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The history of the People's Republic of China is often divided distinctly by historians into the "Mao era" and the "post-Mao era". The Mao era lasted from the founding of the People's Republic on October 1, 1949 to Deng Xiaoping's grip onto power and policy reversal at the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress on December 22, 1978. The following article focuses on Mao's social movements from the early 1950s on, including Land Reform, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, and evaluates Mao's legacy as a whole.

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Contents 1 Early 1950s: Social revolution 2 Korean War 3 Great Leap Forward 4 Cultural Revolution 5 Lin Biao and the Gang of Four 6 Mao's legacy 7 References

Early 1950s: Social revolution

The People's Republic of China was founded on a land ravaged by a century of foreign invasion and civil wars. A new political and economic order modeled on the Soviet was quickly installed, and China experienced relative stability unseen since the Opium War. In the early 1950s, the PRC undertook a massive economic and social reconstruction which was generally welcomed by a population desperately longing for stability. The new leaders gained popular support by curbing inflation, restoring the economy, and rebuilding many war-damaged industrial installations. To lead the social revolution, the Communist Party of China, which had legitimized itself into the guiding force of socialist China, had extended its rank-and-file to all Chinese regions and set up various institutions to lead changes in rural areas, the military, and the bureaucracy. Landmark changes in the early 1950s included the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar and the abolition of political era names, women's rights were embedded into law and the abolition of polygamy, and the adoption of a horizontal left–right method of writing.

Land reform was the major focus of policy as a result of China's vast rural population, around 90% of the population were farmers. Lands of former landlords were confiscated by the government and subsequently redistributed to the lower-class peasants. Peasants were classified (see Chengfen) into different categories, from landlord to "poor peasants". As a period of social revolution, Mao wiped out the old landlord class, and gradually equalized the wealth gap in the remaining classes. In rural China, political movements against landlords caused the humiliation and death of many former land owners. Immediately following the land reform period came the Three-anti and Five-anti Movements (三五反), as well as the beginning of the Anti-Rightist Movement, when property owners and businesspeople were labeled as "rightists" and purged. Some scholars put the figure of those killed during this period at at least one million. ^[1] Rural China, however, achieved a quasi-classless system that ultimately disbanded imperial feudalism that was the norm of dynastic rule. Major public health institutions sprung up in both urban and rural communities as both agriculture and industry experienced significant growth between 1949 to 1958. The party's novel revolutionary zeal in the early 1950s were generally welcomed by the public^[2].

Economically, the country followed up on the Soviet model in its first Five-Year Plan from 1953 to 1957, The country went through a transformation whereby means of production were transferred from private to public entities, and through nationalization of industry in 1955, the state basically controlled the economy in a similar fashion to the economy of the Soviet Union. Economists argue, however, that Mao's emphasis on heavy industry lacked the foundation coming from light industry and created an unbalanced economic model.

Korean War

Main article: People's Volunteer Army

As the economy was only beginning to show signs of recovery, the newly born People's Republic was drawn into its first international conflict. On June 25, 1950, after numerous border skirmishes initiated from both sides, Kim Il-sung's North Korean Forces crossed the 38th parallel into South Korea, and eventually advanced as far as the Pusan Perimeter in south-east Korea. United Nations forces entered the war on side of the South, and American General Douglas MacArthur, having forced a communist retreat, proposed to end the war by Christmas 1950. The Soviet Union and China saw a UN (and consequently, American) victory as a major political victory to the United States, a prospect seen as dangerous in the beginnings of the Cold War. The Soviet Union, however, did not want direct confrontation, and Mao decided to intervene in the war alone. On June 27, 1950, the United States placed its 7th fleet in the Taiwan Strait, protecting the nationalist forces that remained in Taiwan. Under the pretext that American bombs were dropping on the Chinese side of the Yalu River, on October 25, 1950, the "People's Volunteer Army", so named because Mao did not want the formality associated with the People's Liberation Army, crossed the Yalu River in the first warning offensive, and was on an all-out attack by late November. Meanwhile, in Beijing, many top CCP leaders, including Defence Minister Lin Biao, had disagreed with China's participation in the war.

The United States was on its way to the height of military power, and historians contend that Mao's participation in the war asserted China as a new power to not be taken lightly. Known as the Aid Korea, Fight America Campaign in China, the first major offensive of the Chinese forces was pushed back in October, but by Christmas 1950, the "People's Volunteer Army" under the command of Gen. Peng Dehuai had advanced to the 38th Parallel, forcing the United Nations to retreat. However, the war was very costly to the Chinese side, as more than just "volunteers" were mobilized, and because of the lack of experience in modern warfare and the lack of modern military technology, China's casualties vastly outnumbered that of the United Nations. Declining a UN armistice, the two sides fought intermittently on both sides of the 38th Parallel until the armistice was signed on June 26, 1953.

