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Ideology of the Communist Party of China

2020-12-27T05:51:48Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* Marxist Political Economy in China */ Corrected a statement on the Xi speech (it was addressed to the Politburo, not the National People's Congress).

The '''ideology of the Communist Party of China''' has undergone dramatic changes throughout the years, especially during [[Deng Xiaoping]]'s leadership and now [[Xi Jinping]]'s leadership. While some commentators have stated that the [[Communist Party of China]] (CPC) lacks a coherent ideology, the CPC still identifies as a [[Communism|communist]] party.

== Ideology ==

== Role of Ideology ==

=== Ideals and Convictions ===
In the article "Revolutionary Ideals are Higher than Heaven-Studying" (published in 2013), a person writing under the pen name "Autumn Stone", supports CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping's policy of strengthening the ideological conviction of party cadres, since (as the Leninist mantra goes) ideological unity leads to party unity.<ref>https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/revolutionary-ideals-are-higher-than-heaven-studying-comrade-xi-jinpings-important-elaboration-concerning-strengthening-ideals-and-convictions/</ref> Xi Jinping believes that wavering conviction in the party's ideals leads to increased corruption and unwanted behaviour.<ref>https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/revolutionary-ideals-are-higher-than-heaven-studying-comrade-xi-jinpings-important-elaboration-concerning-strengthening-ideals-and-convictions/</ref>

In 2006, at the 16th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee, the CPC leadership under General Secretary Hu Jintao expressed the need to create a new value system, referred to as the [[Core Socialist Values|socialist core value system]]. In his speech, entitled "Resolution on Major Issues Concerning the Building of a Socialist Harmonious Society", to the 16th Plenary Session Hu Jintao stated;

== Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought ==
[[Marxism-leninism|Marxism–Leninism]] was the first official ideology of the Communist Party of China, and is a combination of [[Marxism|classical Marxism]] (the works of [[Marx|Karl Marx]] and [[Engels|Friedrich Engels]]) and [[Leninism]] (the thoughts of [[Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]]). According to the CPC, "Marxism–Leninism reveals the [[Historical materialism|universal laws governing the development of history of human society]]." To the CPC, Marxism–Leninism provides a vision of the contradictions in capitalist society and of the inevitability of a future socialist and communist societies. Marx and Engels first created the theory behind Marxist party building; Lenin developed it in practice before, during and after the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917. Lenin's biggest achievement came in party-building, through concepts such as the [[vanguard party]] of the working class and [[democratic centralism]]. According to the ''[[People's Daily]]'', [[Maoism|Mao Zedong Thought]] "is Marxism–Leninism applied and developed in China".

Mao Zedong Thought was conceived not only by [[Chairman of the Communist Party of China|CPC Chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]], but by leading party officials. According to [[Xinhua]], Mao Zedong Thought is "an integration of the universal truth of Marxism–Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution." Currently, the CPC interprets the essence of Mao Zedong Thought as "[[Seeking truth from facts]]": "we must proceed from reality and put theory into practice in everything. In other words, we must integrate the universal theory of Marxism–Leninism with China's specific conditions."

While western observers tend to agree that the CPC has rejected orthodox Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (or at least basic thoughts within orthodox thinking), the CPC itself disagrees. Some Western commentators also talk about a "crisis of ideology" within the party; they believe that the CPC has rejected communism. Wang Xuedong, the Director of the Institute of World Socialism, said in response, "We know there are those abroad who think we have a 'crisis of ideology,' but we do not agree." According to former CPC General Secretary Jiang Zemin, the CPC "must never discard Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought." He said that "if we did, we would lose our foundation." He further noted that Marxism in general "like any science, needs to change as time and circumstances advance." Certain groups argue that Jiang Zemin ended the CPC's formal commitment to Marxism with the introduction of the ideological theory, the Three Represents. However, party theorist Leng Rong disagrees, claiming that "President Jiang rid the Party of the ideological obstacles to different kinds of ownership [...] He did not give up Marxism or socialism. He strengthened the Party by providing a modern understanding of Marxism and socialism—which is why we talk about a 'socialist market economy' with Chinese characteristics." Marxism in its core is, according to Jiang Zemin, methodology and the [[Pure communism|goal of a future, classless society]], not analyses of class and of the contradictions between different classes.

Karl Marx argued that society went through different stages of development, and believed that the capitalist mode of production was the third stage. The stages were: ancient, based mostly on [[slavery]]; [[Feudalism|feudal]]; capitalist; [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialist]]; and the communist mode of production. The attainment of true "communism" is described as the CPC's and China's "ultimate goal". While the CPC claims that China is in the [[primary stage of socialism]], party theorists argue that the current development stage "looks a lot like capitalism". Alternately, certain party theorists argue that "capitalism is the early or first stage of communism." In official pronouncements, the primary stage of socialism is predicted to last about 100 years, after which China will reach another developmental stage. Some have dismissed the concept of a primary stage of socialism as intellectual cynicism. According to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a China analyst, "When I first heard this rationale, I thought it more comic than clever—a wry caricature of hack propagandists leaked by intellectual cynics. But the 100-year horizon comes from serious political theorists".

== Rationale for the reforms and Deng Xiaoping Theory ==
While it has been argued by Westerners that the reforms introduced by the CPC under Deng were a rejection of the party's Marxist heritage and ideology, the CPC does not view it as such. The rationale behind the reforms was that the [[productive forces]] of China lagged behind the advanced culture and ideology developed by the party-state. In 1986, to end this deficiency, the party came to the conclusion that the main contradiction in Chinese society was that between the backward productive forces and the advanced culture and ideology of China.

=== The creation of a "Socialist market economy" ===
The term "socialism with Chinese characteristics" was added to the General Program of the party's constitution at the 12th National Congress, without a definition of the term. At the 13th National Congress, held in 1987, Zhao Ziyang, the CPC General Secretary, claimed that socialism with Chinese characteristics was the "integration of the fundamental tenets of Marxism with the modernization drive in China" and was "[[scientific socialism]] rooted in the realities of present-day China".By this time the CPC believed that China was in the [[primary stage of socialism]], and therefore needed market relations to develop into a socialist society. Two years earlier, Su had tried to internationalize the term "primary stage of socialism" by claiming that socialism contained three different production phases. China was currently in the first phase, while the Soviet Union and the remaining [[Eastern Bloc]] countries were in the second phase. Because China was in the primary stage of socialism, Zhao argued that in "[China] for a long time to come, we shall develop various sectors of the economy, always ensuring the dominant position of the public sector". Further, some individuals should be allowed to become rich "before the objective of common prosperity [pure communism] is achieved". Lastly, during the primary stage of socialism, planning would no longer be the primary means of organization of the economy. Upon hearing this remark, [[Chen Yun]], a cautious reformer and the second-most powerful politician in China, walked out of the meeting.

== Three Represents ==
The term ″Three Represents″ was first used in 2000 by Jiang Zemin in a trip to [[Guangdong|Guangdong province]]. From then until its inclusion in the party's constitution at the [[16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China|16th National Congress]], the Three Represents became a constant theme for Jiang Zemin.

The three constituent parts mentioned in the quote above are as follows:

# "advanced productive forces", referring to economic production;
# "progressive course of China's advanced culture", referring to cultural development;
# and "the fundamental interests of the majority", referring to political consensus.

== Scientific Outlook on Development ==
The 3rd plenum of the [[16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China|16th Central Committee]] conceived and formulated the ideology of Scientific Outlook on Development.

== Xi Jinping Thought ==

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era consists of a 14-point basic policy, as follows:

# Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.
# The Communist Party of China should take a people-centric approach for the public interest.
# The continuation of "comprehensive deepening of reforms".
# Adopting new development ideas based on science and for "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development".
# Following "socialism with Chinese characteristics" with "people as the masters of the country".
# Governing China with the rule of law.
# "Practise socialist core values", including [[Marxism-Leninism]], [[Communism]] and "socialism with Chinese characteristics".
# "Improving people's livelihood and well-being is the primary goal of development".
# Coexist well with nature with "energy conservation and environmental protection" policies and "contribute to global ecological safety".
# Strengthen national security.
# The Communist Party of China should have "absolute leadership over" China's People's Liberation Army.
# Promoting the one country, two systems system for Hong Kong and Macau with a future of "complete national reunification"; and to follow the One-China policy and 1992 Consensus for Taiwan.
# Establish a common destiny between Chinese people and other people around the world with a "peaceful international environment".
# Improve party discipline in the Communist Party of China.

== Marxist Political Economy in Contemporary China ==
In 2020, Xi Jinping gave a [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm speech] to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, in which he made clear the continued importance that the CPC places on Marxist political economy. To quote:<blockquote>Marxist political economy is an important component of Marxism, and required learning for our efforts to uphold and develop Marxism. [...] There are people who believe Marxist political economy and ''Das Kapital'' are obsolete, but this is an arbitrary and erroneous judgment. Setting aside more distant events and looking at just the period since the global financial crisis, we can see that many capitalist countries have remained in an economic slump, with serious unemployment problems, intensifying polarization, and deepening social divides. The facts tell us that the contradictions between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production still exist, but they are manifested in ways and show characteristics that are somewhat different.</blockquote>He goes on to list a number of principles guiding the implementation of Marxist political economy in the PRC:<blockquote>First, we must uphold a people-centered approach to development. Development is for the people; this is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. [...] Second, we must uphold the new development philosophy. Third, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist economic system. According to Marxist political economy, ownership of the means of production is the core of the relations of production, and this determines a society's fundamental nature and the orientation of its development. Since reform and opening up... we have stressed the importance of continuing to make public ownership the mainstay while allowing ownership of other forms to develop side by side, and made it clear that both the public and non-public sectors are important components of the socialist market economy as well as crucial foundations for our nation's economic and social development. [...] Fourth, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist distribution system. [...] Fifth, we must uphold reforms to develop the socialist market economy. [...] Sixth, we must uphold the fundamental national policy of opening up.</blockquote>From this, it should be quite clear that Marxism (specifically Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought) retains a dominant role in the People's Republic of China, serving as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party.

== Views on capitalism ==
The CPC does not believe that it has abandoned Marxism. The party views the world as organized into two opposing camps; socialist and capitalist. They insist that socialism, on the basis of [[historical materialism]], will eventually triumph over capitalism. In recent years, when the party has been asked to explain the capitalist globalization occurring, the party has returned to the writings of [[Marx|Karl Marx]].

== Concepts ==

=== People's Democratic Dictatorship ===
In 2007, Hu Jintao noted in a speech that "people's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism ... without democracy there can be no socialism, and there can be no socialist modernization." To be clear, democracy, in the CPC's understanding of the word, does not mean democracy as practiced in liberal democracies. Instead it means the creation of a more balanced, equal society, "with socialism bringing about social justice.

==== People's democracy versus parliamentary democracy ====
Yang states that people's democracy, unlike parliamentary democracy, realises the principle of "popular sovereignty". The basis for the argument is that in a parliamentary democracy, a system in which ordinary people can vote for different parties, the parties available are in the pockets of the bourgeoisie.

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T05:50:52Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* Marxist Political Economy in Contemporary China */ Corrected a statement on the Xi speech (it was addressed to the Politburo, not the National People's Congress).

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that the PRC "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ world's leading economic power], and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao'_s_Legacy_Access_to_Land_and_Hunger_in_Modern_China study] from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 study] in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU film], for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao study] from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ study], this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ study] in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 study] in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism book] ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 paper] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 pamphlet] ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. '''For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.'''</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 report] from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 study] in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA death from malnutrition] than the United States, as well as a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World extreme poverty], despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 study] from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 study] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about book] ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract study] in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 paper], also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ analysis] by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ survey] done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 study] in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 study] in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ article] in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ article] in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 overwhelmingly approve] of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know paper] from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 study] in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Marxist Political Economy in Contemporary China ===
In 2020, Xi Jinping gave a [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm speech] to the Politburo of the Communist Party of China, in which he made clear the continued importance that the CPC places on Marxist political economy. To quote:<blockquote>Marxist political economy is an important component of Marxism, and required learning for our efforts to uphold and develop Marxism. [...] There are people who believe Marxist political economy and ''Das Kapital'' are obsolete, but this is an arbitrary and erroneous judgment. Setting aside more distant events and looking at just the period since the global financial crisis, we can see that many capitalist countries have remained in an economic slump, with serious unemployment problems, intensifying polarization, and deepening social divides. The facts tell us that the contradictions between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production still exist, but they are manifested in ways and show characteristics that are somewhat different.</blockquote>He goes on to list a number of principles guiding the implementation of Marxist political economy in the PRC:<blockquote>First, we must uphold a people-centered approach to development. Development is for the people; this is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. [...] Second, we must uphold the new development philosophy. Third, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist economic system. According to Marxist political economy, ownership of the means of production is the core of the relations of production, and this determines a society's fundamental nature and the orientation of its development. Since reform and opening up... we have stressed the importance of continuing to make public ownership the mainstay while allowing ownership of other forms to develop side by side, and made it clear that both the public and non-public sectors are important components of the socialist market economy as well as crucial foundations for our nation's economic and social development. [...] Fourth, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist distribution system. [...] Fifth, we must uphold reforms to develop the socialist market economy. [...] Sixth, we must uphold the fundamental national policy of opening up.</blockquote>From this, it should be quite clear that Marxism (specifically Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought) retains a dominant role in the People's Republic of China, serving as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party.
=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported Islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported Islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false study] conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to development and welfare economics, including his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India.

The results of Sen's study can be summarized by the following remark, in which he discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research. One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organization of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action book] ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze. Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it in an [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf article] for ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China]
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China]
* [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives]
* [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”]
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin]
* [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China]
* [https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/asia/china-xi-jinping-poverty-alleviation-intl-hnk/index.html CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World Our World in Data | Extreme Poverty Rate: China and United States]
* [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953]
* [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about Springer | The Basic Economic System of China]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)]
* [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US]
* [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System]
* [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real]
* [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong]
* [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer]
* [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"]
* [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm Qiushi | Opening Up New Frontiers for Marxist Political Economy in China in Contemporary China]
* [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action]
* [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf Jacobin | When Will Capitalism Answer For Its Crimes?]

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T05:49:35Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* Marxist Political Economy in China */ Added a word.

