Proclamation of the People's Republic of China. Features of the constitutional development of China in the second half of the twentieth century

People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国
Capital	Beijing
Official language	Standard Chinese (Putonghua)
Regional languages	Mongolian, Tibetan, Uyghur, Zhuang and others
Square	9,706,961 km2
Population	1,353,821,000 people (2012)
Population density	139.6 people per km2
GDP	$12,382 billion
GDP per capita	$9,146
Currency	CNY
Timezone	UTC +8 (Moscow +5)
Telephone code	+86
Internet domain	.cn

People's Republic of China is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion people. In terms of land area, 9.6 billion square kilometers, China ranks third in the world, after Russia and Canada. And if we consider the area only of land, then it comes in second place, ahead of Canada.

China is a one-party state led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). China includes 23 provinces (including Taiwan, which is not controlled), 5 autonomous regions, 4 municipalities and 2 special administrative regions. Taiwan is considered the 23rd province by the government of the PRC, but as a result of an unfinished civil war, it is controlled by the government of the Republic of China.

The landscape of China is huge and diverse: the Gobi and Takla-Makan deserts with extensive forest-steppes occupy the north and northwest of the country, the fertile East China Plain is located in the center of the country, the south is occupied by subtropical forests, the west is high and mountainous, the Himalayas are located here - the highest mountain range on Earth, as well as the mountains of the Karakoram, Pamir and Tien Shan. On the Tibetan Plateau, the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers originate - the third and sixth rivers in the world in length. China's coastline runs along Pacific Ocean and is 14,500 kilometers long (11th in the world). China is washed by the waters of the Bohai Gulf, the Yellow, East and South China Seas.

The coat of arms of China was designed by the architect Liang Xicheng and approved on September 20, 1950. In the center of the coat of arms is the Tiananmen Gate in the Forbidden City of Beijing, symbolizing centuries-old Chinese traditions. The gate is depicted against the background of a red circle with five stars, as on the flag, symbolizing the Communist Party, uniting and leading the Chinese people. The red circle is framed by a yellow frame with images of sheaves of wheat and rice, symbolizing the Maoist agricultural revolution. At the bottom of the border is a gear, symbolizing Chinese workers.

The anthem of China is the "March of the Volunteers", written by Tian Han in 1934 during the Sino-Japanese War. The music was composed by Nie Er in 1935. The song has become an anthem since 1949, but was performed intermittently, during the Cultural Revolution, the unofficial anthem was "Aleet East". The official status of the anthem was adopted in 1982, and in 2004 it was included in the country's constitution.

Geography

Geographical position

The People's Republic of China is located in East Asia. The area of ​​the territory is 9.6 million square kilometers. The PRC extends 5,200 kilometers from west to east and 5,500 kilometers from north to south. From the east, China is washed by the seas of the Pacific Ocean: the South China, East China, Yellow and Bohai Gulfs of the Yellow Sea, which is considered by Chinese geographers to be a separate sea. The total length of China's coastline is 14,500 km. On the other three sides, China has a land border with a total length of 22,117 km with 14 states: in the northeast with the DPRK and Russia, in the north with Mongolia, in the northwest with Russia and Kazakhstan, in the west with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Afghanistan, in the southwest with Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutan, and in the south with Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. China also has maritime borders with Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

Geology

The geology of China is quite diverse. China is located entirely on the Eurasian tectonic plate. The Sino-Korean, South China and Tarim platforms stand out in the composition of the plate, in some places coming to the surface in the form of crystalline Precambrian rocks. On the southwestern border of China, the Hindustan plate collides with the Eurasian plate, forming the Himalayan mountains and the Tibetan plateau at the point of collision. The northwest and northeast of China are occupied by alluvial plains covered with sedimentary rocks. In the center is the Great Plain of China, the world's largest deposit of Quaternary loess. The thickness of the sedimentary cover reaches 10 kilometers. In southern China, there are limestone mountains composed of Paleozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks. Many fossils of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals have been discovered in China.

Part of China is seismically active. The greatest danger of earthquakes is noted in western mountains: Tien Shan, Kunlun, Altai, in the Trans-Himalayas and southeast of Tibet, in the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan. On the plains of the east of the country, the seismic regime is irregular; there are long-term periods of calm between earthquakes. Often earthquakes occur in areas that, according to geological data, should not be seismic. Because of this, disasters claim more victims in the east. For example, during the earthquake in Shaanxi province in 1556, more than 830 thousand people died.

Relief

Relief of China

The relief of China is varied. The main feature is that the landscape is constantly descending from west to east. The relief of China is formed by the collision of the Hindustan and Eurasian lithospheric plates. This collision gave birth to the Himalayas, the highest mountain range in the world. China owns half of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on the planet. To the north of the Himalayas is the Tibetan Plateau, called Qinghai-Tibetan in China. The average height of the highlands is about 4,000 m. In addition to the Himalayas, the Tibetan plateau is framed mountain systems Pamir, Karakorum, Kunlun and Qilianshan.

To the north of the Tibetan Plateau is the endorheic Tarim Basin, in the center of which is the Takla Makan Desert. In addition to the desert, the Turfan depression is located in the Tarim Basin - the deepest in East Asia (154 meters below sea level). The north of China, namely Inner Mongolia, is located on the Mongolian plateau with an average height of 1,000 m. Most of the plateau is occupied by the Alashan and Gobi deserts. To the south of the Mongolian plateau are the Ordos Desert and the Loess Plateau. This plateau is rich in loess, very fertile and subject to erosion, as a result of which it is heavily indented by ravines and river valleys.

Karst relief in southern China

The east of China is occupied by accumulative plains. They make up only 10% of the country's territory, but they are home to the majority of the population. In northwestern China is the Manchurian, or Northwest Chinese Plain, in central China is the Great China Plain, divided by the Shandong Mountains into the North China Plain and the plain of the Yangtze. The south of China is occupied by low mountains interspersed with fertile river plains. The southern mountains are composed of limestone rocks, and therefore are highly susceptible to erosion, which gives rise to a very beautiful karst relief. Among the southern valleys, the Pearl River Valley (Zhujiang) stands out, forming a vast fertile plain.

Minerals

China is very rich in minerals. China ranks third in the world in terms of coal reserves. Coal deposits are found in abundance in central and northern China. Basically, these are deposits of coal.

Oil fields are located in the coastal shelf: in the Bohai Gulf and the South China Sea. The country's largest oil field, Daqing, is located in northeastern China.

Numerous iron ore deposits are located in northern and northeastern China. There are also deposits of manganese, titanium, chromium, tungsten, aluminum, copper, nickel, tin, mercury, zinc, lead, antimony, tantalum, niobium, sulfur, phosphates, asbestos, magnesite and many other minerals. In 2007, China came out on top in the world in gold mining.

Soils

The soils of China are varied following the general geography. Fertile dark meadow soils are widespread in northeastern China, and black soils are found along the Songhua River. The north-west of the country is covered with gray-brown desert, mountain-steppe and mountain-meadow soils, gray soils. Often the soils are saline due to the arid climate and require irrigation.

On the coast of the Yellow Sea, salinization is associated with the activity of the sea. Farming in the Yellow River Delta becomes possible after the salts are washed out. The plains are characterized by fertile alluvial soils or red soils. The loess plateaus are also fertile but highly prone to erosion.

Soil properties in China change greatly with intensive human use. Deforestation and grazing in the north lead to desertification of the land.

Inland waters

Yellow River in Lanzhou

There are about 50,000 rivers in China with a basin of more than 100 square kilometers. Their total length is more than 420 thousand kilometers. Of these, 1,500 rivers have basins over a thousand square kilometers. Most of the rivers in China flow from west to east, and flow into one of the seas of the Pacific Ocean. The Yangtze River, with a length of more than 6,300 km and a basin area of ​​1.8 million square meters. km is the longest river in China, and the third in the world, after the Amazon and the Nile. The second longest river in China is the Yellow River, which is 5,464 km long and has a basin area of ​​752,000 square meters. km. Other major rivers are the Amur (Heilongjiang), Zhujiang (Pearl River), Liaohe, Haihe, Qiantang and Lancangjiang. Of great importance is the Great Chinese Canal, dug in the 7th-13th centuries. along the ocean coast between the Haihe, Huanghe and Yangtze rivers.

Approximately 40% of the territory in the west of the country is endorheic. The rivers here do not flow into the ocean, but end in inland lakes or evaporate in the desert.

China also owns vast territorial waters located in the waters of the Yellow, East and South China Seas of the Pacific Ocean. China owns more than 5 thousand islands. The coastline is different, and is divided into two types. To the north of Hangzhou Bay, the coast is mostly flat and sandy, to the south it is steep and rocky.

Climate

Distribution of average annual precipitation

The climate of individual regions of China is determined by the country's great length in latitude, as well as its distance from the sea. In the south, on the island of Hainan, the climate is tropical, in the northeast - temperate. Most of the country is in the temperate zone. The coast is located in the monsoon climate zone. In southern China, the average temperature ranges from 10°C in January to 28°C in July. In the north, the annual temperature difference is higher. Winters in Heilongjiang Province can get as cold as -30°C. The difference in precipitation is even higher than in temperature, but depends not on latitude, but on distance from the sea. The wettest regions are the southeastern ones, suffering from monsoon showers and hurricanes in summer, the driest regions are the northwestern ones, in the Takla Makan, Gobi and Ordos deserts located here, there is practically no precipitation. The north of China is covered every spring by sandstorms from the Gobi desert, often reaching as far as Korea and Japan.

Flora

Bamboo forest in Huangshan

China's vegetation is greatly affected by human land use. There are practically no forests left on the plains; primary forests have been preserved only in mountainous regions. In the northeast of China, in the Amur basin, coniferous taiga grows, mainly from larch and Korean cedar. When moving south, hardwoods are increasingly common: oak, linden, maple and walnut. In central China, sub-pyropic forests of laurels, camellias and magnolias begin. Southern China is occupied by tropical forests, and western Yunnan is covered with savannah. One of the most famous plants in China is bamboo, which is actively used in the economy and construction, and is eaten.

The western part of the country is covered mainly with shrubs and herbs. In the river valleys and on the slopes of the mountains there are small groves. A few extremely hardy plant species grow in the Tibetan Plateau, sometimes there are alpine meadows and small coniferous forests.

Fauna

Giant Panda in Sichuan

China is inhabited by many species of animals, but deforestation and hunting of wild animals causes great damage. Large animals survived only in remote mountainous areas. In the west, animals of deserts and semi-deserts live: rodents, gazelle, goitered gazelle, Przewalski's horse. In Tibet, there are alpine animals - orongo, kiang, Himalayan bear, Tibetan bobak, red wolf. Wolves, mustelids, hares, squirrels live in the forests of the northeast, the Amur tiger is extremely rare.

The fauna of southwestern China is the most diverse. The endemics of this region are the big and small pandas.

