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00:00Hello friends, China is one of the most powerful countries in the world today.
00:09But can you imagine that just 40 years ago, the poverty rate in this country was more than 90%.
00:16Poverty and starvation had made the country miserable.
00:22But in the next 30 years, we saw such a huge transformation that this country reached so far.
00:28In 1978, China's contribution to the global GDP was only 2%.
00:33Today, China contributes more than 18% to the global GDP.
00:38Their poverty rate is now less than 1% and China is the second largest economy in the world.
00:43In many ways, it can be considered a superpower country.
00:47But how did this happen?
00:49What magic did we see here?
00:51Let's do a detailed case study on China in today's video.
00:58One of the world's poorest nations.
01:00In 1978, Deng Xiaoping had an idea.
01:03One that would turn communist China on its head.
01:05Since then, China has made extraordinary strides in various fields.
01:08So how did one of the world's poorest countries become a global superpower in just four decades?
01:15Friends, the name of China comes from a Chinese word, Qin.
01:19It is written as Q-I-N but pronounced as Chin.
01:22Qin was the name of an old dynasty that ruled and unified China around 2,000 years ago.
01:28This is why we often call Chinese people by their Hindi name, Chini.
01:32What came from Qin is Chini.
01:34And another interesting fact here is that what is actually Chini is refined sugar.
01:38It is believed that for the first time in India, a Chinese man brought white refined sugar.
01:43A Chinese man either opened a sugar mill or came from China.
01:47Before that, we only used sugar and jaggery.
01:50Because he brought sugar, we started calling him Chini.
01:54Another interesting fact here is that Chinese people don't call their country China.
01:58They use the word Zhongguo for their country.
02:01It means Middle Kingdom.
02:03It symbolizes China's 4,000-year-old history.
02:06How China used to be the centre of the world.
02:09On the map, China is the world's fourth largest country.
02:13It borders India.
02:15Most of China's population actually lives quite far from India on the east coast.
02:20This is because the fertile land where agriculture can be done is more present in that area.
02:25In the west, there are mountains and deserts of the Himalayas.
02:27Because of its size, China used to be a very successful and powerful kingdom until the 19th century.
02:33And after that, it was affected by colonialism.
02:36Although the British rule never fully occupied China like it did on the Indian subcontinent.
02:41But still, China was looted in different ways.
02:46This is why the period from 1839 to 1949 is called the Century of Humiliation by the Chinese.
02:54It starts in 1839 when the British East India Company imports opium on China.
03:00Opium is a drug that makes Chinese people completely addicted.
03:04And the entire Chinese society is destroyed.
03:07After this, many treaties are signed by China.
03:10In which China has to hand over its land and ports to the British.
03:13Then in 1850, there is a terrible civil war in China.
03:16In the name of Taiping Rebellion, lakhs of people are killed.
03:19If you fast forward 40 years, you can see the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894.
03:24China and Japan take the territory and go to war with each other.
03:30I won't go into too much detail.
03:31But at that time, the Qin Dynasty was ruling China.
03:34Don't confuse it with the Qin Dynasty from which it got its name.
03:38That Qin Dynasty was 2000 years old.
03:40The name of this Qin Dynasty is QING.
03:43There was only QIN in it.
03:44The pronunciation is the same.
03:45From 1937 to 1945, Chinese people have to endure even more terrible torture.
03:51This time, by the hands of Japanese colonizers.
03:54In the World War 2 video, I explained how China was a part of the Allies Power.
03:58It was fighting against Japan.
04:00In this World War 2, around 30 million Chinese people are killed.
04:03Amidst all this, there is a ray of hope when China finally wins World War 2 with the Allied Forces.
04:10Japan retreats.
04:11But as soon as the war ends, a civil war breaks out in China.
04:16A war between the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalist Party.
04:21It started in 1927.
04:23But when Japan invaded during World War 2, they stopped fighting temporarily.
04:28This civil war ends in 1949 with the victory of the Chinese Communist Party.
04:33The people of the Nationalist Party fled to the next island.
04:37Today, it is called Taiwan.
04:39Mao Zedong ruled the mainland China.
04:44This is the point where you can say that China as a country started.
04:49On 1st October 1949, the People's Republic of China was born.
