According to Zhou (1996), Cultural Revolution was introduced in China by Communist Party in the 1960s. The cultural aspect was incorporated into policies of the New Democracy, which was responsible for claims of a new state for legitimacy. However, there were various anomalies identified within the New Democracy.
A good example is undertaking land reforms for purposes of ending feudalism, where land was to be redistributed to landless citizens for equity purposes. Land reform issue was applied differently in towns and countryside, whereby labour and bureaucratic regulations were enhanced in cities as opposed to the countryside.
There was need for reinforcing individual entrepreneurship which was measured against public requirements and control. All these were as a result of penetration of the ruling Party within society and based on class alliance and democracy (Scott, 1985). The Party’s ideological commitment to socialism granted them the concentration of political and economic power, which was applied through forceful interventions.
Inclination to socialism was as a result of country’s cooperation with Soviet Union. This collaboration assisted in the building and development of an industrial base through mobilization of internal resources (Blecher, 1989). It resulted into building of heavy industries within the agricultural sector through collectivization.
The Chinese countryside was collectivized in the mid-1950s, which resulted into communes. At the same time, reorganization of the countryside was followed by abolition of private ownership within industrial estates (Zhou, 1996).
However, despite achievement in moving from New Democracy to Socialism, there was accumulative impatience amongst people based on their disastrous welfare. Crisis amongst people led to intra-Party conflicts and struggles, which eventually led to Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
The revolution was used as means of socialism, which assisted in creating new power structure best referred to as bureaucratic capitalism (Blecher, 1989). Such power structure was associated with inequality and exploitation, whereby Cultural Revolution created fresh wounds against the new power structure.
The mass Cultural Revolution practiced by Maoists was viewed as means of creating cultural habits in support of socialists and their power game rules. Such revolution as experienced by Chinese community introduced new dimension within the socialist political theory which focused on culture as a central ingredient for change as opposed to material change, which formed the core ingredient in the creation of socialism (Garnaut, 2009).
The demise of Mao in 1978, led to a period of ‘reform and opening’ which resulted into China being amongst the emergent global capitalists. Under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, there were pronounced hesitations as well as contradictions of policies that were characteristic of New Democracy between the 1940s and 1950s.
However, such desired change was introduced in the late 1980s and led into dispute between Party and urban constituencies (Blecher, 1989). The disputes and policy contradictions experienced was resolved by deep concentration on capitalism resulting into eminent progress despite betraying promises of socialism (Bernal, 1976).
This led to current spread of inequalities within Chinese society built upon ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ as expressed by political vocabulary and grammar. Despite being included in a global capitalism, Cultural Revolution experienced within socialist society, still have elements of its presence to-date.
Increasing unrest and inequality within rural society led to the formation of political movements aimed at establishing a stable society. Also, various development activities within the community acted as potential paths through which cultural, ecological and social contradictions emerged.
The current situation considers the world of a global capitalism as accommodating to socialism provided it considers adhering to rules of capitalism. According to Garnaut (2009), the communist grasp in China has strengthened for the last sixty years.
The current celebrations marking rule of Mao has seen beefing-up of security within major avenues within cities. Strict political rules safeguarding Communist Party governance were set against any political troublemaker. The policies championed for the denial of access to Beijing upon any migrant worker. There is also flooding the film industry with patriotic movies, documentaries and use of symbolism.
Policies applied by Mao led to sidelining of millions of democrats and entrepreneurs who championed for freedom and equality within China. Garnaut (2009), recorded that Communist party have every reason to pride based on various achievements, which made China a wealthy and powerful nation.
According to Pye (1986), formation of the Great Proletarian Revolution caused disastrous results where millions of people lost their lives as well as property. The ten years revolution left several victims traumatized and so much during that era could not be defined through conventional theories of politics. Individuals could describe the experience only through personal tragedies.
The Cultural Revolution affected Chinese citizens in a multi-dimensional way through various institutions within the country, including families and learning institutions. Mao’s policies resulted in an ideologically purer group of individuals best referred to as revolutionaries.