Story

prehistoric china

Archaeological evidence shows that China was inhabited by humans between 2.2 million and 250,000 years ago. In the Zhoukoudian cave near modern Beijing, the remains of sinanthropes were found that inhabited China between 780 and 200 thousand years BC, and who knew how to use fire. In the same cave, the remains of Homo sapiens, who appeared here 18,000 - 11,000 years BC, were found. During the Neolithic period, China was densely populated: in the 5th-2nd millennium BC, archaeological cultures of the Yangshao group existed in the Huanghe and Weihe valleys. The population of these cultures produced painted pottery, as well as objects made of stone and bone. In the 2nd millennium BC, these cultures were replaced by the cultures of the Longshan group: under the influence of settlers from Central Asia, local residents began to grow wheat, raise sheep, goats and cows, learned to use the potter's wheel, began to read bones, make three-legged clay vessels and black-walled ceramics without drawings.

Around 2100 BC, the Neolithic cultures give way to the Erlitow culture of the early Bronze Age. Chinese historians consider Elitou to be the capital of the semi-mythical Xia Dynasty, although due to the lack of written inscriptions at Erlitou, this connection is questionable. Erlitou was the largest settlement in all of East Asia until 1500 BC. Its inhabitants made bronze products, the rulers built palaces on foundations of compacted earth.

Ancient China

The first absolutely certain Chinese dynasty is the Shang, which succeeded the Xia around 1600 BC. The Shang Dynasty has 31 kings from Tang Shang to Di Xin. The excavations of the last of the nine Shang capitals, Yin City, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Found in Yinxu a large number of ceramic and bronze products, as well as bones of sacrificial animals with divinatory inscriptions.

Terracotta Army

The local people's congresses are the supreme authority at the local, provincial, county and township levels. Local assemblies at the provincial and district levels are elected for five years, at the lower levels for three years. Local assemblies approve plans for economic and social development in their localities, elect the governor of the province (or other head of the locality), control the implementation of the constitution and fundamental laws. Standing committees are set up at assemblies at the county level and above. Deputies to the people's congresses of counties, city districts, volosts and townships are directly elected by the people. The deputies of the provincial people's congresses are elected by lower level deputies. The provincial SPCs elect the NPC deputies.

Chairman of the People's Republic of China

Xi Jinping

The President of the People's Republic of China (also called the President of the People's Republic of China) is nominally the head of state and represents the country in the international arena. The President of the People's Republic of China is elected at the regular session of the NPC for a term of five years, and no more than two consecutive terms. A person who has reached 45 years of age can become the President of the People's Republic of China. The President of the People's Republic of China signs laws and decrees before they come into force, in accordance with the decisions of the NPC, appoints the Secretary of State of the People's Republic of China, ministers, foreign representatives of the People's Republic of China, and ratifies international treaties. Since March 14, 2013, Xi Jinping has been the President of the People's Republic of China.

Li Keqiang

Communist Party of China

The provision on the Special Administrative Regions is provided for in Article 31 of the 1982 constitution. Special districts are treated as provinces, send their deputies to the National People's Congress, but have much greater autonomy. Special regions are allowed to have their own constitution, executive, legislative and judicial powers, issue their own currency, and have independent customs, tax and immigration policies. The central government of the People's Republic of China is responsible for foreign policy and defense.

Hong Kong and Macau

Territorial disputes and separatism

China has many territorial disputes. The main one is the dispute with the Republic of China, whose government controls the island of Taiwan and two counties of Fujian province, located on the islands of Matsu and Kinmen. China also lays claim to the Senkaku, or Diaoyutai Islands, located near Taiwan and controlled by Japan. In 1974, China fought and occupied the Paracel Islands, previously controlled by Vietnam. The Spratly Islands in the South China Sea are the subject of a dispute between six countries: China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. The PRC controls some of these islands. China lays claim to Southern Tibet, captured by the British in 1913, and now constituting the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. India, in turn, lays claim to the Aksai Chin region in the Chinese part of Kashmir. China settled territorial disputes with the countries of the former Soviet Union by signing agreements with Kyrgyzstan in 1996 and 1999, Kazakhstan in 1994 and 1999, and Tajikistan in 1999 and 2011. In 2005, a border treaty was signed with Russia, transferring to China a number of disputed islands on the Amur River.

Separatist tendencies exist in some Chinese regions. In 1959, an anti-Chinese uprising broke out in Tibet. As a result of his suppression, the 14th Dalai Lama left China and established a Tibetan government-in-exile in India. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the World Uyghur Congress also operate abroad, advocating the independence of the Uyghur people. In China itself, these organizations are banned.

Armed forces

Tank Type-99

The People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) was created by the Communist Party. The army is led by the Central Military Commission of the People's Republic of China jointly with the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee. Both commissions are identical in composition, so there are no disagreements, despite the fact that their powers are not delimited by law. The country is divided into five zones of combat command, the navy into three fleets: the North, East and South Seas. The PRC Missile Forces are armed with ballistic missiles, at least 240 of which are armed with nuclear warheads. The army also includes the People's Armed Militia, which is engaged in the protection of important facilities and the fight against terrorism.

According to the laws and constitution of China, a two-year term of service is established for all citizens who have reached the age of 18. However, in practice, due to the huge population, conscription is voluntary and selective. University students who are undergoing military training do not serve.

The Chinese army is the largest in the world in terms of numbers. The People's Army has a permanent strength of 2.3 million, of which 1.6 million serve in the ground forces. In wartime, up to 600 million people could theoretically be mobilized. In practice, however, this number is several times less due to the difficulty of material support for a huge army. China is armed with more than 10 thousand tanks, more than 3 thousand aircraft and helicopters, 63 submarines, 75 capital ships and 332 boats. Weapons are being modernized, military satellites are being launched, and China's first aircraft carrier has been completed.

Population

Population distribution

The population of China is more than 1.3 billion people, thus making the PRC the most populous country in the world. However, the national population density is not very high - 137 people per km2 (as in Switzerland and the Czech Republic). The low average population density hides huge regional differences. The north and west of China is sparsely populated: 5 provinces of the north and west occupy 55% of the country's area, but only 5.7% of the population live in them. The Gobi and Takla Makan deserts, part of the Tibetan Plateau, are completely deserted. The bulk of China's population is concentrated in the east: the Yangtze Valley, the North China Plain, the Sichuan Basin, and the Pearl River Delta are the most densely populated areas. The 11 coastal provinces have a population density of 320 persons per km2.

Demography

On November 1, 2010, China held its sixth national population census, which is conducted every ten years. According to it, in 2010, 1,339,724,852 people lived in China. The annual growth is 0.47% (156th in the world). The average life expectancy is 73 years. One of the problems is gender disproportion: there are 1.18 times more men than women.

China has a birth-planning policy known as "one family, one child." The campaign was caused by excessive congestion of land and water resources, poverty of the main part of the population. Since 1979, the Chinese have not been allowed to have more than one child. The details of the policy vary from province to province, mainly fines and additional taxes are imposed for violation of the rule. There are a number of concessions and exceptions. There are no restrictions for national minorities; if both parents are the only children of their parents, or if the first child is a girl, it is allowed to have a second one. The restriction does not apply to Hong Kong and Macau. After the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, provincial authorities excluded parents who lost children in the disaster from the rule. There are frequent cases of hiding children. Only 35.9% of Chinese families have no more than one child, the annual population growth was 0.47% - one of the lowest rates in the world. The negative consequences of the campaign are the aging of the population, the excess of men over the number of women, as well as spoiled children.

Nationalities

The main nationality of China is the Han. They make up 91.51% of the country's population. The remaining 8.49% of the population belong to the 55 minor nationalities listed in the country's constitution. The most numerous of them are Zhuangs (16 million), Manchus (10 million), Hui (9.8 million), Miao (8.9 million), Uighurs (8.3 million), Tujia (8 million), and (7.7 million), Mongols (5.8 million) and Tibetans (5.4 million).

Notable Chinese

Han is the self-name of the main ethnic group in China. Han is the name of one of the first Chinese dynasties. The Russian name - the Chinese - came from the name of the nomads - the Khitan, who inhabited the North-East of China and were in contact with Russian travelers. The Chinese are very heterogeneous. The heterogeneity is caused by the assimilation of various local nationalities and the breadth of settlement. The Chinese language has many dialects, the differences vary from a slight accent to complete incomprehension. The culture of different regions and provinces is very different. There are also Huaqiao - Chinese living abroad. There are about 35 million of them in the world, mainly in Southeast Asia. Huaqiao usually do not lose ties with their homeland and play an important role in China's foreign policy. Another sub-ethnic group of Chinese are the Hakka, who live in southern China. There are at least 40 million of them. The Hakka differ from the rest of the Han in their distinct dialect, customs, traditions, and high solidarity. The Hui are also related to the Han - they speak the same local dialects, the difference is that the Hui profess Hanafi Islam.

Language

One of the most difficult hieroglyphs

The official language in China is Putonghua (Common Speech). The introduction of Putonghua is due to the fact that there are many dialects in the Chinese language, and speakers of them often cannot understand each other. The main dialects of the Chinese language are Beijing (Mandarin), which is spoken by almost 70% of the population living in the north and southwest of the country; Wu (Shanghai), Yue (Cantonese, Guangdong and Hong Kong), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Taiwan), Xiang, Gan and Hakka. Putonghua is based on the Beijing dialect, it is broadcast on TV and radio, it is taught in all schools in the country. The level of Putonghua proficiency varies: young people understand it better, while the elderly speak only the local dialect.

Chinese writing is based on hieroglyphs. Chinese characters originate from divinatory inscriptions on tortoise shells of the second millennium BC, and acquired their modern form during the Han Dynasty in the second century BC. e. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the written language was Wenyang, or Old Chinese. Traditional writing was from top to bottom, with columns going from right to left. Over the centuries, the written language did not change, and became very different from the oral language, had a very complex, obscure grammar. In the 17th century, during the Ming dynasty, Baihua appeared - a variant of writing the spoken language, and at the beginning of the 20th century it became the standard and supplanted Wenyan. In baihua, writing is carried out in lines, from left to right, for the convenience of including foreign words and Arabic numerals in the text. The introduction of baihua helped improve the literacy of the population. From the middle of the 19th century, simplified versions of hieroglyphs began to appear, containing fewer features and easier to remember. In 1964, the People's Republic of China issued a law on the simplification of hieroglyphs, replacing 2,238 commonly used hieroglyphs with simplified forms. In China, Singapore and Malaysia, simplified forms of hieroglyphs are used for writing, while in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau they continue to use traditional ones.

Religion

Sky Temple

Atheism has been the official ideology of the PRC since 1949. During the Cultural Revolution in 1965-1976, the eradication of religious vestiges took place. The 1982 constitution enshrines freedom of religion, and the government emphasizes the role of religion in building a harmonious society. An accurate count of the followers of a particular religion is very difficult, firstly, because of the huge population, and secondly, because of traditional Chinese syncretism. Since ancient times, the Chinese have followed Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, calling them "three paths to the same goal." With the advent of Christianity, the Chinese did not abandon traditional religions. Atheists are from 10 to 59% of the population, Buddhists - from 8 to 80%, Christians about 8%, Taoists are up to 30% of the population, Muslims - about 1.5%.

