While it’s common for us to hear that we need to learn from China’s devel­opment, no body offers an insight on how the Chinese growth came about. Some view it as a result of a strong authoritarian government, but they don’t tell us why a bil­lion-plus people willingly accept a different form of government to most of the world’s. Then there are those who believe Chinese development resulted from effec­tive use of FDI, and because of the capacity of its past and present leaders. This too doesn’t explain the development because parts of China are still poor and corrupt leaders are arrested every year. Others believe it has to do with Confucianism and the Chinese desire for “order.” So what makes Chinese peo­ple accept the system? What has led to China’s development? Why have there been no popular protests against the government since Tiananmen 1989? These questions are vital in understand­ing China’s growth.

The answer to all these ques­tions is nationalism. Not the defensive nationalism that pits one people against the other but a constructive sort that only wants good for one’s country. ‘National humiliation’, ‘national pride’ and ‘national power’ are the three concepts that bind the people and the government and that’s what leads to China’s development. It has nothing to do with commu­nism and Confucianism.

National shame

All of China’s rebellions and revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries were motivated by the sole intent of avenging the nation­al humiliation suffered in the tur­bulent 19th century, beginning with its defeat by the British-led coalition in the Opium War in 1840. From the Chinese perspec­tive, hierarchy had been turned upside down and it was their duty to restore the “natural” order. No wonder that every time China lost a war, there was a rebellion/revolution aimed at restoring the order or China’s dignity.

First in the series was the mes­sianic Taiping Rebellion led by Hong Xiuquan. Hong believed that he was the son of God and younger brother of Jesus sent to the earth to establish the king­dom of heavenly peace. His call to the Christian monarchs includ­ing queen Victoria of England to submit to his authority at a time the Europeans thought of China as the ‘sick man of Asia’ was one reason why the Christian Europe­ans allied with the Qing to defeat the rebellion in 1860s.

China’s defeat in the Jiawu War with Japan in 1895 and Euro­pean powers’ continuing dis­respect of Chinese sovereignty resulted in another nationalist rebellion, the Yihetuan Rebel­lion (or the Boxer Rebellion in English). The Boxers believed their practice of martial arts gave them supernatural powers and they were invincible. If the Taiping wanted to oust the Qing dynasty for failing to protect Chi­na’s interests, the Boxers wanted to kick out foreigners for bullying China. Well, they too were defeat­ed by the foreigners.

Then came the first modern revolution against the dynasty that had disastrously failed to pre­serve the honor of the Chinese race. The Xinhai Revolution or the republican revolution led by Sun Yat-sen in 1911 succeeded in overthrowing the Qing dynasty. But it too failed in restoring order and in containing foreigners and avenging their undermining of Chinese sovereignty.

The failure of the republican revolution led to the commu­nist revolution in 1949, again to restore the hierarchy that had been violated since 1840. Establishing an egalitarian society was the secondary aim of the com­munist revolution. Just as the previous generation of rev­olutionaries had done, the communist party propaganda machinery stressed, even after the 1949 revolution, that in Shang­hai’s Huangpu park there was a sign that read “No dogs and Chinese allowed” to motivate the young Chinese to join the revolu­tion (according to historians there were no such sign).

Even when Chairman Mao was able to tell the foreigners to pack their bags and leave China and reenter only when they accept­ed China’s terms, this was not enough to avenge the humiliation. How exactly China would gain its rightful place and respect was still a dilemma.

Angry isolation from the world or friendly engagement with it without sacrificing the goal of making the world take China seriously was a question that Chairman Mao dealt with right up to his deathbed. During his reign, China was dealing with foreigners on its own terms and some degree of national pride was restored, but it was still poor. Moreover, the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s had turned it into an even bigger mess.

The Chinese leaders includ­ing Chairman Mao realized that there was no pride in poverty. A radically new approach had to be explored. A plan was made in the early 1970s but it would take some time before a strong leader emerged to improvise it and avenge the humiliation and restore China’s rightful place in the world