Since it's the night before the Chinese New Year then prepare for another insulting post towards those who are against Foreign Direct Investment policies. It's time to examine why Mao Zedong's economic policies were a failure. While he was a good military tactician in the Art of War but he certainly failed as a economist. Let's take a look back at the idiocy of Heneral Lunatic's meme which repeats the same error Mao did. A good study of how Maoist economic policies failed would help Filipinos understand the need to support the plan for economic liberalization.
The ideology of Heneral Lunatic is flawed for several reasons and Maoism's history will prove him wrong. First, he tells us to study history that says that the first world countries industrialized not through free trade but through protectionism. Whoever this Lunatic Internet personality is indeed a lunatic. The real General Antonio Luna wasn't against foreign investments but only foreign invasion. Now it's time to challenge Heneral Lunatic's idea of self-industrialization with a simple history lesson. He tells me to study history so now I'm going to study history and prove him wrong. I may not be an economist but I'm not stupid to fall for Lunatic's absurd ideology or should I say idiotology.
It's time to study history and let's take a look at how Mao Zedong's China was compared to Deng Xiaoping's China. Mao's China closed its doors to foreigners and tried to create the idealistic "nationalist China". Mao succeeded in bringing China during his time to the Great Leap Forward. It was indeed a Great Leap Forward towards economic oblivion. Mao's system didn't only make people lazy and punished those who worked but it also diminished supply and demand. Mao's protecting small Chinese businesses didn't lead to progress by self-industrialization that Heneral Lunatic tells people would happen through economic protectionism. Instead of making China boom the results were the opposite. China became so poor and filled with unemployment. "Protecting" the small businesses of China only made then incompetent to the point that a lot of Chinese left China and became citizens in other countries. Mao's ultranationalistic policies provided very little businesses to help China turn.
Deng Xiaoping's fixed that mistake by opening Communist China to the world market. Here's what Lee Kuan Yew said as taken straight from CoRRECT Philippines:
You got on the one hand, the Open Free Market System in America, you have on the other hand, the exact opposite, the closed, controlled, command economy of the Soviet Union, Communist Russia…
The Chinese tried the Communist model, with their own modifications, and it failed! And they have admitted that it failed, and they’re trying to pick up the same competitive spirit between workers, between different enterprises, which they noticed in Hong Kong, so they have opened a new town on the border with Hong Kong called “Shamchun” (Shenzhen in Cantonese) and they’re inducing Hong Kong entrepreneurs to go… and create employment!
Dr. Lee Siew-Choh and Mr. Jeyaratnam talk as if these things have never happened. They haven’t learned!
Deng Xiaoping is a great man… He fought a great revolution. He saw the product of that revolution turn sour. He was fortunate to live long enough and he had the courage to say “NO! WE CHANGE COURSE! LET’S LEARN! Let’s stop trying to do everything by ourselves.”
So they started importing and buying Boeing 707’s. So they bought Tridents instead of trying to manufacture their own aircraft. Eventually they will but it would take 2, maybe 3 generations.
That’s how we succeeded because we have open minds, common sense. A lot of analysis, careful weighing of the odds, make a firm decision, monitor it, implement it, modify as it goes wrong. ABANDON IF IT IS NO GOOD!
But often… And I say this more out of relief than out of pride… Often, 8 times out of 10 we have been right… We’ve made mistakes… We put money in New Port in Jurong… Second hand machinery… We were young then… We were new in the game…
They sold us second hand machinery, we didn’t know… We lost money… We wrote it off. But we learned…
Mr. Jeyaratnam says we are obsessed with profits. I said YES! That’s how Singapore survives!
We have no profit, who pays for all this?
You make profit into a dirty word, and Singapore dies.
Although Deng was a Communist head of state but he certainly understood what Pinoy Commietards like Senator Neri Colmenares and Toady Casino fail and/or refuse to understand. If members of those parties like Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Anak-Pawis and the like are so nationalistic why are they wearing clothes which were born out of American influence and why in the world are they still on the Internet? Deng gets praised when Lee called him a great revolutionary who brought Communist China forward. Just think of how Deng challenged economic protectionism by saying, "NO! WE CHANGE COURSE! LET'S LEARN! Let's stop trying to do everything by ourselves." It may also be said as "Let's stop our Chinese pride! What's the use of Chinese pride if our countrymen are starving? We must swallow our pride if we're to succeed!"
Deng had open mindedness and common sense compared to Mao. He saw how self-industrialization was a self-defeating theory and how first world countries succeeded. Even if he was a Communist he perhaps saw it that he can't rely on Marxist theories and decided to formulate his own economic theory. By opening China to the world it was really a Great Leap Forward towards China's path towards modernization. China started becoming more competitive and the quality of life improved compared to Maoist China. Dengist China may still be a dictatorship but one can't deny that his version of Communism succeeded because he understood the power of economic liberalization has over a nation. He didn't fear that he would lose his country. Instead, he saw that if he could control these firms by allowing them higher degrees of ownership then he could definitely make China great. It was Deng and not Mao who brought China to the intended Great Leap Forward.
