The Rise, Growth and Development of China

This article explores the history of China's rise to economic dominance and its impact on the global community. It covers topics such as communism in China, the Sino-Japanese war, the reign of Mao Zedong, and China's economic growth. The article also discusses the future of China's economy and its impact on the world.

THE RISE, GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA
Introduction
Asia is found in the East of the northern hemisphere, and even the word Asia means ‘sunrise’
as the sun rises in the east. It is the basis of some of the oldest areas of human civilization. It has
two of the most populated nations in the world namely India and China. My main focus is in
China, a country that has been known to be of prominent economic dominance in the past as well
as in the present. It is also well known for its communist principles which run the country since
the 1940s.
China: background information
China is a nation found in East Asia. Its official name is The People's Republic of China. Its
capital city is in Beijing. It is the largest country in Asia and the third largest in the world with a
size of 9,600,000 square kilometers. It has a famous wall known as the Great Wall of China
which runs East-West across the country’s north. It has the world’s biggest population of 1.37
billion as of 2014. It is approximated that a one-fifth of the total human population is Chinese.
Much of the culture of the Chinese people are homogenous and borrowed less from the outside
influence. This isolation helped the country to prosper century after century.
The disadvantage of the isolation was that the Chinese state was not in a position to interact
with the fast-changing outside world, especially in the 19th century. In the mid-19th century, it
was confronted technologically superior foreign community. A century of gross decline ensued

to the point that China was practically weak and helpless and prone to the external onslaught.
(Hsiung, James and Steven. pp 0).
The Sino-Japanese war
It was on July 7th, 1997 when a crash happened between the Japan and China armies. This
sparked great military activity on the side of Japan. Japan declared war on China which was at
that time unstable, weak and defenseless. The Japanese troops marched into the developing
country and killed millions of people while torturing and raping the women and children.
Although China won the war in 1945 (Drea and Edward. pp 0). She suffered huge losses from
loss of lives, destruction of property and the industries that had just been set up in the Nationalist
government.
Communism in China
Communism is the removal of the personal possessions and removal of the existent social
classes, property rights as well as inheritance rights. The government in charge is in control of all
the economic resources and oversees the economic activities. This promotes equality among all
the natives (Hodes, Nancy and Zedong. pp38).
China is well known for the communistic rule. The rise of communism in China came mostly
after the second world war in 1949(Kuisong, Yang, and Stephen A. Smith. Pp 0). It became clear
that the Chinese natives need to be united against their neighboring rivals, the Japanese. As a
result of long periods of the rule of the ruthless warlords, the Chinese people began joining
political parties and revolutionary groups with the aim of gaining hopes of changing their
country.
The People’s Republic of China was established in 1949. This was a good sign of the end of
the struggle of a better life for all. On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong declared the creation of

People’s Republic of China. This ended the long-term civil war between the Chinese Communist
Party and the Kuomintang, which had broken out following the world war 2. The people were
now seen as a merged coalition of the four social classes which included the peasants, the petite
bourgeoisie, the workers and the national capitalists. China's Communist Party reigned in the
country for considerably more than 60 years.
The reign of Mao Zedong
Mao recognized the role of women in the society. He encouraged the women to strive and be
the equals to men. He banned the traditional practice of foot binding which hobbled the women
and kept them stuck in their homes. He also abolished prostitution to promote the respect of the
women. He was against birth control, and this encouraged the increase of the Chinese population
the rights of women got a big boost in 1950 when the Marriage Law was enforced which
encouraged the equality of all sexes in marriage. This protected the women from exploitation
from their husbands. This led to the gross improvement of the status of the women in the society
while the role of women was transformed and even today they work side by side with men with a
relatively equal footing in all occupations.
The other ideology was the Great Leap Forward. It was in operation from the year 1958-
1960. It was meant to help the country in its transition from socialism to sole communism within
a short time. This move will, as a result, increase agriculture and industrialization by application
of centralization and communes. In agriculture, the government would control the sale as well as
the production of agricultural goods. Large farming groups would share workloads and the
available tools of work.
In the industrialization sector, the Great Leap Forward was concerned with the steel
production. He made it a requirement that every commune should produce their steel. This led to

