China
The largest ethnic group is the Han Chinese, who constitute about
91.9% of the total population. The remaining 8.1% are Zhuang (16
million), Manchu (10 million), Hui (9 million), Miao (8 million),
Uygur (7 million), Yi (7 million), Mongolian (5 million), Tibetan (5
million), Buyi (3 million), Korean (2 million), and other ethnic
minorities.
Language
There are seven major Chinese dialects and many subdialects.
Mandarin (or Putonghua), the predominant dialect, is spoken by over
70% of the population. It is taught in all schools and is the medium
of government. About two-thirds of the Han ethnic group are native
speakers of Mandarin; the rest, concentrated in southwest and
southeast China, speak one of the six other major Chinese dialects.
Non-Chinese languages spoken widely by ethnic minorities include
Mongolian, Tibetan, Uygur and other Turkic languages (in Xinjiang),
and Korean (in the northeast).
The Pinyin System of Romanization
On January 1, 1979, the Chinese Government officially adopted the
pinyin system for spelling Chinese names and places in Roman
letters. A system of Romanization invented by the Chinese, pinyin
has long been widely used in China on street and commercial signs as
well as in elementary Chinese textbooks as an aid in learning
Chinese characters. Variations of pinyin also are used as the
written forms of several minority languages.
Pinyin has now replaced other conventional spellings in China's
English-language publications. The U.S. Government also has adopted
the pinyin system for all names and places in China. For example,
the capital of China is now spelled "Beijing" rather than "Peking."
Religion
Religion plays a significant part in the life of many Chinese.
Buddhism is most widely practiced, with an estimated 100 million
adherents. Traditional Taoism also is practiced. Official figures
indicate there are 20 million Muslims, 15 million Protestants, and 5
million Catholics; unofficial estimates are much higher.
While the Chinese constitution affirms religious toleration, the
Chinese Government places restrictions on religious practice outside
officially recognized organizations. Only two Christian
organizations--a Catholic church without official ties to Rome and
the "Three-Self-Patriotic" Protestant church--are sanctioned by the
Chinese Government. Unauthorized churches have sprung up in many
parts of the country and unofficial religious practice is
flourishing. In some regions authorities have tried to control
activities of these unregistered churches. In other regions,
registered and unregistered groups are treated similarly by
authorities and congregations worship in both types of churches.
Most Chinese Catholic bishops are recognized by the Pope, and
official priests have Vatican approval to administer all the
sacraments.
Population Policy
With a population officially just over 1.3 billion and an estimated
growth rate of about 0.6%, China is very concerned about its
population growth and has attempted with mixed results to implement
a strict birth limitation policy. China's 2002 Population and Family
Planning Law and policy permit one child per family, with allowance
for a second child under certain circumstances, especially in rural
areas, and with guidelines looser for ethnic minorities with small
populations. Enforcement varies, and relies largely on "social
compensation fees" to discourage extra births. Official government
policy opposes forced abortion or sterilization, but in some
localities there are instances of forced abortion. The government's
goal is to stabilize the population in the first half of the 21st
century, and current projections are that the population will peak
at around 1.6 billion by 2050. |
|
China is the oldest continuous major world civilization, with
records dating back about 3,500 years. Successive dynasties
developed a system of bureaucratic control that gave the
agrarian-based Chinese an advantage over neighboring nomadic and
hill cultures. Chinese civilization was further strengthened by the
development of a Confucian state ideology and a common written
language that bridged the gaps among the country's many local
languages and dialects. Whenever China was conquered by nomadic
tribes, as it was by the Mongols in the 13th century, the conquerors
sooner or later adopted the ways of the "higher" Chinese
civilization and staffed the bureaucracy with Chinese.
The last dynasty was established in 1644, when the Manchus overthrew
the native Ming dynasty and established the Qing (Ch'ing) dynasty
with Beijing as its capital. At great expense in blood and treasure,
the Manchus over the next half century gained control of many border
areas, including Xinjiang, Yunnan, Tibet, Mongolia, and Taiwan. The
success of the early Qing period was based on the combination of
Manchu martial prowess and traditional Chinese bureaucratic skills.