Under Mao's direction, China would also go on to build its first atomic bomb in 1964, becoming the 5th country in the world at the time to have successfully conducted a nuclear test.

Great Leap Forward

History of the People's Republic of China

1949–1976, The Mao Era         Revolution         Korean War         Hundred Flowers Campaign         Anti-Rightist Movement         Great Leap Forward             Three Years of Natural Disasters         Cultural Revolution             Lin Biao             Gang of Four             Tiananmen Incident     1976–1989, Era of Reconstruction         Economic reform         Sino-Vietnamese War         Tiananmen protests     1989–2002, A Rising Power         One Country, Two Systems             Hong Kong (post 1997)             Macau (post 1999)         Chinese reunification     2002–present, China Today

See also:         History of China         History of Beijing         History of Shanghai

Prominent leaders

Mao - Deng - Jiang - Hu

Other China topics

Culture - Economy Geography - Politics - Education China Portal

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Main article: Great Leap Forward

Mao's social and cultural programs, including collectivization, were mostly popular in the early 1950s. However, China's strained relations with new Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and newfound contradictions between the Chinese and Soviet schools of communism seeded a novel and radical drive to reform China's economic system in its entirety. Under Mao's leadership, he broke with the Soviet model and announced a new economic program, the "Great Leap Forward," in 1958, aimed at rapidly raising industrial and agricultural production. Specific to industrial production, Mao announced the goal of surpassing the steel production output of Great Britain by 1968. Giant cooperatives, otherwise known as people's communes, were formed. Within a year almost all Chinese villages had been reformed into working communes of several thousand people in size, where people would live and work together as envisioned by an ideal Marxist society. "Backyard factories" producing useless steel dotted the Chinese landscape, and became a hallmark of the period.

The results, however, were disastrous. Normal market mechanisms were disrupted, agricultural production fell behind, and Mainland China's people exhausted themselves producing what turned out to be shoddy, unsellable goods. Because of the reliance on the government providing and distributing food and resources and their rapid depletion due to poor planning, starvation appeared even in fertile agricultural areas. From 1960 to 1961, the combination of poor planning during the Great Leap Forward, political movements incited by the government, as well as unusual weather patterns and natural disasters resulted in widespread famine and many deaths. According to various sources, the death toll due was most likely 20 to 40 million.

The already strained Sino-Soviet relationship deteriorated sharply in 1959, when the Soviets started to restrict the flow of scientific and technological information to China. The dispute escalated, and the Soviets withdrew all of their personnel from China by August 1960, leaving many construction projects dormant. In the same year, the Soviets and the Chinese began to have disputes openly in international forums. The relationship between the two powers reached a low point in 1969 with the Sino-Soviet border conflict, when Soviet and Chinese troops met in combat on the Manchurian border.

Cultural Revolution

The social and political chaos from 1966 to 1976 are described in their entirety on the article Cultural Revolution

The disaster of the Great Leap Forward decreased Mao's stature as national leader and even more so as an economic planner. Mao was subject to criticism within the Central Committee. In the early 1960s, President Liu Shaoqi and Party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping took over direction of the party and adopted pragmatic economic policies at odds with Mao's communitarian vision, and disbanded communes, attempting to rework the system to pre-Leap standards. Dissatisfied with mainland China's new direction and his own reduced authority, and apprehensive that his legacy may lie in shambles after seeing Khrushchev's demise, Mao launched a massive political attack on Liu, Deng, and other pragmatists in the spring of 1966. The new movement, termed the "Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution," was in theory an extension of the class struggles that were incomplete from the last revolution. Mao and his supporters contended that the "liberal bourgeoisie" and "capitalist roaders" continue to dominate society, and some of these so-called dangerous elements were present within government, even the highest echelons of the Communist Party. The movement was unprecedented in human history. For the first (and thus far, only) time, a section of the Chinese communist leadership sought to rally popular opposition against another leadership group, leading to massive social, cultural, political, and economic chaos and anarchy that plagued the country for a ten-year period.