Education

Tsinghua University

Free compulsory education in China includes 9 years of education in primary and secondary schools(children aged 6-15 years, six years elementary school and three - medium). The Compulsory Nine-Year Education Act was introduced in 1986. Due to the huge population, it is not possible to provide everyone with free higher education, there is a shortage of highly qualified personnel in China, so the government is carrying out a consistent education reform designed to give the country more specialists, while improving the quality of education. At the age of 15-17, students, if they wish, can study in high schools for three years, which most students choose, or enter lyceums, vocational schools.

There are 2,236 higher education institutions in China with over 20 million students. The competition for admission to universities is huge.

healthcare

People's Hospital in Hankou

In 2005, China carried out a health care reform. Medical insurance is 50 yuan ($7) per year per patient. 20 of them are paid by the central government, 20 by the provincial authorities and 10 by the patient himself. The health care system is multi-level, when applying to a local hospital, the state pays 80% of the bill, and in large city clinics - only 30%. About 80% of the population is subscribed to the health insurance system. Most of the institutions have been privatized, which has improved the quality of treatment. Life expectancy has risen from 35 years in 1950 to 73.2 in 2008. Typhoid fever, cholera and scarlet fever are almost eradicated. However, the huge population and its high density pose a threat of epidemics, influenza and AIDS epidemics are possible, and there is an increase in urban obesity. A big problem is the high pollution of water and air. The abundance of smog in large cities and the large number of smokers lead to respiratory diseases.

Institutions of traditional Chinese medicine are very popular. It includes the diagnosis of the disease by pulse, acupuncture, herbal medicine and the preparation of various tinctures.

Economy

Nanjinglu street in Shanghai

The Chinese economy ranks second in the world in terms of annual GDP and purchasing power parity after the United States. In terms of economic growth, China in 2011 ranked fifth (9.5%), the average growth over the past 30 years is 10%, sometimes reaching 15%. By 2020, China could overtake the United States in terms of GDP. China is the world's largest exporter and the second largest importer after the United States. In terms of GDP per capita, China ranks 91st in the world. Economic wealth is not uniform, coastal provinces are more affluent and less developed inland.

Rapid economic development in China began after 1978, when liberal economic reforms began. A stake was placed on the creation of special economic zones with a favorable tax and administrative climate, attracting foreign investment and orienting production for export. State-owned enterprises are located in strategic industries, such as aerospace and defense. The influence of the state is also strong in other sectors, for example, in the purchase of agricultural products.

CNY

100 yuan banknote

Officially, the currency of China is called Renminbi (people's money), but the world is known by its unit of measure - Yuan. Small change coins are Jiao (1 yuan = 10 jiao) and Fen (1 jiao = 10 fen), fen are practically not used. The symbol of the yuan is the Latin letter "y" with two strokes - ?, while the Japanese yen has the same symbol. The yuan exchange rate is set by the People's Bank of China against a currency basket.

Yuan is partially convertible. The People's Bank of China allows the price of the yuan to "float" within a small range around the set value. According to international experts, the yuan is artificially undervalued by 30-40% to increase the competitiveness of Chinese exports. Developed countries, primarily the US, demand that the Chinese government release the price of the yuan and make it fully convertible. China is gradually liberalizing its monetary policy, but is not in a hurry to reform, while maintaining the stability of the exchange rate and the manageability of the economy.

Branches of the economy

Agriculture

rice terraces

China is the world's largest agricultural producer and the world's largest consumer of agricultural products. About 300 million people are employed in agriculture. Almost all arable land in the country is used for growing agricultural crops. Only 10-15% of the country's area is suitable for cultivation. Yields are quite high due to intensive farming. Slightly more than half of the arable land is not irrigated, a quarter is irrigated land and a quarter is rice fields. Rice is China's main agricultural crop, with China ranking first in the world in its production. Also grown a lot of wheat, corn, soybeans, potatoes, sorghum, millet, barley, tobacco and tea.

Livestock is also an important industry. China ranks first in the world in the production of pork, chicken and eggs. There are significant herds of cattle and sheep. Also, China is traditionally one of the world leaders in catching fish. A large anthropogenic load on the seas and rivers has led to the fact that now a significant part of the fish is grown in special ponds. Environmental problems such as droughts, floods and soil erosion pose a great threat to agriculture. Mass destruction of forests in the recent past is being replaced by extensive reforestation programs. The main suppliers of timber in the country are the northeastern and southwestern provinces.

Due to the development of industry in the villages, less than half of the villagers are now employed in agriculture. Villagers are moving en masse to work in the industrialized coastal provinces. Agriculture accounts for only 13% of China's GDP.

Extractive industry

Coal quarry

In 2004, China produced over 2 billion tons of coal, 310 million tons of iron ore, 175 million tons of crude oil, 41 million cubic meters natural gas, 110 thousand tons of antimony and tin ores, 67 thousand tons of tungsten ore and 64 thousand tons of nickel ore, 40 thousand tons of vanadium and 20 thousand tons of molybdenum ore. As well as a significant amount of bauxites, borites, gypsum, magnesite, manganese and zinc ores. In addition, China produced 2,450 tons of silver and 215 tons of gold. The mining sector of the economy accounts for less than 0.9% of employees, but it makes up 5.3% of total industrial production.

Despite the huge reserves of minerals and their intensive extraction, the rapid industrialization of the country requires the import of raw materials from abroad. China is increasingly buying minerals from the United States and Australia, and is also actively expanding production in African countries. There are supplies of fossils from Russia and Kazakhstan. The policy of the Chinese government is to diversify raw material supplies.

Energy

Three Gorges Dam (Sanxia)

Since 1980, energy production has risen sharply, as has its consumption. More than 80% of energy is generated by thermal power plants, 17% by hydroelectric power plants and about 2% by nuclear power plants. Much of China's energy potential has yet to be tapped. The main problem of the energy sector is the remoteness of the main energy carriers, which are located in the north and west of the country, from consumers, which are concentrated on the coast. The problem is also the environmental friendliness of energy. The main energy carrier is coal, which provides up to 75% of energy, and this share is gradually decreasing. Coal is gradually being replaced by oil and gas, whose production is growing.

Coal-fired power plants cause huge damage to the environment, which is why the Chinese government is carrying out energy reform. The reform is aimed primarily at increasing the share of renewable sources in total production, as well as conducting energy saving campaigns. Renewable sources, with the exception of hydropower, are unlikely to account for more than 5% of total production, although the government is targeting 10% by 2020.

Industry

Shipyard in Nanjing

Industry and construction account for 46.8% of Chinese GDP and occupy 22.5% work force. Chinese production is 19.8% of the world. In 2010, China became the world's largest producer of manufactured goods, overtaking the United States. The branches of Chinese industry include the production of almost all goods existing in the world, from the primary processing of minerals to the most high-tech production: electronics, nuclear power equipment, and aerospace. 30% of the goods produced come from state enterprises. The state owns the largest enterprises in heavy industry, as well as strategic industries, such as defense and aerospace enterprises.

Since 2010, China has become the world's largest car manufacturer, as well as the world's largest consumer of them, and since 2011, the world's largest consumer of personal computers. China is also the world's largest steel producer and exporter, with 45% of the world's steel produced in China. The production of automobiles, aviation and aerospace, as well as electronics is rapidly developing. In the consumer goods sector, the production of textiles and clothing plays an important role, which make up a significant part of Chinese exports.

Services sector

In 2010, the service sector accounted for 43% of China's GDP, second only to manufacturing. And it is still less than in developed countries. Wholesale and retail trade is developing rapidly, there are many shopping centers, shops, restaurants and hotels. Tourism plays an important role.

Transport

high speed trains

China has the second longest rail network in the world after the United States (91,000 kilometers). The railway is the most popular mode of transport in China. The track gauge is standard (1435 mm), 47% of the network is electrified. China has a railway connection with Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan, where the gauge is 1520 mm, with Vietnam, where the gauge is 1000 mm (wheelsets are changed at the border), North Korea has a standard gauge, as in China, it is the only country with a trip in which it is not necessary to change wheelsets. It is planned to build railways to Laos and Burma, and from there to India. China is not connected to other neighbors by rail. A network of high-speed railways is being actively built, on which trains reach speeds of more than 350 km/h.

beijing subway

Currently, 15 Chinese cities have subways, 18 more are under construction, and 20 more are planned to be built. The largest metro systems are in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, as well as in Hong Kong.

In 2005, China had a road network of 3.3 million kilometers, of which only 770,000 kilometers were paved. The rest are gravel or earth. The backbone of the road network is the national highways (Godao). Godao have a three-digit numbering. 12 roads of the 000 series are the most important routes of the country, the roads of the 100 series are laid from Beijing in all directions, the 200th - from north to south, and the 300th - from west to east. In addition to national highways, developed areas have toll highways, bridges, and tunnels.

electric moped

China has become the world's largest market for cars, and more and more Chinese use this mode of transport, although the number of cars per capita is still much lower than in developed countries. The bicycle is popular among the Chinese. And although bicycles are used less and less due to changing to more expensive and prestigious means, there are still a lot of cyclists in the country. Roads in most cities have dedicated lanes for cyclists. An increasingly popular vehicle is the electric scooter, or electric bicycle, which China ranks first in the world in production, with more than 20 million electric scooters sold annually domestically and another 3 million exported. These scooters take about eight hours to charge and are capable of traveling up to 45 kilometers at a speed of 20 km/h.

An intensively developing mode of transport is aviation. More than 500 airports have been built in China, and there are 27 national airlines with a total of more than 1,500 aircraft. In 2005 they transported more than 138 million passengers and more than 22 thousand tons of cargo in total. The largest airlines are Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, which serve the majority of international flights.

Shanghai cargo port

China has more than 2,000 ports, 130 of which are international. The total annual throughput of Chinese ports is over 2,890 million tons. China accounts for more than 35% of the world's maritime cargo turnover. Sixteen major ports in China have throughput more than 50 million tons annually. The Chinese merchant fleet has more than 3,500 ships, 1,700 of them with a displacement of more than 1,000 tons.

In terms of the length of navigable rivers and canals (110,000 kilometers), China ranks first in the world. Rivers and canals have been the main transport arteries of the country since ancient times. More than 5,100 inland ports are located on the rivers, the annual cargo turnover of river transport is 1.6 billion tons of cargo. Ships with a displacement of up to 10,000 tons can enter the Yangtze River. An important transport route is the Grand Canal, which connects five major rivers including the Yangtze and the Huang He.

Communication and Internet

Internet cafe

The telephone appeared in China during the Qing Dynasty, but the telephone network developed slowly due to the war with Japan and the civil war. The revival of the telephone network began after the communists came to power in 1949, by 1963 all provincial centers and major cities were connected by telephone lines, and in 1986 the first Chinese communication satellite was launched. With the beginning of economic reforms in the 1980s, the telecommunications sector began to receive significant investment. In 1987, mobile phones appeared in China, and in 2003 their number exceeded the number of fixed phones. By 2012, the number of mobile phones in the country exceeded one billion.