05:03In 1958, the Great Leap Forward Campaign was launched by Mao.
05:14Its aim was to bring about an economic and social transformation in the country.
05:18There were two main policies in this.
05:20The first was to take the land from the landlords and distribute it among the farmers.
05:24Land redistribution.
05:26And after that, collectivizing agriculture.
05:29Major cooperatives were formed so that many farmers could work on the same land.
05:33But ultimately, the ownership of the land was in the hands of the government.
05:37Second, industrialization.
05:39On one hand, big industrial plants were built for steel production.
05:42But on the other hand, people were told to build steel furnaces in their backyards.
05:48For steel production at a local level.
05:50The intention was good to develop the country economically.
05:53But the result was very bad.
05:55The small steel furnaces that people built in their homes and gardens
05:59were not of good quality.
06:01Very low quality steel used to come out of them.
06:03It was a waste of resources.
06:05Secondly, the farmers did not have any incentive to increase their production.
06:08Because there was no profit sharing.
06:10And there was no private ownership.
06:12Ultimately, the ownership of the land was in the hands of the government.
06:14So whatever crop was being grown by the farmers was to be given to the government.
06:17This led to a huge decline in productivity.
06:20Between 1958 and 1961, grain production fell by 15%.
06:24In just a few years, due to bad weather and some other masterstroke policies of Mao,
06:29the situation got so bad that there was starvation all over the country.
06:33There was such a terrible famine that about 20-40 million people were killed in this famine in China.
06:39It is said to be one of the deadliest famines in history.
06:42To put it bluntly, Mao Zedong was a dictator.
06:45And because there is no checks and balances system for dictators,
06:49which is common in democracy,
06:51Dictators often have a habit of running their minds without thinking, without testing.
06:57Many such decisions were taken by Mao which made the situation in China worse.
07:01Another example of such a decision was Sparrow Extermination.
07:05Mao's purpose was to increase food production.
07:07So it was ordered that all the sparrows and birds should be killed by the people.
07:12Because those birds eat grains.
07:14They eat some crop grains from the fields.
07:16So the crops are affected by the farms.
07:18So all the birds should be killed from the country.
07:20When this campaign was run, the sparrows were killed.
07:23A few years later, people realized that these insects are multiplying so fast.
07:28And our crops are getting more damaged because of it.
07:30The problem of food shortage is getting worse.
07:33Then later a scientist came up with an idea that if all the birds are killed,
07:38then no one will be left to eat those insects.
07:40The birds used to work to eat those insects.
07:43So that their population would be in control.
07:45Here, the ecological balance was disturbed.
07:48And then the famine happened.
07:50After such a big failure, Mao was criticized by the Chinese public and the Communist Party.
07:56But Mao Zedong was not willing to admit his mistake.
07:59Another campaign was started.
08:01Cultural Revolution.
08:03In 1966.
08:04The name suggests that its purpose was to bring a cultural revolution in his country.
08:08But its real purpose was to give control to Mao and suppress the opposition.
08:13A lot of propaganda and PR machinery is used here.
08:17To show his power, Mao himself swims in the Yangtze River.
08:22There is a famous photo of him here.
08:24A civilian army is formed by the students under the name of Red Guards.
08:27Red Guards were Mao's loyal soldiers.
08:29They had red armbands on their hands.
08:32And they used to carry a small Mao Red Book in their hands.
08:35Their job was to target those who were against Mao.
08:39Intellectuals, party officials, and those who were not loyal to Mao.
08:44They were targeted and publicly humiliated.
08:47And often, violence against them was also seen.
08:50There were people in the Communist Party who were criticizing the Cultural Revolution.
08:55They were criticizing Mao.
08:57And they were also targeted by the Red Guards.
08:59Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping were among those people.
09:03They were high-ranking party officials.
09:06But the Red Guards targeted them.
09:08In the name of this revolution, there was an atmosphere of fear in the country.
09:12People were encouraged to look at their neighbours and family members.
09:16Wherever they saw a traitor,
09:20A traitor is someone who speaks against Mao's ideology.
09:24Find and report them.
09:25Schools and universities were shut down.
09:28Students were told to go to the farms and learn about the condition of the farmers.
09:33Experience the hardships of rural life.
09:36Everything was out of control.
