolshevik Revolution

May 4th Movement

• Initiated by students inspired by Russian Revolution of 1917, patriots, nationalists, socialists, democrats and republicans

• Opposed imperialism and feudalism• Became nationwide protest against imperialism• China never signed the treaty

May 4th Movement

On the morning of May 4, 1919, student representatives from thirteen different local universities met in Beijing and drafted five resolutions:• to oppose the granting of Shandong to the Japanese under former

German concessions.• to draw awareness of China's precarious position to the masses in

China.• to recommend a large-scale gathering in Beijing.• to promote the creation of a Beijing student union.• to hold a demonstration that afternoon in protest to the terms of the

Treaty of Versailles.

Who is this fellow?

• Student active in May 4th Movement in Tianjin

Premier Zhou Enlai

Deng Yingchao was a team leader in May 4th Movement

From May 4th Movement on, Marxism Spread

•In 1921•Two years later, what happened?

Founding of Chinese Communist Party

Anyuan Miners’ Strike, 1922

1925 Sun Yat-sen died, succeeded by Chiang Kai-shek as head of Nationalist Party (Guomindang)

Shanghai General Strike, 1927

Shanghai Massacre, 1927

• Nationalists massacred Communists, unionists and workers and students

1931, Japan Invaded Manchuria (China’s Northeast)

Hitler assisted Chiang Kai-shek as fellow anti-Communist

• Nazis assisted Guomindang in training Chinese troops and Germany got Chinese natural resources

• Germany later supported Japan because Hitler felt it was a stronger ally than China

Red Army,Long March, 1934-5

9,000 km., 370 days

Established red base in Yan’an

•Mao Zedong• 1935

War of Liberation against Japanese

• 1937 United Front against Japanese

• 1937 Nanjing Massacre by Japanese

Yan’an (1944)Centre of Chinese revolution, 1936 to 1948

Who Wrote “Red Star Over China”? (1937)

Edgar Snow

Anti-Japanese War of Resistance

• Guomindang spent much more energy fighting Communist army than fighting the Japanese

Japanese occupation lasted till end of WWII

Japanese finally routed, 1945

Red army defeated nationalist army

1949 what is this event?

Socialist Period

•1949 to 1978

Agriculture and land redistribution

• Feudalism ended• Land redistributed, communes set up by 1958• Rural people still hold claim to land today through their rural

household registration

Rule of law ends gangsters

• Prior to 1949 there was a vast criminal underworld of gangsters and secret societies intermingling with high society like this photo of Shanghai nightlife in 1930s

• And there were almost 90 million opium addicts

Literacy skyrocketed in one generation

• 15% in 1949 to 80-90% by mid-1970s

Life expectancy

• More than doubled between 1949 and 1975, from 32 to 65 years

• Infant mortality in 1970 in Shanghai was less than in New York City

• Barefoot doctors in countryside brought health care throughout country

• Poverty significantly reduced

Industry and central planning

• Economy grew by 10 percent per year

• Egalitarian wage structure

• Guaranteed employment

Urban danwei (work unit) system• Lifetime employment guarantee• Housing provided and subsidized• Food and fuel subsidized• Medical care system provided • Public school education free• No firings or negative discipline• Positive examples such as model workers

1966 Cultural Revolution Began

• Concern by Chairman Mao and others that socialist principles were being eroded by corruption and capitalist roaders

Type of greeting we received in 1974 (without Little Red Books)

We visited Dazhai in 1974

1976: Terrible Year

• January: Premier Zhou died• April: flowers in Tiananmen Square• July: earthquake in Tangshan:

250,000 died• September: Chairman Mao died• October: Gang of Four arrested

1978 Deng Xiaoping came to power

• New China started down the capitalist road

One of Deng’s first invited guests: Milton Friedman, Chicago School of Economics

1980, rural communes were abolished

• Rural communes abolished• End of collective work in countryside

1980, Special Economic Zones established for industry to try out capitalist methods of production.This is Shenzhen in 1980.

Shenzhen today

Privatization of industry and lay-offs of millions of workers in State-Owned Enterprises

Inflation of the late 1980s lead to protest about corruption and accountability

• 1989 • Tiananmen Square• Far more workers were killed

than students• They defended the streets leading

to the Square by barricading them

1992: Deng’s Southern Tour

Privatization of industry and lay-offs of workers in State-Owned Enterprises intensified and workers fought back with demonstrations, blockades

China joined WTO in 2001What event preceded it two months before?

1993 to 2003, Jiang Zemin, PresidentZhu Rongji, Premier

2003 to 2013, Hu Jintao, PresidentWen Jiabao, Premier

2013 to 2023 ? Xi Jinping, President

2013 to 2023?Li Keqiang, Premier

Workers and citizens rising up. Fate of government and Communist Party?