By 2010, there were 420 million Internet users in China, more than the entire population of the United States. However, Internet coverage of the population is still low - about 32%. The most popular messaging system is QQ, an analogue of ICQ, the most popular search engine is baidu.com.

mass media

Newsstand

There are more than 25,000 printing houses in China, more than 2,200 newspapers and 7,000 magazines are published. The largest newspaper is the Renmin Ribao (People's Newspaper), which is the official publication of the Chinese Communist Party. Other major newspapers are Beijing Daily and Guangming Daily. The largest news agencies are the state agency Xinhua.

There are more than 3,000 radio stations broadcasting in China. The largest radio broadcaster is the Central People's Radio Station, which has eight channels. Each province or municipality has its own radio stations. China Radio International (CRI) broadcasts worldwide in 38 languages, including four dialects of Chinese.

The largest television company is China Central Television (CCTV), which broadcasts on a variety of channels, including international ones in Russian and English.

Science and technology

Launch of Shenzhou-7

Chinese science is developing rapidly. China has already achieved outstanding technological advances. Thus, the Chinese nuclear program has been successfully completed, and China owns the technology for the production of nuclear warheads and the construction of nuclear power plants.

The Chinese space program started in 1970 with the launch of China's first satellite. In 2003 with the launch spaceship Shenzhou-5 with astronaut Yang Liwei on board, China became the third country in the world to carry out a manned space flight. And in 2011, Tiangong-1, the first Chinese orbital station, was launched. China is also launching the Chang'e series interplanetary probes to the moon.

International trade

Foreign trade is one of the most important areas of the economy. A significant part of production is based on export, although a reorientation to the domestic market is gradually taking place. In 2008 the volume foreign trade was $2.4 trillion.

Since 1991, China has been a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and in 2001, after 16 years of negotiations, China joined the WTO.

culture

revolutionary opera

China has an extremely rich and diverse culture. Chinese traditional culture has been formed for thousands of years almost in isolation. After 1949, the culture was greatly enriched by communist influence. From 1966 to 1976, the Cultural Revolution took place in the country, during which traditional Chinese culture was banned and destroyed. Since the 1980s, the Chinese government has abandoned this policy and has begun to revive traditional culture. Modern Chinese culture is a mixture of traditional culture, communist ideas and post-modern influences associated with the processes of globalization.

Architecture

Chinese architecture is as old as the entire Chinese civilization. Since the Tang Dynasty, Chinese architecture has had a significant impact on the building technologies of Vietnam, Korea, and Japan. In the 20th century, Western building technologies spread throughout China, especially in cities. Traditional Chinese buildings rarely exceed three stories, and the demands of urbanization have led modern Chinese cities to have a western look. However, suburbs and villages are often still built using traditional technologies.

Palace of Supreme Purity

Traditional Chinese buildings are characterized by bilateral symmetry, which symbolizes balance and equilibrium. Chinese buildings occupy the maximum of the territory allotted for them, free space is inside the building in the form of courtyards. Inside the building there are separate buildings connected by covered galleries. The system of patios and covered galleries is of practical importance - it protects from heat. Chinese buildings are characterized by a length in width, in contrast to Europeans, who prefer to build upwards. The buildings inside the building are arranged hierarchically: the most important are located along the central axis, the less important ones are along the edges, the older members of the family live on the far side, the younger ones and the servants - in the front, at the entrance. Geomancy, or Feng Shui, is characteristic of the Chinese. In accordance with this set of rules, the building is built with the back to the hill, and the front to the water, behind front door there is an obstacle, since the Chinese believe that evil travels only in a straight line, talismans and hieroglyphs are hung around the building, attracting happiness, good luck and wealth.

Traditionally in China they build from wood, stone buildings have always been a rarity. Load-bearing walls are also rare, the weight of the roof is usually carried by wooden columns. The number of columns is usually even, it allows you to create an odd number of compartments, and place the entrance exactly in the center. Wooden structures with a minimum of load-bearing parts is much more resistant to earthquakes. There are three types of roofs: flat sloping roofs are found on the houses of commoners, those with stepped slopes are used for more expensive buildings, and flowing roofs with raised corners are the privilege of temples and palaces, although they are also found on the houses of the rich. The ridge of the roof is usually decorated with carved figures made of ceramics or wood, the roof itself is covered with tiles. Walls and foundations were built from rammed earth or brick, less often from stone.

Painting and calligraphy

"Winter Lake"

Traditional Chinese painting is called Guohua (national painting). In imperial times, there were practically no professional artists; aristocrats and officials were engaged in painting at their leisure. wrote black paint and a brush made of animal hair on silk or paper. The paintings were scrolls that were hung on the walls or kept rolled up. Often, poems composed by the artist and related to the image were written on the picture. The main genre was the landscape, which is called Shanshui (mountains and water). The main thing was not realism, but transmission emotional state from looking at the landscape. Painting flourished during the Tang Dynasty, and improved during the Song Dynasty. Sung painters began painting blurry distant objects to create the effect of perspective, as well as the disappearance of contours in the fog. During the Ming Dynasty, storytelling came into vogue. With the coming to power of the communists, the genre of socialist realism, depicting the life of workers and peasants, reigned in painting. In modern China, traditional painting coexists with modern Western styles.

Calligraphy (Shufa, the laws of writing) is considered the highest form of painting in China. Calligraphy includes the ability to hold the brush correctly, choose the ink and writing material wisely. In calligraphy classes, they try to copy the handwriting of famous artists.

Literature

Journey to the West page

Chinese literature has more than three thousand years of history. The first deciphered texts are divinatory inscriptions on tortoise shells during the Shang Dynasty. Fiction has traditionally been of secondary importance. The collections of Confucian ethical-philosophical books are considered to be the classical literary canon: the Pentateuch, the Quaternary and the Thirteen Books. Excellent knowledge of the Confucian canon was necessary condition for exams for public office. Traditional dynastic chronicles are of great importance. After the new dynasty came to power, starting with the Han, scientists compiled a detailed chronicle of the previous dynasty. Twenty-four stories are a collection of such chronicles. There is also the Seven Books - a collection of works on the art of war, the most famous of which is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu.

During the Ming Dynasty, entertaining novels gained popularity. An example of Chinese prose are the Four Classical Novels: "The Three Kingdoms", "River Backwaters", "Journey to the West" and "Dream in the Red Chamber". In 1917-1923, the New Cultural Movement emerged. Its writers and poets, in order to be more understandable, began to write in colloquial Chinese, Baihua, instead of Wenyang, or Old Chinese. The founder of modern Chinese literature is Lu Xun.

Music

Musicians with traditional instruments

In ancient China, the social status of musicians was lower than that of artists, but music played an important role. One of the books of the Confucian canon is Shi Jing - a collection of folk songs. With the coming to power of the communists, such genres as revolutionary songs, marches and hymns appeared.

The traditional Chinese musical scale consists of five tones, there are also 7- and 12-tone scales. According to Chinese tradition, musical instruments are divided according to the material of the sounding element: bamboo, clay, wood, stone, leather, silk, metal.

Theatre

Peking Opera

Classical Chinese theater is called Xiqu, which combines singing, dancing, stage speech and movement, as well as elements of circus and martial arts. In its infancy, the Xiqu theater appeared during the Tang Dynasty (7th century AD). Different provinces developed their own versions of the traditional theater. The most famous of them is the Beijing Opera - Jingjiu. The Xiqu theater continued to develop and change both in the Republic of China and after the communists came to power.

Cinema

The first screening in China took place in 1898, the first Chinese film was made in 1905. Until the 1940s, Shanghai remained the main cinematic center of the country, the film industry developed with the help of the United States and experienced strong American influence.

With the proclamation of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the film industry developed rapidly. Before the start of the Cultural Revolution, 603 feature films and 8,342 documentaries were released. A wide variety of animated films have been made to entertain and educate children. During the Cultural Revolution, cinema was severely restricted, many old films were banned, and few new ones were made.

In the new millennium, Chinese cinema is influenced by the tradition of Hong Kong and Macau, after they were annexed by China. A large number of joint films are being shot. In 2011, China's film market amounted to $2 billion and, ahead of India and the UK, came in third in the world after the US and Japan.

Martial arts

Statue in Shaolin

Chinese martial arts are not methods of combat with or without weapons, but a complex of various cultural phenomena. In addition to hand-to-hand and armed combat techniques, Chinese martial arts include various health practices, sports, acrobatics, methods of self-improvement and psychophysical training, elements of philosophy and ritual as a way of harmonizing the relationship between man and the world around him.

Chinese martial arts are called Wu Shu or Kung Fu. The main centers of Wushu development are the Shaolin and Wudangshan monasteries. The fight is conducted in hand-to-hand combat, or one of 18 traditional types weapons.

Kitchen

There are many culinary schools and trends in China. Each province has its own cuisine, almost every city or town has its own specialties. The most famous and influential culinary schools are Cantonese, Jiangsu, Shandong and Sichuan.

Holidays

There are many holidays and festivals in China, both traditional and modern. The main holiday in China is New Year according to the traditional lunar calendar. It occurs from January 21 to February 21, depending on the phases of the moon. Chinese New Year is officially celebrated for three days, in fact - two weeks or more. An important public holiday is the founding day of the People's Republic of China, October 1, which is also celebrated for three days. Since these two holidays merge with the weekend, in fact they are celebrated for up to seven days, these holidays are called the "Golden Weeks". Other official holidays are New Year, Qingming Festival, Labor Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival. There are holidays for certain social groups: Women's Day, the days of children, youth and military personnel. The working day for these groups is reduced by half. Traditional holidays of national minorities are non-working days in national autonomies.

Tourism

China has huge tourist and recreational resources. Tourism is managed by the National Tourism Administration. China is the third most visited country in the world by foreign tourists, with nearly 56 million tourists visiting the country in 2010.

Cultural tourism is the most popular. There are 43 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in China, the most famous of which are the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City in Beijing, and the Terracotta Army in Xi'an. The southern island of Hainan is the center of beach tourism.

Tourist Attraction Rating

In order to improve the quality of tourism in the country and stimulate local authorities to improve tourist attraction and service quality, the National Tourism Administration has introduced a tourist attraction rating system. All tourism objects are divided into five categories: from A (lowest) to AAAAA (highest). Categories are awarded on the basis of several factors: the cultural significance of the site, the development of transport, excursions, safety and sanitation issues, as well as compliance with various international standards. On average, in each province there are several (no more than 12) objects of the AAAAA (highest) category and several dozen of the AAAA category.

On October 1, 1949, during a rally on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Chairman of the Central People's Government Council Mao Zedong proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China.

By the end of World War II, there were two Chinas on the political map of the world. Part of Chinese territory was under the control of the Kuomintang (the national party, which in 1927 became the ruling bourgeois-landlord party). The other part of the territory was under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The course of the Communist Party was supported by the Soviet Union, which was ending hostilities against Japan, the Kuomintang enjoyed the support of the United States.

From 1946 to 1949, there was a People's Liberation War in China, in fact, a civil war. At the beginning of 1947, the Kuomintang managed to win the last major victory: on March 19, they captured the city of Yan'an - the "communist capital". Mao Zedong and the entire military command of the communists had to flee. However, despite the successes, the Kuomintang failed to achieve the main strategic goal - to destroy the main forces of the communists and capture their strongholds.

