The words Capitalism and Socialism are distinct in usage and have been used in the Maoist regime and the Reform Era, which is commonly known as the post-Mao regime. This happened after the death of Mao in September 1976. Deng, the chief architect of change who explicitly rejected Mao’s “politics in command” which brought about certain undesirable aspects such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution replaced it.
His economic objective was to do away with the all the aspects that made China poor especially peasant backwardness. One of the key economic sectors that needed to be reformed were national defense, agriculture as well as science and technology. The aim of this change is to transform China into a socially and economically highly developed country within the next 30 to 50 years.
China is no doubt in a capitalistic economy after going through an unsatisfactory “halfway house” which was neither capitalism nor socialism that brought about bureaucratic intrusion in the economy. This yielded very poor results in the economy. The Chinese economy has seen undergone a sweeping economy.
Most of China’s retail stores and service shops are currently under private ownership. Privatization of property has also extended to other sectors such as the real estate and the agricultural sectors. This has led to the permeation of a great sense of division of labor in the agricultural sector. Despite the increasing trend of the cost of living in China, a great proportion of the Chinese population appreciates the freedom of choice within the Chinese markets.
Most of the retail stores offer a variety of products with varying consumer friendly prices. The communist ties of the Chinese community have lost their strong ties paving way for a new approach to the economic affairs of the nation. This has led to a great improvement in the standards of living for most of the citizens especially those are not financially stable.
In the traditional setting, capitalism refers to the control of the means of production in an economy by the affluent class- capitalists. The class of capitalists is able to control a large proportion of a nation’s economy because of the favors they receive from the political system in the country in question.
In the contemporary society, it refers to the privatization of the means of production in a country’s economy. On the other hand, socialism refers to the phenomenon whereby the ownership as well as the major means of production is under the control of the state. All the people in the society have substantial control over the available means of production. It is applied to an economic system in which property is held in common and not individually and a political hierarchy governs the most important relationships within the economic system.
The economy in the post-Mao era has undergone some changes. One of the major changes is the increase in the gap between the rich and the poor in the Chinese community. The housing market and consumerism have undergone drastic changes in the recent past. Additionally, most of the economic sectors have undergone privatization.
There has been an increase in the number of people in the Chinese community as well as a similar increase in the number of the affluent in the society. The poor are getting poorer whereas the rich continue amassing wealth. Capitalism makes it hard for the Chinese people to adapt and live to tell the tale.
It makes it hard for the people to identify with what they were used to such as their traditional culture, family background and ones surname. In essence, identity of the majority in the Chinese population is continually becoming a problem. Today, socioeconomic status and the struggle to be rich are choking them to death for the mere purpose of identity in the society. It is very clear that while some are gaining, others are losing pushing socioeconomic classes in opposite directions.
Getting a job has become a painful experience for many unlike before where people had work units. Most of the jobs are under privatization. Much effort is on the peoples’ abilities to produce quality products and work effectively. They are now competing to get a job and finding new identities as they work on their own, which proves to be vicious and difficult.
Greed too has changed the way people relate and conduct their lives. Due to the hardships associated with the capitalist market, many people have to work for longer hours to be able to access most of the basic consumer products. During the Mao regime, the people measured their wealth in terms of children, land as well as their homes.
They also acted as a form of their identity. The earlier Chinese population would know ones socioeconomic status and their identity if they mentioned where they lived. This too changed during post-Mao era where housing was privatized. “The demise of public housing regime and the rise of commercial real estate industry have opened up new opportunities for the people in the urban centers to seek differentiated lifestyles, status recognition and cultural orientations” (Zhang, 2008, 24).