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00:00Today, we stand at the spot where a dream was put into action, an idea turned to concrete.
00:25This is the Three Gorges Dam spanning the Yangtze River in China.
00:31As China was dramatically transformed in the decades after Mao, the landscape and appearance
00:37of the country was revolutionized, with economic growth and huge constructions that announced
00:43a Chinese formula for modernity steered by the Communist Party.
00:48Even among countless other projects, this dam stands out.
00:52We hear and feel the roar and surge of water flowing through turbines.
01:00Above the towering walls of the dam, a huge reservoir stretches into the distance, vast
01:07quantities of water held back by engineering.
01:11Huge potential energy is stored and presses against the structure.
01:15In the 1950s, Mao ordered detailed planning for a dam.
01:21But it was only in 1992 that Premier Li Peng, an engineer, moved ahead with the project.
01:29It was promised it would control floods, generate electricity to power central China, and ease
01:36inland trade and transport.
01:37However, there were doubts about the costs, leading almost a third of the delegates of
01:43the National People's Congress to either abstain or vote against the concept.
01:49Construction officially began in 1994 and took some 17 years.
01:54The reservoir started to fill in 2003.
01:57The main dam wall was finished in 2006.
02:00The result today is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world, with more than
02:07three times bigger capacity than the U.S. Grand Coulee Dam.
02:11The dam wall spans one and a half miles across the Yangtze River, reaching nearly 600 feet high.
02:20The reservoir is some 370 miles across, and the volume of the water is said to be so big
02:27that it slows down the Earth's rotation.
02:30It also features the largest shiplift in the world, and multiple ship locks.
02:36The dam promises perfected flood control, protecting downstream cities of Wuhan and Shanghai.
02:44Its hydroelectric output is estimated to equal 1% or more of the energy China gets from burning coal.
02:52This is part of China's ambition to be a world leader in energy technology.
02:56Officially, its building costs $30 billion, but some estimates suggest it might be as high as $88 billion.
03:05The sheer scale of the project is deliberate.
03:09Rival proposals for building a smaller series of dams were rejected in favor of this megaproject,
03:16a gigantic statement.
03:18Here, concrete is the medium, and the medium is the message.
03:22But building the dream in concrete came at considerable cost,
03:27and generates not only electricity, but continuing controversy as well.
03:33An estimated 1.4 million people were forcibly resettled to make way for the construction and the reservoir.
03:40Over 1,000 towns, villages, and ancient historic sites were flooded and vanished underwater.
03:49Losing homes that were permeated with memories and ancestral associations,
03:54the resettled people were wrenched from their environs and moved to settlements away from the waves.
04:01These relocated areas were newly built, but bore the names of the sunken towns.
04:07Evacuated people complained of corruption.
04:11Charging the compensation money meant for them was diverted by local government officials.
04:17Protests broke out, as forcibly dislocated people demanded that they be allowed to move home.
04:24In 2001, in Yongzhou City in Hunan Province,
04:29nearly 1,000 protesters blocked a bridge and battled police,
04:34demanding redress, but to no avail.
04:36As the reservoir filled, artists rushed to record the loss of ancient culture and living sites
04:43to register the heartbreak, while archaeologists raced to excavate digs soon to vanish.
04:50The Three Gorges Dam had a profound environmental impact and dislocated wildlife.
04:56The banks of the reservoir were prone to landslides.
05:00Because of the altered water course, the river's silt is not carried downstream as it was,
05:07but gathers in the reservoir, altering earlier natural ecosystems.
05:12Urban pollution likewise settles into the reservoir.
05:15Moreover, the dam sits on two seismic fault lines,
05:19and increased small tremors have been recorded.
05:22In 2020, when vast floods struck and the Yangtze rose,
05:29anxieties grew about whether the gigantic structure would hold.
05:34If it were to break, some 400 million people would be endangered downstream.
05:40Satellite images suggested that the wall's shape might be distorted or bulging,
05:45but officials dismissed this.
