China - Pulling the Curtain Back - Part I: China Challenges U.S. Hegemony – In Just 40 Years!

From a 1978 GDP per capita of only $10 to a 2019 GDP per capita of $10,099! -  how did this happen?  In Part 1, our journey will start in 1840 during the Qing Dynasty and end in 1991 at a major inflection point - the Tiananmen Square revolt. Part 2 will bring China to the present as its colossal economy will seek equal footing with the United States. Will a "Thucydides Trap" scenario evolve? Does a richer China mean a freer China? Is China now a military threat? Part I will show how the Century of Humiliation (Opium Wars, Boxer Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion, Sino-Japanese Wars, etc.) still provides a backdrop and indeed a stimulus for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of today. With the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in 1912 by the forces of Sun-Yat Sen, two young revolutionaries, Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek, will emerge as dominant figures in the subsequent Chinese Civil War. The bitter struggles of the Long March would come to represent a significant episode in the history of the CCP, and would seal the personal prestige of Mao Zedong and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following decades. However, Mao's "Great Leap Forward" would prove a disaster as millions of Chinese succumbed during the Famine. Later the "Cultural Revolution" marked Mao's return to the central position of power in China after a period of less radical leadership recovering from the failures of the "Great Leap Forward." After Chairman Mao Zedong's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping gradually rose to power and led China through a series of far-reaching market-economy reforms, which earned him the reputation as the "Architect of Modern China." But watershed moments like the Tiananmen Square Massacre led many to question the legitimacy of Communist Party rule in China.
Purpose: Learn about significant events in Chinese history that shaped the country we know today
Facilitator: Mike Quinlan