When Chairman Mao died in 1976, he left China in chaos due to the Cultural Revolution. Under Mao, who led the revolution and built the People’s Republic, millions had starved and died (due to poor decisions, droughts, floods, crop losses and a complete embargo by the United States). Deng Xiaoping, who overturned Maoism and taught the Chinese to love capitalism, succeeded him but not without a struggle.
Today, China has transformed the lives of many of its citizens and is challenging the world. This BBC series is the story of how Communist China learned to love capitalism. It is also the story of Deng Xiaoping—a survivor often punished by Mao, who refused to quit.
Unfortunately, for all the success Deng had in transforming China into a modern nation, his reputation was stained by what happened during the Tiananmen Square incident. During the demonstrations, Deng, who had been a military man most of his life, was faced with a choice between his modernizing instincts and his commitment to national stability to the party he had served for seventy years since 16.
By bringing wealth and stability to China, Deng defied those who said capitalism could not succeed without Western style politics. He often said, “Our system has its advantages. We can make decisions quickly.”
If you enjoyed this, see The Roots of Madness or go to Part 2 of China’s Capitalist Revolution.
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.
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