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China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the world's second-most populous country. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land.
The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since 1 October 1949, when CCP chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) from atop Tiananmen, after a near complete victory (1949) by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War.
- Overview
- Establishment of the People’s Republic
- Reconstruction and consolidation, 1949–52
- The transition to socialism, 1953–57
- New directions in national policy, 1958–61
- Readjustment and reaction, 1961–65
The communist victory in 1949 brought to power a peasant party that had learned its techniques in the countryside but had adopted Marxist ideology and believed in class struggle and rapid industrial development. Extensive experience in running base areas and waging war before 1949 had given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deeply ingrained operational habits and proclivities. The long civil war that created the new nation, however, had been one of rural dwellers triumphing over urban dwellers and had involved the destruction of the old ruling classes. In addition, the party leaders recognized that they had no experience in overseeing the transitions to socialism and industrialism that would occur in China’s huge urban centers. For this, they turned to the only government with such experience—the Soviet Union. Western hostility against the People’s Republic of China, sharpened by the Korean War, contributed to the intensity of the ensuing Sino-Soviet relationship.
When the CCP proclaimed the People’s Republic, most Chinese understood that the new leadership would be preoccupied with industrialization. A priority of the communist political system was to raise China to the status of a great power. While pursuing this goal, the “center of gravity” of communist policy shifted from the countryside to the city, but Chairman Mao Zedong insisted that the revolutionary vision forged in the rural struggle would continue to guide the party.
In a series of speeches in 1949, Chairman Mao stated that his aim was to create a socialist society and, eventually, world communism. These objectives, he said, required transforming consumer cities into producer cities to set the basis on which “the people’s political power could be consolidated.” He advocated forming a four-class coalition of elements of the urban middle class—the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie—with workers and farmers, under the leadership of the CCP. The people’s state would exercise a dictatorship “for the oppression of antagonistic classes” made up of opponents of the regime.
The authoritative legal statement of this “people’s democratic dictatorship” was given in the 1949 Organic Law for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and at its first session the conference adopted a Common Program that formally sanctioned the organization of state power under the coalition. Following the communist victory, a widespread urge to return to normality helped the new leadership restore the economy. Police and party cadres in each locality, backed up by army units, began to crack down on criminal activities associated with economic breakdown. Soon it was possible to speak of longer-term developmental plans.
The cost of restoring order and building up integrated political institutions at all levels throughout the country proved important in setting China’s course for the next two decades. Revolutionary priorities had to be made consonant with other needs. Land reform did proceed in the countryside: landlords were virtually eliminated as a class, land was redistributed, and, after some false starts, China’s countryside was placed on the path toward collectivization. In the cities, however, a temporary accommodation was reached with noncommunist elements; many former bureaucrats and capitalists were retained in positions of authority in factories, businesses, schools, and governmental organizations. The leadership recognized that such compromises endangered their aim of perpetuating revolutionary values in an industrializing society, yet out of necessity they accepted the lower priority for communist revolutionary goals and a higher place for organizational control and enforced public order.
Once in power, communist cadres could no longer condone what they had once sponsored, and inevitably they adopted a more rigid and bureaucratic attitude toward popular participation in politics. Many communists, however, considered these changes a betrayal of the revolution; their responses gradually became more intense, and the issue eventually began to divide the once cohesive revolutionary elite. That development became a central focus of China’s political history from 1949.
The communist victory in 1949 brought to power a peasant party that had learned its techniques in the countryside but had adopted Marxist ideology and believed in class struggle and rapid industrial development. Extensive experience in running base areas and waging war before 1949 had given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deeply ingrained operational habits and proclivities. The long civil war that created the new nation, however, had been one of rural dwellers triumphing over urban dwellers and had involved the destruction of the old ruling classes. In addition, the party leaders recognized that they had no experience in overseeing the transitions to socialism and industrialism that would occur in China’s huge urban centers. For this, they turned to the only government with such experience—the Soviet Union. Western hostility against the People’s Republic of China, sharpened by the Korean War, contributed to the intensity of the ensuing Sino-Soviet relationship.
When the CCP proclaimed the People’s Republic, most Chinese understood that the new leadership would be preoccupied with industrialization. A priority of the communist political system was to raise China to the status of a great power. While pursuing this goal, the “center of gravity” of communist policy shifted from the countryside to the city, but Chairman Mao Zedong insisted that the revolutionary vision forged in the rural struggle would continue to guide the party.
In a series of speeches in 1949, Chairman Mao stated that his aim was to create a socialist society and, eventually, world communism. These objectives, he said, required transforming consumer cities into producer cities to set the basis on which “the people’s political power could be consolidated.” He advocated forming a four-class coalition of elements of the urban middle class—the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie—with workers and farmers, under the leadership of the CCP. The people’s state would exercise a dictatorship “for the oppression of antagonistic classes” made up of opponents of the regime.