melting of the kitchen and farming equipment. The poor people started to burn their doors and
household furniture to keep the furnace fires burning after exhausting the local wood sources.
However, this practice was later abandoned and real steel plants put in place. The ideology was
however dropped in January 1961 at the 9th plenum of the 8th Central committee (Mao et al. pp
38).
The other Mao’s legacy is the hundred flowers campaign. He displayed his supposed will to
consult the opinion of the Chinese natives on how the Republic should be led. The Chinese
intellectual community came forward to give their views on the country’s leadership were later
persecuted in the anti-rightist movement (Farquhar and Ann. Pp 0). The Mao’s cult was in
existence in his reign and it exaggerated his achievements while concealing his dark side.
China’s economic growth
China is the home of culture. Chinese crafts and art which includes paintings, operas
embroidery, and silk are unique as well as distinctive. It has also been well known for Kung Fu
art, which is nowadays enjoying widespread popularity in many parts of the world. Chinese food
is also very famous and nowadays it is being exported to many parts of the world. It has a vast
population sharing the same culture, and this helps a great deal in unifying them (Galbraith,
John. Pp 0). It also has an excellent scientific background with its significant inventions being
paper, gunpowder and the compass.
The economy of China has enjoyed 30 years of explosive stages of growth which is arguably
the world’s largest (King. Pp 0). The Chinese government has been at the forefront of this
development. In 2017 the growth has been estimated to be $23.12 trillion, the world’s largest.
This process started from back in 1950 with the rise of the communist government right after the

world war (Lee, Sanghoon, and Dae-Won. pp 85). This growth, however, has its share of impacts
on the local as well as the global community.
There has been greater productivity of the industries in China. A large variety of products are
being produced to serve both the local and international market. This has increased the
employment opportunities for local citizens. It has reduced in a notable decrease in the poverty
levels in the country. Statistics say that it is only 3.3 % of the Chinese population who live below
the set poverty line at 2,300 yuan.
The global community is a beneficiary of this economical rise. The Chinese food has
become famous in Asia amongst many other world countries (Hsieh, Chang-Tai, and Ralph. pp
209).
China has been a major producer of the world widely used electronics. There have been
great travel sites in China due to its big cultural history for example The great Wall of China (Su,
Ming and Wall. pp 146). Due to the increased prominence the Bank of China also give loans and
grants to facilitate growth of the developing countries.
There also have been some shortcomings due to the increment in the economic dominance.
An example is the increased pollution especially in the urban centers where the industries are
located. This has led to the outbreak and spread of diseases (Tang, Bo. pp 293). There also has
been increased cost of urban housing due to the increased demand from the rising population.
On the future insight if the Chinese government is aiming to stabilize the economy to a
point where the local natives do not have to rely too much on the imports. The Chinese president
Xi has come up with the ‘made in China 2025’ plan which advocates for changes in technology
in the big data, aircraft engines, and clean environmentally free cars. The project also favors

improvement in the industrial sector where the products are now produced by the quality and not
just quantity. This plan requires nurturing of the human skills. The government will also loosen
the price control over water, electricity and other natural resources to promote the growth of the
developing industries.
Perspectives and impacts of the rise of China to the global community
The increase of the prominence of China under the communist Zedong’s regime also had
has implications on the other world countries (Teiwes, Frederick. Pp 0). The ideology came up
just came up after the second world war. It was a feature of what came to be known as the cold
war where the Soviet Union was in support of communism while America supported capitalism.
China adopted communism as this was in line with the operation of the then government of
Zedong (Yu and Mengyan Yolanda. Pp 0).
The general global community has also not treated the country in its real position
following its prominent developments in the economic sector. It is not until 1980 that the
majority of the world recognized the People’s Republic of China as the legitimate representative
of China (Novokmet, Filip, et al. pp 0).
The United States is well known for its unilateralism which can be traced from back in
the second world war especially with its policy on China. It is believed to have the perception of
a self-righteous superpower leading the allies who cannot resist it. This has been the problems
with its relationships with China which were strained by the Chinese government communist
ideologies (Williams and Eve. Pp 0). The ties were later bound by the cooperation between US
President Ronald Reagan and Chinese President Li Xiannian. China Minister of Commerce

Zhongshan recently told multinational companies that there was no winner in a trade war and
cooperation is the only alternative, as posted on the commerce ministry’s website.
Conclusion
Over the last seven decades China has undergone massive development and up to today it
is a strong world power. It is a good example of the Asian countries which were known to be war
torn and disorganized. They have now stabilized politically and now the economic improvement
is worth reckoning.
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