Group Discussion and Presentation Can Highly Effective Socialism Be Achieved Through Mass

Group discussion and presentation：Can highly effective socialism be achieved through mass movements?

1.The ‘Three Red Banners’, which include the General Line, the Great Leap Forward and the People’s Commune.

2.(Answers are for reference only)

Group discussion and presentation: Did reform and opening-up improve the lives of the Chinese people?

1. Before reform and opening-up, the Chinese people were poor. Commodities were scarce and people needed ‘coupons’ for clothing, food, housing and transportation.

 After the return of Deng Xiaoping, reform and opening-up was launched in 1978 to develop the country’s economy. Cities and villages underwent changes and people’s living standards were improved markedly.

 During reform and opening-up, the Chinese people had better conditions in clothing, food, housing and transportation. Both the residents in the cities or the villages benefited from the reform and opening-up policies.

 After 30 years of reform and opening-up, not only did people’s living standards rose, the people are also more concerned about the quality of their lives. They care about food, clothing and commodities, as well as the development of their living environment.

(Students search for tongue twisters on the Internet and discuss with their classmates)

Debate: Do peasant-workers benefit from the reform and opening-up policies?

(Answers are for reference only)

The affirmative side:

‧The meaning is not obvious: The annual Peasant-workers Day fails to arouse people’s awareness of the poor condition of the peasant-workers;

‧The activities held on the day are impractical: The movie week and cultural performances are for the public’s entertainment;

‧The real needs of the peasant-workers should be emphasized: E.g, Strengthen social welfare and security, give them same rights as urban residents’, increase employment opportunities, restrict overtime, provide wage protection, improve their living environment.

The negative side:

‧A good intention: The Peasant-workers Day was set with a similar good intention as setting Teachers’ Day and Children’s Day;

‧Showing care in different areas: The activities held on Peasant-workers Day showed a different kind of concern. For example, the movie week and the cultural performances cater to the peasant-workers’ mental health and satisfy their needs for entertainment;

‧One of the solutions: The Peasant-workers Day can serve as the starting point

Photo study and group discussion: Food, clothing, housing and transportation before and after reform and opening-up

Before reform and opening-up, people wore simpler and practical clothes. After reform and opening-up, there are more choices for the mixing and matching and styles of clothes, which are colourful and trendy.
Before reform and opening-up, people only wanted to satisfy their hunger. Because of limitations in their living conditions, there were few choices of food items and portions were small. After reform and opening-up, people wanted to eat well. There was a variety of food and people often eat non-staple and fast food.
Before reform and opening-up, people lived in simple low-rise houses. Facilities were insufficient and there was little space. After reform and opening-up, the one-child policy was implemented. People build smaller families, and the living environment also improves as a result of the improvement of the economy. Expensive ‘commodity houses’ with adequate facilities are built in big cities.
Before reform and opening-up, people usually walked and bicycles were the main transport. Roads were not well planned. After reform and opening-up, people could afford cars and roads are built more neatly and systematically. Apart from roads for cars, pedestrian areas are set aside to ease traffic congestions.

Role play: Towards Sustainable Development Forum

Step 1: Assign the roles, decide positions and construct viewpoints

Stakeholder / Position and viewpoint
The central government / To apply the scientific outlook on development and expand reform and opening-up; to enhance social harmony and construct a moderately prosperous society.
Local governments / To carry out policies on sustainable development according to the orders of the central government and to monitor the effectiveness of different stakeholders.
Representative of enterprises / Concerned that sustainable development policies may affect the interests of enterprises, reducing their profits.
Representative of farmers / Hope that the government can improve the rural economy and support rural areas in building modernized infrastructure.
Environmental conservation organizations / Hope that the government can allocate more funds on conserving the ecology, remedy existing ecological damage, supervise enterprises and enhance emissions reduction and energy saving.
Scientists / Hope that the government can allocate more resources on scientific research, construction of scientific infrastructure and fostering talents.

Step 2: Hold the ‘Towards Sustainable Development Forum’

Free discussion.

Step 3: Sum up and reflect

China’s policies on sustainable development can resolve: Low rural productivity, imbalanced urban-rural development, over consumption of energy, environmental and ecological damage, low level of scientific technology, a lack of talents.
At the beginning of reform and opening-up, economic reform received priority and the policy of letting some people get rich first was adopted. Raising people’s labour incentive and meeting their basic needs were the objectives. The policies on sustainable development, on the other hand, take the entire society into consideration and propose ‘scientific outlook on development’ and ‘social harmony’. They emphasize the balance between the development of politics, economy, people’s livelihood, the environment and science, and the objective is to construct a moderately prosperous society.

Debate: ‘China should develop science and technology fully in order to achieve sustainable development’.

(Answers are for reference only)

Affirmative side:

‧Sustainable development must rely on science and technology for its realization. Science and technology are vital to social development and serve to enhance the civilized development of humans.

‧Most of China’s current policies and major tasks on sustainable development, such as rural modernization, strengthening basic infrastructure, application of new high technology on manufacturing industry, and development of aeronautic technology, rely on science and technology.

‧The development of science and technology can improve the quality of life of the whole society and solve the problems of a lack of technology of the last century that had led to low productivity, environmental pollution, ecological damage and others.

Negative side:

‧The developments of science and technology are important, but they also have their limits. Therefore, sustainable development cannot rely on them solely or otherwise an imbalance between their development and the development of other areas may result.

‧The serious problem of electronic waste in China is a legacy of scientific and technological development and is against the principle of sustainable development.

‧The key is to maintain a balance between the development of science and technology and other aspects as well as to raise people’s awareness of the importantce of sustainable development.

Image study and polling: Can China’s problems of environmental pollution and ecological damage be repaired?

1. / Yes / ‧The image reflects the problems of air pollution, water pollution and vegetation damage.
No / (No is incorrect)
2. / Yes / ‧Air pollution is caused by diesel vehicles, coal-burning power plants and factories.
‧Water pollution comes from household sewage, industrial sewage and agricultural sewage.
‧Vegetation damage is a result of the over- exploitation of land and excessive logging.
‧All of the above are the necessary outcome of economic development.
No / ‧Economic development does not necessarily caused environmental and ecological damage. Many Western countries manage to maintain a balance between economic development and environmental conservation.
‧The key is for the government to devise effective conservation policies.
3. / Yes / ‧The Chinese government has already highlighted the major tasks of environmental conservation of the country in the 11th Five-year Guidelines to enhance the effectiveness of conservation.
‧Many businesses have already expressed support to the relevant policies and the principle of production and improvement.
‧Environmental NGOs in China are gaining power and supervising, making appeals to and coordinating with the government to enhance the effectiveness of environmental conservation.
No / ‧Many factory owners in China continue to ignore the government’s environmental conservation policies. They would rather pay fines than to transform their high-consumption, high-emission production models.
‧Some of the local governments have failed to monitor the situation of pollution, allowing factories and developers to dodge environmental conservation policies.
‧Public awareness of environmental conservation remains low and it weakens the effectiveness of the government’s policies.

Conservation awareness test station: How aware are you of cultural conservation in China?

(Students should answer according to the actual situations)

（Suggested Answers for Classroom Activity Worksheets）