The authoritative legal statement of this “people’s democratic dictatorship” was given in the 1949 Organic Law for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, and at its first session the conference adopted a Common Program that formally sanctioned the organization of state power under the coalition. Following the communist victory, a widespread urge to return to normality helped the new leadership restore the economy. Police and party cadres in each locality, backed up by army units, began to crack down on criminal activities associated with economic breakdown. Soon it was possible to speak of longer-term developmental plans.
The cost of restoring order and building up integrated political institutions at all levels throughout the country proved important in setting China’s course for the next two decades. Revolutionary priorities had to be made consonant with other needs. Land reform did proceed in the countryside: landlords were virtually eliminated as a class, land was redistributed, and, after some false starts, China’s countryside was placed on the path toward collectivization. In the cities, however, a temporary accommodation was reached with noncommunist elements; many former bureaucrats and capitalists were retained in positions of authority in factories, businesses, schools, and governmental organizations. The leadership recognized that such compromises endangered their aim of perpetuating revolutionary values in an industrializing society, yet out of necessity they accepted the lower priority for communist revolutionary goals and a higher place for organizational control and enforced public order.
Once in power, communist cadres could no longer condone what they had once sponsored, and inevitably they adopted a more rigid and bureaucratic attitude toward popular participation in politics. Many communists, however, considered these changes a betrayal of the revolution; their responses gradually became more intense, and the issue eventually began to divide the once cohesive revolutionary elite. That development became a central focus of China’s political history from 1949.
During this initial period, the CCP made great strides toward bringing the country through three critical transitions: from economic prostration to economic growth, from political disintegration to political strength, and from military rule to civilian rule. The determination and capabilities demonstrated during these first years—and the respectable showing (after a century of military humiliations) that Chinese troops made against UN forces on the Korean peninsula in 1950–53—provided the CCP with a reservoir of popular support that would be a major political resource for years.
PLA troops—called Chinese People’s Volunteers—entered the Korean War against UN forces in October 1950. Beijing had felt threatened by the northward thrust of UN units and had attempted to halt them by its threats to intervene. However, Douglas MacArthur, commander of the UN forces, ignored the threats, and, when UN troops reached the Chinese border, Beijing acted. By the time hostilities ended in July 1953, approximately two-thirds of China’s combat divisions had seen service in Korea.
In the three years of war, a “Resist America, aid Korea” campaign translated the atmosphere of external threat into a spirit of sacrifice and enforced patriotic emergency at home. Regulations for the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries (1951) authorized police action against dissident individuals and suspected groups. A campaign against anticommunist holdouts, bandits, and political opponents was also pressed. Greatest publicity attended Beijing’s dispatch of troops to Tibet about the same time that it intervened in Korea. The distinctiveness and world reputation of the Tibetan culture was to make this a severe test of communist efforts to complete the consolidation of their power. In 1959, after a period of sporadic clashes with the Chinese, the Tibetans rose in rebellion, to which Beijing responded with force.
Under the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950, the property of rural landlords was confiscated and redistributed, which fulfilled a promise to the farmers and smashed a class identified as feudal or semifeudal. The property of traitors, “bureaucrat capitalists” (especially the “four big families” of the Nationalist Party [KMT]—the K’ungs [Kongs], Soongs [Songs], Chiangs [Jiangs], and Ch’ens [Chens]), and selected foreign nationals was also confiscated, helping end the power of many industrialists and providing an economic basis for industrialization. Programs were begun to increase production and to lay the basis for long-term socialization.
These programs coincided with a massive effort to win over the population to the leadership. Such acts as a marriage law (May 1950) and a trade-union law (June 1950) symbolized the break with the old society, while mass organizations and the regime’s “campaign style” dramatized the new.
During 1949–50, policies regarding the cities focused on restoring order, rehabilitating the economy, and, above all, wringing disastrous inflation out of the urban economy. To accomplish these tasks, the CCP tried to discipline the labor force, win over the confidence of the capitalists, and implement drastic fiscal policies so as to undercut inflation. These policies brought such remarkable successes that by late 1950 many urban Chinese viewed the CCP leadership as needed reformers. Indeed, numerous capitalists believed them to be “good for business.”
The period 1953–57, corresponding to the First Five-Year Plan, was the beginning of China’s rapid industrialization, and it is still regarded as having been enormously successful. A strong central governmental apparatus proved able to channel scarce resources into the rapid development of heavy industry. Despite some serious policy issues and problems, the communist leadership seemed to have the overall situation well in hand. Public order improved and many saw a stronger China taking form. The march to socialism seemed to go along reasonably well with the dictates of industrial development. The determination and fundamental optimism of the communist leaders appeared justified, especially in view of the decades of invasion, disintegration, self-doubt, and humiliation that had been the lot of the Chinese people before 1949.