05:48The dam held, but controversy has remained.
05:50This dam could function as a metaphor for China, still evolving and changing,
05:58projecting an image of monolithic stability,
06:01but actually subject to enormous and volatile social pressures and expectations.
06:07China's development has prompted some to ask whether China is communist today,
06:12and some insightful historians more searchingly even ask whether China ever was really Marxist.
06:18Here, we'll take seriously the avowals of the leadership that they seek Marxism-Leninism with Chinese characteristics,
06:27a term that became popular with the rise of Deng Xiaoping,
06:31and chart the changes from 1976 to 2012 when Chairman Xi came to the fore.
06:37Upon the death of Mao in September 1976,
06:43his corpse was mummified and put on display in a marble mausoleum in Tiananmen Square.
06:48A power struggle within the leadership ended with the arrest and publicized trial of the so-called Gang of Four,
06:56four prominent CCP officials who had helped orchestrate the cultural revolution under Mao's leadership,
07:03among them Mao's wife, Zhong Qing.
07:08Control now lay with the veteran revolutionary Deng Xiaoping,
07:12who had himself repeatedly been purged, but now made the ultimate comeback.
07:19Mao's cultural revolution was formally ended by the 11th Party Congress in August 1977.
07:25But the trauma of this turmoil would not be easily closed.
07:31Nearly three million purged party members and other persecuted persons now needed to be rehabilitated.
07:39Young people who had been sent to the countryside trickled back from their rural exile.
07:44The impact of the trauma proved lasting.
07:48Among its legacies was a conditioned caution among officials,
07:52who always awaited the next sudden turn of policy.
07:57That chaotic period had also produced a generation gap,
08:00as masses of younger people had their educations thoroughly disordered.
08:06Impossible to measure was the disillusionment it had all engendered.
08:11Economic dislocations led to the growth of corruption.
08:14On a day-to-day level, it would prove psychologically difficult for people to interact with those
08:21who had earlier led their persecutions.
08:24But it was unavoidable.
08:26In the Politburo, chosen after the 11th Party Congress in 1977,
08:32half its members were those who had risen due to the Cultural Revolution,
08:36while the other half had been repressed.
08:38The party, as well as the larger society, would remain tense, fractured, and fractional.
08:44People avoided open reference to the enormities that had just happened.
08:50Officially, the famine of the Great Leap Forward,
08:54involving an estimated 35 to 40 million deaths with some estimates going higher still,
09:00was referred to merely as
09:02three years of natural disasters, or
09:05the difficult three-year period.
09:08Unofficially, a so-called scar literature
09:11was produced by those who were, in spite of it all,
09:15compelled to somehow record their searing experiences.
09:18Most of all,
09:20momentous silences took hold
09:22and seemed to maintain their hold still.
09:26One response, however,
09:27was foreclosed.
09:29Unlike the Soviet Union under Khrushchev,
09:32which had launched attempts at
09:34de-Stalinization in the 1950s,
09:36the Chinese regime could not engage in de-Mao-ification,
09:41even given his damaging record.
09:44Mao was too central.
09:47By analogy with the Soviet Union,
09:49Mao had been both Lenin and Stalin together
09:52for the Chinese case.
09:54So in the end,
09:55the regime continued to hail
09:57Mao Zedong thought
09:59as the Chinese adaption of Marxism.
10:02Party thinkers and propagandists
10:04cast about for a coherent line of explanation.
10:08In 1981,
10:10the CCP announced its formula.
10:13It concluded
10:13that Mao had been 70% correct.
10:18His achievements were said to have
10:19compensated for his mistakes,
10:22and those mistakes came only towards the end,
10:24outweighed by early triumphs.
10:27Yet in 1982,
10:28the party abolished the post of chairman,
10:32fearing the dominance of a single figure.
10:34As had been the case in Mao's day.
10:37In the immediate aftermath of Mao's passing,
10:40his comrades vowed to continue his course
10:42to, quote,
10:44uphold whatever policy decisions
10:46Chairman Mao made
10:47and unswervingly follow
10:49whatever instructions
10:50Chairman Mao gave, end quote.
