China Rising: What the West Needs to Know

China is on course to challenge the US for role of global hegemon. The story we're sold is that of a second Cold War. But what is China like really? What should we as westerners know?

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Chapters:
0:00 Cold Open
0:52 Intro
11:01 Part 1: The Birth of China(s)
16:47 Part 2: Mao
38:15 Part 3: Deng
1:11:11 Part 4: Xi
1:32:00 Part 5: China is a Land of Contrasts

[PinkoJack]

You made a nearly 2 hour history video on the rise of china and you didnt discuss the century of humiliation? Kinda of an important detail in understanding and contextualizing modern chinese history and politics.

[redElim]

3:00 The US was never interested in human rights even in the slightest. It's not that China is less ideologically driven, both are equally driven by ideology. The ideology simply differs, China doesn't control the financial systems and extracts 70-100% of state budget from countries like Ghana. The US does. You mentioned it around Min 5, the wealth doesn't just go to the 1%, it goes to the 1% in the global north

[Hissanrach]

As a Chinese person, there's a couple major subjects that are typically overlooked by western observers and academics when it comes to China, that I wanted to cover here:

1) On the Great Leap Forward, one of the most formative reasons for it was the Sino-Soviet Split; the connection isn't made in the video. The USSR indicated "peaceful coexistence" with the Capitalist world, which wasn't just an ideological problem for China and the world communist movement, but also a strategic and practical one. China felt like it couldn't count on the USSR to battle capitalism or advance socialism, including in China; this was ultimately what happened as relations broke down and the USSR very suddenly recalled its advisors, industrial machines, blueprints, and technology from China that China desperately needed (there is severe bitterness in older Chinese generations about this today; very much feeling "kicked while we were down"). China was now alone and without reliable help, and thus needed to become a self-sufficient country with its own industrial and productive capabilities if it was to survive a hostile world, and had to do so extremely quickly.

2) The Great Leap Forward had the serious problems you mentioned. It also had huge successes that transformed China positively. Firstly, modern, technologically-driven irrigation was established across the country, with dams, canals, rivers and reservoirs en masse. This was, ironically, what put an end to the cyclical famines that China had regularly faced prior and during this era (the years 1959-61 also saw the worst drought weather in a century; even Korea was affected). Unfortunately, there is almost no western recognition of this crucial achievement for Chinese people. Secondly, other major innovations took place: electrification began to take off thanks to massive new dams, the hybrid rice crop was developed by Yuan Longping that greatly increased rice yields, and mechanization of agriculture began with domestically developed systems. And of course, technological development in this era would culminate with the nuclear bomb in 1964. As a whole, the rapid industrialization drive during the Great Leap Forward ultimately created the foundation that the Reform Era would use, and could not have taken off without it. My point with this is that the Great Leap Forward was both terrible in some respects and positive in others, as many things in history are.

3) The Cultural Revolution was primarily targeted at the Party itself and influential people, not everyday people. Disparities between educated and non-educated, over-bureaucratization and a widening separation between the masses and the Party (similar to the USSR) was what the movement aimed to target, in addition to lingering capitalist, feudal or superstitious culture, ideas and operating philosophy. The CR highly elevated common, working-class people and aimed to submit the new, growing elite strata to them, which included as you said, moving many people to the countryside, and also rural people to cities, with both to learn from both.

The Cultural Revolution is still controversial in China, mainly disliked by the urban educated strata and its Party leaders since it targeted them more, and liked much more by the rural population and its Party members; the former of which has the loudest and most influential voice on the subject. What is also clear is that both Mao and Deng were ultimately correct; the end of the Cultural Revolution and rehabilitation of many more conservative voices had the effect of helping jump start the reform era and capitalist reforms. What is positive and what is negative is up to interpretation for what is the more effective path towards socialism in the end; short and fast, or very, very long, as China today now claims.

4) Lastly, two major points: A) China under the revolutionary "high communist" era (1949-1976) saw the largest increase in life expectancy in human history, where in 25 years China's life expectancy almost doubled. This was also matched by quality of life increases; in spite of being technically impoverished, everything Chinese people needed to simply live was largely provided and almost entirely freely, from housing to basic healthcare to education to employment. Once can have a decent life while being monetarily "poor" if the system isn't very reliant on monetary value. This is why most Chinese people do not view this period to be disastrous as well, since it met many needs for the first time. The reform era moved towards monetary value, so while most Chinese people are no longer poor today, everything also is more reliant on them having money. Still, bringing so many people out of poverty is good in the current hybrid economy of China.

B) China's pre-eminence in the world today is fundamentally different than Western colonialism or imperialism; China's belt and road isn't backed with threats of force whatsoever, but by incentives only, and infrastructure is very much wanted by participating nations with zero political or economic concessions necessary other than trading by mutual agreement. Both sides benefiting from this, allowing rapid development and growth for those involved, isn't imperialism. China might even gain more than their partners, but that also isn't imperialism or colonialism. A world economy centered around China is, at least, less conflict-oriented based on everything we've seen compared to one centered around the US and the EU, which have invaded or destabilized dozens of countries since the 1990's alone. Mutual cooperation, especially in the global south, is why most nations in the world now see China as a peer partner, and move towards its initiatives. Thus, even if people dislike and don't agree with a China-led era, they can expect less interference by it in the domestic affairs of its partners; and thus new opportunities for left-wing movements to grow in the world.

