Libmonster ID: SE-469

Yu. V. CHUDODEEV. ON THE EYES OF CHANGING CHINA, MOSCOW: IV RAS, 2008, 160 p.

The author of the book is a well-known Russian orientalist who has been studying the history and modern development of China for more than half a century. The book under review is the result of his direct observations during numerous trips around the country in the second half of the last century and the beginning of this century. The author tells a fascinating story about events of historical significance that he saw with his own eyes, which, of course, can not fail to interest a wide range of Russian readers who understand that the fate of China, where every fifth person on the planet lives, is of global significance. The book of Yu. V. Chudodeev is interesting for specialists in regional studies because it clearly concretizes and illustrates many historical phenomena and processes that took place in China in the recent past and are currently taking place there. It offers the reader a wide panorama of a huge, beautiful, but still poor country. The author recalls how he saw China a few decades ago: "The minimum number of cars, all the heavy loads were transported on huge carts harnessed to them by men and women... Extremely poor life of the bulk of the people. Poorly and monotonously dressed people, mostly miserable dwellings "(p. 7).

Yu. V. Chudodeyev was lucky enough to personally see China at various stages of its difficult evolution, even in the midst of the"cultural revolution". He recalls being directly confronted by Red Guards who hurled curses at "Soviet revisionists", interspersed with expletives reading a quotation book of Mao Zedong's sayings. All the fences and walls of houses were hung with numerous "dajibao", calling to strike at those following the capitalist path, against the CPSU and the USSR. At that time, the street leading to the gates of the Soviet embassy in Beijing was renamed "Street of Struggle against Soviet Revisionism".

Most of Yu. V. Chudodeyev's book is devoted to modern China, the reforms carried out there, which today amaze the whole world with their originality, boldness of many decisions, and rapidly proceeding deep and diverse economic, social, and political transformations.

China is a peasant country, so the reorganization in it began with the village, with the implementation of agrarian reform in 1978 at the initiative of Deng Xiaoping, which was based on the transition from semi-natural planning and administrative management to the market, commodity-money relations. In the Chinese countryside, the "people's communes", which were a communist collective property and a form of economic activity, ceased to exist. They were replaced by an individual land contract, which opened the way to a private initiative of a large peasant family. Moreover, the state has relaxed its control over individual entrepreneurship. By the end of the 1980s, about half of those employed in Chinese cities worked in the private sector, writes Yu. V. Chudodeev.

From the point of view of communist dogma, these were "steps back", but the Chinese leadership was not afraid to make a sharp turn away from the dogmatic position, while remaining in many other respects on the positions of Marxist-Leninist ideology and firmly maintaining the Communist monopoly on power. It's just that the views of the communist leadership in this country have become much broader, more pragmatic, and more dynamic. Taking into account the requirements of the time, a tendency to converge with liberal-bourgeois provisions and institutions that were useful for the country began to appear, as it was during the NEP years in the USSR. In the 1980s, the thesis "Any cat is good, as long as it catches mice"became widespread in China. The CCP then launched Deng Xiaoping's slogan, " Getting rich is a matter of glory and valor!" The entrepreneur went from being a class enemy of the Communists to being a revered worker in the country, and often an active member of the CCP. China, until relatively recently perceived in the world as a country

page 215
Maoist dogmatism, began to demonstrate flexibility and variability in solving a variety of problems.

According to Yu. V. Chudodeev, China has entered an era of intensive industrialization based on continuing and ever-deepening commodity-money relations. A huge number of new jobs have been created in a country chronically plagued by unemployment. Incomes of Chinese citizens have increased significantly. The 1980s were a "real economic boom"for China. The annual growth of production in the country was over 10%.

The country's economic development was significantly hampered by the narrowness and poverty of the Chinese domestic market. Almost all developing and post-Soviet States are known to face such obstacles. Focusing its developing production mainly on the world market, China is gaining a strong position in the markets of not only developing and post-Soviet countries, but also developed capitalist states in a harsh competitive struggle. Chinese cheap consumer goods are now successfully crowding out European, Russian and American-made products there. Moreover, Chinese high-tech products (computers, televisions, cars, electrical products) are gaining an increasing place in the world market.