After the start of active hostilities in 1947, the communists, with the help of the Soviet Union, managed to go on the offensive and completely turn the tide of the war in 2 years. They were able to capture a significant territory of mainland China, despite the support of the Kuomintang from the United States.

In April 1949, negotiations took place in Peiping (Peking) between the delegations of the CCP and the Kuomintang. An agreement was proposed to end the civil war on the basis of conditions put forward by the CCP. Since the Kuomintang government refused to approve the agreement, on April 21, 1949, the People's Liberation Army resumed its offensive, forcing the Yangtze River. Soon, the entire continental part of China, except for Tibet, was cleared of the Kuomintang, and they fled to the island of Taiwan under the protection of the US armed forces.

In September 1949, the People's Political Consultative Council of China began its work, which in fact became the Provisional Government of the Celestial Empire. On September 30, this provisional body elected the Central People's Government Council as a permanent body of the PPCC (Mao Zedong became the Chairman of the CPC) and formed the State Administrative Council as the highest executive body (Chou Enlai became the Chairman of the CAC). Thus a new permanent government was established. On October 1, 1949, it officially proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China, and this date is celebrated as a national holiday of the PRC.

It was on this day in 1949 that the Founding of the People's Republic of China was solemnly proclaimed at a rally on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and on December 2 of the same year, the central people's government issued a decree declaring October 1 a national holiday. Before, in the 50s, an indispensable part of the celebrations dedicated to him was a grandiose military parade on Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The celebration of the founding day of the People's Republic of China lasts five days, this almost week of holidays is one of the three "golden weeks" held annually in China (along with public holidays dedicated to Chun Jie - the traditional New Year according to the lunar calendar and May Day holidays). In the central parks of the capital, on October 1, festivities are held according to the same scenario as on May 1, sometimes a big fireworks display is arranged in the evening.

• THE RISE OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN CHINA AFTER THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
  • China at the beginning of modern times
  • Impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution on China. "May 4th Movement" 1919
    • Impact of the Great October Socialist Revolution on China. "May 4th Movement" 1919 - page 2
  • Beginning of Soviet-Chinese negotiations
  • Formation of the Communist Party of China
  • Strengthening imperialist expansion
  • Labor movement in 1922-1923 II Congress of the CPC
  • Activities of Sun Yat-sen. Preparation of a united national revolutionary front
  • III Congress of the CCP. First Congress of the Kuomintang. Building a united front
    • III Congress of the CCP. First Congress of the Kuomintang. Building a united front - page 2
  • Soviet-Chinese agreement 1924
  • situation in northern China. Shangtuan rebellion in Guangzhou. Feng Yu-hsiang's coup in Beijing
  • Workers' and peasants' movement in 1924 - early 1925 IV Congress of the CPC
    • Workers' and peasants' movement in 1924 - early 1925 IV Congress of the CCP - page 2
• REVOLUTION 1925-1927
  • "May 30 Movement". General strikes in Shanghai and Hong Kong
  • Completion of the unification of Guangdong. Strengthening the struggle within the united front
  • The Northern Expedition and the New Rise of the Revolution
  • The second stage of the Northern campaign. Revolts of the Shanghai proletariat
  • The counteroffensive of the imperialists and Chinese reaction. Coups in East and South China
  • Continuation of the revolution in Central China. 5th CPC Congress
  • Continuation of the Northern campaign. Workers' and Peasants' Movement in the Wuhan Region
  • The defeat of the revolution of 1925-1927 and its significance in the history of China
• ESTABLISHMENT OF THE GUOMINTANG REGIME. REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE IN CHINA UNDER THE SLOGAN OF SOVIETS (1927-1937)
  • The beginning of the Soviet movement (1927-1931)
    • The beginning of the Soviet movement (1927-1931) - page 2
  • Development of a new line of the CCP with the help of the Comintern. VI Congress of the CPC
  • The rise of the Kuomintang regime
  • Domestic and foreign policy of the Nanjing government in 1928-1931.
  • The revolutionary movement in China in 1928-1931.
    • The revolutionary movement in China in 1928-1931. - page 2
  • Left-adventurist bias in the CCP (1930)
  • Repulse by the Red Army of three campaigns of the Kuomintang
  • Seizure of Northeast China by Japanese imperialism
  • Political and economic situation in China in 1931-1935. Politics of the Nanjing government
    • Political and economic situation in China in 1931-1935. Politics of the Nanjing government - page 2
  • Chinese People's Liberation and Revolutionary Struggle
    • Chinese People's Liberation and Revolutionary Struggle - page 2
  • The struggle of the Red Army against the fourth campaign of the Kuomintang. Improving the tactics of the struggle
  • Fifth campaign of the Kuomintang. Abandonment of the territory of the Central Soviet Region by units of the 1st Front
  • Strengthening Japanese aggression in North China. Rise of the National Liberation Struggle of the Chinese People
  • VII Congress of the Comintern and the turn in the policy of the CCP
    • The 7th Congress of the Comintern and the turn in CCP policy - page 2
• NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR AGAINST JAPANESE IMPERIALISM (1937-1945)
  • The offensive of the Japanese troops. Deployment of the armed resistance of the Chinese people (July 1937 - October 1938)
  • Establishment of an anti-Japanese united national front
  • Resistance forces behind the lines of the Japanese invaders and the creation of the Liberated Areas
  • The international position and foreign policy of China at the beginning of the anti-Japanese war
  • Internal political struggle in China
  • Strategic lull in the Chinese theater of operations. Decomposition of the Kuomintang regime and the growth of the revolutionary forces of the Chinese people (November 1938 - February 1944)
  • Japan's colonial policy in China
  • Strengthening reactionary tendencies in the Kuomintang. Escalation of relations between the CCP and the Kuomintang
  • Features of the development of the CPC during the war with Japan
  • Final stage of the anti-Japanese war (March 1944 – September 1945)
    • The final stage of the anti-Japanese war (March 1944 - September 1945) - page 2
  • The entry of the Soviet Union into the war against imperialist Japan. End of the Chinese People's Liberation War
• CHINA AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR. CIVIL WAR 1946-1949 AND THE VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
  • Negotiations between the CCP and the Kuomintang (August 1945 – June 1946)
  • Negotiations for the unification and democratization of China
  • The brewing of an all-Chinese civil war. Decision of the CPC Central Committee of May 4, 1946
  • Civil war on a global scale. Offensive of the Kuomintang troops (July 1946 - June 1947)
  • The Political and Economic Crisis of the Kuomintang Regime
  • Democratic Movement in the Kuomintang Rear
  • Fortification of the Liberated Areas
  • Offensive of the People's Liberation Army. Victory of the People's Revolution in China (July 1947 - September 1949)
  • Political and Economic Program of the CCP
  • CCP policy in cities. relation to the working class. Formation of a united people's democratic front
  • Decisive battles in late 1948 - early 1949 Peace negotiations. Forcing the Yangtze
• CHINA'S TRANSITION TO THE PATH OF SOCIALIST DEVELOPMENT (1949-1957)
  • Recovery period. Completion of the bourgeois-democratic transformations of 1949-1952.
    • Recovery period. Completion of the bourgeois-democratic transformations of 1949-1952. - page 2
  • Foreign policy. Relations with the USSR
  • agrarian reform
  • Economic recovery. Class struggle in the city
  • First five years. Start of socialist industrialization (1953-1957)
  • Assistance of the Soviet Union in the socialist construction of the PRC
  • "The Case of Gao Gang - Zhao Shu-shih" and the "Campaign Against the Counter-Revolution"
  • Peasant cooperation. Nationalization of private industry and trade. Mao Zedong's Attempt to Revise the General Line of the CCP
    • Peasant cooperation. Nationalization of private industry and trade. Mao Zedong's Attempt to Revise the General Line of the CCP - page 2
  • 8th Congress of the Communist Party of China
  • "Movement for the correction of style in the party" and "the struggle against the bourgeois right-wing elements"
  • Results of the first five-year plan
• CPC LEADERSHIP CHANGE IN DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICY
  • "Great Leap Forward" (1958-1960)
  • Meeting in Beidaihe. "Great Leap". "Communization" of the village
    • Meeting in Beidaihe. "Great Leap". "Communization" of the village - page 2
  • Foreign policy
  • Speech against Mao's course at the 8th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee
  • Period of "settlement" (1961-1965). The actual rejection of the "jump" policy. 9th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee
  • Dissatisfaction with the policies of the Mao group
  • Struggle in the CCP over China's development path
    • The CCP's Struggle Regarding China's Development Path - Page 2
  • The National Economy of the People's Republic of China in 1963-1965.
  • The splitting activities of the Mao Zedong group in the socialist community and the world communist movement
  • Expanded attack on the CCP during the "cultural revolution" (1965-1969)
    • Expanded attack on the CPC during the "cultural revolution" (1965-1969) - page 2
  • Rampant Maoist terror ("Hongweibing")
  • The course of "seizure of power" and "unification of the three parties." Creation of revolutionary committees. The role of the army
  • Preparations for the establishment of the Maoist Party
  • 9th Congress of the Communist Party of China
  • Strengthening the anti-Soviet activities of the Mao Zedong group during the "cultural revolution"
• CONCLUSION

The victory of the people's revolution. Proclamation of the People's Republic of China

The anti-imperialist and anti-feudal program of the Chinese Communist Party enjoyed the support of the broad masses of the Chinese people. The CCP had a strong army and led the liberated areas. But in the development of the party, its internal life, in the views of the leadership, ideology, there were such moments that adversely affected its activities.

This is, first of all, separation from the working class, refusal to regulate the social composition of the party, the construction of "sinified Marxism", the influence of nationalist ideas on the policy of party leaders, inflating the personality cult of Mao Zedong, disregard for the Leninist principles of democratic centralism and collective leadership, the actual subordination of local party bodies to the army command, military command style and administrative-bureaucratic methods of work.

The secretary of the party committee should be able to be a "squad commander," said Mao Zedong at the 2nd Plenum of the CPC Central Committee. And this was not a figurative comparison, but a way of thinking and acting that followed from the militarization of the party in the conditions of many years of wars - civil and national liberation.

Some of these shortcomings and vices caused alarm among some of the party cadres. Mao Zedong at the plenum of the Central Committee in March 1949 actually attacked those who, “opposing bureaucracy, talk about Yan'an as if there is nothing positive there, and do not make a comparison between bureaucracy in Yan'an and bureaucracy in Xi'an (the center of the counterrevolution), draw a distinction between them.

The position of part of the party activists contributed to the fact that in 1948 there was a turn in the political line of the CPC Central Committee towards expanding contacts with the CPSU and the international communist movement, the views of nationalist elements were criticized. Thus, in 1949, the plenum of the North-Eastern Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China condemned the anti-Soviet tendencies of some leading figures in the region. Mao Zedong and Liu Shao-chi published articles in the newspaper Za lasting peace for people's democracy!”, which declared the CPC's devotion to the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, emphasized the leading role of the USSR in the world anti-fascist front, the importance of the example and experience of the Russian Bolsheviks and the alliance with the USSR for the Chinese revolution.