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that the PRC "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ world's leading economic power], and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao'_s_Legacy_Access_to_Land_and_Hunger_in_Modern_China study] from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 study] in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU film], for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao study] from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ study], this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ study] in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 study] in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism book] ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 paper] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 pamphlet] ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. '''For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.'''</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 report] from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 study] in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA death from malnutrition] than the United States, as well as a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World extreme poverty], despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 study] from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 study] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about book] ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract study] in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 paper], also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ analysis] by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ survey] done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 study] in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 study] in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ article] in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ article] in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 overwhelmingly approve] of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know paper] from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 study] in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Marxist Political Economy in Contemporary China ===
In 2020, Xi Jinping gave a [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm speech] to the National People's Congress, in which he made clear the continued importance that the Communist Party of China places on Marxist political economy. To quote:<blockquote>Marxist political economy is an important component of Marxism, and required learning for our efforts to uphold and develop Marxism. [...] There are people who believe Marxist political economy and ''Das Kapital'' are obsolete, but this is an arbitrary and erroneous judgment. Setting aside more distant events and looking at just the period since the global financial crisis, we can see that many capitalist countries have remained in an economic slump, with serious unemployment problems, intensifying polarization, and deepening social divides. The facts tell us that the contradictions between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production still exist, but they are manifested in ways and show characteristics that are somewhat different.</blockquote>He goes on to list a number of principles guiding the implementation of Marxist political economy in the PRC:<blockquote>First, we must uphold a people-centered approach to development. Development is for the people; this is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. [...] Second, we must uphold the new development philosophy. Third, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist economic system. According to Marxist political economy, ownership of the means of production is the core of the relations of production, and this determines a society's fundamental nature and the orientation of its development. Since reform and opening up... we have stressed the importance of continuing to make public ownership the mainstay while allowing ownership of other forms to develop side by side, and made it clear that both the public and non-public sectors are important components of the socialist market economy as well as crucial foundations for our nation's economic and social development. [...] Fourth, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist distribution system. [...] Fifth, we must uphold reforms to develop the socialist market economy. [...] Sixth, we must uphold the fundamental national policy of opening up.</blockquote>From this, it should be quite clear that Marxism (specifically Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought) retains a dominant role in the People's Republic of China, serving as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party.
=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported Islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported Islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false study] conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to development and welfare economics, including his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India.

The results of Sen's study can be summarized by the following remark, in which he discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research. One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organization of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action book] ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze. Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it in an [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf article] for ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China]
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China]
* [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives]
* [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”]
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin]
* [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China]
* [https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/asia/china-xi-jinping-poverty-alleviation-intl-hnk/index.html CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World Our World in Data | Extreme Poverty Rate: China and United States]
* [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953]
* [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about Springer | The Basic Economic System of China]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)]
* [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US]
* [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System]
* [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real]
* [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong]
* [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer]
* [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"]
* [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm Qiushi | Opening Up New Frontiers for Marxist Political Economy in China in Contemporary China]
* [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action]
* [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf Jacobin | When Will Capitalism Answer For Its Crimes?]

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T05:49:09Z

Flesh eating turtle: Added a new section on Marxist political economy, with a citation from a speech by Xi Jinping.

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that the PRC "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ world's leading economic power], and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao'_s_Legacy_Access_to_Land_and_Hunger_in_Modern_China study] from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 study] in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU film], for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao study] from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ study], this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ study] in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 study] in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism book] ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 paper] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 pamphlet] ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. '''For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.'''</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 report] from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 study] in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA death from malnutrition] than the United States, as well as a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World extreme poverty], despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 study] from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 study] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about book] ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract study] in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 paper], also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ analysis] by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ survey] done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 study] in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 study] in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ article] in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ article] in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 overwhelmingly approve] of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know paper] from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 study] in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Marxist Political Economy in China ===
In 2020, Xi Jinping gave a [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm speech] to the National People's Congress, in which he made clear the continued importance that the Communist Party of China places on Marxist political economy. To quote:<blockquote>Marxist political economy is an important component of Marxism, and required learning for our efforts to uphold and develop Marxism. [...] There are people who believe Marxist political economy and ''Das Kapital'' are obsolete, but this is an arbitrary and erroneous judgment. Setting aside more distant events and looking at just the period since the global financial crisis, we can see that many capitalist countries have remained in an economic slump, with serious unemployment problems, intensifying polarization, and deepening social divides. The facts tell us that the contradictions between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production still exist, but they are manifested in ways and show characteristics that are somewhat different.</blockquote>He goes on to list a number of principles guiding the implementation of Marxist political economy in the PRC:<blockquote>First, we must uphold a people-centered approach to development. Development is for the people; this is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. [...] Second, we must uphold the new development philosophy. Third, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist economic system. According to Marxist political economy, ownership of the means of production is the core of the relations of production, and this determines a society's fundamental nature and the orientation of its development. Since reform and opening up... we have stressed the importance of continuing to make public ownership the mainstay while allowing ownership of other forms to develop side by side, and made it clear that both the public and non-public sectors are important components of the socialist market economy as well as crucial foundations for our nation's economic and social development. [...] Fourth, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist distribution system. [...] Fifth, we must uphold reforms to develop the socialist market economy. [...] Sixth, we must uphold the fundamental national policy of opening up.</blockquote>From this, it should be quite clear that Marxism (specifically Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought) retains a dominant role in the People's Republic of China, serving as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party.
=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported Islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported Islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false study] conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to development and welfare economics, including his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India.

The results of Sen's study can be summarized by the following remark, in which he discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research. One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organization of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action book] ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze. Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it in an [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf article] for ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China]
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980]
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* [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”]
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin]
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* [https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/asia/china-xi-jinping-poverty-alleviation-intl-hnk/index.html CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World Our World in Data | Extreme Poverty Rate: China and United States]
* [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953]
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* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)]
* [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US]
* [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System]
* [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real]
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* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"]
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* [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf Jacobin | When Will Capitalism Answer For Its Crimes?]

Ideology of the Communist Party of China

2020-12-27T05:45:34Z

Flesh eating turtle: Added a new section on Marxist political economy.

The '''ideology of the Communist Party of China''' has undergone dramatic changes throughout the years, especially during [[Deng Xiaoping]]'s leadership and now [[Xi Jinping]]'s leadership. While some commentators have stated that the [[Communist Party of China]] (CPC) lacks a coherent ideology, the CPC still identifies as a [[Communism|communist]] party.

== Ideology ==

== Role of Ideology ==

=== Ideals and Convictions ===
In the article "Revolutionary Ideals are Higher than Heaven-Studying" (published in 2013), a person writing under the pen name "Autumn Stone", supports CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping's policy of strengthening the ideological conviction of party cadres, since (as the Leninist mantra goes) ideological unity leads to party unity.<ref>https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/revolutionary-ideals-are-higher-than-heaven-studying-comrade-xi-jinpings-important-elaboration-concerning-strengthening-ideals-and-convictions/</ref> Xi Jinping believes that wavering conviction in the party's ideals leads to increased corruption and unwanted behaviour.<ref>https://chinacopyrightandmedia.wordpress.com/2013/11/14/revolutionary-ideals-are-higher-than-heaven-studying-comrade-xi-jinpings-important-elaboration-concerning-strengthening-ideals-and-convictions/</ref>

In 2006, at the 16th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee, the CPC leadership under General Secretary Hu Jintao expressed the need to create a new value system, referred to as the [[Core Socialist Values|socialist core value system]]. In his speech, entitled "Resolution on Major Issues Concerning the Building of a Socialist Harmonious Society", to the 16th Plenary Session Hu Jintao stated;

== Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought ==
[[Marxism-leninism|Marxism–Leninism]] was the first official ideology of the Communist Party of China, and is a combination of [[Marxism|classical Marxism]] (the works of [[Marx|Karl Marx]] and [[Engels|Friedrich Engels]]) and [[Leninism]] (the thoughts of [[Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]]). According to the CPC, "Marxism–Leninism reveals the [[Historical materialism|universal laws governing the development of history of human society]]." To the CPC, Marxism–Leninism provides a vision of the contradictions in capitalist society and of the inevitability of a future socialist and communist societies. Marx and Engels first created the theory behind Marxist party building; Lenin developed it in practice before, during and after the [[Russian Revolution]] of 1917. Lenin's biggest achievement came in party-building, through concepts such as the [[vanguard party]] of the working class and [[democratic centralism]]. According to the ''[[People's Daily]]'', [[Maoism|Mao Zedong Thought]] "is Marxism–Leninism applied and developed in China".

Mao Zedong Thought was conceived not only by [[Chairman of the Communist Party of China|CPC Chairman]] [[Mao Zedong]], but by leading party officials. According to [[Xinhua]], Mao Zedong Thought is "an integration of the universal truth of Marxism–Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution." Currently, the CPC interprets the essence of Mao Zedong Thought as "[[Seeking truth from facts]]": "we must proceed from reality and put theory into practice in everything. In other words, we must integrate the universal theory of Marxism–Leninism with China's specific conditions."

While western observers tend to agree that the CPC has rejected orthodox Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (or at least basic thoughts within orthodox thinking), the CPC itself disagrees. Some Western commentators also talk about a "crisis of ideology" within the party; they believe that the CPC has rejected communism. Wang Xuedong, the Director of the Institute of World Socialism, said in response, "We know there are those abroad who think we have a 'crisis of ideology,' but we do not agree." According to former CPC General Secretary Jiang Zemin, the CPC "must never discard Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought." He said that "if we did, we would lose our foundation." He further noted that Marxism in general "like any science, needs to change as time and circumstances advance." Certain groups argue that Jiang Zemin ended the CPC's formal commitment to Marxism with the introduction of the ideological theory, the Three Represents. However, party theorist Leng Rong disagrees, claiming that "President Jiang rid the Party of the ideological obstacles to different kinds of ownership [...] He did not give up Marxism or socialism. He strengthened the Party by providing a modern understanding of Marxism and socialism—which is why we talk about a 'socialist market economy' with Chinese characteristics." Marxism in its core is, according to Jiang Zemin, methodology and the [[Pure communism|goal of a future, classless society]], not analyses of class and of the contradictions between different classes.

Karl Marx argued that society went through different stages of development, and believed that the capitalist mode of production was the third stage. The stages were: ancient, based mostly on [[slavery]]; [[Feudalism|feudal]]; capitalist; [[Socialism (Marxism)|socialist]]; and the communist mode of production. The attainment of true "communism" is described as the CPC's and China's "ultimate goal". While the CPC claims that China is in the [[primary stage of socialism]], party theorists argue that the current development stage "looks a lot like capitalism". Alternately, certain party theorists argue that "capitalism is the early or first stage of communism." In official pronouncements, the primary stage of socialism is predicted to last about 100 years, after which China will reach another developmental stage. Some have dismissed the concept of a primary stage of socialism as intellectual cynicism. According to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, a China analyst, "When I first heard this rationale, I thought it more comic than clever—a wry caricature of hack propagandists leaked by intellectual cynics. But the 100-year horizon comes from serious political theorists".

== Rationale for the reforms and Deng Xiaoping Theory ==
While it has been argued by Westerners that the reforms introduced by the CPC under Deng were a rejection of the party's Marxist heritage and ideology, the CPC does not view it as such. The rationale behind the reforms was that the [[productive forces]] of China lagged behind the advanced culture and ideology developed by the party-state. In 1986, to end this deficiency, the party came to the conclusion that the main contradiction in Chinese society was that between the backward productive forces and the advanced culture and ideology of China.

=== The creation of a "Socialist market economy" ===
The term "socialism with Chinese characteristics" was added to the General Program of the party's constitution at the 12th National Congress, without a definition of the term. At the 13th National Congress, held in 1987, Zhao Ziyang, the CPC General Secretary, claimed that socialism with Chinese characteristics was the "integration of the fundamental tenets of Marxism with the modernization drive in China" and was "[[scientific socialism]] rooted in the realities of present-day China".By this time the CPC believed that China was in the [[primary stage of socialism]], and therefore needed market relations to develop into a socialist society. Two years earlier, Su had tried to internationalize the term "primary stage of socialism" by claiming that socialism contained three different production phases. China was currently in the first phase, while the Soviet Union and the remaining [[Eastern Bloc]] countries were in the second phase. Because China was in the primary stage of socialism, Zhao argued that in "[China] for a long time to come, we shall develop various sectors of the economy, always ensuring the dominant position of the public sector". Further, some individuals should be allowed to become rich "before the objective of common prosperity [pure communism] is achieved". Lastly, during the primary stage of socialism, planning would no longer be the primary means of organization of the economy. Upon hearing this remark, [[Chen Yun]], a cautious reformer and the second-most powerful politician in China, walked out of the meeting.

== Three Represents ==
The term ″Three Represents″ was first used in 2000 by Jiang Zemin in a trip to [[Guangdong|Guangdong province]]. From then until its inclusion in the party's constitution at the [[16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China|16th National Congress]], the Three Represents became a constant theme for Jiang Zemin.

The three constituent parts mentioned in the quote above are as follows:

# "advanced productive forces", referring to economic production;
# "progressive course of China's advanced culture", referring to cultural development;
# and "the fundamental interests of the majority", referring to political consensus.

== Scientific Outlook on Development ==
The 3rd plenum of the [[16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China|16th Central Committee]] conceived and formulated the ideology of Scientific Outlook on Development.

== Xi Jinping Thought ==

Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era consists of a 14-point basic policy, as follows:

# Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.
# The Communist Party of China should take a people-centric approach for the public interest.
# The continuation of "comprehensive deepening of reforms".
# Adopting new development ideas based on science and for "innovative, coordinated, green, open and shared development".
# Following "socialism with Chinese characteristics" with "people as the masters of the country".
# Governing China with the rule of law.
# "Practise socialist core values", including [[Marxism-Leninism]], [[Communism]] and "socialism with Chinese characteristics".
# "Improving people's livelihood and well-being is the primary goal of development".
# Coexist well with nature with "energy conservation and environmental protection" policies and "contribute to global ecological safety".
# Strengthen national security.
# The Communist Party of China should have "absolute leadership over" China's People's Liberation Army.
# Promoting the one country, two systems system for Hong Kong and Macau with a future of "complete national reunification"; and to follow the One-China policy and 1992 Consensus for Taiwan.
# Establish a common destiny between Chinese people and other people around the world with a "peaceful international environment".
# Improve party discipline in the Communist Party of China.

