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Chinese Revolution

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Chinese Revolution
Revolution is a total change. It can be a change that is political, social, economic, cultural or technological. Revolutions change the way people live. There were many revolutions throughout history. The one that will be introduced to you in this essay is Chinese Revolution.
Chinese Revolution happened in 1949. There were many events that caused the revolution. Chiang Kai-Shek was the leader of nationalist government and Mao Zedong was the leader of communist group. Nationalist government was trying to suppress the communists and eliminated them. Civil War started in 1927 between these two groups.

Sun Yat Sen's impact on the Chinese Revolution
Sun Yat Sen is a figure that is impossible not to refer to while studying the Chinese Revolution. His involvement in the early days of the revolution is hard to deny but how effective and important his contribution was is arguable. There are many different arguments to whether Sun was a failed revolutionary or well deserving of the title ‘Father of the revolution”.
There is a variance of opinion of how much sun contributed to the 1911 revolution is a great one. By early 1900 Sun had already expressed his need for the overthrowing of the Qing dynasty. To begin this Sun sent followers into China to attempt uprisings to make the most of the turmoil during the boxer rebellion but these uprisings failed. In 1905 two student revolutionary groups in Japan allied themselves with Sun Yat Sen’s Revive China Society to form the Tongmenhui. These groups aimed to overthrow the Qing, establish a republic, get rid of foreign powers, develop democratic ideas and distribute land to the peasants. The alliance drew Sun into the mainstream revolutionary activity and provided a platform for his emerging philosophy “The Three Principles” of Nationalism, Democracy and People’s Livelihood.

The Long March
The Long March in China was a military defeat, but a political victory. This statement, with supporting evidence that will be presented in this essay, is correct. Confirmation of their military defeat is the continuos military disasters, lack of weapons and the large amount of Red Army Soldiers’ that died. The reasons for this was political victory is because Mao Zedong became the Chinese Communist Party Leader, all peasants after the long march favoured Communism and the news of Communism was spread throughout China.
The Long March started after Chiang Kaishek launched his fifth and biggest “extermination” campaign to eliminate the Communists. This involved the Guomindang surrounding the Red Army and slowly closing in causing the communists to starve of food, ammunition, weapons and fuel, and gradually losing the area they controlled. This was the Red Armies first military disaster; they lost around 60,000 soldiers and a lot of the area. Even though they were successful in breaking through the lines of the Guomindang in the end, this was still a military disaster.
On October 16th 1934 some 87,000 soldiers of the red army went out on retreat, which was planned by the trio of Bo Gu, Zhou Enlai and Otto Braun.

Sun Yat-Sen - A personality study
Sun Yat-Sen had revolutionary ideas after returning from Beijing, and formed the ‘Revive China Society’ while living in Hawaii. The society established a branch in Hong Kong where it was posing under the name of ‘Agricultural Study Society’. The members of this group planned to ship guns secretly into Hong Kong and take control of government offices, by killing the officials. During October, Sun Yat-Sen led 2 other Chinese men and a European man to Guangzhou, where they would prepare for the Guangzhou Uprising. The plan was leaked and the plan was abandoned.
Sun escaped from the police out of Japan yet while he was in London, during 1986. Here, he was kidnapped by staff from the Chinese embassy, and held a prisoner to be sent back to China for almost certain execution. He was only saved by vigorous protests by the British government who got his release.
Sun Yat-Sen based his revolution around the three principals. These being 1) Nationalism, 2) Democracy and 3) Socialism. These beliefs formed the background to the ‘League of Common Alliance’, which Sun founded in 1898.

The impacts of increasing industrial production in LEDCs.
In the 1950’s, the major economic core area came to include the Western Pacific Rim of Asia and now ranks alongside Western Europe and North Africa. Since the mid-1980’s, the centre of this core area shifted south from Japan to include the Asian ‘tigers’ (Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan) where political and cultural climates have promoted it.
Taiwan was an area included in the economic core area and is an example of increasing industrial production in an LEDC. In 1945, after many years under the Japanese Government, Taiwan once again became part of China. In 1950, Mao Tse-tung communists drove the Nationalist Chinese out of mainland China. These followers and their leader Chiang Kai-shek then occupied Taiwan and he kept the country under military law until July 1987.
Taiwan is a small island with a population of 20 million and an average density of 536 per sq. km. The western coastal plain is the only large area of flat land and industry concentrates here especially in the capital Taipay and the Free Trade Zone of Kaohsiung. There is little suitable land for building in the centre and the eastern coast as these areas are very mountainous (over 4000 metres).

Taiwan’s miraculous growth was not only due to the aid and help given to Taiwan from the USA, but due to import substitution (that is the manufacture of goods previously imported for sale on the national market.); export promotion (using FTZ’s and EPZ’s); and cheap labour. Other contributing factors had an effect on the growth of industry and will now be discussed.

Overall, the impacts of increasing industrial production have been mostly positive. However, we must consider and act on the negative environmental factors if the industrial production is to increase and remain in Taiwan and even though ‘global forces’ and the ‘free trade market’ are fundamental to economic change, the importance of the government policies can be paramount.

The impacts of increasing industrial production have had a major effect on the economic factors. In 1998, manufacturing accounted for 78% of the total industrial production and 26% of the national workforce. There are 12 transnational companies in Taiwan with a total market value of over US$25 billion. There has been an increase in the number of developed companies with companies overseas in Taiwan and the development is still growing. Although these impacts have affected the economy of Taiwan in a great way, there are possibilities of the Transnational Companies pulling out, therefore leading to job losses, and the companies moving away. Also, as there is more machinery in the industrial production, it has meant that many thousands of people have become unemployed.