During the 19th century, Qing control weakened, and prosperity
diminished. China suffered massive social strife, economic
stagnation, explosive population growth, and Western penetration and
influence. The Taiping and Nian rebellions, along with a
Russian-supported Muslim separatist movement in Xinjiang, drained
Chinese resources and almost toppled the dynasty. Britain's desire
to continue its illegal opium trade with China collided with
imperial edicts prohibiting the addictive drug, and the First Opium
War erupted in 1840. China lost the war; subsequently, Britain and
other Western powers, including the United States, forcibly occupied
"concessions" and gained special commercial privileges. Hong Kong
was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking, and in
1898, when the Opium Wars finally ended, Britain executed a 99-year
lease of the New Territories, significantly expanding the size of
the Hong Kong colony.
As time went on, the Western powers, wielding superior military
technology, gained more economic and political privileges. Reformist
Chinese officials argued for the adoption of Western technology to
strengthen the dynasty and counter Western advances, but the Qing
court played down both the Western threat and the benefits of
Western technology.
Early 20th Century China
Frustrated by the Qing court's resistance to reform, young
officials, military officers, and students--inspired by the
revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-sen--began to advocate the overthrow
of the Qing dynasty and creation of a republic. A revolutionary
military uprising on October 10, 1911, led to the abdication of the
last Qing monarch. As part of a compromise to overthrow the dynasty
without a civil war, the revolutionaries and reformers allowed high
Qing officials to retain prominent positions in the new republic.
One of these figures, Gen. Yuan Shikai, was chosen as the republic's
first president. Before his death in 1916, Yuan unsuccessfully
attempted to name himself emperor. His death left the republican
government all but shattered, ushering in the era of the "warlords"
during which China was ruled and ravaged by shifting coalitions of
competing provincial military leaders.
In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in south
China and set out to unite the fragmented nation. With Soviet
assistance, he organized the Kuomintang (KMT or "Chinese Nationalist
People's Party"), and entered into an alliance with the fledgling
Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After Sun's death in 1925, one of his
proteges, Chiang Kai-shek, seized control of the KMT and succeeded
in bringing most of south and central China under its rule. In 1927,
Chiang turned on the CCP and executed many of its leaders. The
remnants fled into the mountains of eastern China. In 1934, driven
out of their mountain bases, the CCP's forces embarked on a "Long
March" across some of China's most desolate terrain to the
northwestern province of Shaanxi, where they established a guerrilla
base at Yan'an.
During the "Long March," the communists reorganized under a new
leader, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung). The bitter struggle between the
KMT and the CCP continued openly or clandestinely through the
14-year long Japanese invasion (1931-45), even though the two
parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese
invaders in 1937. The war between the two parties resumed after the
Japanese defeat in 1945. By 1949, the CCP occupied most of the
country.
Chiang Kai-shek fled with the remnants of his KMT government and
military forces to Taiwan, where he proclaimed Taipei to be China's
"provisional capital" and vowed to re-conquer the Chinese mainland.
Taiwan still calls itself the "Republic of China."
The People's Republic of China
In Beijing, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding
of the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.). The new government
assumed control of a people exhausted by two generations of war and
social conflict, and an economy ravaged by high inflation and
disrupted transportation links. A new political and economic order
modeled on the Soviet example was quickly installed.
In the early 1950s, China undertook a massive economic and social
reconstruction program. The new leaders gained popular support by
curbing inflation, restoring the economy, and rebuilding many
war-damaged industrial plants. The CCP's authority reached into
almost every aspect of Chinese life. Party control was assured by
large, politically loyal security and military forces; a government
apparatus responsive to party direction; and the placement of party
members into leadership positions in labor, women's, and other mass
organizations.
The "Great Leap Forward" and the Sino-Soviet Split
In 1958, Mao broke with the Soviet model and announced a new
economic program, the "Great Leap Forward," aimed at rapidly raising
industrial and agricultural production. Giant cooperatives
(communes) were formed, and "backyard factories" dotted the Chinese
landscape. The results were disastrous. Normal market mechanisms
were disrupted, agricultural production fell behind, and China's
people exhausted themselves producing what turned out to be shoddy,
un-salable goods. Within a year, starvation appeared even in fertile
agricultural areas. From 1960 to 1961, the combination of poor
planning during the Great Leap Forward and bad weather resulted in
one of the deadliest famines in human history.
