The Reform and Opening Up Debate: Betrayal of Maoist Ideas or Chinese Modernisation?

"Let some people get rich first." - Deng Xiaoping 

Deng Xiaoping, the paramount leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between 1978-1989 is certainly a controversial character. The so-called ‘Dengist’ policies of ‘Reform and Opening Up’, centred around economic liberalisation (reform) and the ‘Opening up’ of China to global trade. This inarguably transformed China into a new age. His policies and political character seem to receive love and hate in somewhat equal measure from both sides of the socialist/capitalist political split. For many reasons, such as; ‘liberalising’ and ‘capitalising’ China, for ‘modernising’ China, for ‘betraying’ the Chinese revolution, or for ‘developing’ it.  But what does it all mean? It begs the question, were Deng Xiaoping’s policies of ‘Reform and Opening Up’ a co-option of the Chinese revolutionary idea or a development of it fit for the 21^st century?

China in 1978 was a nation thrown into a new era. After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, the man who had essentially led China for the past 3 decades, the PRC struggled from economic stagnation, low living standards and political exhaustion. However, Maoism (the ideology of Mao Tse-tung) had held (however tenuously) for the past 30 years. Maoist China built upon the platform of Socialism, with a heavy focus of state-owned industry, collectivisation of agriculture, central planning and mass peasant mobilisation and campaigns. The PRC underwent mass campaigns between 1958-1976, with the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the ‘Cultural Revolution’ purging those who threatened Mao’s authority and rapidly industrialising and collectivising China. Maoism, as applied in China was an ideology of Authoritarianism whilst also kickstarting era of rapid economic development, however it was also marked with the brutal repression of political rights and dissent.

Deng Xiaoping, addressing the 11th Central Committee of the CCP (Communist Party of China) on the 18^th of December 1978, laid out the principles and policies that served as the basis for ‘Reform and Opening Up’. The basis of what would become ‘Dengism’ was that of pragmatism. Deng frequently quoted the Chinese proverb; ‘it doesn't matter if a cat is black or yellow, as long as it catches mice", and this concept of pragmatism shaped Reform and Opening Up as a policy platform completely. Under Deng, farms were decollectivized, as prior they had been run by communes after seizure from private farmers. Communes were disbanded and families handed contracts from the state to run farms on a private basis. SEZs (Special Economic Zones), along with the 1979 Joint Venture Law freed up certain Chinese cities (such as Shenzen and Xiamen) for foreign investment, ‘Opening Up’ China to direct investment from the West. During this era, limited private enterprise was also encouraged. ‘Dengism’ focused on developing and enrichening China, instead of clinging to ideological purity, and this ideal of ‘Deng Xiaoping Thought’, of Chinese market capitalism with a socialist state, still is the concept that governs China (at least nominally) today. Given the concepts defined prior, many see them as either polar opposite, or taken from the same cloth, but which is it?

Those who claim that Deng’s policies were a betrayal cite the fact that the Chinese economy under Mao was one of almost complete nationalisation, in which the state, or peasant communes, owned essentially all land and industry in the PRC. Deng Xiaoping’s privatisation drive seemingly completely contradicts this. Furthermore, after the diplomatic split between the USSR and the PRC starting in the early 1960’s, China was isolated on the world stage, with only 15% of Chinese trade being conducted with the west prior to 1978, a number that currently exceeds 30% under the Chinese state who claims ‘Reform and Opening Up’ as an ongoing process to this day.

However, proponents of the continuity of the Chinese revolutionary ideal would claim that ‘Dengism’ is a continuation of Maoist pragmatism, and a development of this concept for the late 20^th century. ‘Maoism’ as it is known today is not generally thought to be ‘Orthodox’ in the Marxist tradition as it does not strictly follow the letter of Karl Marx’s writings. Instead of a movement built upon industrial workers, Mao prioritised the mobilisation of peasants during the Chinese revolution. The adaption to local conditions in ideology, what was in Mao’s time a need to prioritise the peasant due to the unindustrialised nature of China, would be argued by proponents as the same pragmatism that led Deng Xiaoping to liberalise China in an era of increasing globalisation. Moreover, despite the privatisation of some sectors of the Chinese economy under Deng, the Chinese state retains its position as the primary wielder of political and economic power, in its authority to intervene in the economy despite part-private ownership, and the continuation of the autocracy of the Communist Party of China, which proponents would claim demonstrates continuity from the era of Mao.

The debate of whether ‘Reform and Opening Up’, and by extension the modern Chinese state that developed out of it, are a continuation or disconnection from the China under Mao is one that will likely never be definitively answered due to the question’s subjective nature, and the full scope of the debate could never fit in a small essay such as this. However, it is key to note that the real answer presumably falls between the two sides of this debate.

~ Written by Isaac Bennett