Apparently, the main reason for this turn was the keen interest of the leadership of the CPC in helping the CPSU and other fraternal parties. The Chinese Communist Party has been developing for two decades, fighting mainly in the countryside and was not prepared to work in the cities and in general to manage a huge country, its political life and economy.

The leaders of the CPC were seriously concerned about the possibility of retaining power after winning victory and successfully solving the most difficult problems of China's further development. The CCP could only get much-needed help - both material and experience - from the CPSU. This determined the formulation in 1949 of the conclusion: "to follow the path of the Russians."

At a meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in September 1948, important decisions about intensifying work on the management of industry and cities, about strengthening collective leadership, about the Marxist-Leninist training of cadres. However, party studies were to end with the study of the "ideas of Mao Zedong." In deciding to gradually shift the center of gravity of Party work from the countryside to the cities, the conference left unanswered the most important question of the party's class base in the cities.

At the same time, from the second half of 1948, the working class was increasingly mentioned in CPC documents as the guiding force of the Chinese revolution and the future republic of the democratic dictatorship of the people. Apparently, this was due to the desire to expand the class base of the party and the new government, previously limited mainly to the peasantry, and to ensure the cooperation of the working class in solving new tasks for the CCP - the restoration and development of industry, the management of the life and economy of cities. The position of the internationalist forces in the party and the orientation towards using the experience and assistance of the USSR had an effect.

In December 1948, the CPC Central Committee criticized the "right-wing deviationist ideology" of party cadres who did not pay attention to the working class. But at the same time, the old orientation to limit the demands of the workers for the improvement of their position remained in force. Thus, in the summer of 1949, the CPC Central Committee banned the publication of the Theses on Economic Policy in the Northeast, prepared by the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee under the leadership of Gao Gang, demanding that this document condemn the "left deviation" in the labor movement.

In the context of the approaching victory of the people's revolution and the reorientation of the party leadership, the 2nd plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China took place in March 1949 in Hebei Province. Its significance was reinforced by the fact that in the four years between the capitulation of Japan and the proclamation of the People's Republic of China, this was the only plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Mao Zedong's report was the basis for the plenum's resolution. The decision of the September meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee to shift the center of gravity of the Party's work from the countryside to the city was confirmed. The plenum called on the Party to rely primarily on the working class in all its work in the cities.

In the decisions of the plenum, the task of transforming China from an agrarian country into an industrial one and building a socialist state was put forward. Power in the future People's Republic of China was characterized as a democratic dictatorship of the people based on an alliance of workers and peasants and led by the working class. In terms of foreign policy, the plenum approved the installation of an alliance with the USSR.

The decisions of the plenum, which also reflected the influence of the contacts of the CCP with the CPSU, were of fundamental importance, since they put forward a course for the development of the bourgeois-democratic revolution into a socialist one, which in essence contradicted the Mao Zedong concept of "new democracy". But the building of socialism is called upon to ensure the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, while the organs of power in the liberated regions were, in their class composition, one of the varieties of the petty-bourgeois revolutionary-democratic dictatorship.

In conditions when the army command controlled and even created these bodies, when the leadership of the liberated regions (and in the near future - the PRC) of the CPC consisted of soldiers or peasants who had gone through the army school, the development of the revolutionary-democratic dictatorship into the dictatorship of the proletariat was an extremely difficult matter.

An important part of the preparations for the proclamation of the PRC was the creation and development of workers' organizations. The most massive of them were peasant unions and detachments of the people's militia, uniting tens of millions of farm laborers, poor peasants and middle peasants. Following the restoration of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, in March 1949, the 1st All-China Women's Congress was held in Beijing, where the All-China Democratic Women's Federation was formed. In April 1949, the New Democratic Youth Union was founded (in May 1957, the YNCM was renamed the Komsomol), and in May, the All-China Federation of Democratic Youth.

In January 1949, a large group of prominent leaders of the bourgeois democratic parties and groups, as well as non-Party public figures, declared their support for the CCP's struggle against the Chiang Kai-shek clique and US imperialism.

The support of the CPC slogans by the broad masses of the working people, as well as by representatives of the national bourgeoisie and bourgeois intelligentsia, in the face of the victorious offensive of the People's Liberation Army, made it possible to proceed directly to the creation of new organs of state power and to prepare the proclamation of the People's Republic of China. In June 1949, a session of the Preparatory Committee of the People's Political Consultative Conference (PPC) was held in Beijing, which was attended by representatives of the CPC, democratic parties, people's organizations, the PLA, national minorities, and Chinese emigrants. The Standing Committee of the PPCC was elected, as well as commissions to agree on the membership of the PPCC, to develop drafts of its documents and decisions. After carrying out the necessary preparatory work On September 21, 1949, the People's Political Consultative Conference opened in Beijing.

The PPCC was a representative body that included delegates from the CCP and all democratic parties and groups, trade unions, youth union, other mass organizations, people from various parts of the country, the PLA, national minorities, overseas Chinese, non-partisan public figures. The conference adopted the Organizational Statute (charter) of the PPKK, which was defined as an organization of the united people's democratic front, the Law on the Organization of the Central People's Government and the General Program of the PPKK. The Central People's Government Council headed by Mao Zedong was elected. The CPPCC decided that Beijing (formerly Beiping) would be the capital of the PRC and determined the flag, coat of arms and anthem of the PRC.

The main document was the General Program of the CPPK, which determined the nature of the state power of the PRC and formulated the tasks of the PRC: to abolish the privileges of the imperialists, to nationalize bureaucratic capital, to transfer landowners' land to the peasants, to protect state and cooperative property, as well as "the economic interests and private property of workers and peasants, small bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie, to develop the national economy of the new democracy and to achieve the transformation of China from an agricultural country into an industrial one.

It was announced that the citizens of the People's Republic of China were granted democratic rights, the equal rights of women, and the suppression of counter-revolutionary activities. The duties of citizens consisted in defending the homeland, observing laws and labor discipline, protecting public property, performing military service, and paying taxes.

The program spoke about the equality of all nationalities, the need to strengthen the armed forces of the PRC. A separate paragraph noted the unity "with all the peace-loving and freedom-loving states of the world - and above all with Soviet Union, people's democracies and oppressed nations", the struggle for world peace against imperialist aggression.

The section on economic policy pointed to the existence of various sectors of the economy, which should "under the leadership of the state economy sector" cooperate in the interests of the development of the entire economy. The General Program spoke of the socialist nature of the public sector. This was the only mention of socialism in the document. Other sections were devoted to public authorities, military system, politics in the field of culture and education, the national question, the foreign policy of the PRC.

On October 1, 1949, the establishment of the People's Republic of China was proclaimed at a mass rally in Beijing's central Tiananmen Square. The long-term national liberation revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people ended in victory.

The victory of the Chinese revolution was of great international significance. It strengthened the camp of socialism, dealt a blow to the colonial system of imperialism; Together with the USSR, the new China participated in the struggle against the aggressive plans of the imperialist powers. This victory opened a new era in the centuries-old history of the peoples of China. It created the preconditions for strengthening the country's independence, completing the bourgeois-democratic transformations and developing China along the socialist path, for radically improving the condition of the working masses, for transforming a backward agrarian country into an economically developed state with modern industry, agriculture, culture, and defense.

A necessary condition for such development of China was a combination of the correct policy of the CPC, the enthusiasm and strain of all the labor and other resources of the Chinese people, with an orientation towards an alliance with the world socialist system, with the Soviet Union, from where the PRC could receive and indeed received all-round assistance.

Revolution of 1911, At the beginning of the 20th century. a new revolutionary upsurge began in China. In 1902-1904. in a number of provinces there were spontaneous uprisings of peasants and artisans. In 1905-1906. A wave of boycotts of American goods swept across China. As yet scattered revolutionary organizations sprang up everywhere, and anti-government agitation intensified. The creation of new revolutionary organizations was carried out under the leadership of the Chinese Renaissance Union. In 1905, the disparate revolutionary societies united into a revolutionary party - the Chinese Revolutionary United Union (Zhongguo Geming Tongmenghui). Sun Yat-sen was elected president of Tongmenghui. Tongmenghui's political program provided for: the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty, the establishment of a republic, the equalization of land rights, which corresponded to the content of Sun Yat-sen's "three people's principles" - nationalism, democracy, people's welfare.

In an effort to contain the growth of the revolutionary movement, the Manchu government promised to introduce reforms and establish a constitutional monarchy over time. In September 1906, an imperial decree was issued on preparations for the establishment of constitutional government in China. In the summer of 1908, the government published a nine-year program of preliminary measures for the convocation of parliament. In October 1910, the Manchu court allowed the convocation of an all-Chinese constitutional chamber to discuss drafts of a future constitution. However, all this could not stop the growing discontent in the country.

On October 10, 1911 (Xinhai year according to the Chinese lunar calendar), a sapper battalion rebelled in Wuchang. All provinces of the country were called to join the uprising. Thus began the Xinhai Revolution.

On December 25, 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected President of China. He formed a provisional republican government, which was a bloc of bourgeois revolutionaries with the old bureaucracy and liberals; the majority in the government belonged to the liberals.

Sun Yat-sen's government carried out a number of moderate reforms. There were no radical socio-economic changes.

With the participation of Sun Yat-sen, a "provisional constitution" was developed. For the first time in the history of China, equal rights were proclaimed for all citizens, freedom of speech and press, freedom of organization, religion, choice of place of residence and occupation, inviolability of person and property, and the creation of a cabinet of ministers responsible to parliament. But this constitution was not implemented.

At this time, Yuan Shikai was nominated as the commander-in-chief of the counter-revolutionary forces. The liberal landlords and the bourgeoisie, frightened by the sweep of the revolutionary movement, tended to compromise with Yuan Shikai. As a result of the compromise, the monarchy was abolished. China became a republic. But Sun Yat-sen had to leave his post. Yuan Shikai became president.

On March 10, 1912, the National Assembly adopted a provisional constitution, according to which China was a republic headed by a president. Legislative power was exercised by Parliament, which consisted of two chambers: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Parliamentary elections were two-stage. Voters could be over 21 years of age, living in the constituency for at least two years, paying direct tax, or owning property worth a certain amount.

The alliance of the liberal bourgeoisie with Yuan Shikai was caused by the desire to end the revolution as soon as possible. The liberals won the Tongmenhui. They demanded the dissolution of the party and amalgamation with the moderate bourgeois parties. In response, Sun Yat-sen organized a new political party, the Kuomintang (National Party).

In July 1913, the leaders of the Kuomintang raised an uprising against the reactionary policy of Yuan Shikai. After crushing this uprising, Yuan Shikai banned the activities of the Kuomintang. He then introduces changes to the constitution, greatly expanding the powers of the president to the detriment of parliament. The term of office of the president is extended to 10 years. These innovations were part of a plan aimed at restoring the monarchy, and Yuan Shikai had already been officially proclaimed a Bogd Khan. Attempts to implement this plan caused general indignation in the country. Yuan Shikai had to declare his refusal to restore the monarchy. In June 1916, Yuan Shikai died, and vice-president Li Yuanhong became the president of the republic, declaring the preservation of the republican system.

