...Nixon and the U.S. Rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China When Nixon began his presidency, the relations between the United States and China had been fraught ever since Mao Zedong’s Communist Party achieved power and established the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Less than a year later in 1950, the Korean War, in which American troops died at the hands of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, further exacerbated the situation. The next twenty years were characterized by American opposition to UN membership for Mainland China, three crises between the two nations in the Taiwan Straits, threats of nuclear attack, and the fighting of a proxy war in Vietnam. But the two decades of hostility and nonrecognition of the People’s Republic of China was brought to an end during President Richard Nixon’s administration, marked most prominently by Nixon’s historic visit to Mainland China in 1972. In ending this hostile estrangement, Nixon thus executed the first stage of a momentous diplomatic revolution in U.S. policy towards Communist China. This turning point, as Nixon and his National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger suggested, also “changed the world” by transforming a Cold War U.S.-Soviet bilateral international system into a tripolar one, in which powers are balanced and national interests are secured. In the process of the rapprochement, President Nixon, managed to show the world his sound judgment, pragmatic perspective, and negotiation strategy in the field...
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...in deciding the course and outcome of the Korean War? (30 Marks) Some argue that China’s intervention in the Korean War played a very significant role in deciding the course and outcome of the war in several ways. One of the most significant factors is the role that was played by the Chinese volunteer army which managed to push the UN forces back to the 38th Parallel which then prolonged a conflict which the UN was going to win. The lack of this intervention would mean that the Armistice would have never happened which was very crucial. In addition if China had not intervened (much to Truman’s dismay) MacArthur would not have been fired an would still be head of the army because his failure to advance China was a reason to why President Harry Truman fired him. Effectively, the war had the possibility of it triggering a third world war and the world’s first nuclear war. Fortunately, this possibility was avoided, but at the very least it ended the dreams of a reunited Korea and ensured that the war would continue in 1953. China's intervention kept the UN from having a victory against the Communist forces from the North. The Korean War began on the 25th of June 1950 when some 75,000 soldiers from the North Korean People’s Army moved across the 38th parallel, (which was the boundary between the Soviet-backed Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the north and the pro-Western Republic of Korea to the south). This invasion was the first military action of the Cold War. By July...
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...the country almost defaulted on loans (Balakrishnan, n.d.). Before globalization India purposely isolated itself from world markets and was in a state of economic stagnation (Nayar, 2007). This stagnation left the country in profound poverty with no industrial growth. The people of India faced other challenges as well such as illiteracy, government corruption, and malnutrition (Wikipedia, 2013). In the years since globalization industrial growth has occurred at a rate of about 6.5 percent that has thwarted any reoccurrence of economic decline and a poverty rate at 26 percent that had previously been 55 percent (Nayar, 2007). China too, has benefited from globalization. In 1978, Deng Xiaoping established leadership of China. Unlike Mao Zedong, Xiaoping embraced globalization and demanded economic change that he believed would ensure the safety of communist rule (Yahuda, 2003). Like India, the people of China lived in poverty before globalization occurred. In the 20 years since that time China has experienced a growth rate of over 9 percent and has become the 5th largest trading nation and has the 6th largest economy with millions of people no longer living in poverty (Piexin, 2003). The globalization of China was brought about after the end of the Cultural Revolution...
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...Growing China: Will China Share Superpower Status with United States? After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, United States has remained her superpower status and has established her hegemony all around the world. In the 21st century, everybody waits for a country to fill the gap that was left by the Soviet Union to compete with the United States. Now, China is the most potential country that can be a superpower competing with US. China has developed herself since she became a communist state, especially, it is the past 20 years that China has improved from a state once isolated form rest of the world, into a regional superpower as potentially a state having the capacity to change the future direction of world events. By 2020, China hopes to compete with United States, however, that is not so easy for US to share her superpower status with China and US does not want to engage in another Cold War. First of all, what is a superpower? We need to define superpower to understand that China will possess the status of what and whether she benefits from it. During the second half of the twentieth century the concept of superpower status has been unique and without precedent. This is due to the fact that in this period, a superpower by definition possesses nuclear capabilities. While the UK, a superpower in the nineteenth century, now possesses nuclear capabilities, it is lacking in other attributes. Today’s superpower possesses four attributes, which confer upon it this status...