== Marxist Political Economy in China ==
In 2020, Xi Jinping gave a [http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-11/08/c_560906.htm speech] to the National People's Congress, in which he made clear the continued importance that the Communist Party of China places on Marxist political economy. To quote:<blockquote>Marxist political economy is an important component of Marxism, and required learning for our efforts to uphold and develop Marxism. [...] There are people who believe Marxist political economy and ''Das Kapital'' are obsolete, but this is an arbitrary and erroneous judgment. Setting aside more distant events and looking at just the period since the global financial crisis, we can see that many capitalist countries have remained in an economic slump, with serious unemployment problems, intensifying polarization, and deepening social divides. The facts tell us that the contradictions between the socialization of production and the private possession of the means of production still exist, but they are manifested in ways and show characteristics that are somewhat different.</blockquote>He goes on to list a number of principles guiding the implementation of Marxist political economy in the PRC:<blockquote>First, we must uphold a people-centered approach to development. Development is for the people; this is the fundamental position of Marxist political economy. [...] Second, we must uphold the new development philosophy. Third, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist economic system. According to Marxist political economy, ownership of the means of production is the core of the relations of production, and this determines a society's fundamental nature and the orientation of its development. Since reform and opening up... we have stressed the importance of continuing to make public ownership the mainstay while allowing ownership of other forms to develop side by side, and made it clear that both the public and non-public sectors are important components of the socialist market economy as well as crucial foundations for our nation's economic and social development. [...] Fourth, we must uphold and improve our basic socialist distribution system. [...] Fifth, we must uphold reforms to develop the socialist market economy. [...] Sixth, we must uphold the fundamental national policy of opening up.</blockquote>From this, it should be quite clear that Marxism (specifically Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought) retains a dominant role in the People's Republic of China, serving as the guiding ideology of the Communist Party.

== Views on capitalism ==
The CPC does not believe that it has abandoned Marxism. The party views the world as organized into two opposing camps; socialist and capitalist. They insist that socialism, on the basis of [[historical materialism]], will eventually triumph over capitalism. In recent years, when the party has been asked to explain the capitalist globalization occurring, the party has returned to the writings of [[Marx|Karl Marx]].

== Concepts ==

=== People's Democratic Dictatorship ===
In 2007, Hu Jintao noted in a speech that "people's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism ... without democracy there can be no socialism, and there can be no socialist modernization." To be clear, democracy, in the CPC's understanding of the word, does not mean democracy as practiced in liberal democracies. Instead it means the creation of a more balanced, equal society, "with socialism bringing about social justice.

==== People's democracy versus parliamentary democracy ====
Yang states that people's democracy, unlike parliamentary democracy, realises the principle of "popular sovereignty". The basis for the argument is that in a parliamentary democracy, a system in which ordinary people can vote for different parties, the parties available are in the pockets of the bourgeoisie.

Republic of Cuba

2020-12-27T05:32:55Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* Healthcare Indicators */ Added more links.

'''Cuba''', officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' (Spanish: ''República de Cuba'') is a country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Having fought against European and American colonizers and military occupation for its independence, the now-independent state is governed by the [[Communist Party of Cuba]].

Its economy is run within the context of [[Marxism-leninism|Marxism-Leninism]], it began as a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-style planned economy, but having seen the recent economic successes of the [[China|People's Republic of China]] with to [[Ideology of the Communist Party of China|Socialism with Chinese Characteristics]], the Communist Party of Cuba has recently been liberalizing to attract foreign investment and build up a more prosperous socialist society.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20130730061603/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/12/cuba%20economy%20feinberg/cuba%20economy%20feinberg%209.pdf</ref>

Cuban healthcare is widely renowned throughout the world due to the healthcare diplomacy of sending doctors to poor nations which do not have advanced healthcare systems, as well as impressive innovation in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/30/cuba-first-eliminate-mother-baby-hiv-transmission

</ref><ref>https://time.com/3556670/ebola-cuba/</ref>

== History ==

=== Colonization period ===
In 1510, Diego Velázquez, one of the richest settlers in Spain, was in charge of colonizing Cuban territory, beginning the conquest with a prolonged reconnaissance and conquest operation, plagued by bloody incidents. To safeguard trade, Spain decided to organize large fleets that would have the port of Havana as an obligatory stopover point, strategically located at the beginning of the Gulf Stream. It's prime exports were coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The Spanish aristocracy imported a lot of African slaves for this colony.

From 1790, In just thirty years, more African slaves were introduced into Cuba than in the previous century and a half. With a population that in 1841 already exceeded a million and a half inhabitants, the Island harbored a highly polarized society; Between an oligarchy of Creole landowners and Spanish merchants and the slave masses. Slavery was an important source of social instability, not only because of the frequent rebellion by slaves - both individually and in groups - but also because the repudiation of the said institution gave rise to conspiracies with abolitionist purposes, none of which were indigenous-led.

Around 1850 the colony received an influx of lower-class Spanish immigrants, but even they were treated poorly by the aristocracy: sixteen or eighteen-hour workdays, seven days weekly, were common, and work conditions in for example the tobacco industry were rife with poor pay, monotony, and health hazards.

After the Spanish–American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of US $20 million and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States.

The Popular Socialist Party of Cuba was formed in Havana in 1925. It was later renamed the "'''Communist Revolutionary Union'''". In 1961 the party merged into the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI), the precursor of the current [[Communist Party of Cuba]].

=== '''The Batista Era''' ===
Before learning about the achievements of Cuban socialism, we should take a moment to examine what life was like before the revolution. Fulgencio Batista's defenders will typically claim that living standards were better before the revolution. However, a quick examination of the facts will show this to be nonsense. It is true that Batista's reign saw relatively high GDP growth; however, human development indicators paint a far bleaker picture. According to a [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf paper] from Cornell University:<blockquote>Opinions aside, although Cuba ranked as one of the most prosperous developing countries in the 1950s based on gross domestic product (GDP), social indicators for this period portray dismal social conditions, particularly among the rural peasants.</blockquote>Batista's regime left the Cuban people (especially the large rural population) mired in poverty and illness. According to the aforementioned paper, contemporary studies reported a 91% malnutrition rate among agricultural workers. Though some commentators consider this figure to be too high, "it nonetheless conveys the magnitude of rural impoverishment." Health conditions are summarized by a [https://caribbean.scielo.org/scielo.php?pid=S0043-31442013000300015&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt study] in the ''West Indian Medical Journal:''<blockquote>Poor hygiene, inefficient sanitation and malnutrition [contributed] to the infant mortality rate of 60 per 1000 lives, maternal mortality rate of 125.3 per 1000, [and] a general mortality rate of 6.4 per 1000.</blockquote>The rural population in particular suffered from dismal health conditions; according to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464859/ study] published in the ''American Journal of Public Health:''<blockquote>Cuba had only 1 rural hospital, only 11% of farm worker families drank milk, and rural infant mortality stood at 100 per 1000 live births.</blockquote>Infrastructure was also pitifully underdeveloped under Batista. According to the aforementioned Cornell paper:<blockquote>According to the 1953 census, 54.1 percent of rural homes had no toilets of any kind. Only 2.3 percent of rural homes had indoor plumbing, compared with 54.6 of urban homes. In rural areas, 9.1 percent of houses had electricity, compared with 87 percent of houses in urban areas.</blockquote>Illiteracy and unemployment were widespread under Batista:<blockquote>Nearly one-quarter of people 10 years of age and older could not read or write, and the unemployment rate was 25 percent.</blockquote>The high illiteracy rate is hardly surprising when one remembers the shoddy state of education in pre-revolutionary Cuba. According to an [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/05/cuban-development-model article] in the ''Guardian:''<blockquote>In 1958, under the Batista dictatorship, half of Cuba's children did not attend school.</blockquote>All of this is not even mentioning the imperialist domination, organized crime, and rampant exploitation that the Cuban people endured throughout Batista's reign. With all of this in mind, let us move on to examining the Cuban revolution and its achievements.

=== Revolutionary movement 1953–1958 ===
Due to the inertia and inability to govern of the bourgeois political parties, a movement of a new type was born, headed by [[Fidel Castro]], a young lawyer whose first political activities had developed in the university environment and the ranks of orthodoxy. On July 26, 1953, a crew of revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, assaulted Fort Moncada but failed. Nonetheless, the Cuban working classes were growing increasingly restless, and consequently, the neocolonial government (headed by Fulgencio Batista) suppressed trade unions, strikes, and censored much of the press. The failed attack inspired the creation of The 26th of July Movement, a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro.

In 1955, Fidel Castro was introduced to [[Che Guevara]]. During a long conversation with Fidel on the night of their first meeting, Guevara concluded that the Cuban's cause was the one for which he had been searching and before daybreak, he had signed up as a member of the July 26 Movement.

On 2 December 1956, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara along with 82 men landed in Cuba, having sailed in the boat Granma from Tuxpan, Veracruz, ready to organize and lead a revolution. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. While in the Sierra Maestra mountains the guerrilla forces attracted hundreds of Cuban volunteers and won several battles against the Cuban Army. By January of 1959, the Cuban masses had successfully overthrown the neocolonial government and Batista fled to Europe.

Having discussed the revolutionary war itself, we may now move on to discussing the achievements of the Cuban socialist state.

=== Economic and Nutritional Indicators After the Revolution ===
Since the very beginning, the Cuban revolution has been committed to the improvement of life for the people in both the economic and social spheres. According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America:<blockquote>When Cuba’s revolution came to power in 1959, its model of development aimed to link economic growth with advances in social justice. From the start, transforming economic changes were accompanied by equally transforming social initiatives. For example, in 1959, Cuba carried out a profound agrarian reform which ended ''latifundia'' [the land estate system] in the island and distributed land to thousands of formerly landless small farmers.</blockquote>Despite economic pressure, Cuba has largely succeeded in providing a decent quality of life for its people. According to United Nations data, the unemployment rate in Cuba [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html remains below 2%] as it has for many years. Unofficial rates may be slightly higher, but even ''twice'' this rate would still place Cuba well below the regional average (and ''far'' lower than under Batista).

According to the [https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html 2019 Global Hunger Index], Cuba is one of only seventeen nations on Earth (and only four in Latin America) to have a score lower than 5, signifying impressively low levels of hunger. Cuba's rate of undernourishment is below 2.5%.

According to a [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CUB+USA report] from Our World in Data (based at the University of Oxford), Americans are more than twice as likely as Cubans to die from malnutrition.

According to a [http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/cub_en.stm report] from the FAO, "remarkably low percentages of child malnutrition put Cuba at the forefront of developing countries."

According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105150934/http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf report] from the United States Department of Agriculture, the average Cuban consumes approx. 3300 calories per day, far above the Latin American and Caribbean average, and only slightly lower than in the United States. Approx. 2/3 of nutritional needs are met by monthly food rations, while the rest is bought independently. The report also states:<blockquote>The Cuban economy has made remarkable progress toward recovery from the economic disaster generated by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.</blockquote>In its [https://www1.wfp.org/countries/cuba report] on Cuba, the World Food Program (the food-assistance branch of the United Nations) states the following:<blockquote>Over the last 50 years, comprehensive social protection programs have largely eradicated poverty and hunger. Food-based social safety nets include a monthly food basket for the entire population, school feeding programs, and mother-and-child health care programs.</blockquote>This is especially impressive when Cuba is compared to other developing countries, and considering the decades of economic blockade that the nation has endured. The report also states:<blockquote>The largest island in the Caribbean, Cuba ranks 72th out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index and is one of the most successful in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).</blockquote>An [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba article] in the ''Guardian'' addresses this topic:<blockquote>...the evidence suggests that Cuba has made excellent progress towards the MDGs in the last decade, building on what are already universally acknowledged to be outstanding achievements in equitable health and education standards.

According to a new MDG Report Card by the Overseas Development Institute, Cuba is among the 20 best performing countries in the world.</blockquote>The article also includes a statement from a Cuban economist on how this progress is made:<blockquote>The Cuban economy is planned and we redistribute income from the most dynamic sectors, which generate most foreign exchange, towards those that are less dynamic but necessary for the country. That's how we maintain a budget to keep health and education high quality and free of charge to the user.</blockquote>The revolution greatly improved the housing situation in Cuba, and also brought significant urban development. According to Oxfam America:<blockquote>Initiatives in the cities were no less ambitious. Urban reform brought a halving of rents for Cuban tenants, opportunities for tenants to own their housing, and an ambitious program of housing construction for those living in marginal shantytowns. New housing, along with the implementation of measures to create jobs and reduce unemployment, especially among women, rapidly transformed the former shantytowns.</blockquote>Finally, the social security and pensions system in Cuba has drastically improved since the revolution, as evidenced by this statement from the aforementioned Oxfam America report:<blockquote>Both coverage and distribution have improved significantly since the revolution. With a pension system since the 1930's, Cuba was one of the first Latin American countries to establish one. It consisted of independent pension funds and by 1959 covered about 63% of workers, but the system varied greatly in terms of benefits and relied almost exclusively on workers' contributions. Since 1959, the program has been funded completely by the government. In 1958, about 63% of the labor force was covered for old age, disability, and survivors insurance; today, the coverage is universal.</blockquote>All in all, living standards have improved greatly since the revolution.

=== Sustainable Development and Environmental Preservation ===
According to a [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919303386 study] in the journal ''Ecological Economics,'' Cuba is [https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index/#4ce6dd7618bc the most sustainably developed country in the world]. This is based on the [https://www.sustainabledevelopmentindex.org/ Sustainable Development Index], which measures a nation's human development outcomes (health and education, per-capita income, etc.) and factors in the country's environmental impact. This result was confirmed in a separate [https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html report from the World Wildlife Fund].

Cuba is also [https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/09/23/eight-countries-meet-two-key-conditions-sustainable-development-united-nations-adopts-sustainable-development-goals/ one of the only nations to meet conditions for sustainable development], and has been [https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?1944/the-other-cuban-revolution praised by the WWF] for its "enlightened environmental policies." Considering the increasingly urgent threat posed by climate change and environmental catastrophe, Cuba provides a model for the rest of the world to aspire to.

=== Healthcare Indicators ===
Cuba's healthcare system is one of its most impressive and well-known achievements. According to the aforementioned [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf paper] from Cornell University:<blockquote>Cuba’s superior health indicators—highly ranked both regionally and globally—are attributed to the country’s universal primary healthcare services.</blockquote>The Cuban health system is based on public investment and universal provision. According to a [http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/NASW%20CUBA%20REPORT.pdf report] from the National Association of Social Workers:<blockquote>Cuba has the largest number of doctors per capita of any country in the world... the country devotes almost a quarter of its gross domestic product (GDP) to education and health care—nearly twice the percentage of U.S. GDP allotted to the same expenses. As a result, the country guarantees free education and health care for all citizens, and women receive six weeks of paid prenatal maternity leave and up to one year of paid leave after giving birth.</blockquote>According to a 2019 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 study] published in the ''Journal of Developing Societies'', Cuba's health indicators surpass those of developed nations, despite far lower expenditures:<blockquote>While Cuba spends about one-twentieth per capita on healthcare compared to the USA... people in Cuba nevertheless enjoy longer life expectancy (79 years) than do people in the USA (78 years)... Cuba also has a superior childhood mortality rate (the number of deaths to age 5 per 1,000 live births per year) of six, compared to eight in the USA.</blockquote>According to [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=CU-US data] from the World Bank, Cuba's life expectancy is slightly ''longer'' than that of the United States. Compare this to the pre-revolutionary era, when the Cuban life expectancy was approximately six years shorter than the American life expectancy.

