Paige+and+Darren+-+CP+-+FA11

__MAO ZEDONG__ R ESEARCH INFORMATION AND WIKI OUTLINE Question to be debated: Is China responsible enough - to its citizens and global community - to be an example to emerging/growing nations? As you conduct your research and locate information about your individual or group, be sure you are able to do the following: QUESTIONS TO BE ASKED and ANSWERED Each partnership must prepare two questions to be asked of members of other groups. Place each question on the front of a separate index card and write your name AND the name of your reformer on the back. Ten percent of your grade will be determined by the quality of the questions that you ask and the quality of the answers you give when asked a question by another reformer. Cards will be collected. __You will be expected to intelligently answer questions posed by other parties.__ __CHARACTER'S PERSPECTIVE:__

Mao Zedong was a Chinese leader. He led China to become a “People’s Republic of China” and came to power by commanding the Long March and leading the Communist Party of China to victory in the Chinese Civil War. During his reign he started many programs to shake China of its global ignorance. Most of these programs failed and actually brought China lower. His Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution movements were some of his worst considering they took away farmer’s rights to own private land and tried to remove traditional and cultural factors from everyday Chinese society. Rebels of these movements were violently persecuted and millions of people were killed during these times. Everyone who saw differently than him was ignored, taking away more than just their freedom of speech. In a way he kind of contradicted himself in that all of his goals that he stated for China, like combating bureaucracy and insisting China be self-dependent, were gone about by torturing and executing millions of people. It is quite relevant to assume that this man did not have the best views on giving his peers freedom of speech or really any natural-born human rights, at least not to those who opposed him.
 * __Human Rights - Freedom of Speech (2)__ **

Mao focused on making China a self-efficient country. He wanted to end foreign influence to restore order. With this being said, China did not trade with other countries during the ruling of Mao. Currently, China is monitored by the government in forms of trade.
 * Global Interdependence - Specific Focus on economic relationships (2) **

Out of the three philosophical traditions available to pursue in China, Mao Zedong pursued the most violent, nature-wise, tradition. This was brought around by Confucius and it basically said that men should control and master the natural environment while still respecting authority. It’s obvious that Mao believed this because he himself said, “Man must conquer Nature.” This is what helped lead him to believe China should lean more towards industrializing, and agriculture especially. To make this happen forests were cut down, dams were built, wastelands sprouted up everywhere, and “errant species” became extinct. “But Mao believed that what had worked for other industrial countries should work for China. He ignored the consequences of over-extraction of resources, air, land and water pollution, erosion of hill sides, flooding and salinization of irrigated areas, reclamation that led to desertification, and all the other ills of unsustainable human activity.” (This is a direct quote from an online article by Crispin Tickell that I thought was almost comical due to everything that has been learned about how bad this man was. I picked it because it directly relates to the subject of his views on air and water pollution which were obviously not very positive.) Hundreds of thousands of hectares of cultivated land were lost during Mao’s reign, and this had a huge and negative impact on the people. So it’s quite apparent that Mao Zedong wasn’t exactly what you would call an environmentalist and really brought China back environmentally. “Man talks of a battle with Nature, forgetting that if he won the battle, he would find himself on the losing side.” - Fritz Schumacher
 * Environment - Air and Water pollution (2) **

Mao did not tolerate opposing groups towards his communist form of government. In Jiangxi Mao suppressed anyone against his land policies and proposals. He named some of his form or torture things such as “sitting in a sedan chair” “monkey pulling reins” etc. He would also cut open the breasts of oposer’s wives as well as burn their genitals. In this purge alone, Mao killed about 186,000 people. Mao had very low tolerance for anyone who opposed his way of government. In lesser forms of punishment, Mao would also jail anyone who did not agree with his ideas. Generally people were killed. If you did not work, you dragged your feet, you spoke out, you were from the wrong class background, or you were simply not liked, you were killed.
 * Tolerance of Diversity - Acceptance and treatment of other groups (some who oppose the government) (2) **

