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China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower

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Warum die Privatwirtschaft punktuellen staatlichen Maßnahmen stets überlegen war, warum es ohne Rechtsstaatlichkeit keinen Markt und ohne politische Reformen keine Marktreformen geben kann, legt Dikötter pointiert, humorvoll und kritisch dar. Allerdings schwächelt er im letzen Kapitel mit der Einschätzung, dass das Corona-Virus China von der restlichen Welt entfremdet hätte. Es war nicht das Virus, sondern das Verhalten eines Staates, der aus den Fehlern während des SARS-Ausbruchs 2002 offenbar nichts gelernt hatte.

You see these ideas too in the more recent Dual Circulation strategy where the government wants to promote an internal cycle of producing domestically, consuming domestically, and then the other cycle of international investments around funds and technology, which also can help drive this internal cycle. I'm curious about your sense of how the more recent focus on consumption and urban environments and Dual Circulation represent a change to the basic model you describe or not. Frank Dikötter: It fits into the existing framework I described above. So first of all, when it comes to investment, one should give Deng some credit. He's the one who came up with the idea of development zones in 1992. The plan was quite simple: loan the land to foreigners in exchange for capital, use capital to build up infrastructure, and use infrastructure to export more. With more exports comes the foreign currency required to modernise. Deng called it 'Capitalist Tools in Socialist Hands', meaning that foreign investment was nothing to worry about, since the party continued to control both the land and the banks.Well, Dikotter does know his stuff. Lots of it is dry info on finance and all that, but it does show some problems China has had. Inflation, retrenchment - all that comes in and out. The last parts also show a shift since 1989 towards national patriotic education, which has led to a much more hostile relationship with much of he outside world. The reviewer, Prof G Venkat Raman, has a PhD from Peking University, and is Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences, IIM Indore) It will be increasingly difficult for Western China specialists to write with authority based only on previous Western publications or on Chinese public statements. We remain in Frank Dikötter's debt' LITERARY REVIEW He has published a dozen books that have changed the ways historians view modern China, from the classic The Discourse of Race in Modern China (1992) to China before Mao: The Age of Openness (2007). His work has been translated into twenty languages. Frank Dikötter is married and lives in Hong Kong. Christopher Marquis: You've talked about how with Deng, some of the Maoist structural features that were retained which many observers in the West may not have really appreciated. When looking at China’s contemporary problems, it seems many of these long-standing structural issues may be the cause, or at least impeding reform. For example you write about how debt and unemployment, significant issues today, have long roots. So dealing with them is a more significant challenge than many realize because of these structural issues such as CCP monopoly over power, control the means production and others. Can you say a little bit about how some of these longstanding structural features act as a real challenge or constraint to deal with issues today.

If there is something to criticize, it would be the human stories, which are the highlight of Frank Dikotter's masterpiece trilogy about Mao's China. We see those here and there, but reading about the economic mismanagement only hints at the struggles the common people had to put up with while their hapless idiotic overlords were busy exploiting the country. Dikotter’s latest work is highly recommended for those who want to make sense of the intriguing developments and develop an informed understanding of China’s political and economic evolution in the post-Mao era. Dikotter has done a commendable job of unearthing some archival and other relevant primary sources (including party and other official documents in Mandarin) to uncover some of the most critical periods. A special economic zone in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, was blessed by Deng during a 1984 visit, becoming a center of foreign investment and technology. Cheap labor imported from the hinterland fled to the bright lights and higher pay across the bay. To counter the exodus free trade areas were established where local authorities made decisions on foreign trade and provided better working conditions. While industry didn’t take hold import/export business did and opportunities in coming computer technology were taken. Sixteen new free zones were created with the provision they wouldn’t be run or funded by Beijing. Cases proliferated of stolen chemical and pharmaceutical formulas and led to counterfeiting of household appliances, office equipment, industrial and agricultural machinery in a wild east of trade.

A related event is the emergence of non-official media and thought leaders. Enabled by the Internet, some intellectuals, celebrities, and writers obtained a large following and exerted considerable influence as political commentators or lifestyle leaders. Despite close monitoring and suppression by the Government, they still maintain various degrees of independence. On the other hand, the Government also sponsors, cultivates, or employs their own “throats and tongues” disguised as folk commentators and fans. This online landscape is critical for understanding Chinese pollical dynamics. Therefore, it is unfortunate that “China After Mao” entirely overlooked the online world in China. Frank Dikotter obviously does not like the way this nation is ruled; even though if one reads one of his previous books, "Mao's Great Famine" (2010), one might wonder why he is not at least a bit more appreciative of the obvious economic improvement that has taken place in this nation since Mao's disastrous economic policies of the 50's, 60's, and 70's, which resulted in the outright starvation of at least 20-30 million. Frank Dikötter: China after Mao is a sequel. Now I'm working on the prequel. In other words, how do 12 chaps in a room in 1921 manage to conquer a quarter of humanity in 1949? Of course a great number of books have been written on the topic. But as far as I'm concerned, they follow Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China a bit too closely. If you actually start looking at the evidence, you find that the story unfolds quite differently.

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