Also, according to [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=CU-US data] from the World Bank, Cuba's infant mortality rate is approximately one-third ''lower'' than that of the United States. Compare this to the pre-revolutionary era, when the Cuban infant mortality rate was nearly ''double'' that of the USA.

Cuba has also made some amazing healthcare developments. According to the WHO, Cuba is the [https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/ first nation in the world to eliminate mother-to-child HIV and syphilis transmission].

According to the ''Washington Post'', Cuba has [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/in-a-first-u-s-trial-to-test-cuban-lung-cancer-vaccine/?utm_term=.9a6205587548 developed a potential vaccine against lung cancer], which has shown very promising results, and is being tested in the USA.

The Cuban experience provides an important model for other nations to follow. According to a [https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/4/817/686547 study] in the ''International Journal of Epidemiology'':<blockquote>Cuba represents an important alternative example where modest infrastructure investments combined with a well-developed public health strategy have generated health status measures comparable with those of industrialized countries... If the Cuban experience were generalized to other poor and middle-income countries human health would be transformed.</blockquote>An [https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews article] in the ''Guardian'' summarizes this topic quite well:<blockquote>Whether it is a consultation, dentures or open heart surgery, citizens are entitled to free treatment. As a result the impoverished island boasts better health indicators than its exponentially richer neighbour 90 miles across the Florida straits.</blockquote>As one aforementioned [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 study] put it:<blockquote>Cuba is an anomaly, a poor nation that has very good public healthcare... Cuba’s public healthcare system, all in all, provides a strong example of progress, an inspiration for other less developed nations to emulate.</blockquote>This is an enormously impressive achievement.

=== Educational Developments ===
Since the revolution, enormous strides have been made in education. One of the most significant developments was the National Literacy Campaign, spearheaded by Che Guevara. According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America:<blockquote>The National Literacy Campaign of 1961, recognized as one of the most successful initiatives of its kind, mobilized teachers, workers, and secondary school students to teach more than 700,000 persons how to read. This campaign reduced the illiteracy rate from 23% to 4% in the space of one year.</blockquote>Before the revolution, literacy in Cuba was between 60% and 76%, depending on the estimates used. Today, the [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html CIA World Factbook] gives Cuba's literacy rate as 99.8%.

In addition, Cuba [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU spends a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other nation in the world]. This has resulted in impressive results; according to a 2014 [https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf study] from the World Bank, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/world-bank-cuba-has-the-b_b_5925864 Cuba has the only "high quality" educational system in Latin America].

=== Infrastructural Developments ===
In 1959, approx. 50% of Cuban households had access to electricity. According to a [https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf report] from the Environmental Defense Fund, by 1989, more than 95% of households had access to electricity, including in rural areas, which had previously been almost entirely deprived. Cuba also surpassed many of its neighbors in terms of electricity generation:<blockquote>By 1990 Cuba had roughly 1.8 times more generating capacity per person than the Dominican Republic and 1.3 times more than Jamaica.</blockquote>In Cuba, access to clean water and sanitation has greatly improved since the revolution. According to United Nations [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html data], as of 2018, 96.4% of the urban population and 89.8% of the rural population had access to clean drinking water, while 94.4% of the urban population and 89.1% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation services:

An excellent [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html article] in the ''Independent'' discussed this issue quite well:<blockquote>This is Fidel’s legacy. Clean water and electricity for all. And universal free education and healthcare. Cubans often joke that they’re healthier and better educated than Americans despite the 50-year-plus US blockade.

So for me, rural Cuba is Fidel’s Cuba. His ideals live on here – and the rural poor of Cuba have benefited the most from his cradle-to-grave policies. Here, the grandchildren of peasants really do go on to become consultant surgeons and commercial airline pilots.</blockquote>This is an enormous credit to the revolution.

=== Social Policy ===
The Cuban revolution has also made great strides in eliminating discrimination and inequality. As the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America states:<blockquote>Social policy has also favored the development of equity across society, including the equitable distribution of benefits across all sectors of the population, sometimes favoring the most vulnerable. In the last 40 years Cubans have greatly reduced differences in income between the lowest and the highest paid persons. Women have benefited significantly from the revolution as they have educated themselves and entered the labor force in large numbers. The differences among Cubans of different races have also been reduced.</blockquote>Considering the widespread racial and gender discrimination that existed before the revolution, these achievements must be admired.

=== Popular Opinion in Cuba ===
According to an [https://newrepublic.com/article/121502/cuban-poll-shows-more-political-satisfaction-americans article] published in the ''New Republic'', Cubans are significantly more satisfied with their political system than Americans are with theirs. The same holds true for the healthcare and education systems:<blockquote>More than two-thirds of Cubans—68 percent—are satisfied with their health care system. About 66 percent of Americans said the same in a November 2014 Gallup poll. Seventy-two percent of Cubans are satisfied with their education system, while an August 2014 Gallup poll found that less than half of Americans—48 percent—are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the quality of K-12 education.</blockquote>The Cuban people also recently ratified a new constitution, which reasserts the role of the Communist Party, and affirms that Cuba is a socialist state advancing towards communism. The constitution also includes some political and economic reforms, such as the recognition of small businesses, and the presumption of innocence in the court system. According to an [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-constitution-referendum-idUSKCN1QE22Y article] from ''Reuters'', independent evidence supports the official vote tally (approx. 90% support):<blockquote>The independent online newspaper ''El Toque'' asked readers to send in local tallies, a dozen of which showed overwhelming support for ratification.</blockquote>Yoani Sanchez, "Cuba's best-known dissident," witnessed the count at her local polling station, reporting the results as "400 yes votes, 25 no votes and 4 blank ballots." This suggests that the official results were correct, and the Cuban people did overwhelmingly support the new constitution.

An aforementioned [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html article] in the ''Independent'', written by an author whose family lives in Cuba, sums this issue up well:<blockquote>Most Cubans I speak to support the reshaping of the economy and the greater ties with the US. Just like us, they want to better their lives, they want a better mobile phone, a bigger house, they want to travel. But none of them would want to live in a Cuba, no matter how rich, without universal free education, free healthcare, cheap public transport and the lowest rates of violent crime in the Americas. None of them. This is Fidel's legacy.</blockquote>While the Cuban people largely support economic reform and normalization of relations with the USA, their overall support for the achievements of their socialist system remains high. As the ''New Republic'' puts it:<blockquote>Objective indicators, like the country's low infant mortality and illiteracy rates, have long shown that Cuba has relatively strong social services. This new polling data suggests that Cubans are well aware of it.</blockquote>This is an important credit to the revolution.

=== "But What About the Cuban Exiles?" ===
The most common argument against Cuban socialism is that the Cuban exile population (and their strong distaste for socialism) somehow "proves" that socialist Cuba is terrible. However, this omits a key fact: the exiles come primarily from the wealthy class of Cuba. According to a [https://www.jstor.org/stable/799194?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents study] in the journal ''Social Problems:''<blockquote>Comparison of the occupational, age, and educational composition of the community with the Cuban population indicates that the refugees are better educated and come from higher status occupations than the population from which they have exiled themselves... more recent exiles are more representative of the Cuban population, but the rural worker is still vastly underrepresented.</blockquote>Another thing to consider is that the exile took place during a time of conflict and difficulty for Cuba; the revolution was still very new, and the government had not entirely established itself yet. This likely explains why there were some outliers (i.e. exiles from the working-class population), although the majority were still from the wealthy sectors of Cuban society.

=== Conclusion ===
Cuba is a nation with many problems; the economy has slowed since the fall of the Soviet Union (losing your only major trading partner tends to hurt a nation's economy), and international pressure from the USA continues to place Cuba under strain. However, the enormous achievements of the revolution cannot be overlooked; Cuba has provided first-world health and educational standards on a third-world budget, as well as above-average nutrition and infrastructure, all while standing up to the world's most powerful imperialist force, only ninety miles off its shores.

One struggles to find a proper statement with which to sum up the achievements of the Cuban revolution. Perhaps this one, from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (from April 11, 2000):<blockquote>Cuba’s achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. [Cuba] demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities – health, education, and literacy.</blockquote>Perhaps the best statement is given by Aviva Chomsky in her [https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4447044/mod_resource/content/1/A-History-of-the-Cuban-Revolution.pdf book] ''A History of the Cuban Revolution:''<blockquote>The Revolution has been wildly audacious, experimental, and diverse. It has evolved under often adverse circumstances. It created unprecedented socioeconomic equality, and showed the world that it is indeed possible for a poor, Third World country to feed, educate, and provide health care for its population... If we want to imagine a better world for all of us, I can think of no better place to start than by studying the Cuban Revolution.</blockquote>That's something which we can all appreciate.

== External links ==
{{External links|Wikipedia=Cuba|Leftypedia=Cuba|EcuRed=Cuba}}

== References ==

* [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf Cornell University | Cuba's Food-Rationing System and Alternatives]
* [https://caribbean.scielo.org/scielo.php?pid=S0043-31442013000300015&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt West Indian Medical Journal | Cuba: Healthcare and the Revolution]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464859/ American Journal of Public Health | The Curious Case of Cuba]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/05/cuban-development-model The Guardian | Cuba: A Development Model That Proved the Doubters Wrong]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf Oxfam America | Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads]
* [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html UNdata | Country Profiles: Cuba]
* [https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html 2019 Global Hunger Index | Cuba]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CUB+USA Our World in Data | Deaths by Malnutrition in the USA and Cuba]
* [http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/cub_en.stm Food and Agricultural Organization (United Nations) | Report on Nutrition in Cuba]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105150934/http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf USDA | Cuba Food and Agricultural Situation]
* [https://www1.wfp.org/countries/cuba World Food Program USA (United Nations) | Cuba Has "Largely Eliminated Hunger and Poverty"]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba The Guardian | Why We Should Applaud Cuba's Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919303386 Ecological Economics | The Sustainable Development Index: Measuring the Ecological Efficiency of Human Development in the Anthropocene]
* [https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index/#4ce6dd7618bc Forbes | Every Country in the World is Developing, According to the New Sustainable Development Index]
* [https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html Telesur | As World Burns, Cuba Number One for Sustainable Development]
* [https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/09/23/eight-countries-meet-two-key-conditions-sustainable-development-united-nations-adopts-sustainable-development-goals/ Global Footprint Network | Only Eight Countries Meet Two Key Conditions for Sustainable Development, as United Nations Adopts Sustainable Development Goals]
* [https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?1944/the-other-cuban-revolution World Wildlife Fund | The Other Cuban Revolution]
* [http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/NASW%20CUBA%20REPORT.pdf National Association of Social Workers | Social Services in Cuba]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 Journal of Developing Societies | Cuban Public Healthcare: A Model of Success for Developing Nations]
* [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=CU-US World Bank | Life Expectancy in the USA and Cuba]
* [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=CU-US World Bank | Infant Mortality in the USA and Cuba]
* [https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/ World Health Organization (United Nations) | Cuba First Country in the World to Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmissions]
* [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/in-a-first-u-s-trial-to-test-cuban-lung-cancer-vaccine/?utm_term=.9a6205587548 The Washington Post | USA to Test Cuban Lung-Cancer Vaccine]
* [https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/4/817/686547 International Journal of Epidemiology | Health in Cuba]
* [https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews The Guardian | Healthcare in Cuba]
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html CIA World Factbook | Cuba]
* [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU CIA World Factbook | Country Comparison: Educational Expenditures by Nation]
* [https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf World Bank | Great Teachers: How to Raise Student Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean]
* [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/world-bank-cuba-has-the-b_b_5925864 HuffPost | World Bank: Cuba Has the Best Education System in Latin America and the Caribbean]
* [https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf Environmental Defense Fund | The Cuban Electric Grid]
* [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html UNdata | Country Profiles: Cuba]
* [https://newrepublic.com/article/121502/cuban-poll-shows-more-political-satisfaction-americans New Republic | Polls Show Cubans Have Higher Political Satisfaction Than Americans]
* [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-constitution-referendum-idUSKCN1QE22Y Reuters | Cubans Overwhelmingly Ratify New Socialist Constitution]
* [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html The Independent | My Family Live in Cuba - The People May Be Poor, But Fidel Castro's Legacy Will Live On]
* [https://www.jstor.org/stable/799194?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents Social Problems | Cubans in Exile: A Demographic Analysis]
* [https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4447044/mod_resource/content/1/A-History-of-the-Cuban-Revolution.pdf "A History of the Cuban Revolution" by Aviva Chomsky]

Republic of Cuba

2020-12-27T05:22:08Z

Flesh eating turtle: Added new sections on post-revolutionary socialist achievements in China, as well as a great deal of links and citations.

'''Cuba''', officially the '''Republic of Cuba''' (Spanish: ''República de Cuba'') is a country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Having fought against European and American colonizers and military occupation for its independence, the now-independent state is governed by the [[Communist Party of Cuba]].

Its economy is run within the context of [[Marxism-leninism|Marxism-Leninism]], it began as a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-style planned economy, but having seen the recent economic successes of the [[China|People's Republic of China]] with to [[Ideology of the Communist Party of China|Socialism with Chinese Characteristics]], the Communist Party of Cuba has recently been liberalizing to attract foreign investment and build up a more prosperous socialist society.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20130730061603/http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2012/12/cuba%20economy%20feinberg/cuba%20economy%20feinberg%209.pdf</ref>

Cuban healthcare is widely renowned throughout the world due to the healthcare diplomacy of sending doctors to poor nations which do not have advanced healthcare systems, as well as impressive innovation in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jun/30/cuba-first-eliminate-mother-baby-hiv-transmission

</ref><ref>https://time.com/3556670/ebola-cuba/</ref>

== History ==

=== Colonization period ===
In 1510, Diego Velázquez, one of the richest settlers in Spain, was in charge of colonizing Cuban territory, beginning the conquest with a prolonged reconnaissance and conquest operation, plagued by bloody incidents. To safeguard trade, Spain decided to organize large fleets that would have the port of Havana as an obligatory stopover point, strategically located at the beginning of the Gulf Stream. It's prime exports were coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The Spanish aristocracy imported a lot of African slaves for this colony.

From 1790, In just thirty years, more African slaves were introduced into Cuba than in the previous century and a half. With a population that in 1841 already exceeded a million and a half inhabitants, the Island harbored a highly polarized society; Between an oligarchy of Creole landowners and Spanish merchants and the slave masses. Slavery was an important source of social instability, not only because of the frequent rebellion by slaves - both individually and in groups - but also because the repudiation of the said institution gave rise to conspiracies with abolitionist purposes, none of which were indigenous-led.

