The current phase of Chinese history.
Despite the disaster of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Mao was able to remain in power until his death in 1976. While major economic reforms did not begin until after his death, Mao began opening China in 1972 when he and President Nixon restored diplomatic relations between the US and the PRC. Immediately after his death, Mao's wife Jiang Qing attempted to maintain control and undermine Mao's official successor, Hua Guofeng, together with three close associates known as the "Gang of Four." The power struggle was short. Less than a month later all four were arrested and served lengthy prison sentences. During the trial the four were accused of political abuses and the persecutions of 750,000 people, including ~35,000 deaths. It was during this trial that Jiang Qing said, "I was Chairman Mao's dog. I bit whomever he asked me to bite." While acknowledging Chairman Mao's "great contributions," the Chief Prosecutor stated Mao nevertheless bore some responsibility for the "plight" of the people during his tenure. It would be the closest China would come to justice for the Cultural Revolution.
The struggle in a wider sense was one between "Leftists" on one hand, who advocated strict adherence to Chairman Mao's legacy and the principles of the Cultural Revolution, and "Reformists" on the other, who while respecting Chairman Mao maintained that changes were required if China was to grow. This faction would be led by Deng Xiaoping. Deng had been on the "Reformist" side and a supporter of Hua Guofeng immediately after Mao's death, however after the fall of the Gang of Four Deng and Hua would come into opposition, with Hua being too conservative for Deng and his supporters. It would be Deng who would lead China on its course of economic expansion, becoming de facto leader of China when his ideas for economic reforms were adopted by the Chinese communist party in 1978. Hua Guofeng was allowed a peaceful retirement, setting the precedent that power struggles within the CCP could end bloodlessly.
The reforms began from agriculture. Formerly the government maintained full control of production, with peasants being given a production quota to fill. Going beyond the quota rarely meant substantial rewards. Now farming would be de-collectivized: peasants would still be required to sell a certain portion of their harvest to the government, but quotas were drastically lowered, and peasants would be allowed to sell any extra for their own profit. Almost immediately food production began to rise.
Similar reforms were undertaken in other areas in the same vein. State-owned industries were still given production quotas and their goods sold at government prices, but anything produced above the quota would be allowed to be sold at market prices. Furthermore, while these industries would still be officially owned by the government, a contract system would allow them to be managed by individuals or groups - in effect a form of privatization.
Perhaps most striking were China's new "Special Economic Zones." These were cities, mostly along China's coast, which would be opened up to direct foreign investment. These zones included lower wages and taxes, among other reduced regulations in order to be especially attractive to foreign investors. The focus would be on light industry, producing for export. Subsequently these regions would experience stunning economic growth, helping fuel the rest of China's economy. (In an uncomfortable historical coincidence, many of these cities are the very same which were forcibly opened to western investment by European imperialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries - a source of resentment for many Chinese.)
Reforms continued apace, even after Deng Xiaoping's death. Today China has largely privatized, with almost all former state enterprises, with a few exceptions, now in private hands. Since the late '70s China's economy exploded, surpassing Japan in 2010 to become the 2nd largest economy in the world - with many now seeing the #1 spot not beyond its reach. China's export-driven focus paid dividends, having since become "the world's factory". Turn over your mouse or keyboard. Look under your desk, lamp, or chair. Check your bowl or mug. Odds are almost certain at least one of those things (if not more or even most) was made in China.
The actual phrase, "To get rich is glorious," is a translation of the Chinese expression, "致富光荣" (zhìfù guāngróng). While it has been attributed to Deng Xiaoping, there's no evidence that he ever really said it. What we know he did say note is posted above, "It doesn't matter whether a cat is black or white — so long as it catches mice," indicative of his view that Socialism was not incompatible with a market-economy; that whether an economic system was capitalist or socialist didn't matter as much as whether or not it worked well.
