Volume XV – Number 1
Parris H. Chang
Abstract: China’s leadership dramatically changed its goals during the post-Mao era. Instead of focusing on ideology, class, revolution, and self-reliance, the new post-Mao era features leaders that advocate for stability, economic liberalization, and cultural modernization. As a result, Chinese leaders constructed a 10-year plan that aims to put China at the forefront of the world order in terms of economic development and modernization by the year 2020. However, this new plan of development has encountered many issues in its implementation, largely because it espouses ideas that differ so greatly from former Chairman Mao’s compelling and persistent rhetoric. This article provides an analysis of the political, cultural, and economic forces of opposition that the new 10-year plan for development and modernization has faced within China. Ultimately, the article argues that the economic modernization and advancement that China seeks to attain by the end of the century will not be possible without great change to the nation’s political structure. China often refers to modernization in four categories: industry, agriculture, self-defense, and science and technology. However, this article argues that a fifth category; political modernization in the form of democratic institutions and principles, must precede cultural and economic development if China is to be successful in attaining the status of a global leader that the post-Mao Chinese leadership is striving towards.
Keywords: China, Chairman Mao, modernization, development, economics, democratization, leadership, cultural advancement
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