Mao's China: 1949-1966

On October 1st, 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing with this man as the new leader of the country, although there was still fighting with Nationalist remnants in Southern China and Chiang Kai-Shek did not retreat from the mainland until December.

At the end of the Civil War, the Communist Party established a "United Front" system with smaller non-Communist political parties in order to promote the image of unity within China. As a result, this organ within the government was established for these minor political parties to voice their views in the government although overall political power still rested with the Communist Party

The CPPCC passed this document in 1949 which defined the country as a new democratic one that would follow the principles of People's Democratic Dictatorship. Under these principles, the document stated that the country's primary objective is to root out feudalistic, imperialist, and bureaucratic capitalistic elements throughout China

From 1949-1953, the Party focussed its efforts on this problem as the majority of land was in the hands of wealthy landlords and rich peasants. However, resistance by landlords to adopt the reforms caused the Party to adopt less tolerant policies, leading to a more successful distribution of land and the deaths of thousands of landlords

Another major problem concerning the government concerned this economic indicator, which was extremely high as a result of high government spending and other poor economic policies of the Nationalist government. By the early 1950s this problem was significantly reduced

In 1949, the Communist Party only firmly held control in parts of Northern and Central China. As a result, the government divided the country excluding Tibet and Inner Mongolia into 6 of these types of regions, with 4 of them being placed under military control. In 1954 they were abolished

In 1950, this law was passed with the intention of ending traditional practices such as forced marriages and concubinage. As a result, this increased the amount of rights women could have under the new government

Throughout the 1950s, a group of Chinese linguists developed this new romanization system of Chinese to replace the Wade-Giles system of the 19th century. In 1958, the government approved this new system to be used to teach Chinese pronunciation, however it would not be widely used until the 1980s

In 1950, the People's Liberation Army drove out the Nationalists from this island near Guangdong province, annexing it the country

Since December 1949, the previous Nationalist government exiled itself to this island near Fujian province. It continued to function as an independent country under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek

However, as the new government was planning to invade the island and reunify all of China under Communist rule, Kim Il-sung launched his invasion of South Korea, starting this war. The subsequent UN pledge to support the South caused the United States to deploy its Seventh Fleet to protect the island, ending any attempt of invasion

As the UN coalition force under the United States began to drive the Korean's People's Army further north, Mao overrode the majority of the Party which was hesitant on intervention by sending this force to Korea after the Soviet Union offered to support the Chinese intervention with air support

From 1950-1953, the Party launched this campaign with the intention of destroying opposition elements which consisted of people formerly associated with the Guomindang and others who were thought to oppose the Party. This resulted in around 500,000 to up to 2 million executions

After declaring independence from China during the Xinhai Revolution, this western part of China was annexed in 1951 after negotiations and a short invasion. Ethnic conflict would continue to persist in this autonomous region, with riots occurring in 1959 and from 1987-1989

In 1951, this mass campaign was launched with the intention of imposing anti-corruption, anti-waste, and anti-bureaucratism within the government which included Party members, people with past associations with the Guomindang, and non-Party members

In 1952, this subsequent mass campaign was launched with the intention of removing the private property throughout China. It targeted the proposed corruption in the private sector of China's economy in order to weaken capitalists

In 1952, this man, who was a key economic figure within the Party proposed a new tax system that would be more favorable to capitalist elements within China. As a result, he was criticized and removed as Finance Minister. However, he would still have a prominent place in China's economic policy until the he was purged in the Cultural Revolution

In 1954, this man committed suicide after reportedly attempting to usurp Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai from their prominent positions in the government. Prior to 1954, he headed the Northeastern Administrative Region until 1952, where he was subsequently promoted to head of the State Planning Commission

This Minister of the Organizational Department of the Communist Party was put into an anti-party clique and purged due to his alleged association with the above due to his criticism of An Ziwen, a Liu Shaoqi supporter

On September 20th, 1954, the Party ratified this document, which outlines the basic law and governance of the country. It would be revised multiple times, with the last revision to it being in 2018.

