...Mao Zedong is considered to be one of the most controversial political leaders of the twentieth century. He has been known both as a savior and a tyrant to the Chinese people. From his strategic success of the Long March, to his humiliating failure of the Great Leap Forward, to the Cultural Revolution that shocked the country and took countless lives, Mao has significantly influenced the result of what China is today. From humble origins, Mao Zedong rose to absolute power, unifying with an iron fist a vast country torn apart by years of weak leadership, imperialism, and war. This astute and insightful account by Jonathan D. Spence brings to life this modern-day ruler and the tumultuous era that Mao Zedong did so much to shape. Mao Zedong was born on December 26, 1893 in Shaoshan village in Hunan. He experienced a middle peasant upbringing that was “rooted in long-standing rural Chinese patterns of expectation and behavior” (Mao, 10). Mao went to Shaoshan village school where he learned the customary Chinese curriculum as well as studied the “time-honored texts from the Confucian canon” (Mao, 11). At this time in his childhood, the whole country could foresee the fall of the previous dynasty, the Qing. Mao studied to be a teacher at The First Provincial Normal School, in Changsha, which influenced his future thinking and beliefs. He believed that the Chinese way of thinking needed reform, therefore fixated on younger people and peasants to build his political career. In 1912...
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...from Section A (30 marks), and ONE from Section B (40 marks) - choice of 2 questions in both sections • Section A – discuss an historical issue • Section B – use source material & knowledge to discuss an historical event Section A – themes to explore in your revision: 1. The post-Stalin thaw and the bid for peaceful coexistence in 1950s: a) USSR: Khrushchev b) USA: the responses of Dulles, Eisenhower and Kennedy. • the continuation of the Cold War in the 1950s following the retirement of Truman & death of Stalin, despite the bid for improved relations on the part of the USSR in the form of unilateral cuts in the size of the Red Army and withdrawal from Austria and Finland. • the concept of peaceful coexistence & what motivated Khrushchev & the Soviet leadership, & why the USA under Eisenhower & his Secretary of State, Dulles, and later Kennedy and his staff, responded in the way they did. • the role of personality, particularly that of Khrushchev, in shaping relations in these years should be addressed & students should be aware of the Paris Summit, the U2...
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...will to succumb. The photo portrays a man blocking the path of tanks as they try to leave Tiananmen Square. The Tiananmen Square protest of 1989 was a series of protests that started out with students in China mourning the loss of communist leader Hu Yaobang in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Students began to congregate in and outside of Tiananmen Square in mid April on the day of Hu Yaobang’s death. Over a period of nearly two months the people protested for political reform, conducted hunger strikes and made monuments in spirit of overthrowing the government but they were defeated on June 4th when The People’s Liberation Army stepped in to take control of the square. They were told by China’s leaders to clear out the square which escalated into a ruthless massacre of China's citizens. The Tiananmen Square Protest of 1989 was a cultural backlash that sought to better the state of China but instead led to a slaughter of its citizens in which the voice of its people was ignored. The death of one man, who had many great ideals and hopes for his country, created one of the largest acts of military brutality against civilians seen in the last two decades. That man was Hu Yaobang. Hu Yaobang was General Secretary of the State for the communist party under Deng Xiaoping from 1980 until he was ousted in 1987 for being too lenient towards political protests that participated in activism against the government. Before becoming General Secretary he was considered a revolutionary...
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...WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES UNITE! QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN MAO TSE - TUNG 5 FOREIGN LANGUAGE PRESS P E K I N G 1966 First Edition 1966 M O R F S N O I TAT O U Q NAMRIAHC GNUT - EST OAM 5 SSERP EGAUGNAL NGIEROF 6691 G N I K E P Printed in the People’s Republic of China Study Chairman Mao’s writings, follow his teachings and act according to his instructions. Lin Piao A facsimile of the above statement by Comrade Lin Piao in his own handwriting appears on the previous page. FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION OF QUOTATIONS FROM CHAIRMAN MAO TSE-TUNG (December 16, 1966) Lin Piao Comrade Mao Tse-tung is the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our era. He has inherited, defended and developed MarxismLeninism with genius, creatively and comprehensively and has brought it to a higher and completely new stage. Mao Tse-tung’s thought is MarxismLeninism of the era in which imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is advancing to world-wide victory. It is a powerful ideological weapon for opposing imperialism and for opposing revisionism and dogmatism. Mao Tse-tung’s thought is the guiding principle for all the work of the Party, the army and the country. Therefore, the most fundamental task in our Party’s political and ideological work is at all times to hold high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, to arm the minds of the people throughout the country with it and to persist in using it to command every field of activity. The...