Chinese Civil War
China was at hardship during the time period of 1911-1949. In 1911 there was the start of the Communist Revolution, and then the Chinese with the Americans help had to fight off Japan which continued into World War II. Finally after the Japanese had surrendered the Civil War began in China. The Civil War was one of the most violent acts in Chinese history, it lasted for four long brutal years between 1945-1949. The outcome and impacts of the Civil War would change China forever. My main focus is on the impacts the Civil War had on foreign countries, who was involved, why it happened, and what was the outcome of the Civil War. After World War II and the surrender of Japan, another long and brutal war ravaged over China. The Civil War, which took place from the 1945-1949, was a devastating war between the Nationalists, who were led by Chiang Kai-Shek and the Communists who had many great leaders. For example, Mao Zedong who helped establish the Communist capitol of Shih-Chia -Chuang which was a huge railroad center and ChenYi and Liu Bocheng who helped cut the Nationalists by destroying the protected outposts along the Lung-Hai and the Ping-Han lines which led to many other isolated cities.

Mao
China: Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping
Leaders of the 20th century asserted their influence into making what the world is today. Different forms of governments as well as different modes of running the governments have played a major role in the strength of the country. China, an ancient country ruled by emperors and then by totalitarian leaders, has seen many strong personalities and felt their power. Each new government brought new changes in China’s politics, economic and social branches. China under Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping went under many changes to be what it is today. Xiaoping and Zedong implemented many new changes according to their respective times and thought what was best for Chinese people. Although each leader traveled a different path, Xiaoping and Zedong worked toward making China a true Communist nation with equality and prosperity as well as bringing favorable changes in Chinese politics, economy and social status.
Xiaoping and Zedong took desperate measures to strengthen China’s economy. Xiaoping carried on with the “quota system” which was started by Zedong after he came into power in 1949. After the Communist party took power in China, Zedong implemented the quota policy.

Over the past fifty years, China went through many changes in every aspect. Chinese economy recovered tremendously as the years went on and due to efforts made by those who felt necessary for new changes to take place. China’s social issues became more tangible with the present times and improved the life of many who have suffered the consequences brought upon by the misdeeds of their leaders. The Chinese government has implemented many more new laws which are helping toward making China a very prosperous nation.

As communism drove its roots deeper into China, China saw many changes in its political system. After gaining power in 1949, Zedong took complete control of every aspect of Chinese politics. Under Zedong, China was to unite and become stronghold of and for communism. Zedong purged all critics, especially anyone who spoke out against the legal system. Zedong believed in keeping China under a single party rule, therefore any little opposition could grow to become a serious threat to the state. He needed to have absolute control over China in order to fulfill his dreams of establishing absolute communism. During the Cultural Revolution, Zedong led to the destruction of countless educated individuals whom he thought could sabotage the government any time by their anti-communist ideas. Likewise, Xiaoping did not allow some antagonists to tarnish his reputation and his government’s policies in the Tiananmen Square. Protestors were assembling in masses in order to bring more democratic-like changes in China’s political system. Xiaoping ordered his troops to disperse the protestors by force if necessary.

Chinese Economic Reform

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 [between 1952 and 1980] ...

Look at Chinese Reforms in the Twentieth Century
When Chiang Ching-kuo (CCK) became president of Taiwan in 1978, the political future and freedom of the country took a sharp turn from its previous existence. Taiwan had fallen under martial law provisions in 1948 , and since that time, it had been under the cruel rule of the Republic of China. From the very beginning, CCK was opposed to China’s harsh rule, and set out almost immediately to follows Sun Yat-sen’s plan to enter into a democracy. As CCK stated on Constitution Day in 1973: “In the first 36 years our nation suffered internal rebellion and external invasion, yet in the midst of blood and tears we still bravely persisted in … moving from military rule, through tutelage, into the stage of constitutional rule.” CCK’s 1986 reforms sprung forward from this belief while turning the country away from being despotically ruled, and towards the Kuomintang’s (KMT) ideology of “constitutional government and democracy.” His first move was to eliminate the martial law imposed by China. After this initial break from the mainland, Taiwan began its ascent from tyranny to democracy. The factors which helped lead towards this democratization are very straightforward:

level that fulfilled the precondition for democracy; e.g., high per-capita income…Second…the lack of landlords and big capitalists and the cross-cutting nature of political and economic cleavages. Third, the regime’s constitutionalist and prodemoecratic ideology, strong liberal-technocrat faction, deep roots in society, and substantial legitimacy and organizational strength facilitated reform. Foruth…the importance of elections and the pressure from a maturing opposition in encouraging the KMT to reform.

While the economic reforms appear perfect in theory, of course, there were snags along the way. State-Owned Enterprises, such as steel mills, could not keep up with the competition of private entrepreneurs. “In many respects large state-owned enterprises represent ‘one of the most important Communist symbols left’ in China, or simple ‘a cancer in the economy.’” The competition became too great, and many large state-owned enterprises had to be overhauled and sold to larger private companies. Similarly in the rural areas, peasants would resort to violence to settle a matter, because cadres no long wielded the fearsome power they once held. And although grain production was increasing dramatically, it could not keep up with China’s growing population.

Even though the Chinese were given the freedom to act within a market-driven society, they could not bear the quick shifts in lifestyle and responsibilities. This has led to the development of population control, and China’s breakthrough in foreign policy by entering into Western economies and participating in global markets on a higher level than ever before.

Although this is promising for the future of Taiwan, what lies in store for China? If Taiwan’s freedom came through a slow break from Chinese rule, how will China itself escape its dismal past of democratic attempts? The answer, since the late 1970s, has been internal reform. Deng Xiaoping became the leader of the Chinese Com

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