Considered to be the fifth most powerful member of the government, this man, who served as Party Secretary of Beijing until 1966 was a devout supporter of Liu Shaoqi and was a dominant voice in the government's legal affairs

The Party began to organize peasants into these organizations in the first step towards the collectivization of China's agriculture.This simple unit of collectivization involved forming small groups of peasants that would work together, but it lacked the simple principles of a cooperative

By 1955, Mao declared the "High Tide" of collectivization and pushed for collectivization to be done at a faster pace. Although some of them were already formed prior to 1955, by 1958, most of China's agricultural sector was organized into this unit of collectivization

As head of the Central Rural Work Department, this Party official advocated for a more gradual approach to the implementation of collectivization in agriculture, leading him to be at odds with Mao. This culminated in him being criticized by Mao as a "Rightist" and demoted, but he was not actually purged until the Cultural Revolution

In 1955, the Party created and adopted its first economic plan, which is named this. It was heavily inspired from the economic policies of the Soviet Union and although it contributed to economic growth within China, it was less successful in the agricultural sector.

For most of the period 1949-1966, this man dominated the economic sector of the government as its leading specialist. After pursuing a less active role during the Cultural Revolution to avoid the fate of other leaders, he returned to a leading role in the 1970s, being one of the most dominant voices in the Party until his death in 1995

In 1956, Mao outlined in this speech the ways in which China can develop itself as a Socialist power independently of the Soviet Union. Mao gave this speech to signal his disillusionment with policies of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev and the policies being used the develop the Chinese economy

As China's first premier, in addition to holding a prominent position in domestic affairs, he also dominated China's foreign policy until his death in 1976

Taking up the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1958, this man, who was on the Ten Marshals recognized for their military achievements during the Civil War, continued to assist the premier in foreign policy until the Cultural Revolution. He died in 1972

In the early 1950s, the government followed this foreign policy, which involved supporting the Communist bloc of the Soviet Union against the Western bloc headed by the United States. This stance lead to the signing of a friendship pact between the Soviet Union and China in 1950

In order to present the new Chinese government as a diplomatic power, the premier attended this conference in 1954, which discussed outstanding issues from the First Indochina war and the Korean War

In 1955, with the Non-Aligned movement of Third World Countries growing, the premier attended this conference in Indonesia in order to present China as a leader of this movement, however some of the countries were fearful of China's growing power

In 1954 and 1958, to protest the United State's presence and Chiang Kai-shek's rule on Taiwan, China shelled the Matsu Islands and Kinmen off the coast of Taiwan. This caused a two incidents between the United States and China with president Eisenhower even threatening to use nuclear weapons

In 1956, Nikita Khrushchev delivered this speech criticizing the practices of his predecessor, Joseph Stalin, with particular attention going to the Cult of Personality of Stalin. This speech was met with alarm in China as Khrushchev's same criticisms of Stalin could be applied to Mao

Khrushchev also formulated this concept that proposed that the Soviet and Western blocs could coexist with each other without resorting to violence. Mao viewed this as revisionism as he did not believe that Communist countries should be having cordial relations with countries he deemed as imperialist and capitalistic

In 1962, due to a unresolved border dispute with this southern neighbor in the Tibetan region, China engaged in a short border war with this country, which lead to the reestablishment of the original border between the two countries prior to the conflict

From 1956, relations between the two countries worsened as Mao denounced Khrushchev's domestic and foreign policies as straying from Communism. Within Europe, this small Communist country under the leadership of Enver Hoxha, was the only one to side against the Soviet Union

Due to the worsening rift between the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union decided to pull back many of its people who served in this role in China in order to help the government with economic development. The withdrawal of these people led to a decrease in the amount of technical expertise that China could draw upon for its economic policies

At the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, this political concept representing Mao Zedong's ideas was removed from the constitution. However, it was brought back in a later revision. The name Maoism was not the official term used due to it being disliked by Mao

Assuming that the country's intellectuals would support him and provide the government with criticism that could be used to improve the country. However, Chinese intellectuals responded with harsh criticisms of Party rule instead of what Mao hoped for

Seeing that his campaign was a failure, Mao tried to save face by launching this in order to purge the same intellectuals that criticized the Party and him. This allowed Mao to continue with his policy of achieving rapid economic growth quickly through mass mobilization campaigns without the criticism from specialists

Mao criticized the Party for opposing this economic policy in favor of slowing down China's economic growth and its transition to Socialism. This criticism further silenced any opposition to Mao's economic policies

With intellectuals silenced and with the majority of Party supporting Mao in his belief that the mass mobilization of China's population could achieve tremendous economic growth, this campaign was launched

Feeling that his attempt to push for faster collectivization was hindered in the period 1955-1956 by economic specialists in the Party who wanted to move at a slower pace, Mao made it one of his primary goals to make collective most of China without many restraints. This involved placing thousands of people into this administrative unit in order to maximize production