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...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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...is by far the nation in which the censors’ activity affects the highest number of citizens (China). It is well known among the Chinese that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are all blocked in China because there is too much sensitive information on them. It is clear that since censorship has begun in China, it has hindered China from developing, updating information and limited the freedom of speech. Censorship has been used in China for centuries. According to the Baidu Encyclopedia which is a very popular Chinese online encyclopedia, the extreme censorship first appeared in 1949 when China was under the Communist Party’s rule and at that time the Communist Party controlled almost every aspect of people’s life. In the 1950’s, the information avaliable to people was totally under the controlled of the government and during this period the Chinese people only heard exactly what the government...
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...lasting dynasty in China was the Zhou dynasty; they were in charge from 1027-221BC (www.google.com). A writing system and bronze metallurgy were invented. The king was assassinated by rebels (www.paulnoll.com). Power equals money which in turn, equals demise especially regarding dynasties. China dynasty rulers when overthrown are usually exiled or murdered. One Zhou ruler was overthrown and killed by rebel lords. With the royal line broken the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished (www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty-Zhou.html). The Qin dynasty was a ruthless one. They relied heavily on standardizing legal codes and bureaucratic procedures (www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty-Qin.html). Wow! One could say that China is communist due to this dynasty. What is it with the mentality all or nothing? IIan was the dynasty that followed Qin; Not only in sequential order, but also characteristically. Han leaders were even...
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...China Fragile Superpower This page intentionally left blank Fragile Superpower Susan L. Shirk China 2007 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2007 by Susan L. Shirk Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shirk, Susan L. China: fragile superpower / by Susan L. Shirk. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-530609-5 1. Nationalism—China. 2. China—Politics and government—2002– I. Title. JC311.S525 2007 320.951—dc22 2006027998 135798642 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For Sam, Lucy, and David Popkin This page intentionally left...
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...Mao's Last Dancer Li Cunxin Dedication To the two special women in my life—my mother and my wife Mao’s Last Dancer A Wedding Qingdao, 1946 On the day of her marriage, a young girl sits alone in her village home. It is autumn, a beautiful October morning. The country air is cool but fresh. The young girl hears happy music approaching her house. She is only eighteen, and she is nervous, frightened. She knows that many marriage introducers simply take money and tell lies. Some women from her village marry men who don't have all their functional body parts. Those women have to spend the rest of their lives looking after their husbands. Wife beating is common. Divorce is out of the question. Divorced women are humiliated, despised, suffering worse than an animals fate. She knows some women hang themselves instead and she prays this is not going to be her fate. She prays to a kind and merciful god that her future husband will have two legs, two arms, two eyes and two ears. She prays that his body parts are normal and functional. She worries that he will not be kind-hearted and will not like her. But most of all she &+x worries about her unbound feet. Bound feet are still in fashion. Little girls as young as five or six have to tuck four toes under the big toe and squeeze them hard to stop the growth. It is extremely painful, and the girls have to change the cloth bandages and wash their feet daily to avoid infection. The tighter the feet are bound the smaller the feet will...
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...Reality Shows In china In China, the reality talent television show Super Girl not only was an unprecedented hit in television history of the country and an economic miracle in the entertainment industry In 2005 up to 400 million viewers, nearly a third of the population of China sat to watch the grand finale of The Chinese version of American Idol Supergirl Idol. The winner Li Yuchan was chosen via text messages receiving 3.5 million votes. This was seen as a ground breaking moment in both the economic and cultural sectors of Chinese society. Reality TV can be defined as shows that film and follow ordinary people in artificial situations. They could either be at work or in a competition show. Reality shows only came to China in recent years but have since made its impact. With TV programs such as Super Girl and Boy, Dreams in China, Blind Dating shows, each one has attracted thousands of people to participate. Reality shows in China have generated a lot of revenue for not only companies but for the state. Reality TV is one of the fastest growing sectors. One example was Shanghai-based Dragon TV's four popular reality-style programmes, said to have a combined value of about $500m. These programmes had generated a further $1bn for other businesses in Shanghai, in a chain of value-adding that extended from the producer to advertising agents, telecom operators, mobile phone message service providers, entertainment industry design companies and broadband websites. Supergirl Idol...
