When Mao Zedong died in 1976, China was a basket case of a
country. 20 million people had starved to death. Mao’s “Great Leap
Forward” was more like a great leap backwards, wiping out industry and
leaving a nation struggling to feed itself. So, what happened after the Mao
died?
Enter Deng Xiaoping. Deng saw that Cina was desined to
remain a third world contury if he did not intercede and make his agena the
agenda of the people,
Deng supported
private land ownership and let people start their own businesses. He also
opened the doors to outside influences, bringing in new ideas and letting China
get a taste of capitalism. You could say Deng was the man who helped China
remember how to stand on its own two feet.
And it worked. The economy took off like a rocket. For
years, China was growing at nearly 10% annually. Tens of millions of people
crawled out of poverty, and China became the go-to place for manufacturing.
Thanks to Deng, China was no longer just another country in Asia; it became an
economic powerhouse.
But then Xi Jinping came along, and everything started to
change. Xi took one look at the legacies of Mao and Deng and decided he’d
follow Mao’s path more than Deng’s. He started pulling back from the West,
shutting down access to Western technology, influence, and money. And just like
that, China’s tech sector—once booming—began to feel the squeeze.
Xi didn’t stop there. He turned China’s focus inward and
started playing hardball with the rest of the world. His Belt and Road
Initiative? It sounded good on paper, but in reality, it left a lot of smaller
countries drowning in debt. These countries took out huge loans from China, and
when they couldn’t pay up, guess who took control? Yep, China. And don’t even
get me started on how Xi’s been pushing China’s boundaries in the South China
Sea, ticking off smaller neighboring countries and turning China into the
region’s biggest bully.
So, where does that leave China now? Well, Xi’s strategy of
stealing knowledge from Western countries hasn’t exactly worked out the way he
might have hoped. Western nations are starting to push back, limiting what
China can trade and who it can do business with. The guy might not be a
fool—I’ll give him that—but there’s a fine line between being a tough leader
and choking the life out of your own country. Xi is walking that line, and in
doing so, he’s limiting China’s ability to engage with the world in a way that
benefits both sides.
In the end, the big question is: What’s next for China? If
Xi keeps tightening the noose, China’s golden years might just be a thing of
the past.