1.  The People’s Republic of China is a communist country.  The Chinese revolution of 1949 brought the communist to power under the leadership of Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-Tung  It was run as a one-party dictatorship under Mao, today is an oligarchy  Power was in the hands of Mao and a small committee called the Political Bureau of the Communist Party, a small group of men who made all of the decisions on how the Chinese government and life in the country would be organized.  The Chinese communist government has some control over almost every aspect of Chinese life

2.  Today, the Chinese government is still run by the Chinese Communist Party (ruling political party).  The National People’s Congress (oligarchic party) is elected every five years by a “vote” of the Chinese people  Chinese citizens over the age of 18 are eligible to vote; however, few candidates run for election if they are not approved by the Chinese Communist party.  The National People’s Congress chooses a president and vice- president. Xi Jinping  The president then chooses a premier who serves the same five year term as the congress

3.  A command economy is one in which government planning groups make most of the economic decisions for the workers  This group decides which goods and services should be produces, as well as prices for the goods and wages paid to the workers  No individual could decided to start a new business  The government decided what and where to produce the goods.  The government decides what jobs the workers do and where the goods produced would be sold  China was set up along a command system in the 1950s after the communist revolution, but now the country is beginning to make exceptions to the rule of total government control

4.  When the Chinese Communist came to power in 1949 under Mao Zedong, nearly all of China was agricultural  He ruled China until his death in 1976  Mao decided how much of the country would remain in farming and how much would switch to industrial production  Traditional farms were reorganized into collective farms, where people worked together and shared whatever they produced. Propaganda posters to make Collective farming look good (most of the time it failed)

5.  In the 1970s China’s new leader, Deng Xiaoping, began to reorganize the Chinese economy with what he called the Four Modernizations  Farmers were given more control over what they decided to produce and they were allowed to sell surplus products and keep the profits  Money was made available for newer and better farming equipment and seed, and new quotas were set for higher production  Industry shifted from heavy industry like iron and steel to the production of more consumer goods  Factory workers and managers were allowed to make more of the decisions in the running of the factories  New methods of production required new training, all of which meant investment in the human capital of China

6.  Special Economic Zones were set up along the coastal areas to encourage foreign companies to do business with China  The results of all these efforts were mixed  The US imports about 20 percent of the goods produced in China for foreign sale today  The coastal areas of the country began to grow economically  But some of the farm areas in the countryside fell behind  People began to leave and come to cities looking for work  Rapid growth of cities created new problems for the Chinese government

7.  Many Chinese people today have small businesses of their own, even though the Chinese government still has final authority in most matters  There are many more examples of a market economy at work in China than in the years since the revolution  Although China does not have an unlimited supply of farmland, especially in light of the country’s huge population (1.3 billion), the country still mangers to feed itself  At least half of China’s workers remain in agriculture

8.  Today China’s economy continues to be growing and strong, and many Chinese enjoy a higher standard of living than ever before  Because China’s government has more control over spending and planning in both agriculture and industry, China has been able to establish programs and make changes more quickly than a country where power is more widely shared among regions, communities and individuals  Cities along the southeastern part of China are experiencing tremendous growth, especially places like Shanghai and Hong Kong  One big change has been that new technology and planning have allowed China to increase the production of smaller consumer goods that have sold well in the world market  China Specializes in Consumer Goods