Around 1850 the colony received an influx of lower-class Spanish immigrants, but even they were treated poorly by the aristocracy: sixteen or eighteen-hour workdays, seven days weekly, were common, and work conditions in for example the tobacco industry were rife with poor pay, monotony, and health hazards.

After the Spanish–American War, Spain and the United States signed the Treaty of Paris (1898), by which Spain ceded Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and Guam to the United States for the sum of US $20 million and Cuba became a protectorate of the United States.

The Popular Socialist Party of Cuba was formed in Havana in 1925. It was later renamed the "'''Communist Revolutionary Union'''". In 1961 the party merged into the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations (ORI), the precursor of the current [[Communist Party of Cuba]].

=== '''The Batista Era''' ===
Before learning about the achievements of Cuban socialism, we should take a moment to examine what life was like before the revolution. Fulgencio Batista's defenders will typically claim that living standards were better before the revolution. However, a quick examination of the facts will show this to be nonsense. It is true that Batista's reign saw relatively high GDP growth; however, human development indicators paint a far bleaker picture. According to a [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf paper] from Cornell University:<blockquote>Opinions aside, although Cuba ranked as one of the most prosperous developing countries in the 1950s based on gross domestic product (GDP), social indicators for this period portray dismal social conditions, particularly among the rural peasants.</blockquote>Batista's regime left the Cuban people (especially the large rural population) mired in poverty and illness. According to the aforementioned paper, contemporary studies reported a 91% malnutrition rate among agricultural workers. Though some commentators consider this figure to be too high, "it nonetheless conveys the magnitude of rural impoverishment." Health conditions are summarized by a [https://caribbean.scielo.org/scielo.php?pid=S0043-31442013000300015&script=sci_arttext&tlng=pt study] in the ''West Indian Medical Journal:''<blockquote>Poor hygiene, inefficient sanitation and malnutrition [contributed] to the infant mortality rate of 60 per 1000 lives, maternal mortality rate of 125.3 per 1000, [and] a general mortality rate of 6.4 per 1000.</blockquote>The rural population in particular suffered from dismal health conditions; according to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3464859/ study] published in the ''American Journal of Public Health:''<blockquote>Cuba had only 1 rural hospital, only 11% of farm worker families drank milk, and rural infant mortality stood at 100 per 1000 live births.</blockquote>Infrastructure was also pitifully underdeveloped under Batista. According to the aforementioned Cornell paper:<blockquote>According to the 1953 census, 54.1 percent of rural homes had no toilets of any kind. Only 2.3 percent of rural homes had indoor plumbing, compared with 54.6 of urban homes. In rural areas, 9.1 percent of houses had electricity, compared with 87 percent of houses in urban areas.</blockquote>Illiteracy and unemployment were widespread under Batista:<blockquote>Nearly one-quarter of people 10 years of age and older could not read or write, and the unemployment rate was 25 percent.</blockquote>The high illiteracy rate is hardly surprising when one remembers the shoddy state of education in pre-revolutionary Cuba. According to an [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/aug/05/cuban-development-model article] in the ''Guardian:''<blockquote>In 1958, under the Batista dictatorship, half of Cuba's children did not attend school.</blockquote>All of this is not even mentioning the imperialist domination, organized crime, and rampant exploitation that the Cuban people endured throughout Batista's reign. With all of this in mind, let us move on to examining the Cuban revolution and its achievements.

=== Revolutionary movement 1953–1958 ===
Due to the inertia and inability to govern of the bourgeois political parties, a movement of a new type was born, headed by [[Fidel Castro]], a young lawyer whose first political activities had developed in the university environment and the ranks of orthodoxy. On July 26, 1953, a crew of revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro, assaulted Fort Moncada but failed. Nonetheless, the Cuban working classes were growing increasingly restless, and consequently, the neocolonial government (headed by Fulgencio Batista) suppressed trade unions, strikes, and censored much of the press. The failed attack inspired the creation of The 26th of July Movement, a Cuban vanguard revolutionary organization and later a political party led by Fidel Castro.

In 1955, Fidel Castro was introduced to [[Che Guevara]]. During a long conversation with Fidel on the night of their first meeting, Guevara concluded that the Cuban's cause was the one for which he had been searching and before daybreak, he had signed up as a member of the July 26 Movement.

On 2 December 1956, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara along with 82 men landed in Cuba, having sailed in the boat Granma from Tuxpan, Veracruz, ready to organize and lead a revolution. Attacked by Batista's military soon after landing, many of the 82 men were either killed in the attack or executed upon capture; only 22 regrouped in the Sierra Maestra mountain range. While in the Sierra Maestra mountains the guerrilla forces attracted hundreds of Cuban volunteers and won several battles against the Cuban Army. By January of 1959, the Cuban masses had successfully overthrown the neocolonial government and Batista fled to Europe.

Having discussed the revolutionary war itself, we may now move on to discussing the achievements of the Cuban socialist state.

=== Economic and Nutritional Indicators After the Revolution ===
Since the very beginning, the Cuban revolution has been committed to the improvement of life for the people in both the economic and social spheres. According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America:<blockquote>When Cuba’s revolution came to power in 1959, its model of development aimed to link economic growth with advances in social justice. From the start, transforming economic changes were accompanied by equally transforming social initiatives. For example, in 1959, Cuba carried out a profound agrarian reform which ended ''latifundia'' [the land estate system] in the island and distributed land to thousands of formerly landless small farmers.</blockquote>Despite economic pressure, Cuba has largely succeeded in providing a decent quality of life for its people. According to United Nations data, the unemployment rate in Cuba [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html remains below 2%] as it has for many years. Unofficial rates may be slightly higher, but even ''twice'' this rate would still place Cuba well below the regional average (and ''far'' lower than under Batista).

According to the [https://www.globalhungerindex.org/cuba.html 2019 Global Hunger Index], Cuba is one of only seventeen nations on Earth (and only four in Latin America) to have a score lower than 5, signifying impressively low levels of hunger. Cuba's rate of undernourishment is below 2.5%.

According to a [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CUB+USA report] from Our World in Data (based at the University of Oxford), Americans are more than twice as likely as Cubans to die from malnutrition.

According to a [http://www.fao.org/ag/agn/nutrition/cub_en.stm report] from the FAO, "remarkably low percentages of child malnutrition put Cuba at the forefront of developing countries."

According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105150934/http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf report] from the United States Department of Agriculture, the average Cuban consumes approx. 3300 calories per day, far above the Latin American and Caribbean average, and only slightly lower than in the United States. Approx. 2/3 of nutritional needs are met by monthly food rations, while the rest is bought independently. The report also states:<blockquote>The Cuban economy has made remarkable progress toward recovery from the economic disaster generated by the collapse of the Soviet Bloc.</blockquote>In its [https://www1.wfp.org/countries/cuba report] on Cuba, the World Food Program (the food-assistance branch of the United Nations) states the following:<blockquote>Over the last 50 years, comprehensive social protection programs have largely eradicated poverty and hunger. Food-based social safety nets include a monthly food basket for the entire population, school feeding programs, and mother-and-child health care programs.</blockquote>This is especially impressive when Cuba is compared to other developing countries, and considering the decades of economic blockade that the nation has endured. The report also states:<blockquote>The largest island in the Caribbean, Cuba ranks 72th out of 189 countries in the 2019 Human Development Index and is one of the most successful in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).</blockquote>An [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/30/millennium-development-goals-cuba article] in the ''Guardian'' addresses this topic:<blockquote>...the evidence suggests that Cuba has made excellent progress towards the MDGs in the last decade, building on what are already universally acknowledged to be outstanding achievements in equitable health and education standards.

According to a new MDG Report Card by the Overseas Development Institute, Cuba is among the 20 best performing countries in the world.</blockquote>The article also includes a statement from a Cuban economist on how this progress is made:<blockquote>The Cuban economy is planned and we redistribute income from the most dynamic sectors, which generate most foreign exchange, towards those that are less dynamic but necessary for the country. That's how we maintain a budget to keep health and education high quality and free of charge to the user.</blockquote>The revolution greatly improved the housing situation in Cuba, and also brought significant urban development. According to Oxfam America:<blockquote>Initiatives in the cities were no less ambitious. Urban reform brought a halving of rents for Cuban tenants, opportunities for tenants to own their housing, and an ambitious program of housing construction for those living in marginal shantytowns. New housing, along with the implementation of measures to create jobs and reduce unemployment, especially among women, rapidly transformed the former shantytowns.</blockquote>Finally, the social security and pensions system in Cuba has drastically improved since the revolution, as evidenced by this statement from the aforementioned Oxfam America report:<blockquote>Both coverage and distribution have improved significantly since the revolution. With a pension system since the 1930's, Cuba was one of the first Latin American countries to establish one. It consisted of independent pension funds and by 1959 covered about 63% of workers, but the system varied greatly in terms of benefits and relied almost exclusively on workers' contributions. Since 1959, the program has been funded completely by the government. In 1958, about 63% of the labor force was covered for old age, disability, and survivors insurance; today, the coverage is universal.</blockquote>All in all, living standards have improved greatly since the revolution.

=== Sustainable Development and Environmental Preservation ===
According to a [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800919303386 study] in the journal ''Ecological Economics,'' Cuba is [https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinero/2019/12/01/every-country-is-developing-according-to-the-new-sustainable-development-index/#4ce6dd7618bc the most sustainably developed country in the world]. This is based on the [https://www.sustainabledevelopmentindex.org/ Sustainable Development Index], which measures a nation's human development outcomes (health and education, per-capita income, etc.) and factors in the country's environmental impact. This result was confirmed in a separate [https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/As-World-Burns-Cuba-Number-1-for-Sustainable-Development-WWF-20161027-0018.html report from the World Wildlife Fund].

Cuba is also [https://www.footprintnetwork.org/2015/09/23/eight-countries-meet-two-key-conditions-sustainable-development-united-nations-adopts-sustainable-development-goals/ one of the only nations to meet conditions for sustainable development], and has been [https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?1944/the-other-cuban-revolution praised by the WWF] for its "enlightened environmental policies." Considering the increasingly urgent threat posed by climate change and environmental catastrophe, Cuba provides a model for the rest of the world to aspire to.

=== Healthcare Indicators ===
Cuba's healthcare system is one of its most impressive and well-known achievements. According to the aforementioned [https://www.coralgablescavaliers.org/ourpages/users/099346/IB%20History/Americas/Cuba/Cuba_s%20Food%20Rationing.pdf paper] from Cornell University:<blockquote>Cuba’s superior health indicators—highly ranked both regionally and globally—are attributed to the country’s universal primary healthcare services.</blockquote>The Cuban health system is based on public investment and universal provision. According to a [http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/NASW%20CUBA%20REPORT.pdf report] from the National Association of Social Workers:<blockquote>Cuba has the largest number of doctors per capita of any country in the world... the country devotes almost a quarter of its gross domestic product (GDP) to education and health care—nearly twice the percentage of U.S. GDP allotted to the same expenses. As a result, the country guarantees free education and health care for all citizens, and women receive six weeks of paid prenatal maternity leave and up to one year of paid leave after giving birth.</blockquote>According to [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=CU-US data] from the World Bank, Cuba's life expectancy is slightly ''longer'' than that of the United States. Compare this to the pre-revolutionary era, when the Cuban life expectancy was approximately six years shorter than the American life expectancy.

Also, according to [https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.IMRT.IN?locations=CU-US data] from the World Bank, Cuba's infant mortality rate is approximately one-third ''lower'' than that of the United States. Compare this to the pre-revolutionary era, when the Cuban infant mortality rate was nearly ''double'' that of the USA.

According to a 2019 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 study] published in the ''Journal of Developing Societies'', Cuba's health indicators surpass those of developed nations, despite far lower expenditures:<blockquote>While Cuba spends about one-twentieth per capita on healthcare compared to the USA... people in Cuba nevertheless enjoy longer life expectancy (79 years) than do people in the USA (78 years)... Cuba also has a superior childhood mortality rate (the number of deaths to age 5 per 1,000 live births per year) of six, compared to eight in the USA.</blockquote>Cuba has also made some amazing healthcare developments. According to the WHO, Cuba is the [https://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/mtct-hiv-cuba/en/ first nation in the world to eliminate mother-to-child HIV and syphilis transmission].

According to the ''Washington Post'', Cuba has [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2016/10/27/in-a-first-u-s-trial-to-test-cuban-lung-cancer-vaccine/?utm_term=.9a6205587548 developed a potential vaccine against lung cancer], which has shown very promising results, and is being tested in the USA.

The Cuban experience provides an important model for other nations to follow. According to a [https://academic.oup.com/ije/article/35/4/817/686547 study] in the ''International Journal of Epidemiology'':<blockquote>Cuba represents an important alternative example where modest infrastructure investments combined with a well-developed public health strategy have generated health status measures comparable with those of industrialized countries... If the Cuban experience were generalized to other poor and middle-income countries human health would be transformed.</blockquote>An [https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2007/jul/17/internationalnews article] in the ''Guardian'' summarizes this topic quite well:<blockquote>Whether it is a consultation, dentures or open heart surgery, citizens are entitled to free treatment. As a result the impoverished island boasts better health indicators than its exponentially richer neighbour 90 miles across the Florida straits.</blockquote>As one aforementioned [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0169796X19826731 study] put it:<blockquote>Cuba is an anomaly, a poor nation that has very good public healthcare... Cuba’s public healthcare system, all in all, provides a strong example of progress, an inspiration for other less developed nations to emulate.</blockquote>This is an enormously impressive achievement.

=== Educational Developments ===
Since the revolution, enormous strides have been made in education. One of the most significant developments was the National Literacy Campaign, spearheaded by Che Guevara. According to a [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America:<blockquote>The National Literacy Campaign of 1961, recognized as one of the most successful initiatives of its kind, mobilized teachers, workers, and secondary school students to teach more than 700,000 persons how to read. This campaign reduced the illiteracy rate from 23% to 4% in the space of one year.</blockquote>Before the revolution, literacy in Cuba was between 60% and 76%, depending on the estimates used. Today, the [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cu.html CIA World Factbook] gives Cuba's literacy rate as 99.8%.

In addition, Cuba [https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/369rank.html#CU spends a higher percentage of GDP on education than any other nation in the world]. This has resulted in impressive results; according to a 2014 [https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/LAC/Great_Teachers-How_to_Raise_Student_Learning-Barbara-Bruns-Advance%20Edition.pdf study] from the World Bank, [https://www.huffpost.com/entry/world-bank-cuba-has-the-b_b_5925864 Cuba has the only "high quality" educational system in Latin America].

