Four Modernizations

The Four Modernizations refer to modernization of agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense.{{Cite book |last=Zhong |first=Yang |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/vx021h696 |title=China as Number One? The Emerging Values of a Rising Power |date=2024 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-07635-2 |editor-last=Zhong |editor-first=Yang |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |chapter=Attitudes Toward Religion, Science, and Technology in China |format=EPUB |editor-last2=Inglehart |editor-first2=Ronald }}{{Rp|page=357}} These were viewed as essential to China's economic development.{{Rp|page=357}}

They were introduced as early as January 1963 at the Conference on Scientific and Technological Work held in Shanghai, Zhou Enlai called for professionals in the sciences to realize "the Four Modernizations."{{cite news | url=http://rmrbw.net/read.php?tid=302475&fpage=14 | script-title=zh:在上海举行的科学技术工作会议上周恩来阐述科学技术现代化的重大意义 | publisher=Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party | newspaper=People's Daily | date=31 January 1963 | author=人民日报 | pages=1 | language=zh | trans-title=Science and Technology in Shanghai at the conference on Zhou Enlai explained the significance of modern science and technology | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160214201234/http://rmrbw.net/read.php?tid=302475 | archive-date=February 14, 2016 | url-status=usurped | access-date=October 21, 2011 }} In February 1963, at the National Conference on Agricultural Science and Technology Work, Nie Rongzhen specifically referred to the Four Modernizations as comprising agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology.{{cite news | url=http://rmrbw.net/read.php?tid=303499&fpage=10 | script-title=zh:阐明农业科学技术工作任务 | publisher=Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party | newspaper=People's Daily | date=22 February 1963 | author=人民日报 | pages=1 | language=zh | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215103105/http://rmrbw.net/read.php?tid=303499 | archive-date=February 15, 2016 | url-status=usurped | trans-title=Clarify the tasks of agricultural science and technology | access-date=October 21, 2011 }} The Cultural Revolution prevented and delayed implementation of the Four Modernizations for years. In 1975, in one of his last public acts, Zhou Enlai made another pitch for the Four Modernizations at the 4th National People's Congress.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

After Zhou's death and Mao's soon thereafter, Hua Guofeng assumed control of the party in 1976. Hua had the leadership of the Cultural Revolution arrested. Known as the Gang of Four, their arrest marked the end of the Cultural Revolution. This event enabled the enactment of the Four Modernizations. By 1977 all entities in every sector and at every level of society were focused on implementing the Four Modernizations. One core tenet was the rejection of the previously long-held concept known as the "iron rice bowl".{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

At the opening of the national science conference in 1978, Deng stated:{{Rp|page=357}}

{{Block quote|text=The key to the four modernizations is the modernization of science and technology. Without modern science and technology, it is impossible to build modern agriculture, modern industry, or modern national defense. Without the rapid development of science and technology, there can be no rapid development of the economy.}}

The new idea was that all workers should not be paid the same, but rather, paid according to their productivity. The thinking was that in order to be a consumer society, China would need to be a producing society. In December 1978 at the 3rd plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping announced the official launch of the Four Modernizations, formally marking the beginning of the reform.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Deng described a xiaokang society as a goal of the Four Modernizations.{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Craig A. |title=Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi |date=2019 |publisher=Australian National University Press |isbn=9781760462499 |editor-last=Sorace |editor-first=Christian |location=Acton, Australia |chapter=Datong and Xiaokang |doi=10.22459/ACC.2019 |hdl=loc.gdc/gdcebookspublic.2020718247 |jstor=j.ctvk3gng9 |lccn=2020718247 |editor-last2=Franceschini |editor-first2=Ivan |editor-last3=Loubere |editor-first3=Nicholas |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free |jstor-access=free}}{{Rp|page=65}} In a 1979 discussion with Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ōhira, Deng used the concept to distinguish China's path of development from other approaches, stating, "The Four Modernizations we hope to realize are a Chinese Four Modernizations. Our conceptualization of the Four Modernizations is not like your conception of modernization, but it is a xiaokang family."{{Rp|page=65}}

Recognizing the need for technical assistance to spur this most important modernization, the Chinese Government elicited the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the fall of 1978 to scope out and provide financial resources for the implementation of an initial complement of targeted projects. The initial projects from 1979 to 1984 included the establishment of overseas on-the-job training and academic programs, set-up of information processing centers at key government units, and the development of methods to make informed decisions within the Chinese context based on market principles. The key advisor to the Chinese government on behalf of the UNDP was Jack Fensterstock of the United States. This first technical assistance effort (CPR/79-001) by the UNDP led to the entry of large-scale multilateral funding agencies including the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}

As part of the effort to pursue the Four Modernizations, the Chinese government revived plans for the Three Gorges Dam, emphasizing the need to develop hydroelectric power.{{Cite book |last=Harrell |first=Stevan |title=An Ecological History of Modern China |publisher=University of Washington Press |year=2023 |isbn=9780295751719 |location=Seattle}}{{Rp|page=204}}

On December 5, 1978, former Red Guard Wei Jingsheng posted "democracy" as the Fifth Modernization on the Democracy Wall in Beijing. He was arrested a few months later and jailed for 15 years until 1993.{{cite book | title=Modern revolution: social change and cultural continuity in Czechoslovakia and China | publisher=University Press of America | author=Brook, Daniel | year=2005 | pages=109 | isbn=978-0-7618-3193-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=59PQMaQ8akoC&pg=PA234 | access-date=October 25, 2020 | archive-date=August 22, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240822045533/https://books.google.com/books?id=59PQMaQ8akoC&pg=PA234#v=onepage&q&f=false | url-status=live }}

{{Portal|Communism|China}}

• Deng Xiaoping Theory
• Shenzhen speed
• East-West Cultural Debate

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Hsü|first=Immanuel C. Y.|title=The Rise of Modern China|year=2000|edition=6th|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-19-512503-7}}
• {{cite book|last=Evans|first=Richard|title=Deng Xiaoping and the Making of Modern China|year=1995|edition=2nd|publisher=Penguin Books|location=London|isbn=0-14-013945-1}} - [https://archive.org/details/dengxiaopingmak00evan Read online, registration required]

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Modernizations

Category:1977 in China

Category:1977 in politics

Category:1978 controversies

Category:Zhou Enlai

Category:Economic history of the People's Republic of China

Category:Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party

Category:1963 neologisms