The 1911 Revolution in China brought about drastic changes to Chinese social norms and ways of thinking. It also removed the Qing Dynasty from power, and along with it, the old and outdated dynastic cycle. Although the dynasties served well for China before and during the 17th century, the ignorance and pride that transpired along with its rise to power utterly plagued the Middle Kingdom from the late 17th to the early 20th century.
Political activists, writers, intellectuals of all types formed grassroots movements in a period in which liberalism and change were scoffed at and crushed with an iron first. Nevertheless, key players, such as Sun Yat-sen, the paramount leader of the 1911 Revolution and the Kuomintang (KMT), and Lu Xun, founder of modern Chinese literature and a left-wing writer remained vigilant against oppression and silence.
Eventually, the two revolutionaries witnessed the fall of the Qing Dynasty. Their hopes for a unified and democratic China were within grasp. Instead, years of civil war between Chinese warlords and the onslaught of World War II abruptly ended a promising transition. The two prominent figures died before China could reunite as a single nation, and defeat the Japanese invaders.
Even after their deaths, China was experiencing a whirlwind effect. Again, the Chinese were fighting each other in another civil war between the Nationalists (KMT) led by Chang Kai-shek, and the Communists by Mao Zedong. Eventually, Mao and his fellow Communists won the war and the Nationalists retreated to the small island of Taiwan. And it all goes downhill from there.
Mao and his comrades pushed forward extremely horrible social reforms, such as the Great Leap Forward. Unproven scientific and technological practices and unrealistic agricultural production quotas resulted in a mass famine that took the lives of untold millions. Government repression of free-thinking and public criticism of the government was also notable outcomes of the rise of the Communist Party as evident in the Anti-Rightist Movement, the Hundred Flowers Campaign, and more recently, the massacre in Tiananmen Square. However, for their part, Mao and his Communist Party did establish positive social reforms, such as the end of foot-binding, a degree of women’s rights, and eventually a better standard of living – ironically, only after they threw out Mao’s socialistic economic reforms in exchange for capitalism.
The leaders of the 1911 Revolution would not have been amused by how the Communist Party hijacked their apsirations for a democratic China. Then again, if Chang Kai-shek and the KMT had their way, it would not have been any better since he was very conservative, and like Mao, ruled with an iron first, as evidently shown by his dictatorship over Taiwan. Nonetheless, China was unified, albeit some ethnic minorities do not view themselves as Chinese. Unfortunately, the nation never achieved the most important aspirations of Sun Yat-sen and Li Xun in which people could freely express themselves in a democratic government.
And here we are in the 21st century. The Communist Party is still in power; however, they appear to be losing grip of their hold on it. Corruption within the government runs rampant, and the Chinese people know it. So far, the Party has been inefficient and negligible as it has repeatedly failed to respond to the recent scandals that inflicted a variety of dismayed citizens.
Although the government promised to punish the perpetrators of the milk scandal in 2008, traces of melamine are still found in milk and baby formula products today. China continues to lag behind in international standards in terms of food safety and quality with a long list of food scandals ranging from exploding watermelons to soy sauce made with human hair. Parents concerned with their children’s health have certainly been disappointed by the negligence of their government.
Huge government contracts for projects, such as the railway system is lucrative as companies often offer hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars in kickbacks to Communist Party officials. That very railway system was put into question in the recent Wenzhou train collision. The government’s handling of the incident resulted in public outrage among the families of the victims and Chinese netizens. The Party received flak for a 2-year-old girl pulled out from the wreckage after an official announced an end to rescue operations. The Chinese public was further infuriated after pictures showed the train wreckage being buried – as if the government was attempting to hide the evidence of any wrongdoing.
After the Wenzhou incident, Chinese media bombarded news of the incident. Some of them questioned the government’s handling of the situation, and others reported government corruption as the main fault. Since then, the Communist Party enforced a media blackout in which positive news could only be published and broadcasted – again, a move that resulted in anguish among the public.
Government control over information is not new. As China continues to modernize, many citizens become more aware of the outside world and the different ideas through the internet; however many feel restrained by government attempts to control information – information that is free and accessible in most modern societies. The greatest obstacle to the free flow of information in China is the infamous Great Firewall. Chinese netizens have been in the forefront in battling against government infringement of their access to the World Wide Web.
Democratic movements and political activists continue to be subjugated by the Communist Party. Any person who calls for government reforms or criticizes its practices are targeted and crushed by the Communist Party, such as the popular artist Ai Weiwei, and human rights activist and 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo. Religious practitioners are also victims of government oppression. For instance, the state insists on its control over the ordination of bishops without Vatican approval. As a result, Chinese Catholics who remain loyal to the Vatican practice their religion underground in defiance of government authority.
In terms of socioeconomic groups, poor Chinese farmers in rural China have become outspoken critics of the Communist Party. Land grabs by the government belonging to poor Chinese farmers, the very people who propped the Communist Party into power throughout the 20th century, are frequent occurrences. And the Party’s focus on the big cities rather than rural China has left millions of Chinese trailing behind their nation’s economic prosperity. However, the poor are not alone.
Although the middle class of China’s society has acquired a certain degree of prosperity, they too have beef against the Communist Party. With China's desperate past behind them, many well off Chinese citizens are becoming more concerned of the quality of life that their government has failed to provide. They are the very people who are concerned about the contaminated food and the poor transportation. They crave for all forms of information in the media and the internet. And they desire for freedom of political and religious expression.
Of course, America is no stranger to scandals and corruption. In the 19th century, the United States was relatively modernized thanks to the industrial revolution. However, it was plagued with poor food quality and hazardous drug products. One only has to flip a few pages from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle to understand the state of America's food industry or look at old newspaper ads of scientifically unproven medicinal products that promised cures for all sorts of ailments.
Corruption within the U.S. government was also widespread as many officials represented large corporations (some still do today). Political bosses and machines maintained complete control over the election process. Workers were forced to vote for government candidates supported by the bosses; else they risked losing their jobs.
As American citizens became more aware of the poor living conditions and the nefarious government practices, they took it upon themselves to push for dramatic reforms. Disenfranchised Americans of all walks of life joined together in the Progressive movement – thus began the Progressive Era. They struggled to change their country for the better, and they left a lasting legacy. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, a precursor to the Food and Drug Administration. And in 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment was adopted, which established direct election of Senators in an attempt to undercut political bosses and machines.
It is wrong to say that the internal problems of late 19th to early 20th century America are the same as modern day China. Those issues were uniquely American in every way: historical, cultural, sociological, political, etc. The same applies to modern day China as it has its own unique characteristics. Nevertheless, there are striking similarities between old American and new China. However, there is no need for the modern Chinese to emulate America's past as China already has a history of progressive movements, specifically, the 1911 Revolution.
The Communist Party’s definition of prosperity has certainly lost touch with the very people it promised to. It is only a matter of time when new Chinese grassroots movements ranked by the young, the educated, the middle class, the poor, and the disenfranchised emulate the hopes and dreams of their revolutionary forefathers of 1911. It is doubtful that these grassroots movements will shape China in the immediate future; however, they will be a force to be reckoned over time. As the nation continues to prosper economically, their numbers will continue to grow exponentially. Without a doubt, the Communist Party will respond to dissent with brute force like it has in the past, but will it be able to prevent the next revolution just over the horizon? Only time will tell.
If you have any questions or comments on the topic, please e-mail me at cassidypham@hotmail.com.
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