10:53This was jokingly referred to
10:54as the Two Whatever's campaign.
10:57Yet practice would prove very different,
10:59led by Deng Xiaoping.
11:01A veteran of the early Chinese Communist movement,
11:04Deng was formidable
11:06even if he stood less than five feet tall.
11:09His student days in France and Moscow
11:11gave him a broader perspective.
11:14Surviving multiple purges,
11:17Deng was rehabilitated
11:18and restored to leadership in 1977.
11:22Under his influence,
11:23the state introduced a reform era
11:25from 1978,
11:27making a fundamental decision
11:29to open and participate
11:30in the world economy
11:32to gain capital for modernization.
11:36Without repudiating Mao explicitly,
11:39Deng altered many of the earlier leaders'
11:42principles radically.
11:44Deng's trademark was pragmatism,
11:46as he repeated a favorite saying that
11:48it does not matter if a cat is black or white.
11:51If it catches mice,
11:53it is a good cat.
11:54In other words,
11:55results mattered.
11:56Deng's policy pressed the so-called
12:00four modernizations,
12:02seeking to transform agriculture,
12:05industry,
12:06the military,
12:07and science.
12:09Deng also endorsed the slogan,
12:11it is glorious to get rich,
12:13in a profound reversal
12:15from Marxist ideology.
12:17Alongside the Maoist slogan,
12:19serve the people,
12:21a new slogan declared,
12:22create wealth for the people.
12:24That meant introducing elements
12:27of a market economy
12:28in ways that paralleled
12:30Lenin's new economic policy
12:32of the 1920s.
12:35Deng sought to unleash
12:36China's economic potential
12:38by promoting private enterprise
12:40while retaining political control
12:42for the CCP.
12:45The huge collective farms
12:46that had been the essence
12:47of Mao's policies
12:49were dismantled by stages
12:51in a return to family farming.
12:53Farmers were allowed
12:55to sell ever more
12:56of their produce
12:56on the market.
12:58Their free enterprise
12:59in small garden plots
13:01was not just tolerated,
13:03but encouraged.
13:04China opened to the wider world,
13:07allowing trade,
13:08foreign investment,
13:09and study abroad.
13:11Deng created four special
13:13economic zones on the coast
13:15to entice people from abroad
13:17to invest with special low tax rates.
13:21Laws for joint ventures
13:22were passed.
13:23To encourage such ties,
13:25Deng even traveled
13:26to the United States
13:27in 1979.
13:29Putting on a 10-gallon cowboy hat
13:31at a Texas rodeo
13:33outside Houston,
13:34Deng was seeking opportunities
13:36wherever they could be found.
13:39Small businesses were permitted,
13:41and by 1985,
13:42there were about 12 million of them.
13:45As a result,
13:46during the 1980s,
13:47per capita income
13:48roughly doubled.
13:49Deng steered the process
13:52and the party and state
13:53without taking a top office himself.
13:57The party sought to retain control
13:59and in the first half of the 1980s,
14:02announced a renewed
14:03rectification campaign
14:05to eliminate corruption
14:06and encourage fidelity
14:08to the party line.
14:10In 1985,
14:11reforms ran into problems,
14:13including strains
14:14produced by the disjuncture
14:17between official state prices
14:18and market prices,
14:20and inflation,
14:22and increasingly visible
14:23corruption among officialdom.
14:25There were rumblings
14:26of discontent in 1986
14:28and then a crisis in 1989.
14:32Even prior to this,
14:34the sheer scope of the changes
14:36had produced internal contradictions,
14:38as Marx would have called them.
14:40After the CCP endorsed
14:42private enterprise,
14:44albeit under its ultimate control,
14:45where did that leave
14:47its ideological legitimacy,
14:49its authority?
14:50After Deng had announced
14:52the aim of four modernizations,
14:54in 1978,
14:56a dissident
14:56named Wei Jinshen
14:58said it was not enough.