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...Earlier • The West dominated from the 1500s till the late 1970s; big story of almost 500years. • In 1978, the average american almost 20 times as rich as an avg Chinese. • 4/5ths of the worlds GDP was controlled by western empires. • In 1913, a year before the outbreak of World War I, Europe was slightly more populated than China. With hindsight, change in Asian fortune can be traced to 1976, the year of America’s bicentennial and the death of Mao Zedong. By then income per person in China had shrunk to just 5% of that in America, in part because of Mao’s extreme industrial and social policies. Both China and India had turned inwards, their economies were largely closed. Huge swathes of industry were protected from foreign competition by high import tariffs, leaving them moribund. Both countries had cut themselves off from the flow of good ideas and goods that had made Asia`s other economies (like Japan) richer. China was first to open its economy to foreign trade, technology and investment with reforms in 1978. India followed course in 1991 Asia`s industrial revolution has changed the picture. The GDP of China and India is many times bigger now than it was in the mid-1970s. In both economies annual growth of 8% or more is considered normal. China has increased its economy by a factor of 10 in 26 years; Britain by factor of 4.4 in 40 years. Economic catch up is accelerating. According to the latest IMF official forecasts, China’s economy will surpass...
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...4700 ft high Glass Sky Walk in Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie Hunan, China 中國湖南省 張家界天門山玻璃棧道 China’s newest tourist spot is a glass-bottomed walkway around the cliff face of the Tianmen Mountain, 7 ft above sea level, at Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province (自動翻頁) 張家界天門山國家森林公園新建的玻璃棧道正式對遊客 開放。玻璃棧道于天門山頂西線，長60米，最高處海 拔1430米。所有上橋的遊客均被要求穿上鞋套，以保 持玻璃橋面潔凈。玻璃棧道是張家界天門山景區繼懸于 峭壁之上的鬼谷棧道、憑空伸出的玻璃眺望臺、橫跨峽 谷的木質吊橋後打造的又一試膽新景點。 China's newest tourist attraction ... a glass-bottomed walkway around a cliff face. Brave tourists looking to test their nerves have flocked to China to walk across this dazzling glass bridge suspended from a cliff face. The oriental Sky Walk is situated 4,700ft above sea level on the side of the Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, China. In order to keep the glass path clean, tourists are asked to put on shoe covers before walking. 玻璃棧道已於2011年10月1日起正式對遊客開放 （Opened to Public since October 1, 2011） Dazzling: A glass path suspended on a cliff face has been built on the side of the Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China (天門山玻璃棧道建在山 頂西線雲夢仙頂至倚虹 關之間)所有上橋的遊客 均被要求穿上鞋套，以 保持玻璃橋面潔凈。 玻璃棧道是張家界天門山景區繼懸于峭壁之上的鬼谷棧道、 The 200ft long bridge joins the west cliff at the Yunmeng Fairy Summit, the summit of Tianmen Mountain and Zhangjiajie. The pathway, built earlier in the summer echoes the glass-bottomed walkway at the Grand Canyon in the U.S. The 70ft bridge is 4,000ft above the natural wonder and allows tourists to look through 2.5in of crystalclear glass to the Canyon floor below...
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...Chinese involvement in the Korean War was merely an instrument of Stalin’s foreign policy rather than as a force for spreading communist revolution. How far do you accept this interpretation? Chinese involvement in the Korean War was largely due to Stalin’s use of manipulation and encouragement towards Mao, convincing him to join the war. To a large extent, Stalin’s motivation behind encouraging Mao to join the war could be due to the possibility of increasing communist influence in Asia. China is a large and, in comparison to other Asian countries, powerful place. With their help, North Korea’s chances of winning the war and therefore increasing communism in Asia was much more likely. The other possibility is that Stalin encouraged China’s involvement due to his foreign policy which meant that communist countries such as China and the USSR should help other communist countries (i.e. North Korea) in disputes whereby Nationalists and Communists are fighting. The idea of Chinese involvement in the war seems possible, to a small extent, to be due to Stalin’s policy when we look at his involvement in the decision. The military campaign against South Korea was agreed between Stalin and Kim Il-Sung, showing Stalin’s genuine interest in helping North Korea in the dispute. Stalin’s enthusiasm in Chinese involvement also suggests that he was motivated by his foreign policy and helping a fellow communist state as he was aware of China’s power in Asia. He knew that China were much larger...