Boasting that the campaign could greatly increase China's production in steel, Mao encouraged for these primitive types of steel furnaces to be formed all over the countryside and run by peasants. However, due to the crude materials used to make both the furnaces and the steel and due to the peasants lacking experience, the majority of the steel produced was useless

Mao also wanted to increase the standard of living by killing these animals and insects that were considered harmful to food production. Although this included rats, flies, and mosquitos, the misguided targeting of sparrows worsened the development of food as the sparrows were the ones that ate bugs that were harmful to crops

Mao also wanted to improve China's infrastructure, leading to the creation of dozens of these poorly made structures along rivers. In 1975, a major typhoon would cause most of them to collapse

Met with unrealistic growth targets, local cadres throughout the country had to do this to their official reports in order to make it seem like the production quotas were exceeding their original goals

This type of disaster afflicted China as a result of diverting the peasant's attention from agriculture, low level cadre corruption through hoarding food stores and over-exaggerating food quotas, and lack of Soviet aid. It was estimated around 40-50 million people died as a result of this disaster

In 1959, at the Lushan conference to discuss the campaign, this Marshal sent a private letter to Mao complaining about the deficiencies of the campaign. Offended by the remarks, Mao circulated the letter to members of the conference and launched an attack against the Marshal

In addition to just the Marshal, three other Party members were purged as part of rightist clique although the alleged association between them and the Marshal was mainly fabricated. The other people purged include the Chief of Staff of the army, a Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and prior General Secretary of the Party, and the Party Secretary of Hunan

In 1962, after many people died from starvation as a result of the campaign, this conference was convened in order to discuss the failures of the campaign and how to recover from them. It was declared by the government that majority of the mistakes are contributed to the Party center and not due to natural disasters

By 1962, Mao retreated to this position, signaling that he ready to become less involved in state affairs. However, after becoming worried that his colleagues might undo his vision of a Socialist China after his disastrous campaign, Mao began to have second thoughts and began maneuvering behind the scenes to regain his dominant position

In 1959, Mao resigned the State Chairmanship to this man, who was the second most powerful person in the government. Over time, Mao would begin to view him as a "Chinese Khrushchev" due to his attempts to under the policies of Mao's previous campaign, culminating in his purge during the Cultural Revolution

In the period 1962-1965, the above collaborated heavily with this man, who held the position of General Secretary of the Party Secretariat, as well as Economic planner Chen Yun, in order to stabilize China's economy by undoing many of the policies of the Great Leap

One of the major reforms in agriculture was allowing Peasants to farm their own plots of land, which was previously forbidden under the collectivization system. Later during the 1980s, this policy was implemented on a larger scale in order to fully de-collectivize the countryside

With Mao's worsening relations with the Soviet Union and with the United State's intervention in Vietnam, Mao pushed for this policy, which involved moving China's major infrastructure away from the coastline in case a war would break out

However, Mao stressed the necessity of collectivization by praising this model village in Shanxi province which managed to be successful using Mao's economic policies

This man, as leader of the above village was credited with transforming it into a model commune. Although an illiterate peasant, he was promoted during the Cultural Revolution to the position of Vice Premier, serving in the same position as experienced Party veterans like Li Xiannian and Deng Xiaoping

Replacing Peng as the Minister of Defense, this Marshal began to reform the military to be more in line with Mao's ideas, leading to reforms such as abolishment of army ranks, increased study of Mao's political theory, and emphasis on guerrilla tactics

In 1962, the diary of this soldier was, which is rumored to be fabricated by the Minister of Defense was published. The diary presented the man as a model citizen who strove to uphold the Party and Mao Zedong

China successfully detonated this type of weapon in 1964 in order to present itself as a world power and to oppose the Soviet Union's talks with the United States over arms control, which Mao saw as a way to weaken China

In 1964, Mao upset with the level of bureaucracy within the government and the Party and impressed by the way the military was run with politics in command, Mao encouraged this campaign in order to make the government and society more like the military

This oil field in Heilongjiang province was created in 1959 and was turned into a another Socialist model praised by Mao. When calling for the movement of infrastructure deeper into China, Mao told workers to learn from this oil field in order to better adapt to the conditions of the countryside

This campaign was started by Mao to root out reactionary elements and to make party members closer to the people. However, the central government used this instead to criticize ultra-leftism and corruption in the Rural sector that resulted from the policies of the Great Leap Forward

Upset with the results of this campaign, Mao began to form a political coalition consisting of the military, and radical intellectuals such as Yao Wenyuan and Zhang Chunqiao, and leftist politicians such as Kang Sheng to regain his prominent position in the government, culminating in this decade long event in 1966