China in the 20th century
| Autor | Xiaoxing Liu |
| Cargo del Autor | Associate Professor of Anthropology, Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, CA. |
| Páginas | 71-82 |
Page 73
THE 2008 Olympic games will be held in Beijing in about three months. The Olympic flame-igniting ceremony in Athens and the torch relays in Paris and London have all encountered large-scale protests because of China’s crackdown on Tibetan protests and other human rights issues. These events demonstrate two aspects of the realities in today’s China. On the one hand, China has become a very strong and influential country in the world. China’s official news net reported that her average GDP rate of increase from 1979 to 2004 was 9.6%;1 that Europeans believe that China’s GDP is already second in the world and would surpass that of the United States in 2040.2 Another source said that in 2007 China’s GDP could surpass Germany’s to become the third largest economy in the world.3 On the other hand, China is criticized by many international organizations such as Amnesty International for its poor human rights record. This paper intends to examine briefly how China got to this point over the past hundred years, what is the current situation with reference to human rights, and concludes with some personal good wishes for her future.
Page 74
THE twentieth century was particularly significant in China’s history because the country was transformed during that period from a traditional agricultural empire into a modern nation-state. Over the course of the past decades, China caught international attention as one of the world’s fastest growing economies and the largest global factory on earth. How did this happen, and what role has the Chinese government played in this process?
First of all, to refer to «the Chinese government» during the twentieth century is problematic, because at least four different governments have ruled China during that time, either consecutively or at times simultaneously contributing to the administration of the country in different ways. From 1900 to 1911 were the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the end of thousands of years of imperial rule. From 1916 to 1928, China was under the control of various warlords despite the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912. From 1928 to 1937, which some call the «republican decade,» the government led by Chang Kai-shek managed to develop the economy and to mobilize people to cope with a war that was impossible to avoid. During the eight year-war against the Japanese, two Chinese governments, one led by the Guomindang (GMD the Nationalist Party) and the other led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), both tried to take leadership of the nation, sometimes cooperating with and at other times fighting against each other. This caused a four-year civil war after Japan’s surrender. The war ended in 1949 when the CCP defeated the GMD and established the People’s Republic of China. In the second half of the century, the CCP leaders tried to transform the vast country into a modern socialist nation-state. The county experienced ups and downs and the ordinary Chinese people paid an extraordinary price for their leaders’ mistakes before the current position was reached. China has a long way to go towards becoming a «harmonious society» where people can live with dignity and the government serves the people with respect.
Page 75
As early as the mid-19th century, the Qing Dynasty had discovered how powerful the Western countries were and some government officials first tried to use western technology to serve the imperial dynasty. Realizing that the system had to be altered to facilitate change, they persuaded the Emperor Guangxu to carry out the ‘Hundred Days’ Reform.’ But this move towards westernization was proclaimed in a characteristically un-Western manner and eventually failed.4 (Huang 1997: 244-245) Nonetheless, we can see that the changes had started before the imperial system was overthrown and a new government was established.
By December of 1911, all provinces in central and southern China had declared independence from the empire. A republic was declared and Sun Yat-sen was invited to become its provisional president. A few months later, the last emperor abdicated his throne, which marked the end of Qing Dynasty’s 267 years of rule and the end of more than two thousand years of imperial history in China. This period, filled with chaos and conflict, lasted until 1928. The government in Beijing exercised only symbolic authority over the country, real power resting in the hands of various warlords. The main problem at this time, as Huang points out, was the «disconnect» between the new system and the old.
The pressing threat of Japanese invasion forced the GMD to organize and mobilize the...
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