As much as I'm against the idea of thinking everything modern is superior to the old but I'm also against the idea that thinks everything older is better. No, it's not a matter of old school or new school. Deng still used some old school ideologies while getting some new school ideologies to bring China where it is now. Getting the best of both worlds is what made Deng succeed. This of course is also a warning that too much modernization can also derail a country like what's happening to China right now with a generation of self-entitled brats. Let's analyze what works and what doesn't work. If it works keep it and if it doesn't work then throw it out. It's best to be critical about change because the changes brought by the 1987 Constitution brought 30 years of a downgraded Philippines.
If you love protectionism so much then do every decent Filipino who wants to bring progress to the Philippines a favor. Why don't you move to either Venezuela or North Korea? Why don't you create your own separate state? The Philippines doesn't need such people. The only Filipinos that the Philippines needs are those who are serious in fighting for a better Philippines.
You got on the one hand, the Open Free Market System in America, you have on the other hand, the exact opposite, the closed, controlled, command economy of the Soviet Union, Communist Russia…
The Chinese tried the Communist model, with their own modifications, and it failed! And they have admitted that it failed, and they’re trying to pick up the same competitive spirit between workers, between different enterprises, which they noticed in Hong Kong, so they have opened a new town on the border with Hong Kong called “Shamchun” (Shenzhen in Cantonese) and they’re inducing Hong Kong entrepreneurs to go… and create employment!
Dr. Lee Siew-Choh and Mr. Jeyaratnam talk as if these things have never happened. They haven’t learned!
Deng Xiaoping is a great man… He fought a great revolution. He saw the product of that revolution turn sour. He was fortunate to live long enough and he had the courage to say “NO! WE CHANGE COURSE! LET’S LEARN! Let’s stop trying to do everything by ourselves.”
So they started importing and buying Boeing 707’s. So they bought Tridents instead of trying to manufacture their own aircraft. Eventually they will but it would take 2, maybe 3 generations.
That’s how we succeeded because we have open minds, common sense. A lot of analysis, careful weighing of the odds, make a firm decision, monitor it, implement it, modify as it goes wrong. ABANDON IF IT IS NO GOOD!
But often… And I say this more out of relief than out of pride… Often, 8 times out of 10 we have been right… We’ve made mistakes… We put money in New Port in Jurong… Second hand machinery… We were young then… We were new in the game…
They sold us second hand machinery, we didn’t know… We lost money… We wrote it off. But we learned…
Mr. Jeyaratnam says we are obsessed with profits. I said YES! That’s how Singapore survives!
We have no profit, who pays for all this?
You make profit into a dirty word, and Singapore dies.
Although Deng was a Communist head of state but he certainly understood what Pinoy Commietards like Senator Neri Colmenares and Toady Casino fail and/or refuse to understand. If members of those parties like Bayan Muna, Akbayan, Anak-Pawis and the like are so nationalistic why are they wearing clothes which were born out of American influence and why in the world are they still on the Internet? Deng gets praised when Lee called him a great revolutionary who brought Communist China forward. Just think of how Deng challenged economic protectionism by saying, "NO! WE CHANGE COURSE! LET'S LEARN! Let's stop trying to do everything by ourselves." It may also be said as "Let's stop our Chinese pride! What's the use of Chinese pride if our countrymen are starving? We must swallow our pride if we're to succeed!"
Deng had open mindedness and common sense compared to Mao. He saw how self-industrialization was a self-defeating theory and how first world countries succeeded. Even if he was a Communist he perhaps saw it that he can't rely on Marxist theories and decided to formulate his own economic theory. By opening China to the world it was really a Great Leap Forward towards China's path towards modernization. China started becoming more competitive and the quality of life improved compared to Maoist China. Dengist China may still be a dictatorship but one can't deny that his version of Communism succeeded because he understood the power of economic liberalization has over a nation. He didn't fear that he would lose his country. Instead, he saw that if he could control these firms by allowing them higher degrees of ownership then he could definitely make China great. It was Deng and not Mao who brought China to the intended Great Leap Forward.
As much as I'm against the idea of thinking everything modern is superior to the old but I'm also against the idea that thinks everything older is better. No, it's not a matter of old school or new school. Deng still used some old school ideologies while getting some new school ideologies to bring China where it is now. Getting the best of both worlds is what made Deng succeed. This of course is also a warning that too much modernization can also derail a country like what's happening to China right now with a generation of self-entitled brats. Let's analyze what works and what doesn't work. If it works keep it and if it doesn't work then throw it out. It's best to be critical about change because the changes brought by the 1987 Constitution brought 30 years of a downgraded Philippines.
If you love protectionism so much then do every decent Filipino who wants to bring progress to the Philippines a favor. Why don't you move to either Venezuela or North Korea? Why don't you create your own separate state? The Philippines doesn't need such people. The only Filipinos that the Philippines needs are those who are serious in fighting for a better Philippines.
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