09:38The Red Guards started fighting on their own.
09:40Historical sites and cultural artefacts were destroyed in the country.
09:44People's lives were turned upside down.
09:46This was the time when the people of Tibet were also tortured.
09:50I have told you the story in the Dalai Lama video.
09:53If you haven't seen it, I'll put the link in the description below.
09:56Finally, Mao realized that the country was in turmoil in the name of this Cultural Revolution.
10:01He was distributing the country.
10:03In 1968, to regain control, the system of the Red Guards was abolished.
10:10Estimates vary a lot depending on the source.
10:13But it is said that from hundreds of thousands to 2 million people died because of the Cultural Revolution.
10:21In total, it is said that up to 50 million people died because of Mao's policies.
10:26In 1976, Mao Zedong passed away due to poor health.
10:31And until then, there was no improvement in China's situation.
10:34But it is not that only failures and bad things were seen during Mao's time.
10:38There were also some positive achievements.
10:40Especially in matters of women's equality and education.
10:44A nationwide public education system was launched during Mao's time.
10:47Campaigns were run by the government to end illiteracy.
10:51And during Mao's leadership, there was a lot of improvement in China's literacy rate.
10:55And in 1978, compared to 1949, there were three times more primary and secondary schools in China.
11:01A strong foundation was built at the same time.
11:04With the help of which, China got millions of people out of poverty.
11:07Moving forward, as you will see in the story,
11:09the government made strategic investments in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
11:15Which are called STEM fields.
11:17With the help of which, a talent pool was created in the country.
11:20With which the country's technological progress moved forward.
11:22According to Mao, women hold up half the sky.
11:25In the year 1950, a new marriage law was passed.
11:29According to which, arranged marriages and forced marriages were made illegal all over the country.
11:34Women were given the right to divorce.
11:36And in many other mines, women were tried to be brought equal.
11:40But if we come back to the time of 1976,
11:43after Mao's departure in China, a new leader emerged.
11:47From the Chinese Communist Party.
11:49Deng Xiaoping.
11:50He is also called the father of modern China.
11:53Because during his time, the real transformation of China began.
12:00Deng Xiaoping was one of those who raised his voice against Mao during Mao's time.
12:05Because of this, during the Cultural Revolution,
12:07he had to forcibly resign from all his positions.
12:10So it was obvious that Deng Xiaoping's ideology was quite different from Mao's ideology.
12:15Deng believed that the government had more tight control over the Chinese economy.
12:20Because of which China was destroyed in the last 50 years.
12:23He wanted to free the economy.
12:25That's why he introduced his policies of Economic Liberalization.
12:30There are many aspects in this which we will talk about one by one.
12:33But his overall ideology is now called Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.
12:40First, to bring about a transformation in the agriculture system,
12:43Deng introduced a Household Responsibility System.
12:46When Mao launched his Great Leap Forward campaign,
12:49private farming was completely abolished.
12:52No individual was allowed to own land.
12:56All ownership was in the hands of the government at the local level.
12:59Deng said, let's not change this ownership.
13:01The ownership will still be in the hands of the government of the village.
13:05Individual farmers and their families will be given land on lease on long-term contracts.
13:10The farmers will have the right to decide which crops to grow,
13:14how to manage their business and from where to make a profit.
13:17So the farmers will have more freedom to grow their own crops.
13:21Second, Deng said that all farmers will have to sell a certain amount of their crops to the government.
13:26But after meeting that quota,
13:28they can sell more than what they are producing and earn extra profit.
13:33This motivated the farmers to innovate.
13:37Their productivity increased.
13:39Some similar land reforms were introduced in states like Kerala and West Bengal after independence.
13:44This is a big reason why states like Kerala are so developed today.
13:49Although the specifics of these reforms are a bit different.
13:51You can discuss them in another video.
13:53But Deng Zhaoping used the same idea on factories.
13:57The Factory Manager Responsibility System was introduced.
14:00Till now, in Mao's time, the industrial factories in China
14:03were given the responsibility of managing them by the Communist Party.
14:07There was a lot of political interference.
14:10Deng said that from now on,
14:11this responsibility will be given to the workers and managers working in the factories.
14:15They will have more freedom to decide what they have to produce,
14:19what is their production target,
14:21how much they will sell at what price and how much salary they will get.
