China’s Capitalist Revolution (Part 7 of 9)

July 4, 2010

In the first three months of 1989, more than six-thousand corrupt officials were convicted. Many more were beyond the reach of investigators since some had the protection of high-ranking party officials in Beijing.

Then Deng’s right-hand man, who was very popular with the people, died from a heart attack. Without his voice to speak for the people, anger erupted over the corruption and rising prices. People flooded Tiananmen Square.

The protesters were not demanding Western style politics or an end to Communist Party rule as many in the West believe.  They wanted the government to listen to their opinions about   reforms and corruption.  The banners the protesters carried said, “We Support the Great Glorious Communist Party of China.”

However, inside the Great Hall of China, Deng was told the demonstrators wanted to overthrow the Communist Party.  Deng reacted with anger. He believed that Western style democracy would end China’s growth. He said, “We can’t have the separation of powers. We can’t copy the West.”

College students and workers came to Tiananmen Square to show support. Russia’s President Gorbachev arrived to see China’s progress.  The demonstrations were happening at the worst possible time. The protesters were an embarrassment.

As soon as Gorbachev left, Deng called a meeting to discuss what to do.  There were reports that people all over China were protesting.

Return to China’s Capitalist Revolution Part 6 or go to Part 8

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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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

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China’s Capitalist Revolution (Part 6 of 9)

July 4, 2010

For those Red Hat capitalists who survived harassment from the hardliners, the rewards were huge—fortunes were made. Some Chinese were following Deng Xiaoping’s advice “To Get Rich Gloriously.”

However, there was an area of China’s industry that Deng couldn’t change—factory owned industries, which were outdated and inefficient. The state industries still placed politics over profit. In the average state-owned factory, 15 to 20% of the workers did nothing but read and shout slogans.

Deng decided to take state-owned industries from government management.  He said we are going to bring in experts to run our factories like they do in the West. In fact, Beijing was spending a quarter of its revenues supporting state-owned enterprises. The Chinese constitution guaranteed jobs and no one could be fired.

In 1986, Deng decided to allow unprofitable state-owned enterprises to close. Millions lost jobs. With people out of work, crime soared.  In 1989, Deng did away with price controls. There was a panic while workers in private industries were earning much more than people in state-owned industries.

Then bribery became a problem as those in charge at the local level started to accept bribes from foreign investors.

Return to China’s Capitalist Revolution Part 5 or go to Part 7

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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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

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Caressing Nature with Chinese Calligraphy

July 3, 2010

It would be difficult to talk about Chinese art without understanding Chinese calligraphy and its artistic inspiration. A painting has to convey an object, but a well-written character conveys only its beauty through line and structure.

In Shanghai, or Beijing, I’ve watched men with longed handled brushes, as seen in the first video, using water for ink and concrete for paper. With grace, they exhibit the skills of a Rembrandt breathing life to the characters.

Lin Yutang writes in My Country and My People that Western art is more sensual, more passionate, fuller of the artist’s ego, while the Chinese artist and art-lover contemplates a dragonfly, a frog, a grasshopper or a piece of jagged rock—more in harmony with nature.

Owing to the use of writing calligraphy with a brush, which is more subtle and more responsive than the pen, calligraphy as art is equal to Chinese painting. Through calligraphy, the scholar is trained to appreciate, as regards line, qualities like force, suppleness, reserved strength, exquisite tenderness, swiftness, neatness, massivness, ruggedness, and restraint or freedom.

Maybe this helps explain why the Chinese are not as warlike as Christian and Islamic cultures.

See Chinese Yu Opera with Mao Wei-tao

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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China’s Capitalist Revolution (Part 5 of 9)

July 3, 2010

Deng had the support of the reformers he had appointed to key positions. A struggle between the hardliners and the reformers begins.  The hardliners are afraid the reforms will threaten communism.

While Deng’s supporters debate the hardliners, Deng visits the nations and leaders of the world.  In the US, while on 60 Minutes, he says, “To get rich is glorious…Wealth in a socialist society belongs to the people. That’s why our policy won’t lead to a situation where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.”

During the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping was a victim. Mao sent the Red Guard to punish him for capitalist tendencies forcing Deng to work in a tractor factory on the production line. The Red Guard broke his son’s back, and he was permanently paralyzed. This caused Deng to realize that what Mao was doing was wrong.

Eight years into his leadership, Deng begins the next stage of his economic revolution by allowing Chinese entrepreneurs to start businesses. Red Hat capitalism was born. At first, only villagers were allowed to start enterprises. The hardliners were not happy. They wanted to end this, so the new Chinese capitalists were threatened.

Return to China’s Capitalist Revolution Part 4 or go to Part 6

_________________________

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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

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China’s Capitalist Revolution (Part 4 of 9)

July 2, 2010

When the first US businessmen arrive in China, they complained. It took years to gain approval to open manufacturing plants in China. Then the trickle of investors turned into a flood as foreigners scrambled to cash in on a cheap and willing workforce.

The new industrial zones were sealed behind fences from the rest of China. The economies in the industrial zones doubled every three years. Wages were higher than the rest of China and people came looking for work. Investments poured in.

Deng’s popularity was at an all time high. He says, “We have given the highest priority to modernization. Our economy has grown more vigorously than ever.”

However, high ranking Maoists fear a capitalist country with a Communist flag. In 1983, the hardliners start a campaign against spiritual pollution—code for Western ideas.

The hardliners attack journalists who write for the People’s Daily. Top editors are fired for being corrupted by Western values.  The hardliners now control the media.  If you don’t follow the party line, your future becomes grim.

Next, the hardliners pressured the banks to stop lending money to the industrial zones.  Deng has to force the banks to loan the money.

Return to China’s Capitalist Revolution Part 3 or go to Part 5

_________________________

Lloyd Lofthouse is theaward-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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

1 Comment | business, China, Chinese history, Communism, economy, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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