Contemporary China 1949 to the Present

by Guiheux, Gilles; Brown, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9781509552498
• ISBN10: 1509552499
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781509552511
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2023-07-31
• Publisher: Polity
• More Book Details

Summary

With a population of nearly 1.5 billion and the world’s second largest economy, China is a major player in the world today, and yet many in the West know very little about contemporary China. This book provides a clear, authoritative and up-to-date history of China since 1949, drawing on extensive research to describe and explain the key developments and to dispel the many myths and misconceptions surrounding this twenty-first-century superpower.

In contrast to many commentators who overstate the novelty of the Communist regime, Guiheux emphasizes instead its complex political heritage, highlighting the many continuities it shares with the reformers and revolutionaries of the early twentieth century. At the same time, the ability of China’s authoritarian regime to transform the economy and society is key to understanding its breakneck trajectory of modernization – an ability that, as Guiheux explains, far outweighed the importance and effectiveness of Mao’s utopian vision. Guiheux also aims to ‘de-exoticize’ China. While not on the path of a Western-style modernity, China has experienced the same phenomena that have characterized every historical process of modernization: industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization and globalization.

This expertly researched history of the People’s Republic of China will be essential reading for all students and scholars of Chinese history and politics, and for anyone interested in contemporary China.

Author Biography

Gilles Guiheux is a historian and sociologist at Université Paris Cité.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments



Introduction


Chapter One. The establishment of a new regime (1949-1957)

Building a new state

The achievement of unity 

The administration of the territories

The strategy of the New Democracy (1949-1953)

The New Institutions (1954)

Society is brought into line

The marriage law (May 1950)

Agrarian reform

The campaign for the repression of counter-revolutionaries (February 1951)

The Three-anti Campaign (December 1951) and the Five-anti Campaign (April 1952) against the bourgeoisie

Bringing intellectuals to heel

Forging links with the socialist camp

The Sino-Soviet alliance

The Korean War

An orthodox economic policy

The Eighth Party Congress (1956)

Conclusion



Chapter Two. Maoism and its excesses (1958-1976)

The origins of the Great Leap Forward

The successive stages of the Great Leap Forward

The Great Famine (1959-1961)

Natural causes

Human errors

Political responsibilities

Pragmatism and political divisions (1960-1965)

Mao’s adjustment program and political withdrawal

The Socialist Education Movement (1962-1965)

The Maoization of the People’s Liberation Army and preparation for war

The Cultural Revolution (1966-1969)

The beginnings (October 1965-July 1966)

The mobilization of the Red Guards (August 1966-January 1967)

Militarization in the face of revolutionary seizures of power (January to      August 1967)

The return to order (1967-1969): bringing the Red Guards to heel and the      Ninth Congress

Responsibilities and consequences

The end of Maoism and the crises of succession (1969-1976)

The Lin Biao era (1969-1971)

The elimination of Lin Biao in September 1971

The end of Maoism (1972-1976)

 Conclusion



Chapter Three. Giving priority to economic modernization (1976-1992)

The Hua Guofeng transition (September 1976-December 1978)

The struggle between two tendencies: neo-Maoists against pragmatists

A veteran to embody renewal

The first reforms (1979-1986)

Deng Xiaoping comes to power

The rehabilitation of the law

The acceleration of reforms (1984-1986)

The failure of Zhao Ziyang and the crisis of the regime (1986-1989)

The aborted political reform

The reimposition of dictatorship

Conclusion



Chapter Four. Building a new model (since 1992)

The Jiang Zemin decade: authoritarian, conservative and pragmatic leadership (1989-2002)

An engineer in power

The rise of nationalism

Jiang Zemin’s consolidation of power

Jiang Zemin’s initiatives

The Hu Jintao - Wen Jiabao Era (2002-2012): a lost decade?

Populist leaders

Crises in Tibet and Sichuan in 2008

Two ‘campaigns of mass distraction’

The fifth generation of leaders in power (since 2012)

The change of political personnel

Xi Jinping, a ‘prince’ in power

Internal authoritarianism

Expansionism abroad

Conclusion



Chapter Five. Forms of government: from arbitrary rule to the aborted attempt at institutionalization

The Communist Party: organization, ideology, adaptation

Party organization

Party members

Ideology

Five generations of leaders

The state apparatus: a democratic façade

Executive power

The elected assemblies

A ‘state of laws without rule of law’

The army in the political system

The Party-State and society: control, participation, resistance

A triple system of repression, confinement and surveillance

Social coalitions supporting the regime

Opponents without opposition

Public space and civil society

Conclusion



Chapter Six. The creation of wealth: from planned economy to the market

The socialist cycle

The place of inheritance

The socialist planned economy

The Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)

Assessment of the Maoist period

The reform cycle

The decollectivization of the countryside

Business reform

1984-1988: take-off

1989-1993, the end of the reforms

The move towards a market economy (1993-2003)

The Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao administration: a new activism

The economic policy of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang

An assessment of the structural transformations

The Chinese market economy

The diversification of economic actors

The transformation of the economic role of the state

Restructuring the administration of the economy

The weaknesses of the state

The internationalization of the economy

China and international trade

Conclusion


 
Chapter Seven. Society on the move: mobility and inequality

Maoist China: From movement to immobilization (1949-1978)

The establishment of the hukou system

Labelling of the population

A nomenklatura: a privileged caste

Political mobility

Society on the move again (since 1979)

The winners

The old working class and the new urban poverty

The new working class: migrant workers

The debate about inequality

A diverse social space

A political project: the construction of the middle classes

The hypothesis of the social divide

Latin Americanization as a possible scenario

Measuring inequalities

Conclusion



Chapter Eight. The towns versus the countryside

The broken promises of the peasant revolution

Maoism sacrifices the peasants

Building a working class

The non-development of cities

The urban miracle: urbanization without revolution

Urban growth: a political choice

Improving housing conditions

New urban governance

New rural issues

The ‘three nong’

Collective action in the countryside

New rural policies

Conclusion



Chapter Nine. Populations: the modernization of society

Counting the population, controlling the demographics

The demographic transition

The pragmatism of Maoist population policies

The one-child policy

The harmful consequences of the one-child policy

Protecting the population: social policies

The Maoist period: protection for those who work

The state’s withdrawal after 1978

The reconstruction of a welfare system

The private and intimate sphere

The family

Forms of sexuality: a liberation?

Homosexuality is now tolerated

Persistent gender inequalities

The individualization of society

The choice of spouse: a freely chosen alliance between two families

Self-interest

The reconfiguration of the religious scene

Conclusion



Chapter Ten. Education and culture

Education and science

Education (1949-1976): priority given to the early years

The massification, marketization and internationalization of higher education since 1979

Persistent problems: selectivity, inequality

The professionalization and internationalization of scientific activity since 1979

Culture and creation

Culture at the service of the political project (1949-1979)

A decade of experiments (1979-1989)

Culture opens up to the market

Cultural policies: the case of museums

Conclusion



Epilogue



Map

Title-holders of the main positions in the government of the People’s Republic of China (1949-2018)

Chronology

Bibliography

Index