History of the People's Republic of China (1989-2002)
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[edit] Recovery in the 1990s
After the June 4th Incident, a large number of overseas Chinese students were granted political refuge almost unconditionally by foreign governments. The political instability had extended to Hong Kong as well, resulting in a massive emigration tide before the handover of Hong Kong in 1997.
The inflation trends of the years leading up to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 had subsided by the early 1990's, as Jiang Zemin and the new generation of leadership attempted to calm any economic influx. Political institutions have stabilized, owing to the institutionalized procedures of the Deng years and a generational shift from peasant revolutionaries to well-educated, professional technocrats. The majority of university graduates come from a sciences background, and many pursued life outside of China. For those who stayed, State-owned research firms and enterprises were a popular destination.
Following the resurgence of conservatism in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Protests, economic reform slowed until given a new impetus by Deng Xiaoping's visit to southern China in early 1992. The visit was not only Deng's last public appearance, but also seen as a test for the direction of the new leadership. Deng's renewed push for a market-oriented economy received official sanction at the 14th Party Congress later in the year as a number of younger, reform-minded leaders began their rise to top positions. The congress also affirmed the position of Jiang Zemin, a former mayor of Shanghai, as the new "core of CPC leadership". Deng and his supporters argued that further reform was necessary to raise China's standard of living. After the visit, the Communist Party Politburo publicly issued an endorsement of Deng's policies of economic openness. Though not completely eschewing political reform, China has consistently placed overwhelming priority on the opening of its economy.
Although another massive protest is unlikely in the near future, social instability due to economic conflicts has become a greater challenge for the third and fourth generation of leaders. Politically, however, Deng's experiment separating the governance of Party, State and Military had been a failed strategy. During the recovery period, Jiang Zemin took the office of CPC General Secretary, President of the PRC, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, securing political stability.
[edit] Deng's Legacy
Deng Xiaoping was one of only four peasant revolutionaries to lead China, along with Mao Zedong and the founders of the Han and Ming dynasties.
As mentioned, Deng's policies opened-up the economy to foreign investment and market allocation within a socialist framework. Since his death, under Jiang's tutelage, mainland China has sustained an average of 8% GDP growth annually, achieving one of the world's highest rates of per capita economic growth, if not the highest.
Also as mentioned, due in part to "socialist" measures and price/currency controls, the inflation characteristic of the years leading up to the Tiananmen protests has subsided. Political institutions have stabilized, thanks to the institutionalization of procedure of the Deng years and a generational shift from peasant revolutionaries to well-educated, professional technocrats. Social problems have eased as well, as the PRC rapidly becomes more of a modern, prosperous nation each year.
According to journalist Jim Rohwer, for example, "the Dengist reforms of 1979-1994 brought about probably the biggest single improvement in human welfare anywhere at any time." This improvement was due to the fact that the reforms affected hundreds of millions of people.
Deng's reforms, however, have left a number of issues unresolved. As a result of his market reforms, it became obvious by the mid-1990s that many state-owned enterprises (owned by the central government, unlike TVEs publicly owned at the local level) were unprofitable and needed to be shut down to prevent their being a permanent and unsustainable drain on the economy. As the pace of urbanization continued to increase, unemployment became a rising problem. Furthermore, by the mid-1990s most of the benefits of Deng's reforms, particularly in agriculture, had run their course; rural incomes had become stagnant, leaving the PRC's leaders in search of new means to boost economic growth or else risk a massive social explosion.
Finally, the Dengist policy of asserting the primacy of economic development, while maintaining the rule of the Communist Party, has raised questions in the West. Many observers both within China and outside question the degree to which a one-party system can indefinitely maintain control over an increasingly dynamic and prosperous Chinese society.
Deng Xiaoping died on February 19, 1997. Jiang Zemin delivered a eulogy to the late revolutionary and Long March veteran stating, "The Chinese people love Comrade Deng Xiaoping, thank Comrade Deng Xiaoping, mourn for Comrade Deng Xiaoping, and cherish the memory of Comrade Deng Xiaoping because he devoted his life-long energies to the Chinese people, performed immortal feats for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation."