15:01Wei,
15:02who had been a Red Guard
15:03during the Cultural Revolution,
15:05was now an electrician
15:07at the Beijing Zoo.
15:08He plastered a poster
15:10in Beijing
15:11at a spot
15:12called the Democracy Wall,
15:13where others
15:14were pasting their ideas.
15:17Wei's poster called for
15:18the fifth modernization,
15:21democracy,
15:22and it scorned Deng's program.
15:25Wei announced,
15:26quote,
15:27democracy,
15:28freedom,
15:28and happiness
15:29are the only goals
15:31of modernization.
15:33Without this fifth modernization,
15:35the four others
15:36are nothing more
15:37than a newfangled lie,
15:38end quote.
15:40Wei diagnosed
15:40the situation
15:41ailing China
15:42as lingering totalitarianism
15:45and sought
15:46a different route
15:47to modernization.
15:49Most prophetically,
15:50Wei presciently insisted
15:52that democracy
15:53is not inevitable,
15:55but requires sacrifice.
15:57For expressing these ideas,
15:59Wei was arrested
16:00in 1979
16:01and sentenced
16:02to 15 years in jail.
16:04Much later,
16:05after another arrest,
16:06he was deported
16:07to the United States
16:08in 1997.
16:11Like Wei,
16:11a new generation
16:12of students
16:13in this swiftly
16:14changing China
16:15were moved
16:16to demand
16:17more political reform
16:18beyond economics.
16:20In April,
16:21May,
16:22and June 1989,
16:24students gathered
16:25to demonstrate
16:25in China's cities.
16:27The situation snowballed
16:29as other parts
16:30of society
16:30supported,
16:31cheered on,
16:32or even joined
16:33the student demonstrations.
16:35When an independent
16:36workers' movement
16:37started forming
16:38and supported
16:39the students,
16:40Deng and his comrades
16:41feared the insurgency
16:43of a movement
16:43like Solidarity
16:44in Poland,
16:46which earlier that year
16:47had forced Poland's leaders
16:49to the negotiating table.
16:51For seven weeks,
16:53crowds of thousands
16:54of Chinese students
16:55occupied Beijing's
16:57Tiananmen Square,
16:58peacefully raising demands
17:00for change and democracy.
17:02From May 13,
17:031989,
17:05hunger strikers
17:06aimed to capture
17:07the hearts
17:07of their 1.1 billion
17:09fellow citizens
17:10with their determination.
17:13The students
17:13were encouraged
17:14when Gorbachev
17:15visited Beijing
17:16to meet Deng
17:17on May 16,
17:19but Gorbachev
17:20was kept away
17:20from them.
17:22Once Gorbachev
17:22had departed,
17:24martial law
17:24was declared
17:25on May 20.
17:26A million
17:27demonstrated
17:28in Beijing
17:29against it.
17:30On May 30,
17:32defiant students
17:33in Tiananmen Square
17:34unveiled a statute.
17:3630 feet tall,
17:37a goddess of democracy
17:39bearing a torch.
17:41On the night
17:42of June 3 to June 4,
17:441989,
17:45tanks and soldiers
17:46of the People's Liberation Army
17:48moved in
17:49and killed
17:49hundreds of protesters.
17:51Students tried to rally,
17:53singing the communist anthem,
17:55the Internationale,
17:56but in vain.
17:57An unknown man
17:58called Tank Man
18:00blocked the rumbling advance
18:01of a column of tanks
18:03in an unforgettable act,
18:05but it only delayed
18:06the inevitable.
18:08The goddess of democracy
18:09was smashed.
18:10The contrast
18:11to the collapse
18:12of regimes
18:12in Eastern Europe
18:13and the fall
18:14of the Berlin Wall
18:15later that year
18:16was complete.
18:18Clearly,
18:19Chinese party leaders
18:20did have
18:21the Leninist confidence
18:22to use violence,
18:24and moreover,
18:25were certainly convinced
18:26that a revolutionary situation
18:27did in fact
18:29threaten their monopoly.
