The Second Chinese Revolution

354 Pages·2015·1.531 MB·English

by  Eugenio Bregolat (auth.)

The Second Chinese Revolution
The Second Chinese
Revolution
Eugenio Bregolat
Translation by
Joyce McFarlane
© Eugenio Bregolat 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-47597-8
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First published 2015 by
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I SBN 978-1-349-69305-4 ISBN 978-1-137-47599-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137475992
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To my children, Xenca and Margarita, who have spent half
of their young lives in China. To my daughter-in-law, Zhu
Li. And to Tamara, for supporting us all through the difficult
moments.
It does not matter whether the cat is black or white, what
matters is that it catches mice.
—Deng Xiaoping.
bù (cid:993)
guăn (cid:20314)
hēi (cid:21669)
māo (cid:10495)
bái (cid:11345)
māo (cid:10495)
zhĭ (cid:2494)
yào (cid:16213)
hùi (cid:1262)
zhuō (cid:1536)
lăo (cid:13781)
shǔ (cid:12992)
jiù (cid:4613)
shì (cid:7171)
hăo (cid:3921)
māo (cid:10495)
The socialist modernization is a “revolution”.
—Resolution of the third plenary session of the XI Central
Committee, December of 1978
Contents
List of Tables x i
Introduction 1
1 On the Colours of the Cat: Deng Xiaoping’s Thought 3
1. Deng Xiaoping and the modernisation of China 3
2. Deng Xiaoping’s approach: the “initial stage of socialism” 11
3. Deng Xiaoping’s forecasts for economic growth 15
4. The tools of change 16
“Four Modernisations” and “Four Principles” 16
Opening the economy up to the outside world 18
A peaceful foreign policy 19
5. The paradox of the economic reform policy 21
6. Neither black nor white: the adaptation of Marxist thought 23
Deng Xiaoping’s theory 24
The “Theory of the Three Represents” 25
The “Scientific Concept of Development” 29
“Socialism with Chinese characteristics” 29
7. Evaluation of Deng Xiaoping and his work 33
2 Galloping Economic Development 34
1. Space and time 3 4
S pace: quantity becomes quality 3 4
T ime: the speed of change 3 6
2. Stages of the economic reform 4 1
L aunch of the reform 4 1
T he start of urban reform 4 4
R elaunching reform following the events at Tiananmen 4 6
J oining the WTO 47
R esponse to the global economic crisis 5 2
T he XII Five-Year Plan: change of the economic model 5 6
3. Heads and Tales of the New Economy 6 2
H eads: the new Chinese economy 6 2
U rbanization, industrialization and globalization 62
Evolution of the GDP 64
vii
viii Contents
The components of GDP 68
A mixed economy 73
High technology as a priority 80
The new social classes 102
Foreign trade 105
Foreign investment 112
Tails: the problems 114
Agriculture 114
Reform of state-owned enterprises 118
Reform of the financial system 122
Public finance 132
Unemployment 133
Population ageing 134
Income differences 136
Regional differences 140
Ecology 144
Corruption 145
C onclusion 148
3 Tiananmen Revisited 1 53
1. Tiananmen Square 153
2. Chronicle of an inevitable crisis 1 56
3. Underlying causes of the crisis 1 59
T he fourth wave of democracy 1 59
D eterioration of the economic situation 1 70
4. Scenes from a battle 176
S tudents, workers, business people 1 76
G orbachev’s visit to China 1 79
A strange tolerance 180
Z hao Ziyang acts ... 1 82
... and Deng Xiaoping decides 1 87
T he role of the media 1 88
5. The world watches Tiananmen: the assault on the square 1 90
6. The aftermath of Tiananmen: some consequences 1 95
B eijing versus Shanghai 1 95
T he political death of Zhao Ziyang 1 97
P utting political reform on hold 200
T he ideological campaign 202
L essons for the leadership 2 05
7. International reactions 210
T he Spanish reaction 2 12
8. Conclusions 216
Contents ix
4 The Political Reform 219
1. The aim of political reform 2 19
2. T he rejection of liberal democracy 2 21
3. T he heyday of political reform: the XIII Congress 2 30
4. T he content of political reform: “political democracy with
Chinese characteristics” 2 33
T he CPC leadership 2 34
I nstitutionalisation of the collective leadership 2 34
Supervision of the CPC 2 35
Cooperation between the CPC and the Democratic
Parties 2 35
Separation between the Party and public enterprises 2 36
T he fight against corruption 2 37
T owards the rule of law 2 39
H uman rights 2 40
I ntroduction of the democratic principle in elections 2 41
D eliberative democracy 2 44
T he recognition of private ownership 2 45
T he acceptance of private entrepreneurs in the CPC 2 50
T he media 2 51
R ejuvenation of the ruling class 2 53
Reform of officialdom 2 54
A dministrative restructuring 2 54
D ecentralisation 2 54
5. The current debate on political reform 2 56
6. Social and political effects of economic change 2 72
T he emergence of new social classes 2 73
T he retreat of public ownership and planning 2 74
T he spread of education and information 275
T he increase of individual freedom 2 78
O pening up to the outside world 2 80
M arket economy and democracy 2 80
7. Exporting democracy 2 82
8. Future scenarios 2 86
E conomic regression 2 86
E conomic development without political change 2 86
R epression 2 87
D emocratic rupture 2 87
E volution from within the system 2 87
x Contents
5 The Reform in China and Russia 291
1. Special features of China 291
A griculture and the start of reform 2 91
H ong Kong, Taiwan and the overseas Chinese 2 94
2. Political strategies 304
T he consensus of the political class 3 06
T he strong State 307
T he order of factors alters the product: economic and
political reform 309
G radualism and shock therapy 3 11
T he model of development 3 13
3. The national question 314
4. The international setting 317
5. Cultural differences 318
Q uality of leadership 3 18
H omo economicus 322
6. T aking stock: the economic evolution of China
and Russia 323
Notes 325
Index 3 39