However, there was always a great wave of violence and sufferings of the people from the countryside which was entirely ignored by the Chinese government and considered merely part of the inevitable cost of revolutionary (Blecher, 1989).
Mao’s regime was characterized by a reckless and ruthless attack on ‘capital roaders within the Party’ who were considered as spear headers of ‘revisionism’. Some of the victims happened to be writers who endured humiliations and violent torture involving imprisonment in labour camps situated within the countryside. Mao refused to acknowledge the extent to which human rights were violated.
Even western scholarship was unable to establish the adverse effects of Cultural Revolution, including suicide claims, mistreatment at labour camps as well as within prisons (Pye, 1986, p. 604). Memories resulting from Cultural Revolution consequences can be traced to the government’s lack of control on the price structure.
There are also numerous negative effects on economic grounds, which includes; worthiness of Yuan within currency markets, preventing use of subsidies within the market and contributing to the decline of foreign exchange reserves.
Other consequences of Cultural Revolution included extensive disloyalty towards authorities. This was as a result of allowing citizens to indulge intensely into politics with cultural freedom. Such political liberalization produced anarchy and uncontrolled change (Pye, 1986, p. 610).
The new Chinese government led to ceasefire amongst civilians leading to peace after a century of political feuds and wars within the nation. The leadership which emerged after defeat of Guomindag regime and Japanese invaders became dictators of their system. They used farmers as representation base for power as well as a channel for Communist access to power.
However, Chinese earned greater percentage of foreign exchange from agrarian products which supported bureaucratic elite leading to affordable urban life. Cultural Revolution made it possible for farmers to rebel against any oppressing authority, hence using force for purposes of improving their lot.
Consequently, communist rule under Mao and associates sought support for themselves and farmers. Communists had to disseminate surplus from the farms in favor of livelihood within cities.
In education sector, China has attracted hosts of Australians willing to invest and study within the country. Mao’s policies led to creation and development of the middle class with the same styles as that of Sydney. Such developments have enabled a lucrative partnership between China and non-communist countries such as Australia.
There has been an exchange of labour between the countries; for example, a Sydney architecture firm won the contract of constructing significant buildings within China (Dirlik and Chan, 1991).
Also, there have been innovative architectural constructions within the capital, such as sports halls used for international events such as Olympics. Education is known as potentially delivering significant private benefits to employees within China and partner countries such as Australia. This is since training has provided personal investments within earning capacities.
In Australia, the government has expense deduction reprieve on those studying at universities but not yet secured formal employment. Suggested deductions ensure that many professionals and employees are trained further to ensure that they are updated within their various field of work.
The existing income tax law provides that deductions be made only on costs incurred in the process of producing income. The Act provides the arrangement of work-related expenses liable to deductions. According to tax assessment act, there is a clear guideline concerning various deductions associated with assessable incomes.
Under the same provision with respect to education expenses, the deduction is claimed in such a case where educational programs can be directly traced to taxpayer’s current employment and are utilized for acquiring specific knowledge (Dirlik and Chan, 1991).
However, deductions are not made in cases where education activity is perceived to be for the purposes of enabling the taxpayer to become employed or for the purposes of opening new opportunities for earning.
The current policies within modern China provide the fact that there is no change in the development of compulsory Marxist studies within learning institutions. The learning process embraces issues on rapid economic growth as opposed to original Marxism.
Deductions within education sector are allowable to the taxpayer with respect to expenses of self-education with the net amount of expenses being valued at affordable rate.
However, there are some categories of expenses included in the amount considered as inevitable, such as bus fares. Such cases present anomalies to the amendment since the non-claimable expenses are ultimately claimed by taxpayers as deductible expenses (Needham, 2006).
Mao’s strategy on economic world proved to be suitable in cases where the country experiences intense pressures in line with cost reduction and less pressure in the process of introducing new ventures within countryside and urban centres. In such cases, all strategies applied by the government and all decision-making processes are centralized.