The already strained Sino-Soviet relationship deteriorated sharply
in 1959, when the Soviets started to restrict the flow of scientific
and technological information to China. The dispute escalated, and
the Soviets withdrew all of their personnel from China in August
1960. In 1960, the Soviets and the Chinese began to have disputes
openly in international forums.
The Cultural Revolution
In the early 1960s, State President Liu Shaoqi and his protege,
Party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping, took over direction of the
party and adopted pragmatic economic policies at odds with Mao's
revolutionary vision. Dissatisfied with China's new direction and
his own reduced authority, Party Chairman Mao launched a massive
political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring
of 1966. The new movement, the "Great Proletarian Cultural
Revolution," was unprecedented in communist history. For the first
time, a section of the Chinese communist leadership sought to rally
popular opposition against another leadership group. China was set
on a course of political and social anarchy that lasted the better
part of a decade.
In the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Mao and his "closest
comrade in arms," National Defense Minister Lin Biao, charged Liu,
Deng, and other top party leaders with dragging China back toward
capitalism. Radical youth organizations, called Red Guards, attacked
party and state organizations at all levels, seeking out leaders who
would not bend to the radical wind. In reaction to this turmoil,
some local People's Liberation Army (PLA) commanders and other
officials maneuvered to outwardly back Mao and the radicals while
actually taking steps to rein in local radical activity.
Gradually, Red Guard and other radical activity subsided, and the
Chinese political situation stabilized along complex factional
lines. The leadership conflict came to a head in September 1971,
when Party Vice Chairman and Defense Minister Lin Biao reportedly
tried to stage a coup against Mao; Lin Biao allegedly later died in
a plane crash in Mongolia.
In the aftermath of the Lin Biao incident, many officials criticized
and dismissed during 1966-69 were reinstated. Chief among these was
Deng Xiaoping, who reemerged in 1973 and was confirmed in 1975 in
the concurrent posts of Politburo Standing Committee member, PLA
Chief of Staff, and Vice Premier.
The ideological struggle between more pragmatic, veteran party
officials and the radicals re-emerged with a vengeance in late 1975.
Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, and three close Cultural Revolution
associates (later dubbed the "Gang of Four") launched a media
campaign against Deng. In January 1976, Premier Zhou Enlai, a
popular political figure, died of cancer. On April 5, Beijing
citizens staged a spontaneous demonstration in Tiananmen Square in
Zhou's memory, with strong political overtones of support for Deng.
The authorities forcibly suppressed the demonstration. Deng was
blamed for the disorder and stripped of all official positions,
although he retained his party membership.
The Post-Mao Era
Mao's death in September 1976 removed a towering figure from Chinese
politics and set off a scramble for succession. Former Minister of
Public Security Hua Guofeng was quickly confirmed as Party Chairman
and Premier. A month after Mao's death, Hua, backed by the PLA,
arrested Jiang Qing and other members of the "Gang of Four." After
extensive deliberations, the Chinese Communist Party leadership
reinstated Deng Xiaoping to all of his previous posts at the 11th
Party Congress in August 1977. Deng then led the effort to place
government control in the hands of veteran party officials opposed
to the radical excesses of the previous two decades.
The new, pragmatic leadership emphasized economic development and
renounced mass political movements. At the pivotal December 1978
Third Plenum (of the 11th Party Congress Central Committee), the
leadership adopted economic reform policies aimed at expanding rural
income and incentives, encouraging experiments in enterprise
autonomy, reducing central planning, and attracting foreign direct
investment into China. The plenum also decided to accelerate the
pace of legal reform, culminating in the passage of several new
legal codes by the National People's Congress in June 1979.
After 1979, the Chinese leadership moved toward more pragmatic
positions in almost all fields. The party encouraged artists,
writers, and journalists to adopt more critical approaches, although
open attacks on party authority were not permitted. In late 1980,
Mao's Cultural Revolution was officially proclaimed a catastrophe.