But fundamental changes were not carried out that would put an end to feudalism and weaken the influence of foreign capital.

However, one should also note the positive result of the revolution - the overthrow of the monarchy. The revolution contributed to the intensification of the political activity of the broad masses of the Chinese people and their preparation for further struggle.

Democratic Movement in China after World War I

Civil and national liberation war. During the years of World War I, national capitalism grew in China. The development of national industry deepened the contradictions between the national and foreign bourgeoisie, which had gained a foothold in the Chinese economy. At the same time, the Chinese proletariat was taking shape and was included in the political struggle.

Foreign policy developments served as a direct impetus for the first action of the Chinese people since the end of the World War. The country's public associated hopes for liberation from foreign domination with the end of the war. However, this did not happen. Deceived hopes gave impetus to mass unrest that swept across the country. It began with a demonstration of students in Beijing on May 4, 1919, students from other cities joined them. In June 1919, student unrest developed into a broad revolutionary movement, which united the workers, the urban poor, and numerous representatives of the national bourgeoisie. The May 4th Movement, which can be characterized as a transition to a bourgeois-democratic revolution, marked the beginning of the active struggle of the Chinese working class. Strikes under economic and political slogans became more frequent. In 1921, the Communist Party of China was established. In 1924, the Communists entered the Kuomintang, which testified to the formation of a united national front to fight against foreign capital, which still occupied a fairly strong position in China. This struggle took the form of civil revolutionary wars, in the course of which the tasks of the bourgeois-democratic revolution were solved.

The activation of the popular masses aroused the alarm of the national bourgeoisie. The right wing of the Kuomintang took the path of counter-revolution. General Chiang Kai-shek, Chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang and Commander-in-Chief of the National Revolutionary Army, became the central figure of the counterrevolutionary forces. In 1927 counter-revolutionary coups took place in one province after another. The first civil revolutionary war (1924-1927) ended with the defeat of the revolutionary forces.

After these events, the Kuomintang became the party of the big bourgeoisie and landlords, and revolutionary and progressive elements were expelled from the party. The Kuomintang congress was declared the supreme body of power, and in the intervals between its convocations - the Central Executive Committee, in direct subordination of which was the government appointed by it.

In August 1927, the second revolutionary civil war began. It was complicated by the invasion of northeastern China by Japanese troops. The Kuomintang failed to repulse the aggressor, and Japan occupied a significant part of East China.

During the civil war, under the leadership of the communist party, revolutionary bases were created - separate territories controlled by revolutionary forces. By the beginning of the 30s. there is a need for a political unification of these bases and the creation of a central authority. On November 7, 1930, the First Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' Deputies - representatives of all the revolutionary bases of China - opened. The congress adopted a draft provisional constitution, which stated that in the territory of the revolutionary bases, "all power belongs to the councils of workers, peasants, Red Army soldiers and all working people." The congress also approved laws on land, on labor, on the fundamentals economic policy and elected the first central government of China's revolutionary regions, led by Mao Zedong (1893-1976), leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

In April 1932, the government of the revolutionary regions declared war on Japan and proposed to the Kuomintang to end the civil war by joining all forces to repulse the aggressor. But the Kuomintang rejected these proposals. The civil war ended only in 1937. A united national anti-Japanese front was created. The Chinese people waged a heroic struggle against the Japanese invaders.

Anti-Japanese popular resistance bases were created in the liberated territories. In all the liberated regions, there were elected people's political councils, which approved the composition of the government of each region. The authorities were built on the principle of "three thirds": one third of the seats were occupied by members of the Communist Party and one third by representatives of the petty bourgeoisie, representatives of the national bourgeoisie and patriotic landowners.

Education of the People's Republic of China

The first constitution of the People's Republic of China. The Second World War was drawing to a close, but the political situation in China was becoming more and more aggravated. The Kuomintang elite refused to create a coalition government, which the democratic organizations of China insisted on. In November 1944, Chiang Kai-shek made a number of changes in the composition of the government, which testified to the strengthening of anti-communism in the military-political leadership of the Kuomintang and to its plans to launch a civil war.

In 1945, after the defeat of the Kwantung Army of Japan and the liberation Soviet troops in the northeast of the country, the balance of power changed in favor of the People's Army, which launched extensive offensive operations to liberate China. Significant territories were under the control of the Communist Party of China. The Kuomintang government tried to prevent the advance of the People's Army and unleashed a new civil war that lasted three years (1946-1949). The nationwide revolutionary upsurge hastened the collapse of the Kuomintang regime. In January 1949, Chiang Kai-shek approached the leadership of the CPC with a proposal to start peace negotiations, which indicated that the Kuomintang had recognized its defeat. As a result of the negotiations, a draft peace agreement was developed. September 1949 opened the first session of the People's Political Consultative Conference, which was attended by representatives of all democratic parties and groups. The session adopted the status of the Conference as a united front organization, the law on the organization of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China (PRC), as well as the General Program, which, until the adoption of the constitution, was to fulfill the role of the Basic Law of the People's Republic of China. The conference elected the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China, headed by Mao Zedong. On October 1, the founding of the People's Republic of China was solemnly proclaimed.

The Common Program proclaimed the PRC a "state of a new democracy" that "wages the struggle against imperialism, feudalism, bureaucratic capital, for independence, democracy, peace, unity, and the creation of a prosperous and strong China."

The General Program determined that the new state power in China is a "democratic dictatorship of the people" based on an alliance of workers and peasants, in which the leadership belongs to the working class. This meant that the leading role of the working class in the people's state was carried out through the CPC, which became the ruling party.

The highest body of state power in the PRC was the Central People's Government Council (CPGS), which formed the rest of the central government bodies:

ny administrative council (the highest executive body), the People's Revolutionary Military Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Prosecutor's Office. Together with the TsNPS, these bodies constituted the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. Mao Zedong, who was simultaneously the head of the Central People's Government Council and the People's Revolutionary Military Council, and chairman of the CPC Central Committee, became its chairman. Originally, the Central People's Government of the PRC was a united front government. Along with the communists, the highest state bodies included representatives of numerically small bourgeois and petty-bourgeois parties that supported the program of the CPC and recognized its leading role.

A period of restoration begins in the country, during which the main tasks of the democratic revolution were solved. In 1953, the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed the socialist direction of development as its general line.

In 1953-1954. The first general elections in the history of the country to democratic bodies of power - the assembly of people's representatives - were held. On September 15, 1954, at the first session of the National People's Congress in Beijing, the constitution of the People's Republic of China was adopted. In accordance with the constitution, there have been significant changes in the structure of state bodies of the PRC: the National People's Congress became the supreme body of power, and in the period between its sessions - the standing committee of the NPC.

The First Constitution of the People's Republic of China legally enshrined the main provisions of the general line of the CCP as the fundamental law of the state. The Constitution proclaimed the socio-economic rights of citizens, their political freedoms, duties.

In the field of foreign policy, the Constitution provided for the development and strengthening of friendly relations with the USSR and other socialist countries, the establishment and development of relations with all countries on the basis of the principles of equality, mutual benefit, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The ideas of socialist development were implemented through five-year development plans National economy, a course was taken towards the collectivization of agriculture and industrialization.

In May 1958, the CPC put forward a course for the early construction of socialism, which was called the "Great Leap Forward." The Great Leap Forward policy extended to all spheres.

The orientation towards a forced transformation of production relations, towards an “accelerated transition to communism” was adopted at an expanded meeting of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee in August 1958. The “Great Leap Forward” policy became widespread in industry, agriculture, culture, science, and education; this exacerbated the economic and social problems of the country's development. The "special course" was taken by the PRC in foreign policy as well.

In the early 60s. emergency measures were taken to eliminate the consequences of the Great Leap Forward. Mao Zedong, noting individual mistakes in the course of implementing the course taken, acknowledged its correctness on the whole. However, some Chinese leaders opposed the Great Leap Forward policy. Disagreements on issues of domestic and foreign policy led to an intensification of the ideological and political struggle in the leadership and the CCP. In order to get rid of their opponents, Mao Zedong and his supporters, under the slogan of the "cultural revolution", launched a campaign of total "cleansing" of the party, the organs of people's power, public organizations. In the materials and documents of the CPC of the late 70s - early 80s. the concept of the "cultural revolution" and the decisions that justified this campaign were assessed as worthy of correction.

An attempt to legislate the policy of the “cultural revolution” was made by adopting the Constitution of 1975. In accordance with the idea of ​​class struggle, “shaking society in the process of building socialism”, changes were made regarding the state system, the rights and freedoms of citizens. Thus, the powers of the National People's Congress were limited; the principle of appointing deputies instead of elections was established; when organizing the authorities in the national regions, local peculiarities were not taken into account.

In 1978, the Constitution was adopted, which restored a number of provisions of the Constitution of 1954. Law-making activities intensified in the country, a number of codes were issued, laws aimed at improving the system of state bodies were adopted.

In 1982, the new Constitution of the People's Republic of China was adopted, which defined the political essence of the state as the democratic dictatorship of the people, while emphasizing that, in essence, the dictatorship of the people is the dictatorship of the proletariat. The constitution consolidated the diversity in the economy: along with state property, the existence of private, as well as mixed, state-capitalist property was allowed. The right to operate foreign private capitalist enterprises was consolidated. Significant changes took place in the state system: the post of chairman of the PRC was restored; the standing committee of the National People's Congress received equal rights with the assembly itself; the Central Military Council was created; the term of office of certain officials was limited. The rights and obligations of citizens were expanded.

The 1982 Constitution was the basis for further improvement of legislation.

In the next decade, China significantly increased its agricultural and industrial output.

The victory of the people's revolution in 1949, won under the leadership of the CPC, completed the solution of the tasks that were still before the revolution of 1925-1927. - the unification of the country, the elimination of the imperialist presence and the transition to the economic development of the country, which Sun Yat-sen bequeathed, and also opened the way for long overdue reforms in China. It was necessary, in particular, to create a legislative body in the person of the National People's Congress and a united front body - the People's Political Consultative Council. Period 1956-1957 expressed itself in the destructive policy of the "Great Leap Forward", "People's Communes", "Cultural Revolution" under the slogan "class struggle decides everything", which brought China to the brink of collapse. Only after the 8th Plenum of the 11th CPC Central Committee, in December 1978, did the policy of implementing reforms capable of reviving China and associated with the name of Deng Xiaoping emerge. In search of ways to spiritually heal the nation, the Chinese leadership then turned to Confucianism.

The family contract in the village made it possible to feed the country, since restrictions on market relations and subsidiary trades were lifted. All this contributed to the rise of the economy. A very important feature of the reform was its gradualness. The Chinese leadership attached great importance to the planning of reforms and proceeded to put theoretical ideas into practice cautiously, first implementing them on the scale of a separate volost, county of a province or a separate enterprise (sector of the economy), following the proverb: “When wading through a stream, do not rush, but go, feeling with your foot the next stone on which you must stand.