Mao wrote his own Big Character Poster in 1967, euphemistically termed Target the Headquarters, Mao mobilized the masses and in essence warranted the seclusion and house arrest of then State President Liu Shaoqi, who would eventually be labeled a "traitor", "scab" and "capitalist roader". Liu died in prison in 1969. Deng Xiaoping lost all his leadership positions, and was sent down to work in a Sichuan car engines factory. Mao and his "closest comrade-in-arms," Defense Minister Lin Biao charged Liu, Deng, and other top party leaders with dragging the country back toward capitalism, and traitors of the original revolution. Regardless of their military contributions to the revolution during the Chinese Civil War, various prominent PLA generals and revolutionary heroes were purged. The daily workings of the Central Committee as China's top decision-making body ceased to make way for the Cultural Revolution Committee. Local party organizations, government, work units, schools, and other institutions were replaced by their respective "revolutionary committees", most of which led the effort to stamp out perceived enemies of the revolution. Radical youth organizations called Red Guards, whose membership was voluntary, attacked party and state organizations at all levels with the deep-seated belief that they were "assisting in the revolution", seeking out leaders who would not bend to the radical wind. In reaction to this turmoil, the parts of the military that wasn't plagued by turmoil themselves were forced to intervene. Local PLA commanders and other officials maneuvered to publicly back Mao and the radicals while actually taking steps to rein in local radical activity.

In the period between 1966 and 1968, while having a large cult of personality put in place, Mao emphasized the "destruction of the Four Olds", a radical renunciation of old norms and feudal traditions, and the denunciation of all ideologies deemed to be counter-revolutionary, including Confucianism, imperial tradition, "superstitions" from folk religion, beliefs of ethnic minorities, and organized religion. Education at all levels were brought to a virtual halt as Mao launched another phase in the Down to the Countryside Movement, where young urban intellectuals would be sent down to the countryside to "learn from the peasants". The University Entrance Examinations came to a complete halt, and most high schools closed. Religious and educational institutions were big targets. Nuns, priests, monks, authors, teachers, professors, and artists were beaten, publicly humiliated, or forced to kill themselves. Numerous sites of historical importance as well as antiques, artifacts, works of art and historical documents were mercilessly destroyed. The Chinese railway system was in total disarray. The authority of Red Guards surpassed that of local police authorities. Driven by the chaotic environment, numerous local power struggles ensued, simply because of trivial feuds between ruling groups in both urban and rural areas.

As the Cultural Revolution spun out of control, and grew past Mao's original intentions, Mao's ability to control the situation, and in turn, his authority, dwindled. His chief lieutenants, Lin Biao and Mao's third wife Jiang Qing, had manipulated the turmoil in these areas to glorify Mao to a godlike status while ignoring some of his directives. Mao's Little Red Book published over 350 million copies during the era. For the first time since the Puyi Abdication had people come to hail Mao as to "Long Live for Ten Thousand Years", which ironically is an old, feudal tradition reserved for Emperors. Lin Biao, having gained Mao's trust, had his name codified into the Constitution of both the State and Party as Mao's designed successor.

Lin Biao and the Gang of Four

Attempting to restore calm, all Red Guard organizations were disbanded by 1969. Radical activity subsided, but the Chinese political situation began to antagonize along complex factional lines. Lin Biao, who had ailing health and de facto control over the military, became increasingly at odds with Mao over the idea of power sharing. He attempted a military coup in September 1971, aimed at the assassination of Mao while traveling on his train. Operating out of the headquarters in Shanghai, Lin was informed of his failure after Mao's apparent diversion of routes. Lin then escaped with his wife Ye Qun and son Lin Liguo on a military jet, and was on his way to the Soviet Union, before crashing in Ondurhan in Mongolia in September 1971. Lin's death was put tightly under wraps by the Chinese government, who had in the past vociferously praised Lin. Lin's coup and death were both subject to widespread controversy, and historians are still unable to properly determine the ins and outs of what went on. There are theories, for example, that Mao or Premier Zhou Enlai had ordered the plane to be shot down. Lin's supporters made their way out of the country, mostly to Hong Kong. Lin's flight affected Mao deeply, and he was yet again left with the dilemma of reasserting an heir apparent. Because of his past mistakes, amongst other factors, Mao was reluctant to designate any more successors, which only clouded the political situation further.

In the aftermath of the Lin Biao incident, many officials criticized and dismissed during 1966-1969 were reinstated. Chief among these was Deng Xiaoping, who reemerged in 1973 and was confirmed in 1975 in the concurrent posts of Politburo Standing Committee member, PLA Chief of Staff, and Executive Vice-Premier in charge of the State Council's daily workings during the illness of Premier Zhou Enlai. Mao had wanted to use this period as a time to rethink his successor. Mao's now estranged wife Jiang Qing, meanwhile, had formed an informal radical political alliance with Shanghai revolution organizer Wang Hongwen, who seems to have gained Mao's favour as a possible successor, as well as Shanghai Revolutionary Committee Chairman Zhang Chunqiao and propaganda writer Yao Wenyuan. They were later infamously dubbed as the "Gang of Four".