Hua Guofeng, a protege of Mao, was replaced as premier in 1980 by
reformist Sichuan party chief Zhao Ziyang and as party General
Secretary in 1981 by the even more reformist Communist Youth League
chairman Hu Yaobang.
Reform policies brought great improvements in the standard of
living, especially for urban workers and for farmers who took
advantage of opportunities to diversify crops and establish village
industries. Literature and the arts blossomed, and Chinese
intellectuals established extensive links with scholars in other
countries.
At the same time, however, political dissent as well as social
problems such as inflation, urban migration, and prostitution
emerged. Although students and intellectuals urged greater reforms,
some party elders increasingly questioned the pace and the ultimate
goals of the reform program. In December 1986, student
demonstrators, taking advantage of the loosening political
atmosphere, staged protests against the slow pace of reform,
confirming party elders' fear that the current reform program was
leading to social instability. Hu Yaobang, a protege of Deng and a
leading advocate of reform, was blamed for the protests and forced
to resign as CCP General Secretary in January 1987. Premier Zhao
Ziyang was made General Secretary and Li Peng, former Vice Premier
and Minister of Electric Power and Water Conservancy, was made
Premier.
1989 Student Movement and Tiananmen Square
After Zhao became the party General Secretary, the economic and
political reforms he had championed came under increasing attack.
His proposal in May 1988 to accelerate price reform led to
widespread popular complaints about rampant inflation and gave
opponents of rapid reform the opening to call for greater
centralization of economic controls and stricter prohibitions
against Western influence. This precipitated a political debate,
which grew more heated through the winter of 1988-89.
The death of Hu Yaobang on April 15, 1989, coupled with growing
economic hardship caused by high inflation, provided the backdrop
for a large-scale protest movement by students, intellectuals, and
other parts of a disaffected urban population. University students
and other citizens camped out in Beijing's Tiananmen Square to mourn
Hu's death and to protest against those who would slow reform. Their
protests, which grew despite government efforts to contain them,
called for an end to official corruption and for defense of freedoms
guaranteed by the Chinese constitution. Protests also spread to many
other cities, including Shanghai, Chengdu, and Guangzhou.
Martial law was declared on May 20, 1989. Late on June 3 and early
on the morning of June 4, military units were brought into Beijing.
They used armed force to clear demonstrators from the streets. There
are no official estimates of deaths in Beijing, but most observers
believe that casualties numbered in the hundreds.
After June 4, while foreign governments expressed horror at the
brutal suppression of the demonstrators, the central government
eliminated remaining sources of organized opposition, detained large
numbers of protesters, and required political reeducation not only
for students but also for large numbers of party cadre and
government officials.
Following the resurgence of conservatives in the aftermath of June
4, economic reform slowed until given new impetus by Deng Xiaoping's
dramatic visit to southern China in early 1992. 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. Deng and
his supporters argued that managing the economy in a way that
increased living standards should be China's primary policy
objective, even if "capitalist" measures were adopted. Subsequent to
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.
Post Deng Leadership
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 center.
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. Zhu Rongji was
selected to replace Li as Premier.
In November 2002, the 16th Communist Party Congress elected Hu
Jintao, who in 1992 was designated by Deng Xiaoping as the "core" of
the fourth generation leaders, the new General Secretary. A new
Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee was also elected in
November.
In March 2003, General Secretary Hu Jintao was elected President at
the 10th National People's Congress. Jiang Zemin retained the
chairmanship of the Central Military Commission. At the Fourth Party
Plenum in September 2004, Jiang Zemin retired from the Central
Military Commission, passing the Chairmanship and control of the
People's Liberation Army to President Hu Jintao.
China is firmly committed to economic reform and opening to the
outside world. The Chinese leadership has identified reform of state
industries and the establishment of a social safety net as
government priorities. Government strategies for achieving these
goals include large-scale privatization of unprofitable state-owned
enterprises and development of a pension system for workers. The
leadership has also downsized the government bureaucracy.
The Chinese Communist Party’s 17th Party Congress, held in October
2007, saw the elevation of key “fifth generation” leaders to the
Politburo and Standing Committee, including Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang
and Wang Yang. At the National People’s Congress plenary held in
March 2008, Xi was elected Vice President of the government, and Li
was elected Vice Premier. |
|