18:30The growth
18:31of larger social coalitions
18:33and support
18:34for students
18:35from other parts
18:36of society
18:37seemed to them
18:38a genuine threat.
18:41Mass repression
18:42followed the Tiananmen Square
18:43massacre.
18:44As did a wager
18:45by the leadership,
18:47more economic growth
18:48and an emphasis
18:49on nationalism
18:50could forestall
18:51any renewed demands
18:53for reform.
18:54Repression
18:55followed by
18:56economic transformation
18:57had a parallel,
18:58in fact,
18:59in early Soviet history.
19:01The Kronstadt Rebellion
19:02of 1921
19:03had been followed
19:05by Lenin's
19:05new economic policy.
19:08The Tiananmen Square
19:09massacre
19:09was officially consigned
19:11to oblivion,
19:13an amnesia
19:13and forced
19:14to the point
19:15where the next
19:15generations of students
19:16would be unaware
19:18of the events
19:19that had happened.
19:20Once the party
19:21had retrenched
19:22its control,
19:23Deng in 1992
19:25publicly urged
19:26more economic reform.
19:28Meanwhile,
19:30the Soviet implosion
19:31played out,
19:32ending with the
19:32dissolution of the
19:33USSR
19:34by the end of 1991.
19:36There was a key
19:37connection to highlight
19:38here.
19:39CCP leaders
19:40drew conclusions
19:42from the Soviet
19:43meltdown
19:44which guided
19:45their behavior
19:45afterwards.
19:47The imperative
19:48of this cautionary tale
19:49was to avoid
19:50whatever had led
19:51to the Soviet collapse.
19:53The waning years
19:55of the USSR
19:55became an object
19:57of intense scrutiny
19:58for the Chinese.
20:00As part of the effort,
20:02a film documentary
20:03about Soviet collapse
20:05was confidentially
20:06circulated
20:07among party officials.
20:09Vigorous debate
20:10in the CCP
20:11sought to pinpoint
20:12the fault.
20:14Some argued strongly
20:15that the key problem
20:16lay with weak
20:17leadership personalities
20:18like Gorbachev.
20:19After much debate
20:21in 2004,
20:23party leaders
20:24passed a resolution
20:25definitively concluding
20:27that the Soviet Union
20:28fell
20:29because it had
20:30abandoned
20:30core Marxist
20:32principles.
20:33After Deng died
20:35in 1997,
20:37top leadership
20:37was held
20:38by a series of men
20:39trained as engineers
20:40concerned with
20:42bolstering
20:42the position
20:43of the party
20:44in the commanding heights,
20:45the key sectors
20:46of the economy.
20:47Party General Secretary
20:50Jiang Zemin
20:50announced in 2001
20:52a new doctrine
20:54of the three represents.
20:56He stated,
20:57quote,
20:58the party should
20:58represent the advanced
21:00productive forces
21:01in society,
21:02the party should represent
21:03advanced modern culture,
21:05the party should represent
21:07the interests
21:07of the vast majority
21:09of the people,
21:10end quote.
21:11So in place of Mao's
21:13penchant for class conflict
21:14was an emphasis
21:16on stability,
21:17and the role
21:18of the party
21:18as an elite
21:19to lead the country.
21:21Remarkably,
21:23entrepreneurs
21:23and businessmen
21:24were now welcome
21:25to become party members
21:27in 2001.
21:29Jiang passed his duties
21:30in stages
21:31to Hu Jintao
21:32by 2002.
21:34At the 2007
21:36Party Congress,
21:37Hu gave a speech
21:38entitled,
21:39Hold High
21:40the Great Banner
21:41of Socialism
21:41with Chinese Characteristics
21:43and Strive
21:44for New Victories
21:45in Building a Moderately
21:46Prosperous Society
21:48in All Respects.
21:50That not very inspiring title
21:52united the themes
21:53of party dominance
21:54and prudent promises
21:56of economic progress.
