Discuss the life of Mao Zedong. Discuss the political, social, and economic policies of Communist China from 1949 to 1993. Also, discuss the policies of Deng Xiaoping and how he attempted to solve the problems of China.
Discuss the life of Mao Zedong
China Policies
Firstly, discuss the life of Mao Zedong.
Secondly, discuss the political, social, and economic policies of Communist China from 1949 to 1993.
Thirdly, discuss the policies of Deng Xiaoping and how he attempted to solve the problems of China.
More details;
Mao was a Chinese communist leader and founder of the People’s Republic of China. He was responsible for the disastrous policies of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ and the ‘Cultural Revolution’.
Mao was born on 26 December 1893 into a peasant family in Shaoshan, in Hunan province, central China. After training as a teacher, he travelled to Beijing where he worked in the University Library. It was during this time that he began to read Marxist literature. In 1921, he became a founder member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and set up a branch in Hunan. In 1923, the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party had also allied with the CCP to defeat the warlords who controlled much of northern China. Then in 1927, the KMT leader Chiang Kai-shek launched an anti-communist purge.
Mao and other communists retreated to south east China. In 1934, after the KMT surrounded them, Mao led his followers on the ‘Long March’, a 6,000 mile journey to northwest China to establish a new base.
The Communists and KMT were again temporarily allied during eight years of war with Japan (1937-1945), but shortly after the end of World War Two, civil war broke out between them. The Communists were victorious, and also on 1 October 1949 Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island of Taiwan.
Mao and other Communist leaders set out to reshape Chinese society. Industry came under state ownership and China’s farmers began to be organised into collectives. The Chinese initially received significant help from the Soviet Union, but relations soon began to cool.