All of this has led to a rather contentious debate (rather muted within China, rather loud outside it) as to whether or not the PRC can actually be considered "Socialist" or "Communist" any longer. While the CCP maintains a one-party state pretty rigidly, the economic reforms have lead to the creation of a fairly substantial middle-class bourgeoisie - and even a significant number of billionaires - conditions unthinkable in Mao's time. The existence of billionaires at all tends to drive many traditional Socialists absolutely bananas, since the total, non-negotiable destruction of the haute bourgeoisie is usually accepted as a core tenet of Marxist theory. At the same time, many of the basic social programs from Mao era were dismantled throughout the 80s, and by late 90s even the iconic iron rice bowl
was gone, without introducing any replacements, but simply cutting down on expenses related to social security for many years. Proponents of the new economic system point to both the absolute explosion of literacy, educational attainment, and rising living standards for China as a whole, as well as the widely available and non-privatized medical system, as indicators that the nation is still very much Socialist in character. Critics often then counter with examples of poverty holes or worker exploitation (another theoretical anathema of Marxism) and economic abandonment of minorities, and, well... needless to say, it all gets rather heated the further into the debate one goes, so a curious reader may research further on their own.
In 2013, Xi Jinpingnote developed a plan of measures known as the "383 Plan", which will involve a greater opening of the market, some transformations in the government and a reformation of enterprises in order to boost innovation on various levels. The eight key areas to tackle are: cutting administrative approvals, promoting competition, land reform, opening up banking including the liberalisation of interest rates and the exchange rate, reforming the fiscal system including setting up basic social security, reforming state-owned enterprises, promoting innovation including green technology, and opening up the services sector. Within these, the plan identifies three major breakthroughs to be achieved: lower market barriers to attract investors and boost competition, setting up a basic social security package, and allowing collectively-owned land to be traded. With this, the government hopes to diminish inequality, inefficiency and the enormous levels of corruption. Internationally, China has undertaken developing the "Belt and Road Initiative", whereby through investment and economic cooperation with Eurasian and African nations China hopes to establish a transcontinental network of cargo rails and ocean routes, with China at its heart, essentially creating a modern Silk Road. Adding to this is an "Ice Silk Road", working with Russia to develop Arctic shipping routes. Proponents of this plan laud it for its goal of improving the infrastructure of the often neglected countries of Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia and bringing them more to the forefront of international trade. Detractors of the plan call it little more than neo-colonialism, as these nations go deep into debt with China and the aforementioned infrastructure mega-projects are heavily controlled by the Chinese government and build by Chinese companies. Also, China could incur massive losses from these investments as situations in some of these countries may end up with China burdening the debts itself and Chinese officials are already voicing concerns.
It would seem that China had a shift in principle from Deng's China 'keeping to itself' to Xi's China taking a proactive stance in the global stage. In 2018, the term limits for President and Vice President of the People's Republic of China were abolished. (The President is a figurehead position; however, the president is usually also the Chief Secretary of the Communist Party and the chairman of the Military Commission, which did not have term limits.) It also started a series of crackdowns on billionaires and conglomerates that flourished under the previous administrations, and instituted financial reforms such as the Social Credit System, but in contrary to what popular memes say, citizens are not rewarded or punished according to a numerical score, and there is in fact not one single system, but many systems at various levels of government addressing both corporations and individuals, and systems can differ from province to province and city to city. For individual citizens, "anti-social" behavior includes committing crimes, traffic violations, failure to pay bills or loans, expressing "anti-social" opinions, and even playing loud music or littering. Penalties include difficulty in getting loans, access to public transport such as planes and trains, and schools one or one's children may attend. Some researchers in the West argue that the system is primarily aimed at addressing economic fraud and reforming China's banking system akin to credit ratings elsewhere, with its dangers exaggerated or overblown. Other researchers see it as potentially paving the way to a totalitarian surveillance-and-behavior system that Big Brother would smile upon, due to the policy's vagueness and lack of transparency. With Xi Jinping the government is tightening controls, moreso than previously, both within the Party and the population at large, but even then the CCP is not without competing cliques such as Tsinghua clique and the New Zhijiang Army, and many popular protests had occurred throughout this period, especially regarding the government's heavy-handed, "Zero COVID" policy to address the COVID-19 Pandemic.
By the The New '20s, many politicians and scholars began to see China as being politically and economically dominant enough to challenge the United States in a new Cold War. Contentious issues include climate policies, human rights, trade disputes, political and military alliances, and technological competition - disputes that would shape bilateral relations and much of world affairs in the decade to come.