21:59Then,
21:59in 2012,
22:00Xi Jinping
22:01took over
22:02as party general secretary
22:03and chair
22:04of the Central Military Commission.
22:07In following years,
22:08Xi would turn
22:09towards more individual rule,
22:11a trend we'll consider
22:13in a later lecture.
22:15The 1990s and 2000s
22:17brought huge transformations,
22:19following through
22:20on the party's premise
22:21of blocking
22:22general participation
22:24in politics
22:25but promising prosperity.
22:27According to official figures,
22:29China's per capita income
22:30increased 25 times over
22:33during these two decades,
22:35starting from a lower base
22:37made for dramatic
22:38and meaningful results.
22:39The government claimed
22:41that 800 million Chinese
22:43were lifted up
22:44from poverty.
22:46Cars replaced
22:47the earlier
22:47ubiquitous bicycles.
22:49The state provided
22:50big infrastructure spending,
22:52building roads,
22:54superhighways,
22:55airports,
22:56the world's biggest system
22:58of high-speed railways,
22:59and megaprojects
23:01including
23:01the Three Gorges Dam.
23:03Government spending
23:05on these projects
23:06from 2008
23:07to 2021
23:09averaged around
23:1044% of GDP
23:12when the global average
23:14for such projects
23:15was 25%.
23:16By 2010,
23:18China surpassed Japan
23:20to gain the status
23:21of the world's
23:22second-largest economy
23:24behind the United States.
23:26In fact,
23:26in December 2014,
23:28China was even declared
23:30the world's largest economy
23:31according to
23:32the International Monetary Fund.
23:35Critics question the value
23:36of some of these statistics,
23:37but the growth
23:38has been impressive.
23:40At the same time,
23:42inner problems
23:43bedeviled the country
23:44of 1.37 billion.
23:46Mass poverty persisted,
23:48not visible
23:48from those splendid
23:49skylines of cities
23:51like Shanghai.
23:52In 2014,
23:54The Economist magazine
23:55noted that China,
23:57quote,
23:57has more poor people
23:59than any other country
24:00save India,
24:01end quote.
24:02Other problems
24:03included slowdowns
24:04in GDP growth,
24:06large problems
24:06with debts
24:07held by banks,
24:09and inflationary
24:10and deflationary cycles,
24:12provoking thousands
24:13of protests
24:14every year.
24:15Socially,
24:16resentment grew
24:17at the nomenklatura
24:18privileges
24:19of party leaders
24:20and their children
24:21who were called
24:22princelings,
24:23showing off wealth
24:24and engaging
24:25in conspicuous consumption.
24:27Observers described
24:28a red second generation,
24:31enjoying privileges
24:32and stashing wealth
24:34in offshore holdings
24:35instead of showing
24:36revolutionary fervor
24:38like that of Mao's generation.
24:40The encouragement
24:41of markets
24:42and private enterprise
24:43was not matched
24:45by stable legal guarantees
24:46for property rights
24:47and the rule of law.
24:50The population at large
24:52was subject
24:52to social engineering
24:54from above
24:54with the imposition
24:56of the so-called
24:56one-child policy
24:57in 1979
24:58to reduce the pressure
25:00of a growing populace.
25:02Over more than
25:03three decades,
25:05this policy led
25:06to some 400 million abortions,
25:08while in many other cases,
25:10couples evaded the laws
25:11or accepted
25:12having to pay fines.
25:14By 2016,
25:16the state had swung
25:17to worrying
25:17about too little
25:18population growth
25:19and dramatically
25:21slowing birth rates
25:22and shifted
25:23to allowing
25:24two children
25:24and then three children
25:26in 2021.
25:28Another startling phenomenon
25:30was the roaring advance
25:31of religion
25:32in China after Mao.
25:34What Marx had denounced
25:35as the opiate
25:36of the masses
25:37was now booming.
25:39There are some 57,000
25:41officially permitted
25:42Christian churches
25:43in China today,
25:45registered with the government.
