China is a member of E7, an active member of international organisations, country owning nuclear weapon and a country with great economic prospects. Nevertheless, despite its successful foreign policy, the country has some major disadvantages and difficulties in domestic policy. China is
China is a member of E7, an active member of international organisations, country owning nuclear weapon and a country with great economic prospects. Nevertheless, despite its successful foreign policy, the country has some major disadvantages and difficulties in domestic policy. China is ruled by the Communist Party; there is no democracy and thus there are no elections in China. Its citizens are limited in many spheres of their lives. Numerous protests to change the political authorities are held annually in China but they have little impact. Since 1978 after the end of Cultural Revolution, the Chinese government has changed significantly. Since CCP has changed its ideology, goals, structure, and type of membership, it considers itself legitimate (especially in comparison with the Chinese government ruled by Mao Zedong). Nevertheless, the public perception is different (although it also evolved): the public does not consider Chinese government legitimate but it is not united enough to express its opinion. To obtain a comprehensive answer to the issue in question, it is crucial to analyse Cultural Revolution in China, the transformation of Chinese government since 1978 until modernity, the concept of legitimacy and its connection to Chinese government and Chinese perception of the Chinese government’s legitimacy.
Cultural Revolution in China
Despite the pleasant name, the Cultural Revolution is a tragic time in Chinese history that has had a great influence on the transformation of Chinese government and its legitimacy. The Cultural Revolution started in 1966 and ended in 1976, but it had its roots in 1958 with the Great Leap Forward (Jian, Song, & Zhou, 2015). At the time, 90% of Chinese economy was grounded on agriculture so the Chinese government decided to rapidly transform its economy into an industrial one (Teiwes & Sun, 2014). As a result, millions of people died (from 20 million to 40 million; there is no precise data) because of famine (White, 2014). Another background factor that fostered the emergence of Cultural Revolution was the diplomatic scandal with Russia so the international union of communist countries dissolved (Wang, Xu, & Jonas, 2013). Hence, these two important events indirectly influenced the emergence of Cultural Revolution.
The first stage of Cultural Revolution was the most dramatic one. Mao Zedong, fearing that he can lose his position as the head of the country, started fighting against the opposition or anyone who may join it in the future (Xizhe, 2015). The first stage of revolution lasted from 1966 to 1969 (Schoenhals, 2015). During this time, the main enemy of Mao Zedong was intelligentsia though many people in CCP also were intellectuals (Russo, 2013). All the writers, musicians, artists, professors and even students were treated as a threat to the rule of Mao Zedong (Dirlik, 2012). According to estimates, about 54,000 Chinese were repressed during those 4 years (Meng & Zhao, 2013).
During the second stage of Cultural Revolution that lasted from 1969 to 1973, the main target of Mao Zedong was the army and certain people from the Party (Wilkinson, 2012). Since army is partially a guarantor of efficient ruling, Mao Zedong decided to make the army fully accountable to him (Burns, 2016). In case he detected any militants that had a point of view opposite from his, they were repressed. In addition, any member of the CCP who did not agree with Mao Zedong died under unknown circumstances (Kraus, 2012).
The third stage lasted from 1973 to 1976 and can be characterised by economic recession and further repressions (Jian et al., 2015). Any members of the Party that called for economic development were repressed. The Chinese were left without any material encouragements and were forced to work more than usual (Wang et al., 2013). In their turn, members of the Party were given much more privileges than before (Burns, 2016). Hence, the Chinese government considerably changed its ideology through the last stage and one of the main ideas was slowing down the economic development of the country.
Therefore, the Cultural Revolution changed China and its government significantly. The pride of nation – its intelligentsia was destroyed. All of the members of the party that thought and cared about the economic development of the state also paid with their political careers and sometimes their lives. Unstable political situation and worsened economic conditions led to further change of Chinese government and its legitimacy from the perspective of the Chinese Communist Party and ordinary people living in China, especially after 1978.
Transformation of Chinese Government since 1978 until Modernity
Some major transformations were made in Chinese government, due to which it still functions efficiently and its legitimacy is much higher than it was before 1978. The first transformation worth mentioning is the cult of personality being replaced by collective ruling (Shu-Min, 2013). Chinese Communist Party fearing the emergence of another leader like Mao Zedong who would be uncont