[edit] Reverting control in Hong Kong and Macao
Hong Kong was returned to PRC control after a 99-year-lease to Great Britain on July 1, 1997. The agreement reverting control had applied Deng's theory of One Country, Two Systems. Hong Kong was to have independence in all areas except for foreign affairs and defence. Macao reverted to Chinese control under a similar agreement with Portugal on December 20, 1999. The return of the two colonies meant the installation of an unprecedented political system, and the legal matters involved thereof became the subject of constant debate. The subject of the amount of control the Mainland has over the former colonies' political institutions had raised many questions both internally and abroad.
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[edit] Third Generation of Leaders
Jiang Zemin was a compromise candidate chosen by Deng Xiaoping and other party elders to replace the then-party chief Zhao Ziyang, who was considered too conciliatory to student protesters. Although not directly involved with the crackdown, he was elevated to central party positions after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 for his role in averting similar protests in Shanghai. Jiang was seen as an unlikely candidate for the position of general secretary, and was initially believed to be simply a power transition figure. In reality, however, Jiang's era saw the return to complete, centralized leadership, by 1993 taking the positions of the President, the CPC General Secretary, and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
With support from Jiang Zemin and Li Peng, then president and premier respectively, the government enacted tough macroeconomic control measures. The PRC began expunging low-tech, duplicated projects and sectors and projects in transport, energy, agriculture and sectors, averting violent market fluctuations. Attention has focused on strengthening agriculture, still the economic base of the developing country and on continuing a moderately tight monetary policy.
Deng's health deteriorated in the years prior to his death in 1997. During that time, President Jiang Zemin and other members of his generation gradually assumed control of the day-to-day functions of government. This "third generation" leadership governed collectively with President Jiang at the "core".
In March 1998, Jiang was re-elected President during the 9th National People's Congress. Premier Li Peng was constitutionally required to step down from that post. He was elected to the chairmanship of the National People's Congress.
Vice Premier Zhu Rongji was nominated as premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China by President Jiang Zemin to replace Li and confirmed by the Ninth National People's Congress (NPC) on March 17, 1998 at the NPC First Session. He was reelected Standing Committee member of Political Bureau of 15th CPC Central Committee in September 1997.
[edit] Falun Gong
While the government under Jiang Zemin allowed further opening of the Chinese economy, the importance of consolidating the central power of the CPC was never ignored. Falun Gong (法轮功 lit. The Practice of the Wheel of Law) was a spiritual movement began by Li Hongzhi in 1992, and holds some similar beliefs to Buddhism and Taoism, and is related to the traditional Chinese practice of Qi Gong. In the next few years, under CPC supervision, Li published various books on the practice, and attracted an estimated 70 million followers in Mainland China alone, exceeding the number of Communist Party members. The practice of Falun Gong meditation exercises claimed to improve physical and mental health. There are conflicting ideas as to just how the spiritual movement spread so fast. Officially after 1999, the CPC has asserted that the Falun Gong being an evil cult had used deception to manipulate and attack the psychology of the common people, and its aims stretched into the political and economic realm. The assertion was echoed by many scholars and experts. State controlled media has suggested Falun Gong was nothing more than a scheme to earn money, through the retailing of Falun Gong books and merchandise (such as the practicing carpet) that was done through a complicated hierarchical sales system. The dominant view in the West puts legitimacy into Falun Gong's spread, asserting that it was no less than the healthy spread of certain religious beliefs to which people felt connected.
