Enter the Dragon! [I Am Interested In International Affairs]
The Tiananmen Square makes for an iconic image. That wide pavilion that begins at the foot of
an Oriental edifice from which hangs the portrait of Mao Zedong. For it was at the spot that
Chairman Mao, in 1949, declared China to be a sovereign Communist republic.
Not too long ago China was just a hopeless expanse of impoverished peasants and feudal
conflicts. In the flash of an eye, China was transformed into the spinal cord that connects trade
and commerce and everything else imaginable in the entire world.
So who was the architect of this forced and unnaturally paced transition? Mao surely laid the
foundation.
His “Great Leap Forward” that coerced the farmers to abandon their fields and work in factories
catapulted the country into an industrial economy. Ofcourse, a massive famine erupted soon
after, but no matter.
The Cultural Revolution was also his brainchild, where he flung the thick blanket of communism
all over China and snuffed the life out of China’s cultural inheritance.
But Mao’s solitary portrait in the Square gives him all the credit and that’s not entirely fair.
Many of the policies that made China stand out in infamy were commissioned by Mao’s
successor Deng Xiaoping. Deng enforced the one- child policy and didn’t shy away from
conducting forced abortions to have his way. He channelled the sweat of millions to the four
pillars on which China stands today- industry, technology, agriculture and defense.
Deng extracted HongKong and Macau from the UK and Portugal by chanting the slogan “One
Country, Two Systems,” A chant which Time has proven to be empty noises. Like any worthy
autocrat, Deng silenced the voice of dissent by crushing the pro- democracy movement of 1989
held in the good ol’ Tiananmen Square.
Deng abandoned Mao’s righteous stance against the West and opened China to trade with the
“evil” capitalist countries. And that’s how every object you lay your eyes on today are stamped
with those three monstrous words- “Made in China.”
So, thankyou, Comrade Mao and Comrade Deng!
an Oriental edifice from which hangs the portrait of Mao Zedong. For it was at the spot that
Chairman Mao, in 1949, declared China to be a sovereign Communist republic.
Not too long ago China was just a hopeless expanse of impoverished peasants and feudal
conflicts. In the flash of an eye, China was transformed into the spinal cord that connects trade
and commerce and everything else imaginable in the entire world.
So who was the architect of this forced and unnaturally paced transition? Mao surely laid the
foundation.
His “Great Leap Forward” that coerced the farmers to abandon their fields and work in factories
catapulted the country into an industrial economy. Ofcourse, a massive famine erupted soon
after, but no matter.
The Cultural Revolution was also his brainchild, where he flung the thick blanket of communism
all over China and snuffed the life out of China’s cultural inheritance.
But Mao’s solitary portrait in the Square gives him all the credit and that’s not entirely fair.
Many of the policies that made China stand out in infamy were commissioned by Mao’s
successor Deng Xiaoping. Deng enforced the one- child policy and didn’t shy away from
conducting forced abortions to have his way. He channelled the sweat of millions to the four
pillars on which China stands today- industry, technology, agriculture and defense.
Deng extracted HongKong and Macau from the UK and Portugal by chanting the slogan “One
Country, Two Systems,” A chant which Time has proven to be empty noises. Like any worthy
autocrat, Deng silenced the voice of dissent by crushing the pro- democracy movement of 1989
held in the good ol’ Tiananmen Square.
Deng abandoned Mao’s righteous stance against the West and opened China to trade with the
“evil” capitalist countries. And that’s how every object you lay your eyes on today are stamped
with those three monstrous words- “Made in China.”
So, thankyou, Comrade Mao and Comrade Deng!
26-30, F
