China and the Cultural Revolution

                Quick Facts

                -China’s Capital – Beijing
                -Official Language – Chinese
                -Population – 1,350,695,000 people
                -GDP – 9.182 Trillion

                Off of the top of my head, I do not know much about China, but with research I was able to gain knowledge that I was unaware of. First of all, it’s not just China, it’s the People’s Republic of China. I found it interesting that China is governed by the communist party, with the government city being Beijing. Since the economic reforms, China has become one of the world’s fastest growing major economies. It has the second largest GDP and it is also the world’s largest exporter and importer of most goods. Also, it has been recognized as a nuclear weapons state and has the world’s largest standing army with the second largest defense budget. I found that crazy, and as a good rule of thumb, don’t mess with China. I looked into the schooling regimen of China, which is composed of primary and junior secondary school which lasts together nine years. About 82% of students continue their education at a three year senior school, which I would think would be comparable to the United States High School. In February 2006, the government pledged to provide a completely free nine- year education, including textbooks and fees. I thought that was great, seeing as families struggle to send their children to school, this wouldn’t be a problem anymore. I found it interesting that the life expectancy is about 75, but the infant mortality rate is 12 per thousand. That is getting better since the 1950’s, but they all seem to gravitate around malnutrition and stunting. China has a horrible pollution problem which doesn’t help that most of the population engages in smoking cigarettes. The air pollution has caused the population to become densely populated and in 2010, air pollution cased 1.2 premature deaths in China.

                I learned a lot from researching the Cultural Revolution, seeing as I didn’t know much before. The Cultural Revolution was a social-political movement in 1966. The goal of the revolution was to enforce communism in the country by removing capitalist, traditional and cultural elements from Chinese society and of course, impose Maoist orthodoxy within the party. Mao alleged that bourgeois elements were infiltrating the government and they needed to restore capitalism. Millions of people were persecuted in the violent factional struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, but its active phase lasted until the death of the military leader Lin Biao in 1971. After Mao's death and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976, reformers led by Deng Xiaoping ended the Maoist reforms associated with the Cultural Revolution. In June 1981, the Central Committee announced the official verdict: "The 'cultural revolution', which lasted from May 1966 to October 1976, was responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the state, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic." Overall, I think this sets up the book “Revolution is not a Dinner Party,” really well and I can’t wait to discover the insight of a family who had to go through such a horrific thing in culture.