60th Anniversary of Communist Rule in China

Yesterday, the Chinese were celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong, which took place on 1 October 1949. The celebrations in Beijing started when President Hu Jintao appeared on Tiananmen Square, along with some former Chinese leaders. Then, the Chinese flag was raised in the center of the square, and a huge military parade with tanks, soldiers and missile launchers started. Finally, the president gave a speech praising China’s progress and their nation’s promising future.

Here’s a link to an article about the celebrations in Beijing
BBC News - China marks Communist anniversary

Here’s a link to a video with images of the parade
YouTube - China's 60th anniversary parade 2009, Tian'an Men Square, Beijing

Anf finally, a video on Chinese art and politics:
BBC News - Audio slideshow: Art and politics in China

Mao Zedong

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China's young communists

A recent CNN article shows us some insight on communism in China, and how it is regarded by the people. It is an interview to three members of the Communist Youth League and the China Communist Party (currently the largest political party, with 75 million members). When talking about communism, Natalie Chen, an 18-year old freshman at Peking University said that she thinks communism is "an ideal state of society that everyone should pursue" and that it is a great society as everybody has equal opportunities. In the interview, they talk about how the Communist Party started as a group of revolutionary farmers with a tumultuous rule, and how in the next 30 years China was transformed with the implementation of new economic goals and gradual openness to the outside world, which is why the Communist Party now is largely credited with delivering the country from isolation to economic prosperity.

Despite all this, the Party's biggest achievement has been surviving for 60 years as the one and only political party... in the most populated country of the world. When asked about fairness in China and what the Communist Party really stands for, these students couldn't respond but with vague answers. Still, this article got me thinking how a point of view can vary so much in a different country or culture. A lot of people in China see Communism as the best form of government (backed up by the number of members in its party) but if you went to the US, the European Union or here in Mexico and asked the people which form of government is the best, I don't think the answers would fall that much towards communism. This talks about how a different culture (and education) provides a different point of view, also about how even the youth in China agrees with Communism, while people may think that it is imposed by the higher ranks. Also you can comment on communism.. What do you think of it? Do you think that Communism could bring wealth and power to our country as it did to China?

A conversation with China's young communists - CNN

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The Beginning of the American Policy of Containment

The rise of the Soviet Union and the dominance that it acquired after the Second World War were reasons enough to create certain “paranoia” in the United States, a fear of communism spreading worldwide. Though we could also say it was not an unfounded alarm, but a reality likely to happen. To defend democracy from the threat awaken by growing communism, the United States adopted its famous policy of containment (as we saw in class).
In 1947, president Truman said that it was the United States’ duty to help any country vulnerable to fall to communism. Out from this idea, the United States began to take various actions. One of them was the Truman Doctrine, the “beginning” of American war against communism.
After World War II, the United Kingdom supplied some countries, such as Greece and Turkey, with financial aid. However, the UK reached a point where it was unable to carry on with the help, so they asked America for a plan B. The reason why it was important to continue contributing with these two countries was that Greece was going through a civil war and Turkey was still on a process of recovering and modernization, which made them susceptible to adopt communism one day or another.
American support resulted in the defeat of the Greek Communist Party. But this was not the only consequence. The importance of Truman Doctrine and the policy of containment, established within American minds, led later to “bigger” things, such as the involvement of the United States in the Vietnam and Korean war.

Was it all worth it?
Was it really America's responsibility to maintain communism aside?
Was it the right way to stop communism?

For more information:
http://www.conservapedia.com/Truman_Doctrine
http://www.johndclare.net/cold_war8_TrumanDoctrine.htm
http://books.google.com.mx/books?id=qXeRALIwozgC&pg=PA268&lpg=PA268&dq=greece+communism+us+truman+doctrine&source=bl&ots=hymjFEMYBa&sig=Suh2WYEmasrAIEJXGF12y2xdsqU&hl=es&ei=oHqbSoeMEY_-tQOsm_iUDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1780.html

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