=== Infrastructural Developments ===
In 1959, approx. 50% of Cuban households had access to electricity. According to a [https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/cuban-electric-grid.pdf report] from the Environmental Defense Fund, by 1989, more than 95% of households had access to electricity, including in rural areas, which had previously been almost entirely deprived. Cuba also surpassed many of its neighbors in terms of electricity generation:<blockquote>By 1990 Cuba had roughly 1.8 times more generating capacity per person than the Dominican Republic and 1.3 times more than Jamaica.</blockquote>In Cuba, access to clean water and sanitation has greatly improved since the revolution. According to United Nations [http://data.un.org/en/iso/cu.html data], as of 2018, 96.4% of the urban population and 89.8% of the rural population had access to clean drinking water, while 94.4% of the urban population and 89.1% of the rural population had access to improved sanitation services:

An excellent [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html article] in the ''Independent'' discussed this issue quite well:<blockquote>This is Fidel’s legacy. Clean water and electricity for all. And universal free education and healthcare. Cubans often joke that they’re healthier and better educated than Americans despite the 50-year-plus US blockade.

So for me, rural Cuba is Fidel’s Cuba. His ideals live on here – and the rural poor of Cuba have benefited the most from his cradle-to-grave policies. Here, the grandchildren of peasants really do go on to become consultant surgeons and commercial airline pilots.</blockquote>This is an enormous credit to the revolution.

=== Social Policy ===
The Cuban revolution has also made great strides in eliminating discrimination and inequality. As the [https://web.archive.org/web/20090303221405/http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/research_reports/art3670.html/OA-Cuba_Social_Policy_at_Crossroads-en.pdf report] from Oxfam America states:<blockquote>Social policy has also favored the development of equity across society, including the equitable distribution of benefits across all sectors of the population, sometimes favoring the most vulnerable. In the last 40 years Cubans have greatly reduced differences in income between the lowest and the highest paid persons. Women have benefited significantly from the revolution as they have educated themselves and entered the labor force in large numbers. The differences among Cubans of different races have also been reduced.</blockquote>Considering the widespread racial and gender discrimination that existed before the revolution, these achievements must be admired.

=== Popular Opinion in Cuba ===
According to an [https://newrepublic.com/article/121502/cuban-poll-shows-more-political-satisfaction-americans article] published in the ''New Republic'', Cubans are significantly more satisfied with their political system than Americans are with theirs. The same holds true for the healthcare and education systems:<blockquote>More than two-thirds of Cubans—68 percent—are satisfied with their health care system. About 66 percent of Americans said the same in a November 2014 Gallup poll. Seventy-two percent of Cubans are satisfied with their education system, while an August 2014 Gallup poll found that less than half of Americans—48 percent—are “completely” or “somewhat” satisfied with the quality of K-12 education.</blockquote>The Cuban people also recently ratified a new constitution, which reasserts the role of the Communist Party, and affirms that Cuba is a socialist state advancing towards communism. The constitution also includes some political and economic reforms, such as the recognition of small businesses, and the presumption of innocence in the court system. According to an [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-constitution-referendum-idUSKCN1QE22Y article] from ''Reuters'', independent evidence supports the official vote tally (approx. 90% support):<blockquote>The independent online newspaper ''El Toque'' asked readers to send in local tallies, a dozen of which showed overwhelming support for ratification.</blockquote>Yoani Sanchez, "Cuba's best-known dissident," witnessed the count at her local polling station, reporting the results as "400 yes votes, 25 no votes and 4 blank ballots." This suggests that the official results were correct, and the Cuban people did overwhelmingly support the new constitution.

An aforementioned [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/fidel-castro-death-cuba-embargo-peasants-poor-urban-areas-modernisation-a7441036.html article] in the ''Independent'', written by an author whose family lives in Cuba, sums this issue up well:<blockquote>Most Cubans I speak to support the reshaping of the economy and the greater ties with the US. Just like us, they want to better their lives, they want a better mobile phone, a bigger house, they want to travel. But none of them would want to live in a Cuba, no matter how rich, without universal free education, free healthcare, cheap public transport and the lowest rates of violent crime in the Americas. None of them. This is Fidel's legacy.</blockquote>While the Cuban people largely support economic reform and normalization of relations with the USA, their overall support for the achievements of their socialist system remains high. As the ''New Republic'' puts it:<blockquote>Objective indicators, like the country's low infant mortality and illiteracy rates, have long shown that Cuba has relatively strong social services. This new polling data suggests that Cubans are well aware of it.</blockquote>This is an important credit to the revolution.

=== "But What About the Cuban Exiles?" ===
The most common argument against Cuban socialism is that the Cuban exile population (and their strong distaste for socialism) somehow "proves" that socialist Cuba is terrible. However, this omits a key fact: the exiles come primarily from the wealthy class of Cuba. According to a [https://www.jstor.org/stable/799194?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents study] in the journal ''Social Problems:''<blockquote>Comparison of the occupational, age, and educational composition of the community with the Cuban population indicates that the refugees are better educated and come from higher status occupations than the population from which they have exiled themselves... more recent exiles are more representative of the Cuban population, but the rural worker is still vastly underrepresented.</blockquote>Another thing to consider is that the exile took place during a time of conflict and difficulty for Cuba; the revolution was still very new, and the government had not entirely established itself yet. This likely explains why there were some outliers (i.e. exiles from the working-class population), although the majority were still from the wealthy sectors of Cuban society.

=== Conclusion ===
Cuba is a nation with many problems; the economy has slowed since the fall of the Soviet Union (losing your only major trading partner tends to hurt a nation's economy), and international pressure from the USA continues to place Cuba under strain. However, the enormous achievements of the revolution cannot be overlooked; Cuba has provided first-world health and educational standards on a third-world budget, as well as above-average nutrition and infrastructure, all while standing up to the world's most powerful imperialist force, only ninety miles off its shores.

One struggles to find a proper statement with which to sum up the achievements of the Cuban revolution. Perhaps this one, from former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (from April 11, 2000):<blockquote>Cuba’s achievements in social development are impressive given the size of its gross domestic product per capita. As the human development index of the United Nations makes clear year after year, Cuba should be the envy of many other nations, ostensibly far richer. [Cuba] demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities – health, education, and literacy.</blockquote>Perhaps the best statement is given by Aviva Chomsky in her [https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/4447044/mod_resource/content/1/A-History-of-the-Cuban-Revolution.pdf book] ''A History of the Cuban Revolution:''<blockquote>The Revolution has been wildly audacious, experimental, and diverse. It has evolved under often adverse circumstances. It created unprecedented socioeconomic equality, and showed the world that it is indeed possible for a poor, Third World country to feed, educate, and provide health care for its population... If we want to imagine a better world for all of us, I can think of no better place to start than by studying the Cuban Revolution.</blockquote>That's something which we can all appreciate.

== External links ==
{{External links|Wikipedia=Cuba|Leftypedia=Cuba|EcuRed=Cuba}}

== References ==

* Cornell University | Cuba's Food-Rationing System and Alternatives
* West Indian Medical Journal | Cuba: Healthcare and the Revolution
* American Journal of Public Health | The Curious Case of Cuba
* The Guardian | Cuba: A Development Model That Proved the Doubters Wrong
* Oxfam America | Cuba: Social Policy at the Crossroads
* UNdata | Country Profiles: Cuba
* 2019 Global Hunger Index | Cuba
* Our World in Data | Deaths by Malnutrition in the USA and Cuba
* Food and Agricultural Organization (United Nations) | Report on Nutrition in Cuba
* USDA | Cuba Food and Agricultural Situation
* World Food Program USA (United Nations) | Cuba Has "Largely Eliminated Hunger and Poverty"
* The Guardian | Why We Should Applaud Cuba's Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals
* Ecological Economics | The Sustainable Development Index: Measuring the Ecological Efficiency of Human Development in the Anthropocene
* Forbes | Every Country in the World is Developing, According to the New Sustainable Development Index
* Telesur | As World Burns, Cuba Number One for Sustainable Development
* Global Footprint Network | Only Eight Countries Meet Two Key Conditions for Sustainable Development, as United Nations Adopts Sustainable Development Goals
* World Wildlife Fund | The Other Cuban Revolution
* National Association of Social Workers | Social Services in Cuba
* World Bank | Life Expectancy in the USA and Cuba
* World Bank | Infant Mortality in the USA and Cuba
* Journal of Developing Societies | Cuban Public Healthcare: A Model of Success for Developing Nations
* World Health Organization (United Nations) | Cuba First Country in the World to Eliminate Mother-to-Child HIV Transmissions
* The Washington Post | USA to Test Cuban Lung-Cancer Vaccine
* International Journal of Epidemiology | Health in Cuba
* The Guardian | Healthcare in Cuba
* CIA World Factbook | Cuba
* CIA World Factbook | Country Comparison: Educational Expenditures by Nation
* World Bank | Great Teachers: How to Raise Student Learning in Latin America and the Caribbean
* HuffPost | World Bank: Cuba Has the Best Education System in Latin America and the Caribbean
* Environmental Defense Fund | The Cuban Electric Grid
* UNdata | Country Profiles: Cuba
* New Republic | Polls Show Cubans Have Higher Political Satisfaction Than Americans
* Reuters | Cubans Overwhelmingly Ratify New Socialist Constitution
* The Independent | My Family Live in Cuba - The People May Be Poor, But Fidel Castro's Legacy Will Live On
* Oxford University Press | Cubans in Exile: A Demographic Analysis
* "A History of the Cuban Revolution" by Aviva Chomsky

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T05:00:33Z

Flesh eating turtle: More links.

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that the PRC "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ world's leading economic power], and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao'_s_Legacy_Access_to_Land_and_Hunger_in_Modern_China study] from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 study] in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU film], for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao study] from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ study], this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ study] in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 study] in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism book] ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 paper] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 pamphlet] ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. '''For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.'''</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 report] from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 study] in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA death from malnutrition] than the United States, as well as a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World extreme poverty], despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 study] from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 study] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about book] ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract study] in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 paper], also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ analysis] by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ survey] done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 study] in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 study] in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ article] in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ article] in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 overwhelmingly approve] of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know paper] from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 study] in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported Islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported Islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false study] conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to development and welfare economics, including his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India.

The results of Sen's study can be summarized by the following remark, in which he discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research. One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organization of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action book] ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze. Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it in an [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf article] for ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China]
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China]
* [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives]
* [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”]
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin]
* [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China]
* [https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/asia/china-xi-jinping-poverty-alleviation-intl-hnk/index.html CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World Our World in Data | Extreme Poverty Rate: China and United States]
* [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953]
* [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about Springer | The Basic Economic System of China]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)]
* [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US]
* [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System]
* [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real]
* [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong]
* [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer]
* [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"]
* [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action]
* [https://jacobinmag.com/2018/08/capitalism-socialism-khmer-rouge-cambodia-china-famine-friedersdorf Jacobin | When Will Capitalism Answer For Its Crimes?]

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T04:55:36Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* Socialism with Chinese Characteristics */ Adding more links and citations.

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that The People's Republic of China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ world's leading economic power], and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao'_s_Legacy_Access_to_Land_and_Hunger_in_Modern_China study] from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 study] in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU film], for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao study] from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ study], this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ study] in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 study] in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism book] ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 paper] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 pamphlet] ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. '''For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.'''</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 report] from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 study] in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA death from malnutrition] than the United States, as well as a lower rate of [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World extreme poverty], despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 study] from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 study] in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about book] ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract study] in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 paper], also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ analysis] by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ survey] done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 study] in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 study] in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ article] in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ article] in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 overwhelmingly approve] of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know paper] from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 study] in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported Islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported Islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth study conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India:

* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China

The results of the study can be summarized by the following remark, in which Sen discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research:

* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980

One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organization of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his book ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze:

* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action

Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it, writing in ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China]
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China]
* [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China]
* [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00213624.2020.1791579 Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives]
* [https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-transformation-of-chinese-socialism Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0486613419888298?icid=int.sj-abstract.similar-articles.3 Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”]
* [https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1917/ichtci/11.htm#v25zz99h-360 Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin]
* [https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20402 UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X20300626 China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China]
* [https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/27/asia/china-xi-jinping-poverty-alleviation-intl-hnk/index.html CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/malnutrition-death-rates?tab=chart&country=CHN~USA Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States]
* [https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty?tab=chart&time=1990..latest&country=CHN~USA&region=World Our World in Data | Extreme Poverty Rate: China and United States]
* [https://www.nber.org/papers/w21397 National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953]
* [https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-13-6895-0#about Springer | The Basic Economic System of China]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002086.abstract British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)]
* [https://gh.bmj.com/content/5/3/e002087?int_source=trendmd&int_medium=cpc&int_campaign=usage-042019 British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)]
* [http://chinadatalab.ucsd.edu/viz-blog/pandemic-sees-increase-in-chinese-support-for-regime-decrease-in-views-towards-us/ China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US]
* [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/07/long-term-survey-reveals-chinese-government-satisfaction/ Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction]
* [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192512118757128 International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China]
* [https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13572334.2015.1134909 Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System]
* [https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/11/16/chinas-orwellian-social-credit-score-isnt-real/ Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real]
* [https://www.wired.com/story/china-social-credit-score-system/ Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong]
* [https://www.dw.com/en/africans-approve-of-china-says-afrobarometer/a-36214106 DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer]
* [https://pedl.cepr.org/publications/chinese-investment-africa-how-much-do-we-know Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know]
* [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879933718300551 Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03l3Ra4bL_A YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"]
* [https://scholar.harvard.edu/sen/publications/hunger-and-public-action Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action]

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T04:34:15Z

Flesh eating turtle: Added links to studies and books from the original post.