The First Five-Year Plan was explicitly modeled on Soviet experience, and the Soviet Union provided both material aid and extensive technical advice on its planning and execution. During 1952–54 the Chinese established a central planning apparatus and a set of central ministries and other government institutions that were close copies of their Soviet counterparts. Those actions were officially ratified by the first meeting of the National People’s Congress in September 1954, which formally established the Central People’s Government and adopted the first constitution of the People’s Republic of China. The plan adopted Stalinist economic priorities. In a country where more than four-fifths of the population lived in rural areas, about four-fifths of all government investment was channeled into the urban economy. The vast majority of this investment went to heavy industry, leaving agriculture relatively starved for resources. The plan provided for substantial income differentials to motivate the labor force in the state sector, and it established a “top down” system in which a highly centralized government apparatus exercised detailed control over economic policy through enormous ministries in Beijing. Those developments differed substantially from the priorities and proclivities of the Chinese communist movement in the decades before 1949. Nevertheless, the First Five-Year Plan was linked with the transition of China’s rural and urban economy to collective forms.
The pressures behind the dramatic inauguration in 1958 of “Three Red Banners”—i.e., the general line of socialist construction, the Great Leap Forward, and the rural people’s communes—are still not fully known. Undoubtedly, a complex mixture of forces came into play. Mao personally felt increasingly uncomfortable with the alliance with the Soviet Union and with the social and political ramifications of the Soviet model of development. On ideological grounds and because it shifted policy away from his personal political strengths, Mao disliked the Soviet system of centralized control by large government ministries, substantial social stratification, and strong urban bias. In addition, the Soviet model assumed that agricultural surplus need only be captured by the government and made to serve urban development. This was true for the Soviet Union in the late 1920s, when the model was developed, but the situation in China was different. Chinese policy had to devise a way first to create an agricultural surplus and then to take a large part of it to serve urban growth. The Soviet model also rested on implicit assumptions about the energy and transportation sectors that were not compatible with the Chinese realities of the 1950s.
To some extent, obscure political battles also became caught up in the debates over Chinese development strategies. In the spring of 1958, for example, Mao Zedong elevated Marshal Lin Biao to a higher position in the CCP than that held by Defense Minister Peng Dehuai. At the same time, Mao initiated a critique of China’s slavish copying of Soviet military strategy.
Overall, the radicalization of policy that led to the Great Leap Forward can be traced back to the anti-rightist campaign of 1957 and a major meeting of China’s leaders at the resort city of Qingdao in October of that year. By the time of another central meeting—this one in Nanning in January 1958—Mao felt confident enough to launch a blistering critique of the domination of economic policy by the State Council and its subordinate ministries. The best available evidence suggests that almost all the top leaders supported Mao as he developed a series of initiatives that eventually produced the Great Leap strategy and the people’s communes. The only major exceptions appear to have been Zhou Enlai and Chen Yun, a force in Chinese economic policy; both faded from the public eye in 1958 only to be brought back into active roles as the Great Leap faltered in 1959.
The general line of socialist construction and the Great Leap Forward were announced at the second session of the Eighth Party Congress (May 1958), which concentrated as much on political slogans as on specific objectives. Special emphasis was placed on political guidance by party cadres of the country’s scientists and technicians, who were viewed as potentially dangerous unless they would become fully “Red and expert.” The progressive indoctrination of experts would be paralleled by introductory technical training for cadres, thereby in theory transforming the entire elite into political-technical generalists. The Congress of 1958 called for a bold form of ideological leadership that could unleash a “leap forward” in technical innovation and economic output. To link the new generalist leaders and the masses, emphasis fell on sending cadres to the lower levels (xiafang) for firsthand experience and manual labor and for practical political indoctrination.
The Great Leap Forward involved an enormous amount of experimentation. It had no detailed blueprint, but there were some underlying strategic principles. There was a general reliance on a combination of ideological and organizational techniques to overcome seemingly insuperable obstacles that was focused on the countryside and that drew from policies of the 1930s and ’40s. The basic idea was to convert the massive labor surplus in China’s hinterlands into a huge production force through a radical reorganization of rural production. The search for the best organizational form to achieve this result led in August 1958 to popularization of the “people’s commune,” a huge rural unit that pooled the labor of tens of thousands of farmers from different villages in order to increase agricultural production, engage in local industrial production, enhance the availability of rural schooling, and organize a local militia force in accordance with Mao’s preferred national military strategy of combining the deterrence of an atomic bomb with guerrilla warfare.
