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With a population of nearly 1.5 billion and the world’s second largest economy, China is a major player in the world today, and yet many in the West know very little about contemporary China. This book provides a clear, authoritative and up-to-date history of China since 1949, drawing on extensive research to describe and explain the key developments and to dispel the many myths and misconceptions surrounding this twenty-first-century superpower.
In contrast to many commentators who overstate the novelty of the Communist regime, Guiheux emphasizes instead its complex political heritage, highlighting the many continuities it shares with the reformers and revolutionaries of the early twentieth century. At the same time, the ability of China’s authoritarian regime to transform the economy and society is key to understanding its breakneck trajectory of modernization – an ability that, as Guiheux explains, far outweighed the importance and effectiveness of Mao’s utopian vision. Guiheux also aims to ‘de-exoticize’ China. While not on the path of a Western-style modernity, China has experienced the same phenomena that have characterized every historical process of modernization: industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization and globalization.
This expertly researched history of the People’s Republic of China will be essential reading for all students and scholars of Chinese history and politics, and for anyone interested in contemporary China.
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One. The establishment of a new regime (1949-1957)
Building a new state
The achievement of unity
The administration of the territories
The strategy of the New Democracy (1949-1953)
The New Institutions (1954)
Society is brought into line
The marriage law (May 1950)
Agrarian reform
The campaign for the repression of counter-revolutionaries (February 1951)
The Three-anti Campaign (December 1951) and the Five-anti Campaign (April 1952) against the bourgeoisie
Bringing intellectuals to heel
Forging links with the socialist camp
The Sino-Soviet alliance
The Korean War
An orthodox economic policy
The Eighth Party Congress (1956)
Conclusion
Chapter Two. Maoism and its excesses (1958-1976)
The origins of the Great Leap Forward
The successive stages of the Great Leap Forward
The Great Famine (1959-1961)
Natural causes
Human errors
Political responsibilities
Pragmatism and political divisions (1960-1965)
Mao’s adjustment program and political withdrawal
The Socialist Education Movement (1962-1965)
The Maoization of the People’s Liberation Army and preparation for war
The Cultural Revolution (1966-1969)
The beginnings (October 1965-July 1966)
The mobilization of the Red Guards (August 1966-January 1967)
Militarization in the face of revolutionary seizures of power (January to August 1967)
The return to order (1967-1969): bringing the Red Guards to heel and the Ninth Congress
Responsibilities and consequences
The end of Maoism and the crises of succession (1969-1976)
The Lin Biao era (1969-1971)
The elimination of Lin Biao in September 1971
The end of Maoism (1972-1976)
Conclusion
Chapter Three. Giving priority to economic modernization (1976-1992)
The Hua Guofeng transition (September 1976-December 1978)
The struggle between two tendencies: neo-Maoists against pragmatists
A veteran to embody renewal
The first reforms (1979-1986)
Deng Xiaoping comes to power
The rehabilitation of the law
The acceleration of reforms (1984-1986)
The failure of Zhao Ziyang and the crisis of the regime (1986-1989)
The aborted political reform
The reimposition of dictatorship
Conclusion
Chapter Four. Building a new model (since 1992)
The Jiang Zemin decade: authoritarian, conservative and pragmatic leadership (1989-2002)
An engineer in power
The rise of nationalism
Jiang Zemin’s consolidation of power
Jiang Zemin’s initiatives
The Hu Jintao - Wen Jiabao Era (2002-2012): a lost decade?