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that The People's Republic of China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the [https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/10/06/unfavorable-views-of-china-reach-historic-highs-in-many-countries/pg_2020-10-06_global-views-china_0-10/ world's leading economic power], and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao'_s_Legacy_Access_to_Land_and_Hunger_in_Modern_China study] from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a [https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/009770047500100101 study] in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvgLUGRhuwU film], for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3484775/ study] in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265935983_Mao study] from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7123409/ study], this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4331212/ study] in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned [https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUPXjnGnhEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Amartya+Kumar+Sen%22+china+india+famine&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGsY2Lx5fjAhVjdt8KHTRIDSoQ6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false book] on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A [https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17289187/ study] in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 study in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her book ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 paper in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his pamphlet ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 report from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 study in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of death from malnutrition than the United States, despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 study in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the book ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 study in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another paper, also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 analysis by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 survey done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 study in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 study in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an article in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An article in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who overwhelmingly approve of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 paper from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 study in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth study conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India:

* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China

The results of the study can be summarized by the following remark, in which Sen discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research:

* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980

One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organisation of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his book ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze:

* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action

Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it, writing in ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power
* Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now
* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
* London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China
* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980
* Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique
* YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China
* Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China
* Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China
* Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives
* Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun
* Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”
* Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin
* UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China
* China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China
* CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.
* Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States
* National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953
* Review of Radical Political Economics | The Impact of State-Owned Enterprises of China's Economic Growth
* British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)
* British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)
* China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US
* Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction
* International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China
* Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System
* Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real
* Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong
* DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer
* Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know
* Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa
* YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"
* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980
* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T04:28:35Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* Socialism with Chinese Characteristics */

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that The People's Republic of China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the world's leading economic power, and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a study in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a book on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a study from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a study in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a study in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on film, for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned study in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned study from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned study in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another study, this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned study in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned book on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A study in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 study in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her book ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 paper in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his pamphlet ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will shortly see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 report from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 study in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of death from malnutrition than the United States, despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 study in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the book ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 study in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another paper, also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 analysis by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 survey done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 study in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 study in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an article in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An article in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who overwhelmingly approve of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 paper from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 study in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth study conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India:

* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China

The results of the study can be summarized by the following remark, in which Sen discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research:

* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980

One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organisation of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his book ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze:

* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action

Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it, writing in ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power
* Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now
* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
* London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China
* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980
* Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique
* YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China
* Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China
* Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China
* Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives
* Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun
* Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”
* Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin
* UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China
* China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China
* CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.
* Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States
* National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953
* Review of Radical Political Economics | The Impact of State-Owned Enterprises of China's Economic Growth
* British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)
* British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)
* China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US
* Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction
* International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China
* Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System
* Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real
* Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong
* DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer
* Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know
* Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa
* YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"
* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980
* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action

People's Republic of China

2020-12-27T04:27:54Z

Flesh eating turtle: /* The Continued Role of Public Ownership */ Edited the public ownership section with more relevant citations, taken from an update I made to the recent China masterpost over on Reddit.

'''China''', officially the '''People's Republic of China''' ('''PRC'''), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population of around 1.4 billion in 2019. It is led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). The Chinese constitution states that The People's Republic of China "is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants," and that the state organs "apply the principle of democratic centralism."<ref name=":0">Constitution of the People's Republic of China ([https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/China_2018.pdf?lang=en Read in English])</ref>

The People's Republic of China is one of only four officially Marxist-Leninist states in the world today (alongside Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba). Over the last few years it has emerged as the world's leading economic power, and as a result has been subjected to near-constant demonization from Western media and propaganda outlets. In order to gain a proper understanding of the PRC, and to distinguish legitimate points of criticism (of which there are many) from Sinophobic slanders, it is necessary to go over the history, economy, and development of the country.

== History ==
This is a general, simplistic overview of the history of the PRC, up to the present day.

=== Pre-Communist China ===
Before going over the revolutionary and post-revolutionary periods in China, it is necessary to understand what the country was like before the People's Republic was declared in 1949. According to a study in the ''Journal of Global Health'', China at this time was "one of the most impoverished nations on Earth." To quote:<blockquote>After a century of domination by Europeans, the fall of the Qing Empire was followed by partial Japanese occupation and a 38-year civil war. The vast majority of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture, and a survey on the causes of death conducted in 1929-31 revealed that more than half of all deaths were caused by infectious diseases.</blockquote>In a book on China and India, Nobel-winning economist Amartya Sen (Harvard University) notes that pre-communist China suffered from "high levels of mortality, undernutrition, and illiteracy." According to a study from the London School of Economics:<blockquote>Western visitors to China in the 1920s and 1930s paint a picture where land scarcity is the predominant cause of high levels of hunger and poverty. Famines were widespread and severe and periods of hunger were a fact of life for many Chinese peasants. Ownership of land was highly unequal. The best estimates from this period suggest that, taken together, landlords (who were rich enough to avoid doing agricultural labor) and rich peasants (who did agricultural labor but also relied heavily on tenants and hire labor) typically owned upward of half the land though their share in the population typically did not exceed 10 percent. Poor peasants and agricultural laborers who owned little or no land formed the majority of the population.</blockquote>Educational standards in Kuomintang China were horrible. According to a study in the journal ''Population Studies'', in 1949 "more than 80 per cent of China's population was illiterate. Enrollment rates in primary and middle schools were abysmal: 20 and 6 per cent, respectively." In addition, women's rights were highly curtailed and patriarchal norms were widespread; according to a study in the journal ''Modern China'', this trend continued as Kuomintang rule took root in Taiwan. All-in-all, KMT China can be safely said to have been one of the poorest societies in the world, plagued by starvation, patriarchy, and feudal oppression.

=== The Maoist Period (1949-1976) ===
After the PRC's founding was declared in 1949 (an event captured on film, for those who are interested), the Communists quickly set to work implementing their new agenda. According to the aforementioned study in the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>The Communists were quick to make good on promises of land-reform and establishment of a national “people’s” government. In 1950 a Marriage Law was enacted, providing equal rights for women, and the first National Health Congress established a focus on rural health, disease prevention through campaigns, and collaboration between western and traditional Chinese medicine.</blockquote>According to the aforementioned study from the London School of Economics, the land reforms "led to the destruction of feudal power relationships in agriculture," leading to "universal and egalitarian access to land within localities." The reforms also led to a dramatic reduction in poverty and hunger. To quote:<blockquote>Mao's legacy of universal and egalitarian access to land represents a key means of avoiding hunger. This helps us to understand how China has managed to escape the high levels of hunger which typify low income countries.</blockquote>Health outcomes improved dramatically after the Communists took power. To quote from the ''Journal of Global Health:''<blockquote>China’s progress on communicable disease control (CDC) in the 30 years after establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949 is widely regarded as remarkable. Life expectancy soared by around 30 years, infant mortality plummeted and smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases and many other infections were either eliminated or decreased massively in incidence, largely as a result of CDC.</blockquote>The aforementioned study in ''Population Studies'', confirms these findings, noting that "China's growth in life expectancy between 1950 and 1980 ranks as among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history." Another study, this one from the journal ''Health Services Evaluation'', makes similar observations:<blockquote>The health of China’s population improved dramatically during the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, established in 1949. By the mid-1970s, China was already undergoing the epidemiologic transition, years ahead of other nations of similar economic status, and by 1980, life expectancy (67 years) exceeded that of most similarly low-income nations by 7 years.</blockquote>According to the ''Journal of Global Health,'' these improvements "can be attributed to population mobilization, mass campaigns and a focus on sanitation, hygiene, clean water and clean delivery," as well as "clinical care and continuing public health programs to the masses through community-funded medical schemes and the establishment of community-based health workers."

Education also improved dramatically in the Maoist era. According to the aforementioned study in ''Population Studies:''<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao. [...] During the 1950s, capital investments in primary and secondary school infrastructure increased tenfold, and dramatic increases in attendance followed. Primary school enrolment rates rose to 80 per cent by 1958 and to 97 per cent by 1975, and secondary school rates increased to 46 per cent by 1977.</blockquote>Amartya Sen makes similar observations, noting that literacy was greatly expanded under Mao:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>These achievements of the Maoist era made possible China's later economic miracle. Amartya Sen states that "the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms." In his aforementioned book on the topic, Sen summarizes the achievements of the Maoist period thusly:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things… [including] The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health… [a] remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment… a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>Of course, with all of this said, it should not be denied that the Maoist era saw some extremely serious problems. Most notable is the Great Leap Forward, which was a colossal failure, contributing to the Great Chinese Famine. A study in the ''Journal of Health Economics'' notes that the famine had major long-term effects on health and economic development in China, leading to reduced population height, and having a negative impact on labor supply and earnings of famine survivors. Even still, it cannot be denied that the Maoist period brought massive gains to the Chinese people, massively improving health, education, and nutrition, and laying the groundwork for China's later economic development.

=== Socialism with Chinese Characteristics ===
In 1978, in response to a perceived lack of necessary economic progress, the Communist Party of China embarked on an ambitious reform program, leading to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics (SWCC). These reform programs have produced impressive results; according to a 2020 study in the ''Journal of Economic Issues:''<blockquote>Succinctly, in terms of economic development, the model has simultaneously achieved the following, all on unprecedented scales, particularly since the turn of the century: rapid expansion in both investment and consumption, rapid rises in both productivity and the wage rate, and rapid increases in job creation. All these have provided the necessary material conditions for broader social development: the fundamental enhancement of the power of labor, the reconstruction of a publicly-funded comprehensive healthcare system, and the acceleration of the process of urbanization.</blockquote>Despite these achievements, many leftists take little-or-no interest in SWCC, arguing that it is simply a form of "state capitalism." However, this ignores the reality of how China's economy is really structured. In her book ''The Transformation of Chinese Socialism'', political scientist Lin Chun (London School of Economics) lists some of the key characteristics of the Chinese economy:<blockquote>[Including] the relatively strong "human capital," accumulated through decades (including in the pre-reform period) of investment in basic needs, public education and health care; state and rural collective ownership of the land; the dominant public sector that retains the nation's strategic industries; government sponsorship of trade and technology transfer; state regulation of the movement of foreign capital, major financial transactions, and currency exchange; coordination between the center and provinces in fiscal and tax management, public spending, and developing regional comparative advantages; booming township and village enterprises (TVES); a countrywide increase in household incomes (including remittances sent home by migrant workers) and, therefore, a "consuming revolution" of a major increase in consumption.</blockquote>These characteristics (particularly the abolition of private ownership in land, the "dominant public sector," and state control of trade and foreign capital) are clearly not those of a capitalist economy, and instead point towards China pursuing a socialist model of development.

Another good discussion of this topic may be found in a 2020 paper in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', which argues that "primitive socialist accumulation - operating in conflict with capitalist accumulation - offers a more appropriate theoretical framework for studying China’s development." In other words, China is not capitalist, but is rather in the primary stage of socialism.

For those who remain unconvinced, I would remind them of what Lenin said in his pamphlet ''The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It:''<blockquote>You will find that, given a really revolutionary-democratic state, state-monopoly capitalism inevitably and unavoidably implies a step, and more than one step, towards socialism! For if a huge capitalist undertaking becomes a monopoly, it means that it serves the whole nation. If it has become a state monopoly, it means that the state (i.e., the armed organization of the population, the workers and peasants above all, provided there is revolutionary democracy) directs the whole undertaking. In whose interest? Either in the interest of the landowners and capitalists, in which case we have not a revolutionary-democratic, but a reactionary-bureaucratic state, an imperialist republic. Or in the interest of revolutionary democracy—and then it is a step towards socialism. For socialism is merely the next step forward from state-capitalist monopoly. Or, in other words, socialism is merely state-capitalist monopoly which is made to serve the interests of the whole people and has to that extent ceased to be capitalist monopoly.</blockquote>This perfectly describes the situation in the People's Republic of China: while there are capitalists and markets, they are under the constant control of the Communist Party and the proletarian state. In addition, state-owned enterprises continue to play an essential role in the Chinese economy, as we will now see.

=== Growth and Poverty Reduction Under SWCC ===
Having discussed the nature of SWCC, we can now look into some of its achievements. To begin with, poverty in the PRC has been dramatically reduced. According to a 2019 report from Philip Alston (UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights):<blockquote>China’s achievements in alleviating extreme poverty in recent years, and in meeting highly ambitious targets for improving social well-being, have been extraordinary. [...] Over the past three decades, and with particular speed in recent years, China has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. This is a staggering achievement and is a credit to those responsible.</blockquote>Similarly, a 2020 study in the ''China Economic Review'' notes that income growth has been "widely shared nationwide," resulting in "substantial, ongoing rural poverty reduction" throughout the country. A major milestone was reached with the recent announcement (acknowledged in Western media outlets, such as CNN) that the last poverty-stricken counties in China have been delisted, "leaving no county in a state of absolute poverty countrywide."

Malnutrition has continued to decline massively in China over the last several decades. According to the University of Oxford's Our World in Data project, China now has a lower rate of death from malnutrition than the United States, despite having a significantly lower GDP-per-capita.

Economic growth has also increased dramatically. According to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research, "reforms yielded a significant growth and structural transformation differential. GDP growth is 4.2 percentage points higher and the share of the labor force in agriculture is 23.9 percentage points lower compared with the continuation of the pre-1978 policies." These results are remarkably impressive, and indicate that SWCC has been successful at its principal goals of developing China's productive forces and meeting the needs of the proletariat.

=== The Continued Role of Public Ownership ===
Contrary to the popular perception that China's growth has been the result of a transition to capitalism, the evidence shows that public ownership continues to play a key growth-driving role in the PRC's economy. According to the aforementioned 2020 study in the ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', "strategic industries, which Lenin called 'the commanding heights of economy,' are still state-owned and have played a very important role in China’s economic development." The author notes that "after decades of market reform, China’s state sector, rather than disappearing or being marginalized, has become a leader in strategic sectors and the driver of its investment-led growth." To learn more, we would recommend the book ''The Basic Economic System of China'', which goes into this issue in much more depth.

=== Healthcare in Modern China ===
In the Maoist period, China built one of the developing world's most robust public healthcare systems, based on rural primary care, barefoot doctors, and regular mass campaigns, known as "patriotic health campaigns." Since the beginning of the reform period, China's healthcare system has gone through a number of phases. After an unfortunate period of regression and privatization, China has spent the last decade making rapid progress towards a new universal healthcare system. A 2020 study in the ''British Medical Journal (BMJ)'' summarizes many of the goals and programs of China's recent health reforms:<blockquote>Priority was given to expanding the scope and health service package of the basic insurance coverage, improving provider payment mechanisms, as well as increasing the financing level, fiscal subsidies and reimbursement rates. [...] The government has increased investment in primary care, with initiatives that include strengthening the infrastructure of primary healthcare (PHC) facilities, expanding human resources for primary care through incentives and supporting projects, establishing a general practitioner system and improving the capacity of PHC personnel through training and education, such as general practice training and continuous medical education programmes. [...] The ‘equalization of basic public health services’ policy implemented the national BPHS programme and the crucial public health service (CPHS) programme. [...] This policy seeks to achieve universal availability and promote a more equitable provision of basic health services to all urban and rural citizens.</blockquote>The study goes on to note that China has made significant progress towards meeting its reform goals, and building a developed and equitable universal healthcare system:<blockquote>During the past 10 years since the latest round of healthcare reform, China made steady progress in achieving the reform goals and UHC [i.e. universal health coverage].</blockquote>Another paper, also from the ''BMJ,'' summarizes the recent improvements in China's health outcomes, as well as access to, and cost of, healthcare:<blockquote>The results include the following: out-of-pocket expenditures as a percentage of current health expenditures in China have dropped dramatically from 60.13% in 2000 to 35.91% in 2016; the health insurance coverage of the total population jumped from 22.1% in 2003 to 95.1% in 2013; the average life expectancy increased from 72.0 to 76.4, maternal mortality dropped from 59 to 29 per 100 000 live births, the under-5 mortality rate dropped from 36.8 to 9.3 per 1000 live births, and neonatal mortality dropped from 21.4 to 4.7 per 1000 live births between 2000 and 2017; and so on.</blockquote>In short, while China's healthcare system is not perfect, it is certainly moving in the right direction. As with many other aspects of China's socialist construction, this provides a model for other developing nations; according to the aforementioned ''BMJ'' study:<blockquote>The lessons learnt from China could help other nations improve UHC in sustainable and adaptive ways, including continued political support, increased health financing and a strong PHC system as basis. The experience of the rapid development of UHC in China can provide a valuable mode for countries (mainly LMICs) planning their own path further on in the UHC journey.</blockquote>This is another benefit of China's rise to prominence on the world stage. China demonstrates to the world that it is possible for a desperately poor country to rise from poverty, develop its economy, and meet the needs of its people.