The authors of the Chinese reforms of the early 20th century and the modern leaders of the CCP, despite their differences in views on the methods of reviving China, were remarkably attentive to the philosophical tradition of China. As domestic historians note, under the influence of the leveling social utopias of numerous peasant uprisings that occurred back in the time of the legendary emperor Qi Shi Huang (227-203 BC) and the leader of the reform movement of the late 19th century Cannes Yuwei, and the Chinese democrat Sun Yat-sen a call for the creation of an ideal society of Great Unity in China - Da tong. Mao Zedong spoke about the same social ideal more than once. Deng Xiaoping borrowed the idea of ​​"xiao kang" - "small welfare" or "necessary prosperity" as a long transitional stage to the Great Unity society. Mao Zedong in his work “On New Democracy” developed Sun Yat-sen's “Three People's Principles” in relation to the situation in China in the early 1940s and, like the latter, pointed out that the “Celestial Empire” belongs to all the people inhabiting it. Modern Chinese constitutional scholars, along with careful use of the ideas of Western lawyers, remain faithful to the Confucian principle in modern constitutional law and in every possible way focus on the main task of this industry: establishing harmony between society and the state.. Just like their predecessors - reformers and revolutionaries, modern Chinese authors emphasize that the Chinese are the people of an ancient, perfect culture, the children of Emperor Huangdi, who even count time from the date of his birth.

The fact that the educational and leading role of the CPC was emphasized at the 15th Congress of the CPC is in tune with Sun Yat-sen's teachings about three periods in the development of the country's political life: the period of military leadership, the period of political tutelage by the party, and only then - the period of constitutional rule.

Another important tradition in the constitutional and legal aspect that united Kang Yuwei, Sun Yat-sen, Mao Zedong and modern Chinese leaders is tradition of a pragmatic approach to borrowing foreign experience according to the principle “Chinese is basic, essential, and Western is only for use”. Even Kang Yuwei, studying the works of Confucius, attached particular importance to the ideas of periodic renewal of the state system, which could be useful for foreign experience.

It is impossible not to mention this important element Chinese traditional philosophy the idea of ​​gradual achievement by China of the period of "Great Unity" through the period of "small prosperity". Mao Zedong wrote back in 1949 that Kang Yuwei and Sun Yat-sen were looking for an ideal society of Great Unity in the West, but did not find the right way to him. This path, according to Mao Zedong, was opened by the CCP, which indicated the need to follow the path of the October Revolution in Russia.

In more than 60 years of its existence, the PRC adopted constitutions four times - in 1954, 1975, 1978 and 1982. Prior to the adoption of the first Constitution of the PRC in 1954, the functions of an interim constitution were carried out by the General Program of the People's Political Consultative Council of China (CPPCC), the highest body of the Chinese revolution, which assumed the functions of parliament, and a number of other legislative acts, including the Law on the Organization of the Central People's Government , adopted in September 1949 by the plenary session of the CPPCC. In these documents, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed a "state of a new democracy", which "is fighting against imperialism, feudalism, bureaucratic capital, for independence, democracy, peace, unity and the creation of a prosperous and strong China." The main provisions of the General Program of the CPPCC were given legal force by the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1954.

The current Constitution of the PRC of 1982 consists of an introduction and 138 articles, combined into four chapters.

As one of the features of the structure The 1982 PRC Constitution is worth noting the presence of an introduction. It is a brief narrative about the historical path traveled by the people, which marks the main stages of the national liberation and revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people and gives a description of the modern Chinese state.

Chapter 1 " General provisions» contains a description of the political system of the PRC as a socialist one, the role of the state and the people, the principles of the activities of state bodies, the foundations economic system, development of science, culture of sports.

Chapter 2. "Basic Rights and Obligations of Citizens". It enshrined both traditional Chinese norms on the right to work, rest and education, as well as specific ones arising from the peculiarities of China's recent history (the period of the "cultural revolution"): the prohibition to expose citizens to insults, slander, false accusations.

Chapter 3 State structure» is the most extensive and is divided into 7 sections devoted to the legal status of various state bodies. Its main feature is the rejection of the principle of separation of powers. It is believed that all state power should belong to the representative body of the people such as Soviets - the Assembly of People's Representatives.

Chapter 4. "The State Flag, the State Emblem and the Capital".

This document called the constitution of "modernized socialism". It was preceded by the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China in 1954, 1975 (adopted during the period of the "Cultural Revolution"), as well as the Constitution of 1978 (it was considered as provisional and was called the Constitution of the Four Modernizations). The current Constitution has already been reformed four times. A total of 31 amendments were made. According to Chinese authors, these changes reflect the transformation of the attitude of the CPC towards many social phenomena that are important for the development of constitutional law. This transformation is due to the movement of the Chinese state along the path of the "Reform and Opening up" policy. These changes accompany the process of gradual economic reforms that transform the socialist model of the economy into a different one, which is a combination of socialist elements with elements of a market economy.

Features of the content of the Constitution of 1982

• The constitution establishes the foundations of the PRC's political system, emphasizing the role of the CCP in leading the peoples of all nationalities in China. At the constitutional level, the ideological armament of the CPC is fixed with the ideas of Mao Zedong, the theory of Deng Xiaoping and the so-called idea of ​​"three representations" which means that the party represents all chinese people, all productive the strength of the country, and Chinese high culture.
• In the Constitution the presence of a broad patriotic United Front, which, under the leadership of the CPC, includes non-communist democratic parties (there are 8 of them in the PRC) and numerous public "people's" organizations (to date - more than 2000). The leading role of the CPC in the state and society is defined in the Constitution as the main prerequisite for realizing the main task of the state at the present stage - the gradual implementation of the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defense, science and technology and the promotion of the harmonious development of material, political and spiritual culture.
• The Constitution focuses on defining the goals and principles of the foreign policy of the Chinese state, as well as the mechanism for their implementation. The Constitution provides five basic principles for China's foreign policy:

1. Mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity;

2. Mutual non-aggression;

3. Non-interference in each other's internal affairs;

4. Equality and mutual benefit

5. Peaceful coexistence.

The most important direction foreign policy The PRC is considered to work with overseas compatriots (huaqiao - Chinese living abroad). In accordance with Art. 50 The PRC "protects the proper rights and interests of overseas Chinese, the legitimate rights and interests of repatriate Chinese and family members of overseas Chinese."

The constitution provides creation of "special administrative regions" in the PRC(Article 31, paragraph 13 of Article 62), the legal status of which is determined by special laws. The status of special administrative regions was given to the former colonies - Hong Kong (Xianggang) and Macao (Aomen). Taiwan is regarded as "part of the sacred territory of the People's Republic of China". The reunification of Taiwan with the Chinese mainland is defined as the most important national task, as the "sacred duty" of the entire Chinese people. The Chinese leadership is implementing the concept of "one state - two systems."

· Following the socialist constitutional tradition, the authors of the Constitution consolidate the institution of the foundations of the socialist socio-political, and not the constitutional system like in Western constitutions. The main structure of the PRC is socialist, all power in the PRC belongs to the people; the guiding and guiding force of the Chinese society of the CCP, its guidelines, based on the decisions of the NPC, become the laws and decisions of the state; the socialist economic system is consolidated (the main type of property is socialist, although private property is also recognized).

A very noticeable feature of the current constitution of the PRC and, perhaps, the most remarkable characteristic of socialism with "Chinese characteristics" are the provisions on the economic system of the PRC (Articles 6-18) Constitution.

Firstly the plurality of forms of ownership is fixed, but they are unequal among themselves. The basis of the socialist economic system is socialist public ownership of the means of production. It appears in the forms of public property and collective property of the working masses, the system of exploitation of man by man is being liquidated, the principle is being implemented from each according to his ability, to each according to his work. The state-owned sector of the economy is defined as "the leading force in the national economy."

Secondly the existence of a “non-public sector” is consolidated in the PRC economy, which includes individual and private farms. Private property is recognized, although the leading role is still assigned to the state.

Thirdly the state undertakes to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the private sector of the economy, and not only supports and directs the development of the non-public sector of the economy (Article 11).

Fourth, the Constitution provides for the payment of compensation to the owner of land in the event of its withdrawal or requisition for public needs and on the basis of the law (Article 10).

Fifth, the principle of state macro-regulation has now replaced the previously existing constitutional principle of comprehensive planning (according to Article 15, the PRC's economy develops on the basis of a combination of the market and state macro-regulation.), and in the new version of the Constitution, all provisions relating to the planned economy have been eliminated.

At sixth, the principle of expanding the economic independence of enterprises was proclaimed as constitutional, subject to their subordination to a single government from the state. The state allows the private sector in the economy, but on condition that it will serve the public interest, play an additional role in relation to the socialist sector.

Seventh, the open foreign economic policy of the Chinese state, aimed at the widespread attraction of foreign capital to the country's economy, is constitutionally regulated.

• In Chinese constitutional doctrine there is no principle of separation of powers. All power should belong to the representative body of the people - the assembly of people's representatives (Chinese version of the Council). In the PRC, there is a single subordinate pyramid of people's congresses, and the lower ones form the higher ones, respectively, the elections in the PRC are multi-stage, and not direct.
• 1982 constitution . restored the most important rights of autonomous territorial entities, previously proclaimed in the Constitution of 1954, and also consolidated the provision that “chairmen of autonomous regions, heads of autonomous regions and autonomous counties must be citizens of those nationalities that exercise regional autonomy” (Article 114).
• The constitutional status of the individual in the PRC is based on the socialist doctrine of human rights and at the same time reflects the traditional Chinese moral views of a collectivist nature. The concept of "natural rights" is denied: rights and freedoms are granted to citizens of the PRC only by the socialist state itself, and only the state determines the list and scope of these rights and freedoms.

There are no such rights and freedoms as the right to life, freedom of thought, freedom of movement and choice of residence. A number of constitutional duties are formulated as general principles and are of a moral nature. For example, the following duties are meant: to protect the honor and interests of the motherland, to respect the norms of public morality; the obligation of workers to treat their work as the masters of the country do (Article 42), observe labor discipline and public order, respect the norms of public morality, protect public property, protect the security, honor and interests of the motherland, defend the fatherland and repel aggression, while military service and participation in militia is an honorable duty of citizens; to protect the unity of the state and the cohesion of all the nationalities of the country; pay taxes.

There are several rights and obligations. For example, the right to education corresponds to the constitutional obligation to study, and the right to work corresponds to the honorable duty of all able-bodied people to work.

A specific Chinese obligation is the obligation of spouses to “implement a birth planning policy” (art. 49) An urban family is allowed to have no more than one child, and no more than two in rural areas (for non-Han peoples, this norm is slightly higher). The existence of this rule is explained economic reasons. It is believed that the rapid growth of the population hinders the provision of a decent standard of living. China's GNP remains low. More than 25% of the increase in national income has to be given to the needs of the new generation, which hinders the intensive development of the national economy.

The Constitution also establishes that the citizens of the People's Republic of China, exercising their rights and freedoms, must not harm the interests of the state, society and the collective, the legitimate freedoms and rights of other citizens (Article 51).