The Chinese economy was based in the pre-revolutionary period on a model of primary specialization, with the peasantry playing a crucial role in the 1949 revolution.
During the revolutionary period, Mao Tse-Tung even advocated the conciliation of interests between the Chinese Communist Party – PCC and the petty and medium bourgeoisie, with the nationalization of the Chinese economy taking place in the period between 1949 and 1954.
From a phase of application of an essentially primary specialization model, there was a model of import substitution (1954-1959), with the emergence of a so-called basic industrial sector, with this last period coinciding with a phase of strong Soviet influence.
This was what was called the “Great Leap Forward Policy”, which resulted in millions of deaths due to hunger, with many small agricultural owners being executed and it being noted, at the end of the 1950s, that the economic results obtained had been more negative than positive.
In 1960, Soviet advisors were asked to leave China, and an industrialization policy different from the Soviet one began to be adopted, more based on labor-intensive or intermediate-type combinations.
However, in the period from 1966 to 76, the “Chinese Cultural Revolution” emerged, led by Mao Zedong and his wife, creating a movement that intended to “purify” the Communist Party of all of Chairman Mao’s rivals, mobilizing young people from the so-called Red Guard who attacked intellectuals and teachers, giving rise to many persecutions, with the “radical process” that emerged leading to a para-catastrophic situation.
With Mao’s death, the leaders of the so-called “Bang of Four” were imprisoned, having succeeded Mao as Hua Guofend.
In 1978, Deng Xiao Ping became the de facto leader of China, even though he had not formally become President of China or the head of the CCP.
China, which had already gone through a model of primary specialization and an import substitution model (as well as a timid attempt at a particularizing model of industrialization, heir to an import substitution phase) is entering a new period of Economic Opening.
From the outset, there began to be some reduction in government control over the lives of citizens, with the dissolution of popular communes.
The transition from a Central Directorate economy to a mixed economy begins, which Deng Xiao Ping called “market socialism” or a “two-system economy” (which was also called an “economy with Chinese characteristics”).
The Chinese economy was opened to FDI – Foreign Direct Investment, with Chinese private companies now existing and, later, in 1982, a new Constitution was approved.
In the 90s, Zemin led the country, maintaining an annual growth rate of 11.2% and lifting around 150 million inhabitants of rural areas out of poverty.
However, there were environmental consequences and in terms of inequalities between urban and rural areas and this would lead the PCC to attribute relevance to a cooperation policy aimed at the interior, called “inward looking conception of cooperation”.
In a short time, China will move from a model of primary specialization to a model of import substitution and, finally, to a model of industrial specialization, with opening to the outside world and with the accession, in 2001, to the WTO – World Trade Organization.
However, it was only after Xi Jinping came to power in 2013 that it moved to a model of industrial specialization and an attempt to diversify services, largely through the acquisition of large companies in Western countries.
Let’s say that a large part of the transformation of the Chinese economy began with Deng Xiao Ping, who, however, failed to deepen the Economic Revolution that he carried out with a true Political Revolution, since China is, even today, one of the most iniquitous dictatorships in existence, even though it is considered a great power.
The truth, however, is that it has a GDPpc of 29.3% of that of the EU, a net wealth lower than that of the EU and is faced with a strong crisis in the housing sector, as well as in the construction sector, which has been weakening the Chinese financial sector.
And only a strong and GREAT country is one that does not fear FREEDOM and TOLERANCE.
No more, no less…
Economist and university professor
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