The Study of Chinese Peasants in China’s Economic Development

• Main Authors: Hung-Pao Lin, 林鴻葆
• Other Authors: Hao-Lin Yuan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/48248428003682937600

碩士 === 國立中興大學 === 國際政治研究所 === 102 === The People’s Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949 by Mao Zedong who led Chinese Communist Party (CCP) struggling against Nationalist Party of China (KMT) through a proletarians’ and peasants’ revolution. Obviously, peasant is a key factor in the process of CCP and KMT struggling for political power in modern times, so the background that CCP utilized peasants’ power to develop itself is a main research motive. After 1978, PRC has gradually focused on economic reform and opening up instead of struggling for political power. Whether reform economic or struggle for political power, they must involve with China’s stability and be affected by peasants. Because China’s stability would deeply be involved in international relationship, the neighbor Taiwan absolutely needs to understand how peasants affect China’s economic development. In order to understand how peasants affect China’s economic development, there are three questions in this paper. Firstly, what are the three rural issues in different China’s period? Secondly, after1949, what is the role of China peasants in Mao Zedong period, Deng Xiaoping period, Jiang Zemin period, and Hu Jintao period. Thirdly, what is affected in China’s economic development by the role of peasants in different period? In order to answer above questions, the modernization theory will be used in this paper, and we don’t see the end of China’s economic modernization, so there is another variable, i.e. the role of China’s peasants to analyze and explain the outcome of China’s economic development. Peasants affected China’s economic development, including the peasant population proportion of total population, the farm industry product proportion of gross domestic product (GDP), the peasant consumption expending proportion of final consumption expending, per capita GDP, and the peasant poverty rate. According China’s different period, i.e. Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao period, this study finds the role of China’s peasants changing from dominator (or governor), been depend on (or producer), and maintainer (or supporter) to stabilizer (or balancer). In addition, China’s economic modernization would show some characteristics: 1.After 1949, the time of China’s economic modernization isn’t too long and the process wouldn’t be linear; 2.The degree of China’s economic modernization would have been still vulnerability until 2012; 3.Because China’s economic modernization is still vulnerability, the modernization process might be reverse; 4.If China’s economic modernization were reverse, the social stability of China would be turned down, so the role of China’s peasants will be a key factor for China’s social stability in the future.