14:24Once again, the workers working in the factories got an incentive to work harder.
14:29Imagine yourself, there is a factory that makes shoes, for example.
14:33Now, the workers and managers working in the factory have the right to decide
14:38how many shoes should be produced,
14:40what materials should be used,
14:42how much shoes should be sold at what price,
14:44and how much salary should be paid to all of us.
14:47The workers got a sense of ownership and accountability.
14:51That this is our factory.
14:53If we want, we can make it successful.
14:55In Mao's time, there was a lot of centralized planning.
14:58A person sitting on top is dictating everything.
15:01That all things should run like this.
15:03The government will decide what is happening and what is not happening.
15:06But in Deng's time, decentralization was seen.
15:09More freedom was given in the economic sense.
15:11Because of all these policy measures,
15:13lakhs of people started coming out of poverty and their lives started changing.
15:17Between 1978 and 1984,
15:19on average, agriculture output increased by 7.4% in China.
15:24The grain production in China doubled between the late 1970s and mid-1980s.
15:30The next big step was to bring about a revolution in education.
15:33To focus on educating people.
15:35Because of this, in 1986,
15:38a compulsory education law was introduced by the government.
15:41For 9 years, free and compulsory education for every child in China.
15:46Compare this to India.
15:47The Right to Education Act was introduced in India after so many years.
15:50In 2009.
15:52On top of that, this law was not brought to an end in China.
15:56The government consistently started spending more money on people's education.
16:00In 1980, the money that the government was spending on education
16:04was approximately 2% of GDP.
16:07And it kept increasing slowly.
16:09And in 2012, it reached 4.1% of GDP.
16:13Again, compare this to India.
16:15According to the latest figure in India,
16:17our government has spent 2.9% of GDP on education.
16:22Not only this, China has also focused on technical and vocational education.
16:26To teach people the skills that are actually needed in jobs.
16:30Friends, if you've seen my Singapore video,
16:32then you must be remembering that these things seem very familiar.
16:35Because this is the case, friends.
16:36All the developed countries have focused heavily on education.
16:40And they are developed because education has been given such a big priority.
16:43Because of all these measures,
16:44we saw an amazing improvement in China's literacy rate.
16:47In 1982, it was at 65%.
16:50And in 2010, it crossed 95%.
16:53For comparison, India's total literacy rate is still at 77%.
16:57Similarly, spending money on healthcare is another big indicator.
17:00In 2021, China spent 5.59% of GDP on its health.
17:05And India, according to 2020 data, spent around 2.96%.
17:10The next development strategy of Deng Xiaoping was Township and Village Enterprises.
17:14Also known as TVEs.
17:16This is quite similar to India's co-operative model in many ways.
17:20Co-operatives are usually owned in India by the workers working in the co-operatives.
17:24But on the other hand, TVEs are owned by townships and villages.
17:30Both have the same purpose.
17:32To bring economic growth in rural areas.
17:35And to increase people's living standards.
17:37In India, co-operatives are usually seen more in the agricultural and dairy sectors.
17:41Like Amul.
17:42But TVEs are seen in almost every sector in China.
17:45Textiles, electronics, manufacturing, services.
17:48In fact, a big example of TVE is Huawei Technologies.
17:52This company started as a TVE in the area of Shenzhen.
17:55But today, it has become a global leader in telecommunications equipment.
18:00Another good example of this is China's city Wenzhou.
18:02Here, some local people established factories to make their small shoes.
18:07Slowly, it expanded.
18:09And became so big that today, the shoe industry of Wenzhou is a big export sector in China.
18:14The shoes made here are not only sold in China but are also sold outside of China.
18:19By the early 1990s, TVEs were employing around 100 million people in China.
18:25People's living standards started increasing.
18:27Usually, there is an income gap in rural and urban areas.
18:31But here, this income gap has reduced due to TVEs.
18:34China's total output was coming from around 20% of TVEs in 1990.
18:40Crores of jobs were generated because of this.
18:42But this could only happen when people were already educated and skilled to do all this.
18:47In 1980, Deng set up special economic zones in China.
18:51In which tax incentives were given.
18:53The bureaucratic process was made easier.
18:55Fewer regulations were made.