The ideological struggle between more pragmatic, veteran party officials and the radicals re-emerged with a vengeance in late 1975. The Gang of Four sought to attack their political opponents and rid them one by one. From their failed attempts at defaming popular Premier Zhou Enlai, the Gang launched a media campaign against the emerging Deng Xiaoping, who they deemed to be a serious political challenge. In January 1976, Premier Zhou died of cancer, prompting widespread mourning. On April 5, Beijing citizens staged a spontaneous demonstration in Tiananmen Square in Zhou's memory, with strong political overtones in support of Deng and against the Gang of Four. Later termed the Tiananmen Incident, the authorities and media, which was under the control of the Gang of Four, forcibly suppressed the demonstration. A gravely ill Mao deemed Deng to be the cause for the disorder and a challenge to the historical legitimacy of the Cultural Revolution, and stripped him of all official positions, although he retained his party membership. While experiencing a political storm, China was also hit with a massive natural disaster -- the Tangshan Earthquake, officially recorded at magnitude 7.8 on the Richter Scale, authorities refused large amounts of foreign aid. Killing over 240,000 people, the tremors of the earthquake were felt both figuratively and literally amidst Beijing's political instability.

Mao's legacy

The history of the People's Republic from 1949 to 1976 is appropriately accorded with the name "Mao era"-China. A proper evaluation of the period is in essence, an evaluation of Mao's legacy. Since Mao's death there has generated a great deal of controversy about the multi-dimensional man amongst both historians and political analysts.

Supporters of Mao point out that the large number of deaths during the period of consolidation of power after victory in the Chinese Civil War paled in comparison to the number of deaths caused by famine, anarchy, war, and foreign invasion in the years before the Communists took power. Before 1949, for instance, the illiteracy rate in Mainland China was 80 percent, and life expectancy was a meager 35 years. At his death, illiteracy had declined to less than seven per cent, and average life expectancy had increased by twenty years. In addition, China's population which had remained constant at 400 million from the Opium War to the end of the Civil War, mushroomed to 700 million as of Mao's death. Under Mao's regime, China ended its "Century of Humiliation" and resumed its status as a major power on the international stage. Mao also industrialized China to a considerable extent and ensured China's sovereignty during his rule. In addition, Mao wiped China free of restricting Confucianist and feudal norms ^[3] and built a clean slate for future generations to build upon. Mao's supporters content that the amount of morality and empathy, the virtual non-existence of corruption, as well as general happiness with the populace were at levels unseen in the entirety of Chinese history. In addition, Mao's assertion of communism becoming the guiding belief system of the people helped stabilize a China otherwise lacking of any national religion, spirituality, or guiding belief.

Skeptics will observe that Mao's heavy bend towards singular ideological solutions to China's numerous social, cultural, and economic problems are inappropriate and even costly. They content that if some of the gains may have simply been the result of a country no longer at war, even an incompetent regime could achieve such improvements. Furthermore, the experiences of the East Asian Tigers and the Deng Xiaoping reforms after 1978 suggest that Mao's economic policy led to far poorer economic outcomes than a more decentralized approach. Other critics of Mao fault him for not encouraging birth control and for creating an unnecessary demographic bump by encouraging the masses, "The more people, the more power", which later Chinese leaders forcibly responded to with the equally controversial one-child policy. Opponents of Mao point out the Cultural Revolution as a time of unprecedented social chaos attributed to Mao's fear of losing power, and the effects of such deep-seated impact from the movement wasted an entire generation of Chinese who would be productive forces in the economy. The destruction of the ideals and morals he had worked so hard to create with previous mass movements were just as easily wiped out with the decade of social and political chaos, and since then no adequate moral guidelines has resurfaced, opening the way to corruption, materialism and struggle for self-interest.

The ideology surrounding Mao's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, also known as Maoism, was codified into China's Constitution as a guiding ideology. Internationally, it has influenced many communists around the world, including third world revolutionary movements such as Cambodia's Khmer Rouge, Peru's Shining Path and the revolutionary movement in Nepal. Ironically, in practice, Mao Zedong Thought is defunct inside China aside from anecdotes about the CCP's legitimacy and China's revolutionary origins. Of those that remain, Mao's followers regard the Deng Xiaoping reforms to be a betrayal of Mao's legacy.

(1976-1989) >>

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