The Asian Economist

Mao was a revolutionary leader, who had his experiences through the Long March and the Yan’an period. He carried his revolutionary ideas from the revolution period to the post revolution. What was needed was a modernized state, but Mao could not stop his revolutionary thoughts. Following the death of Mao Zedong was the leadership under Deng Xiaoping. Deng was more pragmatic in terms of what was needed for China’s development. The transition from the leadership under the strict guidance of Mao Zedong to the more liberal Deng Xiaoping allowed China to gradually increase economic freedom while maintaining political stability. The Maoist era and the Dengist era represent two polarized systems of ideology, development strategies, class struggle and Chinese Communist Party Rule that both worked for China during their respective times.

Mao Zedong’s experience as a peasant, along with the Long March and the Yan’an period, shaped his ideology. He despised intellectuals, believed in volunteerism, contradictions and class struggle. Mao wrote an essay, “The Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People,” in which he denounced intellectuals and regarded them as outsiders by using the pronoun “they” in reference. He essentially united the peasants against the intellectuals and sent intellectuals to the countryside to be reeducated. This followed Mao’s idea of voluntarism, in which the right strategy can overcome any obstacle. Mao even created his own class in which it was a matter of heredity, if one is a bad element then one’s children will follow suit.

Deng Xiaoping’s ideology was more pragmatic; he did not care so much what the ideology is as long as the work was done. Deng ignored Mao’s concepts of egalitarianism and elitism. His main focus was restoring institutions that were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, economic efficiency through the introduction of technology and some competition, and restoring the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party, whose reputation was greatly damaged by the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution. Deng believed that restoring the legitimacy of the CCP goes hand in hand with improving economic conditions and the standard of living in China. China is a “basin of sand” without the CCP, according to Deng.
Mao Zedong’s development strategy is based off of voluntarism. His campaign of
developing China focuses primarily on mass organization.

The mass line was a means to alleviate two problematic tendencies of dictatorships: losing touch with popular sentiment and generating political apathy among the people. This technique did not compromise the party’s dictatorial rule, because it eschewed any notion that the masses could act against the rule of higher-level authorities. But it did call for popular political activity, and it demanded that government bureaucrats keep their ears to the ground and regularly get out among the people (Lierberthal, 64).

Coupled with campaigns, the mass line approach was very successful in developing China by making the general populace loyal to the CCP regardless of how much poorer and weaker the country actually became. The campaigns essentially refocused the people’s disapproval of the current situation by denouncing Confucianism, while simultaneously using a system of crisis induced situations to stir political involvement in the populace. Examples of such political instability include: Land Reform, Three Anti and the Five Anti, Antirightist, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, among many others. Most of these campaigns strengthened the centralized role of the CCP and the People’s Republic of China, while others steered more towards a notion of self-reliance. Mao believed that one should “keep the initiative in one’s own hands,” and that concept was applied to China’s former reliance on the USSR.

Deng Xiaoping applied the Mao’s principle of self-reliance in a similar way, but instead of keeping China closed, he opened up China’s economy to foreign investment. He allowed a small group to get rich first; since China had such a large population it would have been impossible for everyone to get rich together. Four Special Economic Zones were set up in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen to be the sites of China’s capitalist experiment. In those four zones, there was very limited government interference in terms of business ventures both domestic and abroad. As a result of opening up to the outside world, material goods along with joint ventures became attractive incentives for the majority of Chinese people.

Immense disparities exist between the two eras in modern Chinese history. During the Maoist period, Mao created a new class in which heredity was what class was based on, while everyone was essentially the same. While under Dengist reform, the coastal areas were more prosperous since they were the locations of the SEZ, creating immense regional disparity that worsens through time. But even through all the differences, continuities exist. Mao Zedong established himself as a personal cult, and that image has lasted through the reform period to today. Mao’s image, for example, is hung on taxicabs for good luck. Another continuity, is that the Chinese Communist Party still remains the central power in China. With a population of over a billion people, China’s leaders understand the importance of a strong authority.