[TheDarthbinky]

My understanding is that Germany doesn't really ban blood in video games - they have a rating system sorta similar to the US's, and one of the things that increases the rating (thereby restricting who can buy it) is blood/gore, so the game producers get around it by changing the color of blood. You can still sell a game with blood included, but teenagers won't be able to buy it due to the rating it'll have.

The one thing that is fully banned in Germany is Nazi stuff, for reasons that should be pretty obvious.

[m.a.]

Tristan! Great video! I'll out myself here- It's Mike (we did our undergrad together, BU History Review, all that fun stuff, you know) you likely know that from 2017-2019 I spent some time over in China, and man- you did a great job! It's important to note some interesting things if I may to pile on some context from things I've seen and discussions I had while living there...

1- Don't underestimate the power of the internet and Chinese people having access to it... Pretty much everyone under the age of 40 has a functioning VPN and many use YT, FB, and Insta. My current social studies students (who are in China) use western media sources and know very much what's going on in the world. However since 2018ish China has really clamped down on foreign education initiatives and banned a craptonne of ESL schools fearing they are trojan horsing ideas of "liberal gangsterism" (same reason they banned Peppa Pig lol.). So China is slowly clamping there.

2- I had the bitter-sweet luxury of visiting Xinjiang in April 2019. It was nuts compared to mainland China where I lived (Nanjing). It really goes all in on the police state image. There are roadblocks, checkpoints, I got harassed by secret police/plain clothes police three times, there are makeshift police huts made from shipping containers about every kilometer... My guide up into the Tianshan Mountains was Uygur and I was VERY heavily "suggested" by the authorities to keep quiet on certain issues. As well- It's important to note Xinjiang is actually very multicultural and isn't just "Uyghur vs. Han"... There are Mongols, Afghans, Kyrgyz, Kazakhs, and even descendants of White Russians that live there. Also there's The Hui (Which is ethnically Han but converted to Islam)... All that to say that mixed mosaic of culture in that area (which is fascinating btw) is at odds with Chinese attempts of assimilation/homogenization of the area. This is also an ongoing "social project" in China's other border regions of Tibet (which I'm surprised you didn't mention at all), and Inner Mongolia. Final note about Xinjiang- the state propaganda for clamping down on the Muslims in the east is actually very interesting. Chinese state media claims that because of the US' wars in Afghanistan, extremists from these areas use rural parts of XJ to train and infiltrate Afghanistan and the other Central Asian states so they paint is as a "helping the war on terror" kinda image... It's BS but that's what the state media kind of spins it as. Ironically, China also spins the US as an Islamophobic which it uses to galvanize the population in these regions towards Chinese patriotism. I remember talking to a group of Uyghurs in Nanjing and they HATED the US way more than China.

3- Random thing that is very representative about China... Yes, lol, Hearts of Iron is "banned" in China... but here's the funny thing about China and it's laws and surveillance... It really is a bit of a paper tiger. The CCP knows it runs a country of 1.7 billion people and effectively "1984-ing" that many people is a logistical fantasy. So China uses algorithms to sus out the REALLY bad and repeat offenders- but the general attitude of China is "you can play with fire, just don't bring gas". Meaning, you can play HOI, are selling Winnie the Pooh plushies, or hell- I even saw a copy of "Animal Farm" for sale in a bookstore... The local authorities really do not gaf. As long as you're not actively looking for trouble, or a big wig party official isn't coming to review... Most of these laws and bans are not often followed. However, usually with big events they do temporary clamp downs. Like when the CCP does it's annual meeting or the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre - government bots do swarm and overload VPN servers and knock out foreign access, and local officials will shut down pubs and all that.. but the moment it's all over, back to business as usual. China is just very odd in terms of half-assing authoritarianism.

[prettypic]

We actually have some family friends who were sent to reeducation camps during the cultural revolution. They were musicians with the Cantonese opera company and were sent to a mining community. Their oldest son was able to move to America when they started giving out student visas in the 70s and met my grandfather in a computer class. My grandparents basically “adopted” him and even sponsored his fiancé (later wife) when she moved to the US.

[HeavenlyPress]

Solid. I’m tired of hearing about other country’s cultures and such through the American chauvinistic lens or worse, filtered through western leftist purity fetishism.

Not every country has to abide by western rule

[severdislike]

Thank you for noting that, regarding the Uyghur situation, that the primary western source of information has come from a hard right christian conspiracist with a vested interest in anti-china rhetoric. This does not mean that there aren't abuses, it does mean that the news source being used for western media has a vested interest in producing unsubstantiated garbage.

