China's Greatest Asset - by TPO

China's Greatest Asset : 
Its Industrious and Resourceful People
- by TPO -
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No doubt, respect for tradition and authority is an almost ingrained part of China. Its people have undergone thousands of years of submission to invading marauders, tyrants, and even to the ravages of the forces of nature (i.e. floods, earthquakes, plagues, and famines). The endurance and resilience of the Chinese people is something not only to be marveled but to be emulated and replicated by developing nations everywhere as well.

The following writing about China's victory over famine is extracted and compiled from two sources - 1) Brian Palmer, "Why Does China Not Have Famines Anymore?"    and    2) NPR, "The Secret Document That Transformed China"

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Brian Palmer *:

[There are] two competing explanations for the end of 2,000 years of starvation.

Explanation #1 - The greatness of "Capitalism"

Up until 30 years ago, Chinese history could have been summarized or encapsulated in three words: The Great Wall, Maoism, and famine. The normal state of affairs known as "famine" started to crumble beginning in 1978 when farmers in Xiaogang signed a secret document to seal an economic pact of their own. It was dangerous and in its own right a counter-revolutionary act of desperation against a rigid, impractical, and insensibly dogmatic communist ideology (Maoism). Somehow, those dissident farmers succeeded not only with their quest, but in also swaying the government's mood in their favor. Major reforms were implemented nationally, and private ownership of land became a reality in a communist land. The Chinese began to reap the fruits of their industry through the peaceful, smart and persistent  application of their resourcefulness. But, the great tribute here is laid at the feet of capitalism. [ In summary, the lack of personal property and the squelching of individual economic incentives never fail in bringing communism to its knees. ]

Explanation #2 - A combination of reasons (the setting, the timing, and luck)

The Chinese communist rulers were aware of the problems they were dealing with for a long time. Various actions were taken and some of these were good, wise, and useful - eg. the great infrastructural projects that helped agriculture (irrigation among them). [Other actions such as purges and forced migrations of populations were tragically destructive. They were only distractions at best.]

There were slow but sure reform movements within the communist party - a new generation of rulers with a pragmatic and/or progressive world view started to come to power right around 1978.

China also was blessed with "the best years of farming weather" in the 1980's that helped the country get transformed into a land of agricultural miracles. " [Today] China feeds 20 percent of the world's people using less than 10 percent of arable land, with plenty of food left over to export. Food has fueled the Chinese miracle." 

* http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/feed_the_world/2014/04

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NPR (National Public Radio) **:



The year was 1978, and in a small Chinese village called Xiaogang, something momentous happened.

A group of farmers secretly met inside "a mud hat to sign a secret contract." It was a highly risky and dangerous document that could have gotten them executed as public enemies.

In Xiaogang there was never enough food, and the farmers often had to go to other villages to beg. Their children were going hungry. They were desperate. So, in the winter of 1978, after another terrible harvest, they came up with an idea: Rather than farm as a collective, each family would get to farm its own plot of land. If a family grew a lot of food, that family could keep some of the harvest.

At the end of the season, they had an enormous harvest: more, [the contract's writer and a signer] Yen Hongchang says, than in the previous five years combined.

 ** http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/01/20/145360447/the-secret-document-that-transformed-china