Friday, March 6th

In March 2002, the National People’s Congress met. China gained membership to the World Trade Organization and lowered barriers to foreign competition. Rongji said China must be faithful members of the WTO, which was difficult. It allowed the collapse of roughly 2,000 businesses. The rate of business collapse was expected to accelerate, and millions of workers lost their jobs. Social security was not up to the task and millions were without unemployment benefits.
10,000 to 50,000 workers protested laying off by inefficient government-owned businesses.
While millions lost their jobs, some of the richest citizens tried to become “Big Rich,” like Deng Hong.
In 2002, the 16th National People’s Congress met. They thought ahead and introduced the 4th generation leadership--Hu Jintao was to replace Zemin as CCP Chairman. In March 2003, the NPC replaced Zmin as president with Jintao and replaced Premier Rongji with Wen Jiabao.
In September 2004 Zemin resigned as military head and gave the position to Jintao. Zemin became an elder, and Jintao was now the President, CCP Chairman, and head of the military commission.
Under Zemin, the CCP did 3 new things:
Kept political infighting to a minimum
Stepped out of people’s lives
CCP abandoned the poor and downtrodden and sided with winners of the economic reforms.
Capitalists were now allowed to become members of the CCP.
The Chinese citizens were generally allowed to do whatever they wanted. Civil rights were short of Western Standards but they enjoyed increased freedoms. China evolved from a totalitarian to an authoritarian government.
The CCP was divested of their foreign constituency. They turned their backs on the poor, which was a change from Mao’s generous treatment of peasants. In 13 years, the CCP had become a party of the intellectuals and political elite.
In his 1st years in office, Jintao and Jiabao were cautious managers of the CCP bureaucracy and pursued preexisting economic plans.
In August 2003, Hu and Wen ordered a halt to the elite debate and security officers harassed the leading intellectuals.
In December 2003, there were 2 amendments to the Constitution:
Established the right to private property (formal establishment of property rights). It was an attempt to boost commerce and limit the opportunity for corruption and abuse
To lock a place in the Chinese history for Zemin, an amendment called the 3 Represents was passed. It argued that the CCP should represent the interests of all groups of citizens, not just the proletariat. It established Jiang’s theory of the 3 represents as a guiding principle of CCP thinking.
In 2004, the CCP Central Committee warned the party that China was tense and there was a likelihood of outburts or riots/opposition. The committee urged officials to improve their job. Over 58,000 incidents of social unrest occurred in 2003. This scared the CCP. The government was concerned about the amount of unrest and the effects of corruption.
In late 2004, the CCP launched the Campaign to Reinvigorate Socialist Ideology. The campaign was a plan of study and self-criticism in government ministries, schools, and factories. At the study meetings, the theory of Deng Shaopeng and the 3 Represents of Zemin were studied. They also looked at how to join the CCP with capitalist ventures with foreigners.
In July 2005, the government announces that they had raised the value of the Chinese currency (the yuan), which linked China with a group of world currencies.
In 2006-2007, the CCP’s concerns continued to reflect a shift in focus from reigning in economic growth to solving increasing social tensions. They called for a harmonious society.
Leaders were concerned about problems with rapid economic growth and the impact on the poor and the growing gap between rich and poor, as well as a lack of social security. Retirees couldn’t live on their small pensions, crime increased, divorce increased, etc. So Jiabao announced a government emphasis on a New Socialist Countryside.
In 2007, the NPC appointed Jintao to a 2nd term as secretary, chairman, and president. They appointed Jiabao to a 2nd term as Premier. They also introduced 4 new members to the politburo standing committee (the top elites). They let on that they intended to replace Jintao in the next election, and this began an informal two-term rotation.
The CCP also recognized Jintao’s major political innovation--called Scientific Development. It emphasized slowing down breakneck economic development and focusing on social aspects. Jintao’s predecessors pushed for economic reform, but he was concerned more with the environment and the poor.
In March 2008, the NPC was concerned about the Olympics. They established free press and a new policy of openness. Because there was a lot of press interest, they published proposals for public comment and had more news conferences--”Consultative Democracy”.
In June 2008, Taiwan and China agreed to set up permanent offices in each other’s territory--the first time in 60 years.
In September 2008, china passed Japan to become our largest foreign creditor. The US is increasingly forced to rely on China’s money. Like other countries, China was hurt by the economic downturn. They introduced the largest economic stimulus plan ever to ease credit restrictions, expand welfare, and launch infrastructure building. Only a ¼ of the stimulus came from central government.