At the time of Mao's death in 1976, more than 90% of the Chinese population lived below the poverty line, earning less than $2 a day. The only equality socialism had achieved was an equal distribution of misery.
Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping, recognized that this couldn’t go on much longer. The only way to save the CCP's one-party rule was to get the economy going. But how? Deng had no idea.
Fortunately for him, a small group of farmers did. In 1978 these farmers, 18 of them in the village of Xiaogang, made a secret deal with their village leader. After fulfilling the government quotas, they would be allowed to keep any surplus for themselves and sell what they didn’t need.
Such a move was risky because it was a rejection of the CCP's socialist policies. But the result was magical. The first year after this deal went into effect, the 18 farmers produced more grain than the entire village had produced in the previous 10 years combined!
The “Xiaogang model” began to spread to other villages. When Deng heard of it, rather than punishing the farmers, he had the good sense to recognize that these simple peasants had shown him how to revive China's economy. Soon after, Deng announced sweeping economic reforms. He opened up China to the outside world, inviting foreign investments, and most importantly, loosening the government's grip on the Chinese people.
The results were nothing less than astonishing. The freer the Chinese economy became, the wealthier the Chinese people became. In the space of three decades, 800 million Chinese people emerged out of poverty. Chinese cities now match and exceed the greatest cities of the West, skyscraper for skyscraper.
The CCP likes to pat itself on the back for China's economic miracle. However, the real credit should go to free-market capitalism and 18 brave farmers who risked their lives to give it a try.
In recent years, China’s growth has slowed precisely because the current CCP leadership has moved back to a model that asserts ever more government control. The country is becoming less free with each passing year. The CCP uses technology such as facial recognition, surveillance cameras, and control of the internet to monitor its citizens' every move.
More and more there are signs that the CCP is reverting to its Maoist past. That’s bad for China. And bad for the world.
I’m Helen Raleigh, author of Confucius Never Said, for Prager University.
