Analysis Of China: 1949 Vs. Now

China 1949 vs. now Some might say that the root to chinas sucesses are due to the Chineses education system,or how the one child policy lead to more people working. But dating back to over around 68/70 years ago, two farming revolutions took place. Mao Zedong was the Chairman of the Communist Party of chinaHis intial rise had 2 concerns: investments in steel & agriculture to ensure people were fedNorthern china was densely rich in coal which in theory was idealy a good laying ground for an economic revolution, if we date back to powerful economies due to industrial revolutions in countries like the US or the Uk. Through all this the first order of concern was the fact that fertile land was not common Great Leap Forward-was an economic campaign brought on by the communist party in China, to primarily change the country from an agricultural society to a socialist society. Mao beleived that perserverance was the key to sucess, and that if you tried hard enough you could achieve the impossible. The state ordered commoners to build steel furnaces by melting any steel or iron they had at their disposal to make sure they met the standards that were appointeted by the state. As they had no iron ore the steel produced was inoperative.

The great leap forward had shifted worker to primarily focus on building furnaces roads and dams. Mao was obviouly unaware of the food chain and assigned people to kill grain eating birds which subsequently caused the population of pests to sky rocket. Mao put into play a new and, as he speculated, innovative techniques for crop revenue would to be to his advantage. He ordered people to plant rice grains closer together, which was uncessful because plants planted close by compete for survival, and deeper into grounds which can cause sprouting problems. Mao's naive outloooks were supported people around him praising his way by making people live in a facade that their work is paying off. Anyone who tried to contradict or call attention to the issue of decreasing crop yield, were forced to say otherwise in fear of Mao. China even tried to cover this up by increasing their grain export rates by 50 % in 1958 to 1961 to try to mask their failures. The famine led to the overall death of 10-60 million people, the chinese goverment later confirmed only 30 miliion deaths but ofcourse said it was due to 'weather conditions'. Mao died in 1976 and there was a transitional period in which locals took part in collective farming to help salvage the agricultural output (20-30 famillies joined together). Deng Xiaoping and his followers became in the position of power in December 1978. Deng took intiative and started working towards improving chinas agricultural output.

The first step was to increase the price of the crops that are bought by the state. This motivated people to use their lands to produce more crops because they were being rewarded for their work, this boosted the crop yield. He allowed for grain/crop prices to increase, trade laws were lessened to allow for comparitve advantages between regions, and quotas(to regulate/control prodcution exporting and importing) that were previously implemented were discarded. This was a very sucessful system as by the first half of the 1980s, nearly a year later, the agricultural output increased by 10 %. Contrary to what Mao believed this prosperity was not due to working harder but rather to working more efficiently(in farming/harvesting). In the following 5 years the chinese economy had vastly improved and farmers were bringing in double their previous income, this infact proved that the great leap forwards was in fact excuted by Deng and not Mao(using the power of the market and prices by introducing a pricing system).

In many poor countries around the world, investing is not the number one priority, for example in Cameroon there are little investments due to the fact that people dont have enough faith in the goverment being able to reimburse these investments or they have so reassurance that they will be granted the permision to run their own buisnesses(shops/factories), this is why poor countries reach out to foreign investors rather than local citizens. The socialist economy and goverment of China allowed it full access to its capital and is granted consent to the control of saving and investing. Money was being taken from citizen and invested, and a third was saved by the government. In the 1950s the money was used to rebuild any ruins from the war and the revolution, this was a good system until Mao was in power and the goverment was not nealry saving as much money in the 1970 as they were in the 1950s.

At the time China was poor and many investments could be made but the goverment simply didnt know how to comply. Planners had power over quality controll of all supplies,calculations were made so the could minimize waste,for example if 1 tonne of steel is needed for an iron ore only that amount will be delivered for use.

In the 1990 china opened up its borders to allow for international trade. In 2004 China became globably the 4th largest exporter of goods. Now you may be wondering why a country as big as China with a population in the billions needs the rest of the world? There were 3 folds:

1. China could provide cheaper manual labour
2. They could develope new currencies from all the raw material gained.
3. And lastly this would become a learning oppornutinty for the chinese goverment on how to better manage a buisness.

Now do I think China is nesscerily a 'rich; country? No, quite the contrary because many people working in china living on $1 a day, but China is certanly in a better economic state, even though China runs many sweat shops its in way better shape than it was after 'the great leap foward'.