Urban Economic Reform and the Case of Shenzhen

Abstract

Chinese revolutionary leaders from 1911 to 1949 of both the Nationalist and the Communist persuasions have indeed wanted to build a modern and powerful industrial state in East Asia. The Japanese modernisation success provided the inspiration and the United States provided the ideal of democracy for Sun Yat-Sen on the one hand; on the other, the Bolshevik victory in Russia in 1917 offered a new revolutionary alternative to Mao Zedong and his idealistic predecessors. Both Sun and Mao not only once cooperated but also agreed to make China strong enough to be treated with equality in the international community. Sun did not know the Western nations were not prepared to aid him and circumstances forced him to accept assistance from Lenin in 1923. Mao Zedong, likewise, failed to realise until 1960 that Stalin was not prepared to help China become a strong partner. A new Sino-Soviet conflict eventually compelled him to be reconciled with the United States in the 1970s. All of these twists of history help illustrate clearly one of the many genuine Chinese expectations, to build China into a strong industrial state capable of self-defence and a higher living standard. The May 4th movement in 1919 further demonstrated how young intellectuals were devoted to the same purpose through democracy and science.