China: The Middle Kingdom, Essay Example

A thousand years ago, the people of the Chou Empire lived in the central area of the land mass now known as China. They were unaware of any other advanced civilizations besides their own, and they believed that they lived in the “middle” of the earth; thus the name “The Middle Kingdom” was born. China is, by any conventional standard, the longest-running civilization in history. The name “Middle Kingdom” is still referenced in China’s modern name: when the Communists took over in 1949, the country’s name was officially changed to Zhonghua renmin gongheguo, which in English means “Middle Glorious People’s Republic of China.” China is among the most rapidly growing countries in the world, and they face many challenges due their burgeoning population, the largest in the world.

After the Communist revolution, under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the government gradually took over the means of production in both industry and agriculture. Farming was done collectively, as was the manufacture of industrial goods. In 1958, Mao Zedong pronounced the implementation of a program he called “the great leap forward,” and began to focus on industry, claiming that China would catch up with Great Britain within fifteen years. Thousands of people left their work in the fields and farmlands, and took up life on communes, working in the production of iron and heavy machinery. This new focus on industry meant that many farms went untended, and soon mass starvation overtook China. This was an enormously difficult time for the people and the government, leading to much civil unrest.

Adding to the political strife in China was the problem of the exploding population. China’s population exceeded one billion people in the early days of the Communist revolution. The strain on the economy and society was so great that the government eventually passed a law limiting Chinese to only one child per couple. Mao’s position as leader began to weaken as the Chinese economy suffered and as poverty swept through the land. After his death, the new leaders slowly began moving China in a more “democratic” direction, allowing private ownership and private enterprise, while retaining a firm grip over both.

China has moved ever closer towards an open economy, with private enterprise now the norm in a society that once shunned such efforts. The struggle to move from an agricultural-based society to a modern, industrial nation has been a difficult one for Chinese leaders. Originally based on the Soviet model of a centralized economy, the government had to come to terms with the failings of such a model, and allow a more open, market-based economy to emerge. Though China remains a communist country, it is moving ever closer to the freedoms of a democratic society. Much has changed in the decades since the Communist revolution, and China now stands among the leaders on the world stage. It will be fascinating to witness what the future holds for this great nation.

References

Archaeology dictionary:middle kingdom. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/middle-kingdom

Discovering china “the middle kingdom”. (2010). Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/history/1949.html

Hongtu, Li. (2004). China’s modernization : a historical survey. East Chinese Normal University, Retrieved from http://w1.ens-lsh.fr/colloques/chine2004/china_modernization.pdf