Globalization, which is rapidly moving on the crest of the scientific and technological revolution, is increasingly binding countries and peoples to each other within the framework of the world community. The development of countries in the conditions of autarky or semi-autarky, which was possible in the first half of the XX century, is completely excluded in modern conditions. It only leads to the degradation and destruction of any state, isolating it from the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution. For this reason, China is actively integrating into the world community and the world economic system, outstripping many developing and post-Soviet countries, including Russia. In an extremely short period of time, the PRC has become one of the largest "players" in the world market, without which no global commercial business can be solved there today. More recently, for 15 years, China has been pushing hard for admission to the World Trade Organization, reforming its economy in accordance with its requirements. And it was accepted into the WTO, while Russia and many other developing and post-Soviet countries were denied it.

After centuries of isolation, China has opened up widely to the world. "Deng Xiaoping," writes Yu. V. Chudodeev, "implemented the policy of opening up China to the outside world in the era of globalization, directing the country's movement in the direction of global development" (p.28). The country began to use international investment to develop its economy, and encouraged the creation of special economic zones of free enterprise for international capital. Since the early 1980s, joint ventures with foreign capital began to appear in China, for which special legislation was developed. All this allowed the country to borrow advanced technology and effective modern management methods from foreign partners. Using them, China is building up efficient private capitalist production in a socialist-communist country. At the same time, as the author states, China has not managed to make the public sector more efficient. But according to Marxist-Leninist theory, it is the public sector, and not the private sector, that should be the core of the socialist economy.

Much of the capital came to China from ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea. A strong flow of foreign investment, as Yu. V. Chudodeev emphasizes, played a huge role in the rise of the Chinese economy. And in order for international capital to come to China, it was necessary to provide appropriate conditions and guarantee its safety. The international business community had to believe in a communist-socialist country. And he has achieved such confidence by relying on a carefully developed legislative framework and a reasonable moderate political course.

In the foreign policy sphere, Yu. V. Chudodeev writes, since the XII Congress of the CPC (1982), China has moved from the provisions of the class struggle to national principles. The effect of such changes in Chinese politics has been enormous both for China and for the world as a whole. The combination of Chinese reforms and openness to the outside world has brought the PRC to a leading position in the world community. And today it is already difficult to agree with those who see the modern world as unipolar, with the absolute dominance of the United States in it. The European Union and, of course, China are now equally important on the world stage. In a short time, the country has become a powerful, rapidly developing and internationally respected state.

page 216
And even outwardly, it looks different than it did a few decades ago. Yu. V. Chudodeev tells about all this in a fascinating way.

Particularly interesting in this respect is the chapter of the book that the author named: "Impressions-20 years later". "When I got to China 20 years later," writes Yu. P. Chudodeev, I realized that I found myself in a completely different country, which..... before our eyes, it changes its appearance. Visual impressions. Beijing Shoudu International Airport ("Capital") - a huge airport terminal, 2 - 3 times larger than Domodedovo or Sheremetyevo in Moscow... it can serve up to 60 million passengers. passengers per year... " (p. 9). China is booming with ultra-modern hotels being built everywhere. Every year, the country is visited by 10 million tourists. tourists. The modern infrastructure of Beijing, two-or three-level interchanges are striking. Lots of cars. China has actively entered the global automotive market (including the Russian one), taking a prominent place in it today. The appearance of major cities has changed. The central highways are built up with modern Western-style buildings with 20-30 floors, banks (there are a lot of them), hotels. However, on the outskirts you can find old one-and two-story houses in the traditional style. China is a country of colossal contrasts, looking to the future. It already ranks second in the world in terms of the number of Internet users (210 million). Many Chinese people have digital photo and video cameras.

The success of modern China, which has amazed the world, is largely due to the centuries-old culture and traditions of the people, who are characterized by hard work, unpretentiousness, restraint in the use of alcoholic beverages and centuries-old skills in entrepreneurship, trade, and crafts. According to Yu. V. Chudodeev, China today is a strong state power, a strong Communist Party, fairly law-abiding citizens and a disciplined society. The power vertical that exists in modern China is a powerful factor in the country's dynamic development. At the same time, China's economy is overheating and inflation is rising. As in other developing and post-Soviet countries, property differentiation among the population, the gap between urban and rural areas, and various regions have sharply increased, and social contradictions have become more acute. The Chinese people are dissatisfied with rising prices for consumer goods, unemployment, growing social contrasts, the merging of state officials with private entrepreneurs ("money bags"), and students demand the democratization of the entire Chinese political system.