Mao Zedong interacted with China a lot. He was constantly looking for ways to improve China’s economy; that was one of his biggest things that he pushed for. He was also one of the main reasons that the communist party of China won the civil war. His tactics on guerrilla warfare were a huge help to the mostly untrained people he had fighting for him and this lead to the overthrow of nationalists in China. He also strongly encouraged China’s self-dependence, which was prevalent there for many years, even though most of his people disagreed with it. This did help them a bit internally to not be as dependent on foreign aid. During his early years in his communist party he played a critical role in the economic and social development of China, although he wasn’t the head leader early on. When he discovered what potential Chinese peasants had for his plan of revolution he really sprouted and acted on it. This eventually gave him the idea to start a civil war and win and basically win control of most of the country. His only purpose in this was because he wanted to keep his opponent, Chiang Kai-shek, out of power. Had Chiang Kai-shek not turned against the very people that put him into power along with the millions of peasants occupying the country he probably would have made it into power, too. Winning China over was his main goal because he really believed he could jump-start China back to life.
 * What efforts have you taken to interact with China? (5) **

Mao did not exactly promote a positive relationship with the Chinese people as he did towards developing China. When it came to keeping a relationship with the people, Mao saw them as disposable, therefore meaning if they did not conform to the improvement movement, they would no longer exist. when it cam to developing China economically, Mao's intentions were good. He pushed strong agriculture and industrialzation.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What success you have had on promoting a positive relationship with China? (5) **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I stated above, Mao Zedong’s intent on promoting the progress of China was 100% there. His tactics and the way he went about trying to progress China just weren’t as good as they could have been or should have been to be leading China for that long. He is the main reason China is still recovering economically and human-rights wise. He did try to work on these things, it just didn’t work out. When he was in power he tried to work on the economy in multiple ways by using and abusing one of China’s biggest economic factors: agriculture.This happened in the later years of his reign during “the Great Leap Forward” and “the Cultural Revolution.” However, even though his heart was in the right place, these two movements were ginormous failures and actually brought China and its people’s view of him much, much lower. This lead the people to become very angry and many of them were murdered because they disagreed with him. So like I said, his intent on promoting China was definitely there, he just couldn’t act on it as well as he planned or wanted to. His views and following of Marxism shaped his choices a great deal, not just during his rule, but in his life as well.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Discuss the intent your group has in promoting (or working against) the progress of China. (5) **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mao’s goal was to have China become self efficient and to eventually become the world super-power. Mao’s Great Leap Forward absolutely brought down Iron and Steel production statistics since it’s failure. Mao’s ideas of communism also were the stepping stones for China’s growing rate production and GDP. He also had a great impact on the population boom that happened there during his reign.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What impact will China have on the next 50 years of world history? (5) **

So the real question to be answered here is if China can be a role model to other emerging countries. The answer based off of our character when he was in power is no. He was not capable of leading China properly which means no other country should base themselves off of China at that time. He brought almost every aspect of China down, the exact opposite of his goals, all because he felt that people who opposed him should be executed. This man is considered to be one of the most influential figures of the 20th century because of his ways yet he murdered more people than Hitler; over 40 million. This is not a good role model for anybody or anything to follow. However, maybe now a days China could be considered a good role model because their economy is the second biggest in the world and increasing. Their GDP is skyrocketing along with this. They are also continuously working on improving their social issues like Hu Jintao said.
 * Concluding Statement: **

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Question** 1: To Confucius (Austin and Joey): What led you to the opinion that men should control and master the natural environment? I only ask because this is now said to be one of the three broad philosophical traditions currently practiced in China, the one that Mao Zedong practiced when he was alive.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To Hu Jintao (Ben and Jared): Being the current leader of China, how would you describe Mao Zedong as aleader of China? Is it difficult to reverse his policies and ways that were so strongly forced onto people <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> during his reign or do you like what he did when he was in power?
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Question 2: **

Schram, Stuart Reynolds. "Mao Tse-tung Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." Famous Biographies & TV Shows <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Biography.com. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. <http://www.biography.com/people/mao-tse-tung-9398142?page=9>. Tickell, Crispin. "Crispin Tickell: Mao's War against Nature." Crispin Tickell: Home. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. <http://www.crispintickell.com/page14.html>. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"San José State University - Powering Silicon Valley." San José State University - Powering Silicon Valley. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://www.sjsu.edu>. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"ThinkQuest : Library." ThinkQuest : Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Nov. 2011. <http://library.thinkquest.org>.
 * <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Works Cited: ** <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: medium; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Mao Zedong." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 06 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong>.