China Facing The 21st Century
China: Facing the 21st Century
China has rebuilt itself from having an unstable economy, a collapsed government followed by a few turbulent years of corruption and political instability to having the world’s largest population, state-of-the-art technological advances, an incredibly growing economy and several influential leaders. The country has been credited for many inventions indispensable today such as paper, the compass, mechanical clocks, and gunpowder among others and always thought to be ahead of its time technologically. The Chinese government continues to place emphasis on innovation by allowing its people to do research on various subjects such as stem-cell research and gene therapy; these are widely controversial in other parts of the world but not as regulated in China¹; however, the country wasn’t always thriving. Development took place during the Dynastic era. Confucius first led the country to order and the Qin Shi Huang was credited for unifying the country as well as adapting the Chinese currency, weights and measure, as well as the Chinese language. This laid the foundation for China to become the country it is today. Without these key players, China would not have the economy or the intellect it currently has. In addition, there were various changes in the governmental sector. There was a lot of chaos before the Maoist takeover, including conflict between the Guomindang (GMD) nationalist party and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which culminated in CCP victory and thus the formation of the People’s Republic of China.
Mao, a young peasant wanting political change, took power in 1949 and was a controversial leader. Some valued his contributions to China, such as the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek, the GMD leader, and the rebuilding of the economy. Others didn’t agree with Mao’s choice of “The Great Leap Forward”, which ended a disaster, or the “Cultural Revolution” where he aimed to “destroy the...
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