This strategy emphasizes on nature of monitoring, integration and coordination of activities within governance. This has ensured that the right policies access targeted cities as well as the countryside. Besides, there is also emphasis on creation of efficient development channels (Selden, 1995).
Various disadvantages of Mao’s strategy included government institutions’ limitations to satisfy citizen needs both within cities and countryside. There was also increased costs and expenditure on the movement of goods and services from a centralized location to across borders.
The challenge was based on high tariff costs on exports, which largely depended on country’s legislation rules. Mao’s Rectification Movement resulted in the destruction of various influences within Party brought by two groups of intellectuals; Russia-trained and Western democratic liberals (Liang, 2003).
Mao’s revolution led to rising of ‘fifth generation’ of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership who majorly operates on princeling background. Such a crop of young leadership is expected to take the leading role in the Chinese political arena in the next two decades. The young leadership is being trained for top government positions with more authority as they vie for posts within CCP Party Congresses (Dotson, 2012).
Western democratic liberalism allows for decentralized decision making for the purposes of easier modification of policies depending on local demand. In this case, policies were modified for specific target groups hence leading to affordable costs of living within major cities.
At the same time, such a strategy forced the government to utilize local knowledge and capabilities, for the purposes of satisfying needs and taste of local consumers (Liang, 2003). This strategy easily led to loss on distinctiveness since local adaptation kept changing over a long period of time.
Additionally, there was increased spending owing to complexity experienced in coordinating a range of strategies across boundaries within Chinese territory. Such a strategy was used in cases where political parties required more power to overcome pressures emanating from cost-effectiveness as well as adaptation with Maoist rules.
However, the government allocated assets and capabilities depending on benefits obtained from each specific activity. Most activities within ‘upstream’ value chains experienced centralization with such strategy for satisfying citizen’s needs. Conversely, activities within the countryside were decentralized.
Mao consolidated his authority before Yan’an was fully established through the military as well as political forces. There was extensive reassignment concerning those in opposition to Mao’s governmental policies. These were performed through educational institutions as well as universities.
Consequently, life revolved around sports within basketball court, military duties, entertainment, class-work and other productive work within the society. The original central participants within this work were artists and writers from Lu Xun learning institution (Apter, 1995).
Various conflicts were experienced within China as a result of Cultural Revolution. These included complete fallout between political parties based on ideologies.
However, the nature of the approach adopted by modern China ensured existence of strong national security bodies capable of considering civilian affairs on an equal basis. Policies used within these institutions regarded as a possible dichotomy between competition and complementarities.
According to Chongyi (2012), there is a resultant claim for Chinese uniqueness through political and economic guidance amongst the ‘fifth generation’ within CCP. The concerned leaders were made to draw much power from intensive authority created by communist regime. Various shifts experienced within the political arena, including growing assertiveness, were as a result of opposition from other political parties.
This led to disruption on several strategic representations which signified settled democracy. There were increased experiences on a clear-cut division of labour within institutions which led to political-diplomatic interactions between political parties. The effectiveness of oppression prevention programs as introduced by Mao through learning and economic institutions largely depended on governmental policies.
For instance, any intervention program applied in either middle or high school will show little outcomes if combined intervention of policymakers, administrators, parents, teachers, students, and educationists is not available. Therefore, some factors favour the effectiveness of an intervention program in either middle schools or high schools.
References
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Dirlik, A & Chan, M1991, Schools into Fields and Factories: Anachists, the Guomindang and the Labour University in Shaghai, 1927-1932, Durham, NC, Duke University Press.
Chongyi, F 2012, ‘China’s New Dawn’, Review guide to the world of issues, ideas and opinion.
Dotson, J 2012, “The Chinese Communist Party and Its Emerging Next-Generation Leaders,’ U.S-China Economic and Security Review Commission Staff Research Report.
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Zhou 1996, The “Feudalization” of Chinese Farmers: Bound to the Land, New Haven, Yale University Press.