Wen Jiabao

Home > People > History > Chinese and Taiwanese History: Biographies

China, People's Republic of A Communist country established on mainland China on 1 October 1949 by Mao Zedong. In the first decade of its existence, together with his loyal deputy, Zhou Enlai, Mao sought to establish the control of the Chinese Communist Party over the entire country, as well as over Tibet, which was occupied in 1950. This involved not just political control, but also the realization of a Communist economy, society, and culture. The power of the gentry was broken through expropriation and the redistribution of the majority of the farmland to around 75 per cent of peasant households. Given the mass of peasants, this meant the creation of extremely small and inefficiently sized properties. Collectivization was encouraged, and encompassed almost 60 per cent of peasant households by 1954. In 1955 an impatient Mao quickened the pace, so that by 1957 all farms were collectivized, while in the cities all commercial and industrial enterprises had been nationalized. Apart from the destruction of traditional social relationships, perhaps the most significant innovation of those years was the creation of legal sexual equality. While traditional codes between men and women were not eradicated overnight, the 1950 marriage laws, for example, gave women equal status.

By 1957 Mao was satisfied that a proletarian society had been created. He chose to show this in the Hundred Flowers campaign, which created a brief atmosphere of intellectual liberalization, but ultimately confirmed the regime's hostility to intellectuals in general, and critics in particular. In the first decade of its existence, China relied heavily on the economic and diplomatic support of the USSR, particularly after its confrontation with the USA in the Korean War. This influence led to an economic development modelled on the Soviet Union, so that resources were put almost exclusively into industrial growth, at the expense of agriculture. The severe consequences of this policy had become evident by 1958. Economic growth had averaged 7 per cent per annum, mainly as a result of economic reorganization, and was now reaching a natural limit. At the same time, the neglect of agricultural investment had produced some discontent among the peasants, who were, after all, the social and ideological backbone of the Communist Party. Under increasing criticism from followers of Liu Shaoqi, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward. In attempting to create self-sufficient communities, he sought to mobilize new labour resources (e.g. women) in the countryside, while employing the newly created labour surplus in the building and running of communal industries. As a result, industrial output increased dramatically, and China was flooded with industrial goods of shoddy quality for which there was no demand. By contrast, there was a dramatic decline in agricultural production, which decreased by a staggering 26.3 per cent (1958–60), causing the starvation of millions of Chinese.

The early 1960s were devoted to a period of normalization organized by Liu's supporters, with Mao taking a back seat. Mao reasserted his total control, however, in the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’, which resulted in a dramatic purge of the CCP, as well as economic and cultural elites. With Mao's authority firmly re-established after the fall of Lin Biao, in 1976 dramatic changes befell the country, owing to the deaths of Zhou Enlai and Mao. In response, the Cultural Revolution was brought to an end, and the Gang of Four was arrested by Hua Guofeng. Most important was the rapid re-emergence of the pragmatic Deng Xiaoping, whose leadership was established by late 1978. He liberalized academic debate, and introduced unprecedented economic reforms. Industrial enterprises received a stimulus through being allowed to keep some of their profits, while certain private industries and foreign investment were encouraged. In the countryside, too, individual responsibility and accountability were reintroduced in a fundamental shift away from the collective ideal. During the 1980s, therefore, the CCP lost its influence quite dramatically over large areas of Chinese life, but Deng refused to contemplate its (and his own) decline of political power, as became clear with the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989.

Under Jiang Zemin, any political opposition was brutally suppressed. Impressive annual growth rates of around 10 per cent led to increasing social stratification, rather than a general increase in the standard of living, which was eroded by rising inflation (22 per cent in 1994). Rampant underemployment, especially in the interior provinces, necessitated large government spending on infrastructure and job creation projects in 2000–1. Domestically, the CCP's prestige was bolstered by the incorporation of Hong Kong and Macao into mainland China. International recognition was manifested by China's entry into the WTO in 2001, and its commission to host the 2008 Olympic Summer Games. In 2002, the CCP changed its leadership by appointing a new standing committee. This was led by the new party chairman, Hu Jintao, who became China's new President. Zeng Qinghong, a former adviser to Jiang, became Vice President, with Wen Jiabao, an expert in economics, as the new Prime Minister.

Wen Jiabao , 1942–, Chinese political leader, b. Tianjin. Originally a geologist, he worked for the Gansu provincial geological bureau (1968–82), where he was the head of its political section, and rose to deputy director general. He later (1982–85) was an officer of the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources. In 1985 Wen became a deputy director of the general office of the Chinese Communist party's central committee, thus beginning a steady climb up the national party's leadership ladder. He served China's top leaders as chief of staff for some two decades, became deputy premier, and was named premier in 2003. Wen, though regarded more as a technocrat than a reformist, has favored free-market and other reforms, but among party leaders he has been an isolated voice for such changes.