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Inheritance

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The roots of China’s recent boom extend deep into its imperial and communist past. But tradition’s legacy is a complicated one. To achieve modern development, China had to throw off the “yoke” of traditional society. Yet the long traditions of centralized government administration, kin-based entrepreneurism, and value placed on education and diligence prepared the Chinese well for capitalism. Despite catastrophes like the Great Leap Forward and the famine in its wake, Mao Zedong’s nation building efforts between the founding of the PRC in 1949 and the unleashing of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 laid socialist foundations for the subsequent boom. Even the disastrous, decade-long Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution contributed to the boom: By eroding public support for radical politics, the ground was cleared for a transition from revolution to reform—for new policies that were gradualist, internationalist and capitalist.

Reform Could Not Have Happened Without Mao

Period: Inheritance (Pre-1978) | Socialist Foundations

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  • Reform Could Not Have Happened Without Mao

    Cui Zhiyuan

  • Gender Empowerment in China is a Big Advantage

    Pallavi Aiyar

  • Land Reform Was a Necessary Evil

    Chen Ping

  • China’s Growth is Like a Slingshot

    Trevor Houser

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Meettheexpert

Cui Zhiyuan

Professor of Public Policy, Tsinghua University

Cui Zhiyuan teaches Comparative Public Policy and Governance and Development at Tsinghua University. As a graduate of China's National University of Defense Technology, Cui went on to obtain both an MA and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. He has been awarded visiting fellowships and instructor positions at various world-renowned institutions including MIT, the National University of Singapore, Harvard University Law School, the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, and Cornell University. Dr. Cui has also served as a member of a number of editorial boards for various journals and publications.

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I think there is a widespread view, especially in the West, but also, to some extent, among some Chinese intellectuals that this 30 years of reform was a total break from the first 30 years, so there is a big distinction between this 60 year anniversary and the 30 year anniversary. But, my personal view is that, of course, I think the reform and opening was really new, and there were many, many new and good institutional experiments and innovations in the 30 years of reform and opening. But I, personally, would like to stress that there are important continuations between the first 30 years [and the later 30 years]. My personal research shows that without the People's Revolution and the founding of the People's Republic of China, we could not even have conceived of the achievements of this 30 years of reform.  So, this may sound strange, because most people think that this reform started precisely because of the failure of the first 30 years and the Maoist period. But I think, even the orthodox economic theory of investment, but also from a longer historical economic perspective, that, in important ways, that the first 30 years of the Maoist period laid down important institutional foundations for the reform and opening to become effective and successful. So I think, maybe, there is some irony and unintended consequences.  Or even, some people would prefer some kind of historical dialectic working here. But I do think that without the first 30 years, the reform and opening could not have achieved what has been widely and collectively appreciated by people all over the world because most people, both in China and the world, I think, perceive the reform and opening as the key to building a market-oriented economy. [The key] to basically dismantling this very rigid central planning and also introduce private ownership of the means of production, to have a booming private sector. I think this emphasis on private ownership and a market-oriented economy is very important and it is true. They are very important ingredients in the success story of the reform and opening period.  However, I think that if we have a larger comparative historical perspective, because many countries in the world have private market economies, like in Latin America, even in Africa, in many periods of history. Also, India. But, why hasn't every country which has a market-oriented economy and private ownership of means of production grown as fast as China in the last 30 years? I think that without the basic investment in the Maoist period in irrigation, in the building of lots of infrastructure, and the basic investment of building up China's industry -- because huge industrialization was carried out in the Maoist period because China was very underdeveloped industry before 49 -- and without establishing those basic industries, it makes no sense to talk about market heights, the product of those industries.  So, I think we should emphasize both sides of this 30 years of reform and the 60 years. They were both major new developments in the reform period but, also, there was an important continuation with the earlier 30 years.

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Cite this Source >>
“Reform Could Not Have Happened Without Mao | Cui Zhiyuan | Inheritance | The China Boom Project.”
The China Boom Project.
The Asia Society Center on US-China Relations.
1 June 2010.
Web.
09 May 2025.
<https://chinaboom.asiasociety.org/period/inheritance/16>.
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  • Capitalism
  • Globalization
  • The Party
  • Crisis Management
  • Inheritance (Pre-1978)
  • Emancipation (1978-1984)
  • Reckoning (1985-1989)
  • Rebirth (1990s)
  • Overdrive (2000s)
  • Prospects
  • Mao's Failure, Deng's Success
  • China Boom: Rural China in the 1980s

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