=== Democracy and Popular Opinion in China ===
Polls conducted by Western researchers have consistently found that the Chinese people have a high level of support for their government, and for the Communist Party. A 2020 analysis by the China Data Lab (based at UC San Diego) found that support for the government has been increasing as of late. Similar results were found in a 2016 survey done by Harvard University's Ash Center:<blockquote>The survey team found that compared to public opinion patterns in the U.S., in China there was very high satisfaction with the central government. In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either “relatively satisfied” or “highly satisfied” with Beijing. In contrast to these findings, Gallup reported in January of this year that their latest polling on U.S. citizen satisfaction with the American federal government revealed only 38 percent of respondents were satisfied with the federal government. </blockquote>It is worth noting that the Chinese people are significantly less satisfied with local government than they are with the central government. Still, these results disprove the common notion that the Chinese people are ruled by an iron fisted regime that they do not want. Indeed, one official from the Ash Center noted that their findings "run counter to the general idea that these people are marginalized and disfavored by policies." As he states:<blockquote>We tend to forget that for many in China, and in their lived experience of the past four decades, each day was better than the next.</blockquote>In addition, most Chinese people are satisfied with the level of democracy in the PRC. A 2018 study in the ''International Political Science Review'' notes that "surveys suggest that the majority of Chinese people feel satisfied with the level of democracy in China." However, the study notes that "people who hold liberal democratic values" are more likely to be dissatisfied with the state of democracy in China. By contrast, those who hold a "substantive" view of democracy (i.e. one based on the idea that the state should focus on providing for the material needs of the people) are more satisfied.

While the Chinese government contains authoritarian elements, it also has elements of genuine democracy. An example of this may be found in the National People's Congress, China's primary legislative body. While Western media has typically labeled the NPC as a simple rubberstamping body for the Central Committee, the facts indicate that this is not entirely true. A 2016 study in the ''Journal of Legislative Studies'' found that the NPC "is no longer a minimal or ‘rubber-stamp’ legislature," noting that "the NPC does play an important role in the whole political system, especially in legislation, though the NPC has typically been under the control of China's Communist Party."

Many of the other claims surrounding authoritarianism in China are highly overblown, to say the least. For instance, an article in ''Foreign Policy'' (the most orthodox of liberal policy journals) notes that the Chinese social credit system was massively exaggerated and distorted in Western media. An article in the publication ''Wired'' discusses how many of these overblown perceptions came to be. None of this is to suggest that China is a perfect democracy, with zero flaws; it certainly has issues relating to transparency, treatment of prisoners, etc. That being said, it is far from the totalitarian nightmare that imperialist media generally depicts it as being.

=== Chinese "Imperialism" and the Belt and Road Initiative ===
China is often accused (typically by Western pseudo-leftists) of being an "imperialist" state, due primarily to its investments in Africa, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative. These critics ignore the actual views of the African people themselves, who overwhelmingly approve of China's role in their economic development. In addition, the extent of Chinese involvement in Africa is smaller than often believed; according to a 2019 paper from the Center for Economic Policy Research, "China’s influence in Africa is much smaller than is generally believed, though its engagement on the continent is increasing. Chinese investment in Africa, while less extensive than often assumed, has the potential to generate jobs and development on the continent."

A 2018 study in the ''Review of Development Finance'' also found that Chinese investment in Africa raises incomes in the African nations that receive the investment, in a similar way to foreign investments by other nations. The author state that these results "suggest that the win-win deal China claims when investing in Africa may hold, and Chinese investment contributes to growth in Africa. Put differently, Chinese investment is mutually beneficial for both China and Africa."

For those interested in learning more, the economist Yanis Varoufakis discussed the topic in a recent lecture given at the Cambridge forum. He helpfully debunks a number of myths on the matter.

=== Xinjiang Conflict ===
Similar to Operation Cyclone, where the US supported islamic fundamentalism to destabilize Afghanistan, the US has supported islamic fundamentalist separatists in the Xinjiang region of China. China's response to this upsurge of terrorism and separatism has been to construct re-education camps which have been decried by the Western press in an effort to accuse China of running "concentration camps" and "death camps". Western countries have signed a letter criticizing China, while a counter-letter was signed by countries in the Muslim World as well as progressive states such as Cuba and Bolivia (under the socialist government of Evo Morales, prior to the US-backed coup)<ref>https://www.qiaocollective.com/en/education/xinjiang</ref>

== The Mao Era - A More Detailed Analysis ==
Most people (including many who call themselves socialists) have a very deceptive impression of Mao Zedong. They tend to rely on bourgeois myths and fictions as their only sources of information about him, and they thus lack a proper understanding of his immense achievements (which are ignored), as well as his flaws (which are exaggerated and mischaracterized).

Because Mao's ideology continues to be the driving force behind the most active and revolutionary sector of the international communist movement (as demonstrated by the Naxalites in India, the NPA in the Philippines, and many others), it is important that we have a correct understanding of Maoist policies, and the immense gains they made for the Chinese people.

=== General Overview of Living Standards ===
Our primary source in this section will be an in-depth study conducted by Amartya Sen, Professor of Economics at Harvard University, and fellow of Trinity College at Cambridge University. Sen was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work comparing living standards in the People's Republic of China (particularly during the Maoist period) to those in India:

* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China

The results of the study can be summarized by the following remark, in which Sen discusses China's decidedly superior achievements, and attributes them directly to the socialist ideology of the Maoist period:<blockquote>Because of its radical commitment to the elimination of poverty and to improving living conditions - a commitment in which Maoist as well as Marxist ideas and ideals played an important part - China did achieve many things that the Indian leadership failed to press for and pursue with any vigor. The elimination of widespread hunger, illiteracy, and ill health falls solidly in this category. When state action operates in the right direction, the results can be quite remarkable, as is illustrated by the social achievements of the pre-reform [Maoist] period.</blockquote>Another important comment summarizing the findings of the study is as follows:<blockquote>We argue, in particular, that the accomplishments relating to education, healthcare, land reforms, and social change in the pre-reform [Maoist] period made significantly positive contributions to the achievements of the post-reform period. This is so not only in terms of their role in sustained high life expectancy and related achievements, but also in providing firm support for economic expansion based on market reforms.</blockquote>Sen states here that the Maoist period saw enormous increases in quality of life for the Chinese people, as well as important economic developments, without which the economic expansion following the 1979 market reforms most likely could not have taken place.

Sen notes that during the Maoist period, a "remarkable reduction in chronic undernourishment took place," attributing this to the socialist policies implemented by Mao's government:<blockquote>The casual processes through which the reduction of undernourishment was achieved involved extensive state action including redistributive policies, nutritional support, and of course health care (since undernourishment is frequently caused by parasitic diseases and other illnesses).</blockquote>Sen focuses more attention on the remarkable advances in healthcare during the Maoist period:<blockquote>China's achievements in the field of health during the pre-reform period include a dramatic reduction of infant and child mortality and a remarkable expansion of longevity.</blockquote>It is also noted that China's life expectancy approximately ''doubled'' during the Maoist period, from approx. 35 years in 1949, to 68 years in 1981 (when Dengist reforms began to take effect). This is further elaborated on in the next source.

On the issue of education, Sen notes that the huge improvements (including dramatic increases in literacy) can be attributed primary to the pre-reform Maoist period:<blockquote>China's breakthrough in the field of elementary education had already taken place before the process of economic reform was initiated at the end of the seventies. Census data indicate, for instance, that literacy rates in 1982 for the 15-19 age group were already as high as 96 percent for males and 85 percent for females.</blockquote>Let us examine the issue of public health in more detail.

=== Further Research on Public Health and Life Expectancy ===
Another excellent source on public health in Maoist China comes from the journal ''Population Studies'', in a study conducted by researchers from Stanford University and the National Bureau for Economic Research:

* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980

One important comment is as follows<blockquote>China's growth in life expectancy at birth from 35–40 years in 1949 to 65.5 years in 1980 is among the most rapid sustained increases in documented global history.</blockquote>This alone goes to show the massive benefits attained by the socialist policies under Mao Zedong. More important information is provided in the study, dealing with hospital and medical resources:<blockquote>Physician and hospital supply grew dramatically under Mao due to a variety of factors (including increases in government financing, the introduction of social insurance for urban public employees, and the launch of China's Rural Cooperative Medical System in the mid-1950's). Rural Cooperative Medical Schemes (CMS) were vigorously promoted and became widespread in the late 1960's as part of the Cultural Revolution.</blockquote>The study confirms Sen's analysis of education:<blockquote>China made large strides in primary and secondary education under Mao.</blockquote>It also quotes other research which found that the rapid gains in Chinese healthcare can be attributed to the specific socialist policies implemented:<blockquote>China's mortality decline between 1953 and 1957, which resembles that of the US between 1900 and 1930, was “primarily due to the unique social organisation of Chinese public health practices.”</blockquote>Note that China achieved in four years what the United States took thirty years to accomplish, due to their differing systems (i.e. socialism vs. capitalism). The study also confirms the immense success of Maoist vaccination programs:<blockquote>Systematic efforts to vaccinate the population against polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and cholera were rapid and reputedly successful (China nearly eradicated smallpox within the span of only three years, with the last documented cases occurring in Tibet and Yunnan in 1960).</blockquote>Additional citations for the claims in the above quotes are provided in the original study.

=== Analysis of the Great Chinese Famine - Comparison to Capitalist India ===
In analyzing this topic, we may look to another work by Amartya Sen, his book ''Hunger and Public Action,'' written with John Dreze:

* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action

Sen and Dreze point out that, while the Chinese famine was devastating, it pales in comparison to the ordinary mortality rates which occur under capitalism in an otherwise comparable nation like India:<blockquote>...it is important to note that despite the gigantic size of excess mortality in the Chinese famine, the extra mortality in India from regular deprivation in normal times vastly overshadows the former. Comparing India’s death rate of 12 per thousand with China’s of 7 per thousand, and applying that difference to the Indian population of 781 million in 1986, we get an estimate of excess normal mortality in India of 3.9 million per year. This implies that every eight years or so more people die in India because of its higher regular death rate than died in China in the gigantic famine of 1958 – 61. India seems to manage to fill its cupboard with more skeletons every eight years than China put there in its years of shame.</blockquote>This comes out to more than ''100 million'' excess deaths in India alone from 1947 (when India become independent) to 1980. As Paul Heideman put it, writing in ''Jacobin'':<blockquote>In other words, though India experienced no concentrated period of starvation which can be easily identified and hung around the neck of a particular ideology, its ordinary conditions for the latter half of the twentieth century, in which an extraordinarily unequal distribution of land obtained, created an excess mortality that, over the long term, dwarfed that of the worst famine of the century.</blockquote>This demonstrates the effects that capitalism has on a developing nation. This is all the more shocking when compared to the immense gains made in the People's Republic of China, described in the earlier sections of this discussion.

=== Conclusion ===
The People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong made enormous strides in living standards, dramatically bettering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. While the bourgeois establishment continues to misrepresent and distort the legacy of Mao Zedong, he remains an inspirational figure to the billions of people around the world who have benefited, either directly (via the improvements mentioned above) or indirectly (via his influence on global revolutionary movements), from his work.

== References ==

* Pew Research Center | Europeans View China as World's Leading Economic Power
* Journal of Global Health | Communicable Disease Control in China: From Mao to Now
* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
* London School of Economics | Mao's Legacy: Access to Land and Hunger in Modern China
* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980
* Modern China | Women Under Kuomintang Rule: Variations on the Feminine Mystique
* YouTube | Mao Declares the People's Republic of China
* Health Services Evaluation | Health System in China
* Journal of Health Economics | The Long-Term Health and Economic Consequences of the 1959-1961 Famine in China
* Journal of Economic Issues | State-Owned Enterprises in Chinese Economic Transformation: Institutional Functionality and Credibility in Alternative Perspectives
* Duke University Press | "The Transformation of Chinese Socialism" by Lin Chun
* Review of Radical Political Economics | Primitive Socialist Accumulation in China: An Alternative View on the Anomalies of Chinese “Capitalism”
* Marxists Internet Archive | "The Impending Catastrophe and How to Combat It" by Vladimir Lenin
* UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights | 2019 End-of-Mission Report on China
* China Economic Review | The Long-Term Evolution of National Income Inequality and Rural Poverty in China
* CNN | China Has Reached a Major Milestone in Ending Absolute Poverty. But the Communist Party Isn't Celebrating Yet.
* Our World in Data | Malnutrition Death Rate: China and United States
* National Bureau of Economic Research | The Economy of People's Republic of China from 1953
* Review of Radical Political Economics | The Impact of State-Owned Enterprises of China's Economic Growth
* British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Practice)
* British Medical Journal | Toward Universal Health Coverage: Lessons From 10 Years of Healthcare Reform in China (Analysis)
* China Data Lab (UCSD) | Pandemic Sees Increase in Chinese Support for Regime, Decrease in Views Towards US
* Ash Center (Harvard University) | Long-Term Survey Reveals Chinese Government Satisfaction
* International Political Science Review | Popular Concepts of Democracy and Democratic Satisfaction in China
* Journal of Legislative Studies | Is the Label 'Minimal Legislature' Still Appropriate? The Role of the National People's Congress in China's Political System
* Foreign Policy | China's Orwellian Social Credit Score Isn't Real
* Wired | How the West Got China's Social Credit System Wrong
* DW News | Africans Approve of China, Says Afrobarometer
* Center for Economic Policy Research | Chinese Investment in Africa: How Much Do We Know
* Review of Development Finance | On the Importance of Chinese Investment in Africa
* YouTube | Yanis Varoufakis on Chinese "Imperialism"
* Harvard University | Perspectives on the Economic and Human Development of India and China
* Population Studies | An Exploration of China's Mortality Decline Under Mao: A Provincial Analysis, 1950-1980
* Harvard University | Hunger and Public Action