A new socialist-communist model of development is being formed in the PRC. To what extent it will be successful, the future will show. China, like other countries of the modern world, is being tested for the strength of its state system in the context of a rapidly advancing scientific and technological revolution. The Soviet Union did not survive such a test, concludes Yu. V. Chudodev.

The polygraphically reviewed book is well published, but, unfortunately, it is provided with bad photographs from the point of view of execution technique and uninteresting in relation to the plot. In my opinion, it is quite obvious that the book would be of interest to many readers both in Russia and abroad. However, an extremely modest print run (250 copies) is unlikely to meet the demand for it. I often have to review published regional literature published by commercial publishers both in our country and abroad. This makes it possible to draw a conclusion about the expediency of publishing Yu. V. Chudodeev's book in a larger mass circulation both in Russian and in foreign languages. I have no doubt that it will find its readers and bring commercial benefits.


© library.se

Permanent link to this publication:

https://library.se/m/articles/view/Yu-V-CHUDODEEV-A-CHANGING-CHINA-BEFORE-OUR-EYES

Similar publications: LSweden LWorld Y G


Publisher:

Vera LindContacts and other materials (articles, photo, files etc)

Author's official page at Libmonster: https://library.se/Lind

Find other author's materials at: Libmonster (all the World)GoogleYandex

Permanent link for scientific papers (for citations):

N. A. DLIN, Yu. V. CHUDODEEV. A CHANGING CHINA BEFORE OUR EYES // Stockholm: Swedish Digital Library (LIBRARY.SE). Updated: 18.07.2024. URL: https://library.se/m/articles/view/Yu-V-CHUDODEEV-A-CHANGING-CHINA-BEFORE-OUR-EYES (date of access: 04.11.2024).

Found source (search robot):


Publication author(s) - N. A. DLIN:

N. A. DLIN → other publications, search: Libmonster SwedenLibmonster WorldGoogleYandex

Comments:



Reviews of professional authors
Order by: 
Per page: 
 
  • There are no comments yet
Related topics
Publisher
Vera Lind
Uppsala, Sweden
112 views rating
18.07.2024 (108 days ago)
0 subscribers
Rating
0 votes
Related Articles
The word "sacrament" and the sacrament of the word
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
Multi-structured offers
Catalog: Philology 
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
RUSSIA IN A METAPHORICAL MIRROR. VI.
Catalog: Philology 
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
Pushkin's Milk and Old Testament Moloch
Catalog: Philology 
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
WHY DID THE RUSSIANS LOSE THEIR SECOND PERSONAL NAME?
Catalog: Philology 
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
Note, ultimatum, sanctions...
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
Massive - massive-massive
Catalog: Linguistics Philology 
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
IS THE AUTHOR SILENT ABOUT THE ESSENCE OF BEING?
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
DEAD SOULS: who are they? (About the title of the poem by N. V. Gogol)
92 days ago · From Vera Lind
The comic in the novel "Eugene Onegin"
92 days ago · From Vera Lind

New publications:

Popular with readers:

News from other countries:

LIBRARY.SE - Swedish Digital Library

Create your author's collection of articles, books, author's works, biographies, photographic documents, files. Save forever your author's legacy in digital form. Click here to register as an author.
Library Partners

Yu. V. CHUDODEEV. A CHANGING CHINA BEFORE OUR EYES
 

Editorial Contacts
Chat for Authors: SE LIVE: We are in social networks:

About · News · For Advertisers

Swedish Digital Library ® All rights reserved.
2014-2024, LIBRARY.SE is a part of Libmonster, international library network (open map)
Keeping the heritage of Serbia


LIBMONSTER NETWORK ONE WORLD - ONE LIBRARY

US-Great Britain Sweden Serbia
Russia Belarus Ukraine Kazakhstan Moldova Tajikistan Estonia Russia-2 Belarus-2

Create and store your author's collection at Libmonster: articles, books, studies. Libmonster will spread your heritage all over the world (through a network of affiliates, partner libraries, search engines, social networks). You will be able to share a link to your profile with colleagues, students, readers and other interested parties, in order to acquaint them with your copyright heritage. Once you register, you have more than 100 tools at your disposal to build your own author collection. It's free: it was, it is, and it always will be.

Download app for Android