The current greatest example of "The fuck"/"I made the majority of it up" bad sources on Asian countries belongs to Yeonmi Park and Radio Free Asia.

[marianatheschizoid]

What I hate the most about this new Cold War is that people treat politics like it’s a football game. Either you’re pro-US or Pro-China. You support one kind of imperialism or another. It completely ignores ethics and human rights.

[ashtoncarriveau]

Very good and in depth video. You covered alot of controversial topics within leftist communities while accurately reporting facts. Doing this without being openly biased or enlightenly centrist is comendable.


Two things I wish you had gone more into is how misinformation spreads in the west, specifically through biased chinese sources like the Falun Gong, and the extremely odd geopolitical situation Taiwan finds itself in.

In many ways Taiwan has moved on from the Chinese civil war and just wants to be a smaller Island nation/Asian Tiger that does its own thing. The Kuomintang was gone after the 90s and the people dont want to reunite with the mainland even if they were the ones in charge. It only "claims" all of china because its afrad that (communist) China will invade if all diplomatic options run out. Somthing that Mao put in the constitution. So the strategic ambiguity is what keeps them "safe" because if they say "maybe we aren't done with diplomatic options of reunification" then china has an excuse not to invade.

[nathanielslivka]

My understanding of the censoring bones thing is that due to how traditional cremation/funerals work displaying bones is a lot more of a specific taboo in China than it is in the West; not to excuse the censorship, just providing a bit more context.

[intheorigin]

Hello Tristan! Always appreciate your work and your nuanced research into history that can sometime be challenging to my more western-centric upbringing (which is why I find them valuable).

As a contemporary Taiwanese, however, I feel like I need to add an extra detail to the topic when you said that both governments still claim sovereignty over both sides of the straight today. The political nuance of the “one China policy” (which, to be fair, was made by KMT in Taiwan… what a horrible decision) makes it so that Taiwan cannot officially “un-claim” our stake in the mainland, at the threat of war. But in reality, no Taiwanese person today would ever suggest that our government represents “China”. By and large, most of us have no interest in returning to becoming a “Republic of China”, and would rather maintain/ maximize our own autonomy as a de-facto nation.

Instead, the current tension from Taiwan’s side is not rooted in some misguided claim over mainland China, but stems from China being viewed as the chief opposition against us gaining that autonomy (which I personally believe to be true). I feel like I need to state this clearly since Taiwan’s perspectives are rarely seen in the international dialogue.

[technicallythecenteroftheu]

In reality, the impact of Sino-Soviet split is...more complicated than two equal and opposite factions of the communist world. The only country to side with China was Albania, which they could only do because Yugoslavia, which had already broke with the rest of the communist world was in between them and any other country. But then again, China is fucking huge, I'm not sure of the exact ratios at the time but I wouldn't be surprised if it was bigger than the rest of the communist world combined. And, of course, it survived, whereas the USSR and eastern european communist regimes did not.

Additionally, labelling Deng's policies as "market socialist" or comparing them to Yugoslavia's policies would be innaccurate. Traditional forms of socialism have two major aspects: seizing the means of production and abolishing the commodity form. Market socialism has usually referred to doing the former, not the latter. Worker owned co-operatives operating within a market economy. Yugoslavia instituted a policy of worker self-management, wherein there were state mandates, but local firms had a degree of freedom to operate independantly. Deng did not do this. He let private, traditionally capitalist businesses operate under oversight from the state.

[rubenbylovandersen]

As a Marxist, the subject of china is interesting, weird, confusing, complex and quite a mixed bag, that makes the soviet union simple to discuss in comparison. Thank you for this very well made overview, as always.

[Geark]

"You can't show blood in video games in Germany"
Showing blood in games was never illegal in Germany. There's a youth protection system that used to be a bit overzealous, leading to publishers self-censoring their games to avoid their attention but even that has calmed down a lot. That's less Chinese-level state censorship and more what they do with Hollywood movies to avoid higher ratings.

[kristian]

Thank you so much for the video! I've just started a project (i.e. reading some books) of learning about the history, politics and economics of China, because the country will only keep getting more relevant, but I find it very daunting to get into when books get into minute detail about the different factions in the 1911 revolution, for instance. This video gives a handy overview of recent Chinese history that my further research can build upon.

Longtime fan, probably first-time commenter. Keep up the good work!

[quinn]

STEP BACK ON NEBULA W, been a joy seeing your channel grow over time

[grigorirazumovski]

And about Gorbochev. Traitor from the start I think. Hrushov can be seen as one too. But Gorbochev, seemed to do everything to make the transition to old capitalists way and the horror of 90s to come.

[clatoski]

Awesome vid. I appreciate your academic tone, and even keeled language.

[childeofentropy]

what worries me about this video is not the depiction of China´s flaws, which are true and many... but the salient notions of the US as a "true world leader" and western culture as less brutal than the eastern block, witch somehow keeps surprising me after all this time... Americans really like to forget they're often the template, and even more often the perpetrators of most atrocities worldwide...