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...To What Extend are the Chinese Views of Mao truthful? In China, Mao is more than a role model. Mao was often compared to the first Emperor of China who had united the 7 warring kingdoms in troubled times. Because of this, for the Chinese people, Mao symbolizes power, culture and unity. Contrary to this, Western Society believes that Mao was a dictator who was responsible for the death of 49-78,000,000 people during Mao’s reign: 38,000,000 from famine in the Great Leap Forward, 28,000,000 in the LaoGai Camps and 3,000,000 counterrevolutionaries’ participants. [1] Since there is such a difference in the opinions, it makes you wonder is there truth in the contradicting views of Mao. In China Mao was often seen as a militaristic leader who united China using clever strategic plans, whilst under times of turmoil. It is hard to argue against as I believe that it is almost true. Under Mao, there was the success of the Long March, triumphing in the Second Sino-Japanese war, Sino-Indian War and lastly the victory over the Nationalist Party. It makes me think: is it really possible for one man to do all that? For example on The Long March It was said that it was Mao’s Idea; Mao led the way, Mao who encouraged the marchers and so on. On the contrary, it was said he stayed way behind the front lines when there was fighting. Plus, it was Otto Braun (a Russian agent)’s idea to do a full scale retreat to Yan’an where the Chinese Communist’s Part Second Army was to be based....
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...Question: What Was the Cultural Revolution? Answer: Between 1966 and 1976, the young people of China rose up in an effort to purge the nation of the "Four Olds": old customs, old culture, old habits and old ideas. In August, 1966, Mao Zedong called for the start of a Cultural Revolution at the Plenum of the Communist Central Committee. He urged the creation of corps of "Red Guards" to punish party officials and any other persons who showed bourgeois tendencies. Mao likely was motivated to call for the so-called Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in order to rid the Chinese Communist Party of his opponents after the tragic failure of his Great Leap Forward policies. Mao knew that other party leaders were planning to marginalize him, so he appealed directly to his supporters among the people to join him in a Cultural Revolution. He also believed that communist revolution had to be a continuous process, in order to stave off capitalist-roader ideas. Mao's call was answered by the students, some as young as elementary school, who organized themselves into the first groups of Red Guards. They were joined later by workers and soldiers. The first targets of the Red Guards included Buddhist temples, churches and mosques, which were razed to the ground or converted to other uses. Sacred texts, as well as Confucian writings, were burned, along with religious statues and other artwork. Any object associated with China's pre-revolutionary past was liable to be destroyed. In their...
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...Chiang Kai-Shek lost control of China to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1949 following two and a half decades of mistakes and fundamental errors in ruling the struggling and fractured republic. Under his leadership, corruption was allowed to flourish in the nationalist party, failed military campaigns were commonplace, national unity was never created, and the obsession with personal wealth and gain was the rule among large numbers of the higher ranking members of the nationalist party, all of which lead to a complete breakdown of support for the nationalist party from the Chinese people. Chiang never had a “relationship with the common people.”1 From the time he came to power in 1925, he appeared never to understand his people. His obsession with purging the Kuomintang (KMT) of all Communists, his push for a New Life Movement2, making the claim, “first internal pacification, then external resistance”*3, and his use of foreign relationships and criminal organizations to gain superiority and exterminate the communists each played a role in confirming Chiang’s failure. In the fight against the Japanese in World War II, Chiang’s single-minded focus on the Chinese Communists allowed Japan to gain a strong grip in China and occupy parts of the country. It eventually required the help of the United States to defeat and oust the Japanese. Chiang’s repeated military failures against the Japanese caused him to lose support within his own elite KMT group. In an effort to reestablish...
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...with this statement? The Long March was an epic journey across China conducted by the Red army in 1934. After the breakdown of the first United Front, Chiang Kai Shek launched an offensive which forced a retreat from Mao and the Red army. This retreat is believed to have lasted for over a year and covered 6000 miles. By the end of the march, of the 80000 marchers who embarked on the journey, only 6000 made it to Yenan. It was a march rich with heroism and hardship. However to call the Long March a retreat that changed the destiny of china is controversial. The term 'destiny' can be interpreted in two different ways. It can be the outcome of the Long March influencing the civil war by 1949 or the world's perspective of China. According to many historians, such as Richard Cavendish, the Long March was a victorious march for Mao and the CCP. It made the survival of the imperiled CCP possible, gave Mao a secure grasp on its leadership and ultimately led to the creation of the People's Republic of China. “As a bulwark of Chinese pride and patriotism, skillfully exploited as such by Mao and his circle”. It is also sometimes believed that the Long March was a seeding machine, one that spread the Marxist ideology and manipulated the opinions of China and Mao across the globe. Before the epic journey began, the CCP was in a quagmire and the Nationalists seemed on the point of establishing an unshakeable control over China. The communists appeared to be a broken force. At this...