25:47Many more
25:47are not registered,
25:49so-called house churches,
25:50which the party
25:51has long tried to control
25:52with little success.
25:55China is poised
25:56to become the country
25:57with the most Christians
25:58in the world.
26:00The numbers are debated,
26:01but there are perhaps
26:02100 million Christians
26:03altogether,
26:05mostly Protestants
26:06and also Catholics.
26:08Some estimate
26:08the number of Christians
26:09in China
26:10has been growing
26:11by 10%
26:12each year
26:13since 1980.
26:15A few experts
26:16are convinced
26:17that there are actually
26:18now more Christians
26:19in China
26:20than members
26:21of the CCP,
26:22which numbers
26:2380 million.
26:24The CCP
26:25has even discussed
26:27allowing Christians
26:28to become members.
26:29You can certainly imagine
26:30how Marx would have reacted
26:32to this suggestion.
26:34But if Chinese entrepreneurs
26:35were newly allowed
26:36to join,
26:37why not religious people?
26:39The Western associations
26:40of Christianity
26:41appeal to some,
26:42while others
26:43are repelled by them.
26:45One irony,
26:46which some Chinese bloggers
26:47have noted,
26:48is that, of course,
26:49both Christianity
26:50and Marxist thought
26:52are Western imports.
26:54There has also been
26:55a renaissance
26:56of Buddhist belief
26:57and practice,
26:58as well as
26:59new religious movements.
27:01The Falun Gong group
27:02in 1999
27:03silently occupied
27:05a central square
27:06in downtown Beijing
27:08next to the elite
27:09party compound,
27:10the Zhongnan High.
27:12This demonstration
27:13terrified party authorities
27:15because it caught
27:16them by surprise.
27:18Falun Gong was banned.
27:20Tibetan Buddhists
27:21and Uyghur Muslims
27:22in the West
27:23are harshly targeted.
27:24Religion makes
27:25the authorities nervous,
27:27and some cite
27:28the case of Poland
27:29as a cautionary example,
27:31since there,
27:32the Catholic Church
27:33was instrumental
27:34in bringing down
27:35communism.
27:36Although also
27:38anathemized by Marx,
27:40nationalism
27:40has been invoked
27:41as a binding force
27:42by the CCP.
27:44The transfer
27:45of Hong Kong
27:46in 1997
27:47from British
27:48Crown Colony
27:48to Beijing's control
27:50was presented
27:51as a redemption
27:52from earlier
27:54colonial exploitation.
27:56In 2003,
27:58China proudly
27:58sent its first
27:59astronaut into orbit,
28:01demonstrating
28:02its modernity.
28:03When China
28:04hosted the 2008
28:05Olympics,
28:06it used the ceremonies
28:07to celebrate
28:08its China model.
28:11The nationalist
28:12charge of these
28:13policies, however,
28:15sharpened
28:16pre-existing
28:16conflicts
28:17in border regions
28:18of the Chinese state,
28:20especially Tibet
28:21and Xinjiang.
28:22The remote
28:23Buddhist kingdom
28:24of Tibet
28:24had been incorporated
28:25by Mao's troops
28:27in 1950,
28:28and after an uprising
28:29in 1959,
28:31the Dalai Lama
28:32had fled
28:33into exile
28:33in India.
28:35During the
28:35Cultural Revolution,
28:37many of the temples
28:38and monasteries
28:39of Tibet
28:39were ravaged.
28:41Chinese development
28:42plans
28:42for the autonomous
28:43region
28:44meant large
28:45in-migration
28:46into Tibet
28:47and a sense
28:48among Tibetans
28:49of losing
28:49their home
28:50and identity.
28:52Riots broke out
28:53in the 1980s
28:54and just before
28:55the 2008
28:56Olympic Games
28:57to the frustration
28:58of officials.
29:00North of Tibet,
29:01in the northwestern
29:02corner of the
29:02Chinese state,
29:03lies Xinjiang,
29:05home to the Uyghurs,
29:06a Turkic people
29:07with a nomadic past.
