> I would have guessed that in the Cultural Revolution the central government destroyed its own capacity to govern, by killing or otherwise losing senior and competent personnel, and lost its legitimacy.
Yeah, more or less. The people were inspired at the beginning but lost the steam towards the end. Many researchers believe the Cultural Revolution only lasted about 3 years, from 1966 to 1969, and definitely ended when Lin Biao was killed in the plane crash.
> After, what I've read of Deng Xiaopeng's reforms was that they opened up the economy, starting by privatizing agriculture in some ways, and continuing by privatizing much of the economy and spurring capitalism. And of course eliminating many of Mao's / Gang of Four's economically destructive policies was the lowest-hanging fruit.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. The Gang of Four did have a plan to open up the economy, not from Shenzhen, but from Shanghai, as late as 1975. And Mao did normalize the relationship with the US in 1972, which paved the way for any opening up afterwards. People also argued that the Gang of Four was not entirely against opening up the economy or allowing some private elements, while some colleagues of Deng were actually more "conservative". So I guess it was not a question of whether China should open up, but the questions of who should do it and how to do it.
> I don't recall reading about devolving power to provincial government as a cause of economic growth.
The central government relaxed ideological constraints, regulations and kept their eyes looking to the other way, so that local governments can do whatever they wanted. Basically everyone wanted to get rich, and get rich really fast. Many elder politicians and military leaders, removed and shamed during the Cultural Revolution, managed to claw back because of their support during the coup d'etat in 1976 (which was why it went so smoothly), and in turn they were promised immense amount of autonomy.
I wish I could provide more concrete proofs to all I said, but unfortunately a lot of the material was in Mandarin and TBH a lot of them are my guesses and other researchers' guesses.
Yeah, more or less. The people were inspired at the beginning but lost the steam towards the end. Many researchers believe the Cultural Revolution only lasted about 3 years, from 1966 to 1969, and definitely ended when Lin Biao was killed in the plane crash.
> After, what I've read of Deng Xiaopeng's reforms was that they opened up the economy, starting by privatizing agriculture in some ways, and continuing by privatizing much of the economy and spurring capitalism. And of course eliminating many of Mao's / Gang of Four's economically destructive policies was the lowest-hanging fruit.
I think it's a bit more complicated than that. The Gang of Four did have a plan to open up the economy, not from Shenzhen, but from Shanghai, as late as 1975. And Mao did normalize the relationship with the US in 1972, which paved the way for any opening up afterwards. People also argued that the Gang of Four was not entirely against opening up the economy or allowing some private elements, while some colleagues of Deng were actually more "conservative". So I guess it was not a question of whether China should open up, but the questions of who should do it and how to do it.
> I don't recall reading about devolving power to provincial government as a cause of economic growth.
The central government relaxed ideological constraints, regulations and kept their eyes looking to the other way, so that local governments can do whatever they wanted. Basically everyone wanted to get rich, and get rich really fast. Many elder politicians and military leaders, removed and shamed during the Cultural Revolution, managed to claw back because of their support during the coup d'etat in 1976 (which was why it went so smoothly), and in turn they were promised immense amount of autonomy.
I wish I could provide more concrete proofs to all I said, but unfortunately a lot of the material was in Mandarin and TBH a lot of them are my guesses and other researchers' guesses.