As the movement spread to larger proportions, people began gathering in squares in united practice sessions, sitting for hours practicing meditation exercises. Beginning in 1999, practitioners had used mass practicing sessions as a form of protest or rectification. A newspaper article denouncing "teenagers practicing Qi Gong" or any of its related excercices in Tianjin in April triggered a series of events which eventually led to over 10,000 practitioners silently protesting outside the Beijing Zhongnanhai Compound, near China's Central Appeals Office, to appeal for the release of detained practitioners. The unprecedented event had attracted attention of China's top leaders. Premier Zhu Rongji met with several Falun Gong representatives, coming to a compromise, agreeing to a few, but not all demands. This decision, however, reputedly resulted in a great rift in the Politburo, with Zhu holding moderate views, and Jiang Zemin alarmed by the seriousness of the situation, and in favour of a crackdown. Some political analysts have suggested that Jiang was using the situation to strengthen his own core of CPC leadership, while CPC supporters contend that Falun Gong's continual spread would result in unwanted political instability in a still fragile and growing economy.
On June 10, 1999, the government set up the "6-10 Office", in charge solely of the Falun Gong crackdown. The most prominent method was the use of China's state-controlled media to vilify Falun Gong's nature, sometimes through anecdotal, although real stories. On July 22, CCTV's Xinwen Lianbo ("Continual News") at seven in the evening, as well as many provincial and municipal TV networks, labeled Falun Gong as an "evil cult", and was extended to three hours over the regular half-hour broadcast. Regular programming was in many cases disrupted for up to a week. On July 23, the People's Daily contained a full-page editorial titled "Enhance Knowledge; See Clearly the Harm; Hold on to Policies; Maintain Stability", criticising Falun Gong as corrupting people's minds, creating chaos, and destroying society's stability. Public Security Bureaus around the country began the "clean-up" Falun Gong members through moderate force, searching homes, and burning videos and books. Subsequently in Beijing and other government institutions began the spontaneous plea of Falun Gong practitioners for the moderation or an end to the actions.
On July 22 1999, Li Hongzhi published a statement entitled "A Brief Statement of Mine" in which he urged "all governments, international organizations, and people of goodwill worldwide to extend their support and assistance to us in order to resolve the present crisis that is taking place in China." and claimed that Falun Gong "does not have any particular organization, let alone any political objectives. We have never been involved in any anti-government activities." [1]. The actual nature of the statement is very controversial. The Canadian Government was the first to openly condemn the crackdown on July 23, the US State Department followed on the 27th. On July 23, the Chinese government sends an alert for Interpol in search of Li Hongzhi, but Interpol rejected the warrant.
Falun Gong supporters and Human Rights organisations claim that thousands of practitioners have been killed and tens of thousands more detained in the ensuing persecution. Falun Gong practitioners have continued to appeal for a lifting of the ban, including western Falun Gong practitioners travelling to China to protest. [2] Practitioners inside China have distributed leaflets and VCDs to counter what they see as the state controlled media's propaganda campaign against Falun Gong. They have also resorted to hacking into state run television to broadcast their views.[3] Such an incident in March 2002 in Changchun sparked a string of arrests with thousands of practitioners reportedly being detained.
[edit] Economic development
Amidst maintaining political stability, Premier Zhu Rongji kept things on track in the difficult years of the late 1990s, so that mainland China averaged growth of 9.7% a year over the two decades to 2000. The ability of the PRC to chart an effective course through the recent Asian crisis was also noteworthy. Against the backdrop of the Asian financial crisis (and catastrophic domestic floods) mainland China's GDP still grew by 7.9% in the first nine months of 2002, beating the government's 7% target despite a global economic slowdown. This was achieved, partly, through active state intervention to stimulate demand through wage increases in the public sector, and other measures.
While foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide halved in 2000, the flow of capital into mainland China rose 10%. As global firms scramble to avoid missing the China boom; FDI in China has risen 22.6% in 2002. While global trade stagnated, growing by one percent in 2002, mainland China's trade soared by 18% in the first nine months of 2002, with exports outstripping imports.
Zhu tackled deep-seated structural problems: uneven development; inefficient state firms and a banking system mired in bad loans. Observers think there are few substantial disagreements over economic policy in the CPC; tensions focus on the pace of change.