29:09The famed
29:10Silk Road
29:11of ancient
29:12trade routes
29:12ran through
29:13Xinjiang's
29:14mountains
29:14and deserts.
29:15In-migration
29:17of Han Chinese
29:18was encouraged
29:19in waves
29:20from the 1950s,
29:22in part to secure
29:23the border area
29:24which was adjacent
29:25to the Soviet Union.
29:27The Cultural Revolution
29:28targeted mosques
29:29and Muslim teachers
29:30among the Uyghurs.
29:32Growing tension
29:33in the 1990s
29:34escalated into
29:35ethnic clashes
29:36that killed hundreds
29:37in 2009.
29:39At present,
29:40Uyghurs are less
29:41than half
29:41of the population
29:42of their province.
29:44Uyghur activism
29:44has been denounced
29:45as separatism
29:46by Beijing
29:47and subjected
29:49to sharp
29:49repressive measures.
29:51An extensive
29:51system of
29:52re-education camps
29:54are reported
29:55to confine
29:55hundreds of thousands
29:57while cotton farms
29:58deploy forced labor.
30:01Uyghurs report
30:02forced sterilizations
30:03and physical abuse
30:04inside the camps.
30:06Outside the camp system,
30:08ordinary Uyghur citizens
30:09are subject
30:10to intense surveillance
30:11as part of a massive
30:13operation
30:13to enforce
30:15the state order.
30:16On a countrywide scale,
30:19the state also
30:20has sought to
30:20monopolize the flow
30:21of information
30:22on the Internet.
30:24Public use
30:24of the Internet
30:25in China
30:26began to spread
30:27from 1995
30:28and soon
30:28was lively
30:29and energetic.
30:31But by 1997,
30:33laws began
30:34to target
30:34online expressions
30:35deemed harmful
30:36to the state.
30:38From there,
30:39Golden Shield
30:40software and censorship
30:42intensified
30:43to become
30:44an expansive
30:45set of controls.
30:47Dubbed
30:47the Great Firewall
30:48of China,
30:50the state's
30:50mechanisms
30:51of Internet
30:51surveillance
30:52and censorship
30:53were designed
30:54to cordon off
30:55foreign influence
30:56and to quell
30:57internal dissent.
30:59Moving beyond
31:00even this,
31:01from 2011,
31:03a national project
31:04was engineered
31:04to systematize
31:05a so-called
31:06social credit system
31:08which would track
31:09users and then
31:10assign them
31:11scores on the
31:12basis of their
31:12political loyalty
31:14and proper
31:15behavior.
31:16Transgressions
31:17included bad
31:18driving,
31:19posting controversial
31:20opinions,
31:21or playing too
31:21many video games.
31:22These can lead
31:23to punishments
31:24in the form
31:25of travel bans,
31:26financial penalties,
31:28or slow
31:29Internet speeds.
31:31By 2012,
31:32with the advent
31:33of a new leader,
31:34Xi Jinping,
31:35China's dramatic
31:36development presented
31:37many questions.
31:39After the collapse
31:40of Eastern European
31:41communist regimes
31:42and the Soviet Union,
31:44the CCP was far
31:45and away the world's
31:47largest institution
31:48officially avowing
31:50Marxism.
31:51It had 80 million
31:52members,
31:531 in 12
31:54Chinese adults.
31:55It presided over
31:56and sought to contain
31:58a society
31:58that has been called
32:00a hybrid of market
32:01capitalism and socialism,
32:04or state capitalism.
32:05From the early 1980s,
32:07CCP leaders
32:08had avowed
32:09that they were
32:10simultaneously building
32:11both material
32:13civilization
32:13and socialist
32:15spiritual civilization.
32:17The expected outcome
32:19was to be
32:19harmony
32:20and stability.
32:22But nothing is clearer
32:23than the fact
32:24that China
32:24continues to change
32:26and to challenge
32:27the labels
32:28and categories
32:29that get applied
32:30to it.
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