China's Market Reform Began

Last time I talked about:
1. China was established like a startup company with a lot of great resource and a good product, but not sure where to go
2. China wanted to follow the model of the former Soviet Union for socialism in economy
3. China made a few wrong steps, including making too aggressive plans, the Great Leap Forward, which left millions of people starving and wasted a huge amount of resources like raw material


After that China experienced a few years' economic recovery and then the turmoil of a ten-year social-political movement - Cultural Revolution. There are thousands of stories stories during this ten year, many of which are still unknown.

Soon it turned to the year 1976, when Chairman Mao Zedong passed away. Like a startup, once a founder leaves the company, it is time to make some change; unlike a startup, other founders cannot simply give up on a country. So it is time for the successor, President Hua, to pick up the mantle and go on the right way. Till then, Mao was still seen by many people as godlike. Chosen by Mao himself, the new president stood firmly by his precedent's side, claiming Mao's rule has to be strictly. However, he demonstrated rare qualities of leadership and tolerance, allowing another voice to raise in the party, which is: "Practice is the best criterion for testing truth". The man who said that, was respected as the next generation of god, especially among young people like me, Deng Xiaoping.

Actually, we don't call him god this time. We call him "the chief architect of China's economic reforms"

However, even in one of the greatest architect's hand, the reformation did not come as easily as many people thought. The government firstly tried to focus on heavy industry and open the market and raise money on global market. Even though this time steel and grain productions were significantly improved compared with the "Great Leap Forward", the trial failed. The reasons were: 1. inexperience on global market(on raw material); 2. imbalance on industrial development. Like a startup: 1. underestimate the difficulties to raise money 2. import/developed cool product but don't know what to do

However, during that period, the leaders realized the importance to open China to modern science, culture and technology. In order to open China, we firstly need to open our eyes. So in the following years, hundreds of officers went to modernized cities and countries to learn from their experience. In fact, the year 1978 was called "Year of Foreign Diplomacy", when central government officials, top provincial officials and state-owned company managers made more than twenty visits to more than fifty countries in a row.

Conversation with LEE KUAN YUE
Question about who is responsible for material distribution

Acknowledge that comunnism is impossible without an extreme expansion in commodity production
Confident that socialist society will do better than capitalism
Ready to embrace the market