Mao believed that through these radical organizational changes, combined with adequate political mobilization techniques, the Chinese countryside could be made to provide the resources both for its own development and for the continuing rapid development of the heavy industrial sector in the cities. Through this strategy of “walking on two legs,” China could obtain the simultaneous development of industry and agriculture and, within the urban sector, of both large- and small-scale industry. If it worked, this would resolve the dilemma of an agricultural bottleneck that had seemed to loom large on the horizon as of 1957. It would, however, involve a major departure from the Soviet model, which would predictably lead to increased tensions between Beijing and Moscow.
The years 1961–65 did not resemble the three previous ones, despite the persistence of radical labels and slogans. The Chinese themselves were loath to acknowledge the end of the Great Leap period, declaring the validity of the general line of socialist construction and its international revolutionary corollary for one and all.
Reality can be seen, however, in the increasing role of the Chinese military and security personnel. At a top-level meeting of the Military Affairs Committee in October 1960 and at one of the rare plenary sessions of the party’s Central Committee the following January, the elite gave the highest priority to restoring security and national order. Party recruitment procedures were tightened, and a major thought-reform movement was launched within the cadres’ ranks. The Central Committee also established six supraprovincial regional bureaus charged with enforcing obedience to Beijing and bringing the new procedures for control into line with local conditions. The army, now firmly under Lin Biao, took the lead, beginning with a “purification” movement against dissidents within its own ranks. Throughout 1961 and most of 1962, the central officials worked to consolidate their power and to restore faith in their leadership and goals.
By January 1962 Mao had, as he later put it, moved to the “second line” to concentrate “on dealing with questions of the direction, policy, and line of the party and the state.” The “first line” administrative and day-by-day direction of the state had been given to Liu Shaoqi, who had assumed the chairmanship of the People’s Republic of China in 1959 (though Mao retained his position of party chairman); additional responsibilities in the first line were given to Deng Xiaoping, another tough-minded organizer who, as general secretary, was the party’s top administrator. By 1962 Mao had apparently begun to conclude that the techniques used by these comrades in the first line not only violated the basic thrust of the revolutionary tradition but also formed a pattern of error that mirrored what he viewed as the “modern revisionism” of the Soviet Union.
Under Liu and Deng, the CCP during 1960–61 developed a series of documents in major policy areas to try to bring the country out of the rapidly growing crisis. In most instances, these documents were drafted with the assistance of experts who had been reviled during the Great Leap Forward. These documents marked a major retreat from Great Leap radicalism. The communes were to be reduced on the average by about two-thirds so as to make them small enough to link peasants’ efforts more clearly with their remuneration. Indeed, by 1962 in many areas of rural China, the collective system in agriculture had broken down completely, and individual farming was revived. Policy toward literature, art, and motion pictures permitted a “thaw” involving treatment of a far broader range of subjects and a revival of many older, prerevolutionary artistic forms. The new program in industry strengthened the hands of managers and made a worker’s efforts more closely attuned to his rewards. Similar policies were adopted in other areas. In general, China during 1961–65 did a remarkable job of reviving the economy, at least regaining the level of output of 1957 in almost all sectors.
These policies raised basic questions about the future direction of the revolution. While almost all top CCP leaders had supported the launching of the Great Leap, there was disagreement over the lessons to be learned from the movement’s dramatic failure. The Great Leap had been intended both as a means of accelerating economic development and as a vehicle for achieving a mass ideological transformation. All leaders agreed in its aftermath that a mobilization approach to economic development was no longer appropriate to China’s conditions. Most also concluded that the age of mass political campaigns as an instrument to remold the thinking of the public was past. Mao and a few of his supporters, however, still viewed class struggle and mass mobilization as core ingredients in keeping the revolutionary vision alive.
Mao personally lost considerable prestige over the failure of the Great Leap—and the party’s political and organizational apparatus was damaged—but he remained the most powerful individual in China. He proved able time and again to enforce his will on the issues that he deemed to be of top priority. Claims made later, during the Cultural Revolution, that Mao had been pushed aside and ignored during 1961–65 are not supported by the evidence.
2 days ago · Beijing (Peking), the capital of the People’s Republic, is also the cultural, economic, and communications center of the country. Shanghai is the main industrial city; Hong Kong is the leading commercial center and port. Within China’s boundaries exists a highly diverse and complex country.
The People's Republic of China ( PRC) officially, often called China (Chinese: 中国; pinyin: Zhōngguó; literally "Central State"), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country. Covering approximately 9,600,000 square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the third or fourth largest country by total area. [16]
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Apr 8, 2011 · The People's Republic of China was founded in 1949 after the Communist Party defeated the nationalist Kuomintang, who retreated to Taiwan, creating two rival Chinese states - the...
Western hostility against the People’s Republic of China, sharpened by the Korean War, contributed to the intensity of the ensuing Sino-Soviet relationship. When the CCP proclaimed the People’s Republic, most Chinese understood that the new leadership would be preoccupied with industrialization.