The PRC leadership was struggling to modernize and privitize State-owned Enterprises (SOEs) without inducing massive urban unemployment. A generation of people that suffered due to the Cultural Revolution that lacked the proper education or applicable skills has found it increasingly difficult to find a stable place in the increasingly privitized workforce. As millions lost their jobs as state firms closed, Zhu demanded financial safety nets for unemployed workers. While mainland China will need 100 million new urban jobs in the next five years to absorb laid off workers and rural migrants; so far they have been achieving this aim due to high per capita GDP growth. Under the auspices of Zhu and Wen Jiabao, his top deputy and successor, the state has been alleviating unemployment while promoting efficiency by pumping tax revenues into the economy and maintaining consumer demand.
Critics have charged that there is an oversupply of manufactured goods, driving down prices and profits while increasing the level of bad debt in the banking system. But so far demand for Chinese goods, domestically and abroad, is high enough to put those concerns to rest in the time being. Consumer spending is growing, boosted, in large part, due to longer workers' holidays.
Zhu's right-hand man, Vice Premier Wen Jiabao oversaw regulations for the stock market, campaigned to develop poorer inland provinces to stem migration and regional resentment. Zhu and Wen have been setting tax limits for peasants to protect them from high levies by corrupt officials. Well respected by ordinary Chinese citizens, Zhu also holds the respect of Western political and business leaders, who found him reassuring and credit him with clinching China's market-opening World Trade Organisation (WTO) deal, which has brought foreign capital pouring into the country.
Zhu remained as Premier until the National People's Congress met in March 2003, when it approved his struggle to clinch trusted deputy Wen Jiabao as his successor. Like his fourth-generation colleague Hu Jintao, Wen's personal opinions are difficult to discern since he sticks very closely to his script. Unlike the frank strong-willed Zhu, Wen, who has earned a reputation as an equally competent manager, is known for his suppleness and discretion.
[edit] Crises abroad
In May 1999, NATO forces undergoing bombing operations in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The event resulted in the death of three Chinese journalists, as well as a strong wave of Anti-American sentiment, gaining strength daily from a great number of Chinese media comments on the event. Many Chinese saw the attack as one on Chinese patriotism, therefore national unity was variably strengthened. People with no regular affiliation with the CPC came out and spoke against American hegemony. The Americans officially declared the incident an accident, but the apologies and other official statements seemed unconvincing to the vast majority of the Chinese public, and some military analysts and journalists. Various anti-American protests followed on a nationwide scale, with the most concentrated in Beijing near the American Embassy.
The Chinese government officially condemned the action and demanded a full apology. In an official statement, then-Vice-President Hu Jintao declared the action as "barbaric" and behind the basic principle of ignorant "American hegemony". In the same statement he raised traditional slogans regarding the strength of the Chinese people, to rally behind the government and President Jiang's leadership a huge portion of the populace. As protests escalated, the Central Government began changing its tone in an attempt to calm the outpouring wave of nationalism. Russia was largely on side.
At the turn of the Century, although China had a relatively healthy economy with increased foreign investment, it faced a more precarious position on the global scale. Human rights became the concern for many western governments, and most leaders of western powers mention the issue every time on an official state visit. Pro-Taiwan Independence forces of the Democratic Progressive Party won the elections in Taiwan for the first time, limiting talks of Chinese reunification. Li Teng-hui published his "Two Countries Statement", the first of its kind labelling Taiwan as an independent entity separate from China. And then, in April 2001, a collision occurred between a US spy-plane and a Chinese military jet near the island of Hainan, straining China-US relations even further.
Meanwhile, in July 2001, the PRC and Russia signed the twenty-year Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, aimed at increasing Sino-Russian cooperation and mutual assistance in various areas, covering economic, military, diplomatic (including Taiwan), energy and ecological fronts. The move was seen as another step towards balancing out US dominance in global affairs.
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