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...How China rises What lessons can be drawn from China's spectacular and sustained economic growth? As Hu Jintau remarked at the 17th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the period since the previous Congress five years ago has been extraordinary. China's economic achievements have been arousing not only astonishment and admiration but also some anxiety. In the past twelve months alone, The People's Republic of China (PRC) has overtaken Canada as the biggest source of imports to the USA, and overtaken the USA as the biggest source of imports to the European Union. Concern about the low level of investment in Africa has been displaced by concern about the effects of the high level of Chinese investment in Africa; there is now even anxiety about the effects of investment by Chinese state-owned firms into the Western economies. The Chinese Communist Party is also expressing concerns. The themes of its 2007 Congress included protection of the environment and the achievement of social harmony. According to some estimates, China has displaced the USA as the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases. Inequality is rising as fast as pollution: China now has over 800 individuals with a personal wealth of more than a hundred million US dollars each, up from 500 in 2006; while the average income in rural areas of China is 480 dollars per year. Made in China. Hu Jintau's remark on the extraordinary nature of the most recent years can be faulted in only one sense: China has...
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...Union and later the Workers Party of Jamaica. While a visitor at Queen's University in Kingston in the spring of 1989, he spoke with Grant Amyot and Colin Leys about the difficulties which the Left now faces in the Caribbean. T SPE: As a student at Oxford in the late 1960s, Trevor, you were one of the most brilliant leaders of the student movement there. After finishing your studies you decided to go back to Jamaica, and to make a choice for political activism as opposed to a purely intellectual career. Why did you make this choice? What factors contributed to it? TM: The choice of activism is always a combination of processes. There is no particular moment when you can say, "I've been a student or a theoretician so far, let me become an activist now," or vice versa. I got to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar from Jamaica, which is a kind of pinnacle of middle-class and national achievement. But by that time the changes in my own outlook pointed me toward a radical path, combining activism as a student at the University of the West Indies with a concern for theoretical work at the same time. The Cuban revolution occurred in 1959. In the 1960s Jamaica - along with many other Caribbean colonies - became independent; and in the Studies in Political Economy 31, Spring 1990 9 Studies in Political Ecomomy early 1960s the thing that struck many of the high-school students coming out of those institutions, including myself, was the contrast between what independence promised and...
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...reminiscent of the martial rule of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. The Thai military junta, euphemistically known as the National Council for Peace and Order, mounted a coup d’état and ousted the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The junta imposed martial law when it seized power in May 2014, and while the regime officially lifted it in April 2015, Thailand remains under martial rule because the junta continues to wield executive, legislative and judicial powers. It is all too similar to Marcos who imposed martial law in 1972, officially lifted it in 1981, but continued to act as dictator by exercising executive and legislative powers until he was toppled by people power in February 1986. The Thai junta bans all criticism of its actions. It can jail violators for as...
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...order to take part in civic life, as a future citizen. The ASEAN the Association of American Colleges and Universities states that a liberal education is that which liberates the mind from ignorance and cultivate social responsibility. Liberal education, unlike vocation is not to train, but to change people. Liberal education allows the student to learn how to think rather than what to think, to have a philosophical understanding wanting to question the reason of being and teaching. A liberal educated person is one that can think outside the box and question the norms of nature. They are free-thinkers.Failure in the closing of the American mind is the failure to have a basic principle of ideas and classic works that contributes to literature, politics etc to educate men, women and society as a whole which become familiar and encourages to seek a greater knowledge of information with the conviction that is set by our university. We no longer seek the knowledge, which aids in our continuous downfall to our liberal education. Before we get into the roaring 60s, we must first look past and analyze what impact the fifties has on American Liberal Education...
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...Higher Level History Notes 19th Century Russia The Russian people are descendants of the ‘Rus’ who are thought to be a mixture of Scandinavian and Slavic origin and settled in that region out of ± 800 AD Byzantine Empire A major legacy of the Byzantine Empire for the Russians was the eastern orthodox or Greek Orthodox Church With the decline of Byzantium came a wave of conquest from the East, the Mongols until the 15th century (Tatars). To a large extent, the Mongols allowed Russians to maintain their way of life: - Slavic based languages including writing system (Cyrillic) - Orthodox religion The Russians adopted much from Asian culture and this led western Europeans to think less of the Russians Geographically Russia was isolated from the rest of Europe: - Entirely land locked (mostly) - Huge Plains of Eastern Europe prevented overland travel During these early years there were a series of muscovite princes based in Moscow and called themselves Tsars. By the 17th century the Romanov family became the ruling dynasty: - Alexander I (1801-1825) - Nicholas I (1825-1855) - Alexander II (1855-1881) - Alexander III (1881-1894) - Nicholas II (1894-1917) Under the rule of Peter the Great (1689-1728) Russia grew greatly in size and entered the European World www.ibscrewed.org The Russia of 1800 was one of the greatest autocracies in Europe where: - The Tsar’s rule was absolute - There was a small...
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