Populist leaders
Crises in Tibet and Sichuan in 2008
Two ‘campaigns of mass distraction’
The fifth generation of leaders in power (since 2012)
The change of political personnel
Xi Jinping, a ‘prince’ in power
Internal authoritarianism
Expansionism abroad
Conclusion
Chapter Five. Forms of government: from arbitrary rule to the aborted attempt at institutionalization
The Communist Party: organization, ideology, adaptation
Party organization
Party members
Ideology
Five generations of leaders
The state apparatus: a democratic façade
Executive power
The elected assemblies
A ‘state of laws without rule of law’
The army in the political system
The Party-State and society: control, participation, resistance
A triple system of repression, confinement and surveillance
Social coalitions supporting the regime
Opponents without opposition
Public space and civil society
Conclusion
Chapter Six. The creation of wealth: from planned economy to the market
The socialist cycle
The place of inheritance
The socialist planned economy
The Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)
Assessment of the Maoist period
The reform cycle
The decollectivization of the countryside
Business reform
1984-1988: take-off
1989-1993, the end of the reforms
The move towards a market economy (1993-2003)
The Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao administration: a new activism
The economic policy of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang
An assessment of the structural transformations
The Chinese market economy
The diversification of economic actors
The transformation of the economic role of the state
Restructuring the administration of the economy
The weaknesses of the state
The internationalization of the economy
China and international trade
Conclusion
Chapter Seven. Society on the move: mobility and inequality
Maoist China: From movement to immobilization (1949-1978)
The establishment of the hukou system
Labelling of the population
A nomenklatura: a privileged caste
Political mobility
Society on the move again (since 1979)
The winners
The old working class and the new urban poverty
The new working class: migrant workers
The debate about inequality
A diverse social space
A political project: the construction of the middle classes
The hypothesis of the social divide
Latin Americanization as a possible scenario
Measuring inequalities
Conclusion
Chapter Eight. The towns versus the countryside
The broken promises of the peasant revolution
Maoism sacrifices the peasants
Building a working class
The non-development of cities
The urban miracle: urbanization without revolution
Urban growth: a political choice
Improving housing conditions
New urban governance
New rural issues
The ‘three nong’
Collective action in the countryside
New rural policies
Conclusion
Chapter Nine. Populations: the modernization of society
Counting the population, controlling the demographics
The demographic transition
The pragmatism of Maoist population policies
The one-child policy
The harmful consequences of the one-child policy
Protecting the population: social policies
The Maoist period: protection for those who work
The state’s withdrawal after 1978
The reconstruction of a welfare system
The private and intimate sphere
The family
Forms of sexuality: a liberation?
Homosexuality is now tolerated
Persistent gender inequalities
The individualization of society
The choice of spouse: a freely chosen alliance between two families
Self-interest
The reconfiguration of the religious scene
Conclusion
Chapter Ten. Education and culture
Education and science
Education (1949-1976): priority given to the early years
The massification, marketization and internationalization of higher education since 1979
Persistent problems: selectivity, inequality
The professionalization and internationalization of scientific activity since 1979
Culture and creation
Culture at the service of the political project (1949-1979)
A decade of experiments (1979-1989)
Culture opens up to the market
Cultural policies: the case of museums
Conclusion
Epilogue
Map
Title-holders of the main positions in the government of the People’s Republic of China (1949-2018)
Chronology
Bibliography
Index
Description
With a population of nearly 1.5 billion and the world’s second largest economy, China is a major player in the world today, and yet many in the West know very little about contemporary China. This book provides a clear, authoritative and up-to-date history of China since 1949, drawing on extensive research to describe and explain the key developments and to dispel the many myths and misconceptions surrounding this twenty-first-century superpower.
In contrast to many commentators who overstate the novelty of the Communist regime, Guiheux emphasizes instead its complex political heritage, highlighting the many continuities it shares with the reformers and revolutionaries of the early twentieth century. At the same time, the ability of China’s authoritarian regime to transform the economy and society is key to understanding its breakneck trajectory of modernization – an ability that, as Guiheux explains, far outweighed the importance and effectiveness of Mao’s utopian vision. Guiheux also aims to ‘de-exoticize’ China. While not on the path of a Western-style modernity, China has experienced the same phenomena that have characterized every historical process of modernization: industrialization, urbanization, bureaucratization and globalization.
This expertly researched history of the People’s Republic of China will be essential reading for all students and scholars of Chinese history and politics, and for anyone interested in contemporary China.