18:57So that foreign investment can come to the country.
18:59When many people narrate the story of China's development, they mention this point first.
19:04But I am mentioning this point later.
19:06Because to reach this point, China had to do many more things.
19:11So that this could be possible.
19:13So that this foreign investment could be successful.
19:15When foreign companies invest money in the country, they need skilled people.
19:19If people are not educated and skilled, no one will invest money.
19:23Here, labour was cheap, people were skilled, bureaucracy was less.
19:26And because of TVEs, people were already experienced in these things.
19:29Shenzhen becomes the first special economic zone in China.
19:33This city was a small fishing village.
19:35And in a few years, it becomes a major international metropolis.
19:40In 1980, Shenzhen's GDP was $0.3 billion.
19:44By 2020, it reached $420 billion.
19:49To encourage foreign companies to come to the country, an open-door policy was made.
19:53China's economy was exposed to the rest of the world.
19:56This is called economic liberalization.
19:59This was done in China in 1978.
20:02In India, economic liberalization was seen in 1991.
20:06We are in a phase of restructuring our economy.
20:10That our country is unable to launch a second industrial revolution, a second agricultural revolution.
20:17That our country is unable to integrate itself into the world economy
20:22in a manner in which we can take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new global economy.
20:28Because of this, many multinational companies like Nike, Apple, Volkswagen
20:33set up their manufacturing facilities in China.
20:36In 1980, China's FDI was $0.06 billion.
20:41In 2021, it crossed $333 billion.
20:45Apart from all this, the government also focused on infrastructure development.
20:49Railway lines should be laid.
20:51Public transport should be made in cities.
20:53And at the same time, the government made scientific research a priority.
20:57Deng introduced a crash training program for more than 8 lakh Chinese researchers.
21:02Priority areas were made.
21:04Energy production, computers, optics, space technology, physics and genetics.
21:08Heavy funding was given to these science research centers by the government.
21:13The money spent on research and development was gradually increased by the government.
21:18And in 2020, it crossed $500 billion.
21:21A big example of this is the Zongguan Kun Science Park built in Beijing in 1988.
21:27Which is a hub of technology and innovation.
21:30Many high-tech companies, research institutions and universities can be seen here.
21:35In 1990, India and China were almost on the same line.
21:39In fact, the GDP per capita of India was slightly higher than that of China.
21:44$1,202 vs $983 of China.
21:48But their exchange rate was so great that today, China's GDP per capita is 3 times higher than India.
21:53According to the 2020 numbers, India is $6,454 and China is $17,312.
22:01Regarding all these revolutionary policies,
22:03Deng Xiaoping said that he was thinking of crossing the river by feeling the stones approach.
22:08That if we cross the river, then we cross the river by looking at each stone.
22:13Every decision that was taken was taken in a pragmatic and practical way.
22:17It was taken after a lot of thinking.
22:18It is not that one day, an idea came to the mind of Deng Xiaoping that this should be done to change the whole country.
22:23And without thinking, without asking the advisors, he implemented his decision.
22:28From Deng Xiaoping, we learn that how to bring reforms is a gradual process.
22:33Which should be done after a lot of thinking.
22:35Every step should be tested and the policies should be adjusted as needed.
22:39It is not that Deng Xiaoping was a hero in our story and he didn't do anything wrong.
22:45Economically, his thinking favored freedom more.
22:49But politically, he was still a dictator.
22:52In the same time, in 1989, a Tiananmen Square Massacre was witnessed.
22:57In all these policies, one thing that was ignored was the environment.
23:01What effect was it having on the ecology?
23:03And the authoritarianism that continued in the time of Deng Xiaoping,
23:07the result of that is what we see today in Xi Jinping.
23:11If Deng Xiaoping wanted, he could have transitioned China into democracy.
23:15But he didn't.
23:16For this reason, today, a dictator emerged.
23:19Who again runs his mind and takes decisions without thinking.
23:23This is the reason that in 2020, during the pandemic, there were terrible lockdowns in China.
23:28Restrictions are being imposed on people's freedom again.
23:30If you liked this video for now, then you will also like the Singapore video.
23:34In which I have explained how Singapore was able to become Asia's number one country.
23:39You can click here and watch.
23:41See you in the next video.
23:42Thank you very much.
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