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...China (traditional Chinese: 中國; simplified Chinese: 中国) is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and a nation in East Asia. The last Chinese Civil War has resulted in two nations: The People's Republic of China (PRC), commonly known as China, has control over mainland China and the largely self-governing territories of Hong Kong (since 1997) and Macau (since 1999). The Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, has control over the islands of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu. China has one of the world's oldest civilizations and has the oldest continuous civilization.[1] It has archaeological evidence over 5,000 years old. It also has one of the world's oldest writing systems, and is viewed as the source of many major inventions. The first recorded use of the word "China" is dated 1555.[nb 1][3] It is derived from Cin, a Persian name for China popularized in Europe by Marco Polo. History of China Ancient China was one of the first civilizations. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing,[2] the others being Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley civilization, the Maya civilization, the Minoan civilization of ancient Greece, and Ancient Egypt.[5] It reached its golden age during the Tang Dynasty (about A.D. 10th century). China is home to some of the oldest artwork in the world. Statues and pottery, as well as decorations made of jade, are some classic examples. China's economy and military weakened during the Qing Dynasty (around the 17th...
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...Does the film Huang tudi (Yellow Earth) offer a critique of the Communist revolution? If so where and how? Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou’s Yellow Earth is a meaningful and controversial film that highlights the young and old, realist and idealist, as well as the ideal utopia and bounded bureaucracies – touching on the notion of fate. Set in early 1939 in China, Yellow Earth follows the story of Gu Qing, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) soldier sent out among the peasants in Northern Shaanxi to collect folksongs, to which the Communists intend to rewrite new lyrics to help inspire soldiers and peasant followers to fight the Japanese invasion and work towards the revolution. Gu Qing comes across a village holding a wedding procession and is invited to join the feast. He stays at a peasant’s home, and meets a father with a daughter (Cuiqiao) and a son (Hanhan). There are several significant scenes in the film that suggests the filmmaker’s potential critique of the Communist revolution (CR). The film begins with a magnificent panning view of the vast and mountainous landscape. As with many nationalistic films, landscape plays a very important role, as it indirectly depicts the village peasants as slaves to the land, and a sense of hopelessness that comes with working the land. The several slow scenes focused on the horizon and landscape also represent the notion of an ‘unchanging China’, and it’s backwardness with it’s social and political margins. The film has many scenes depicting...
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...The American theatre chain gets a much needed infusion of cash, while the Chinese conglomerate gets experience in film distribution and chain management. Dalian Wanda Group’s agreement to purchase AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion creates the largest theater chain in the world and marks China’s biggest acquisition of a U.S. company, therefore it has some industry watchers wondering what the ramifications might be for the movie exhibition industry. One high-ranking executive said his initial reaction to the May 21 announcement was 100 percent positive, given that AMC’s private-equity owners – Bain Capital, Apollo Global Management, the Carlyle Group and others – had allowed the theater chain to fall into disrepair compared with its competitors. “Even the bulbs weren’t changed, so films looked dim,” he said. Indeed, Wanda president and chairman Wang Jianlin announced his intentions to invest $500 million in AMC. Observers see installation of bars and restaurants at some locations, as well as upgrades to screens and sound systems, and the improvements could be noticeable enough to encourage disenchanted moviegoers to the give theaters another try. “It’s been a long time since AMC was run by someone with deep pockets and a timeframe longer than the next quarter,” said the insider, who noted that Regal Entertainment Group, Cinemark Holdings and Carmike Cinemas would be inclined to match AMC’s upgrades. Wanda, a private company with real estate, department stores and hotels...
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...rate. It does not seem likely that it will change anytime soon either. Economists’ have been plotting trying to figure out if China’s economy will decline at all for a couple of years now. If they switch to an inclusive economy, it will most likely die off. By having an extractive economy, it will eventually slow down and level out. For example, most of Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Australia, and parts of Asia have all had a fast growing economy, but all ended up leveling off. Rapid growth can also mean rapid crash, just like what happened to the Soviet Union. In the beginning, China’s economy seemed to start out how the Soviet Union did, but now follows in the footsteps of the successful Western Europe and the United States. Mao Zedong started the communist party in China. He used the same concept of the Soviet Union on China. He set extractive policies to help China grow. Industries were growing, but other sectors paid for it to help the overall economy....
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