Essay on The Mao's Era
(First
3 Pages)
After winning civil war in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party under Mao Tse Tung
(Zedong) established the People’s Republic of China. This was a turning point in
the history of modern China. Mao’s era (1949-76) was a blend of positive and
negative developments. The period is marked with fast economic growth; a closer
view though leads to a different picture of political oppression, economic
exploitation and extensive poverty. Mao Zedong stayed in power for about 27
years. Most of his policies failed but still he survived as a ruler of one of
the most populated country of the world. An analysis of his policies reveals
that despite of all his flop strategies, he maintained his hold on the Chinese
Communist Party and China. An overall view of his policies adopted during his
long rule is discussed below to get an impression of how he succeeded to
continue in office.
Order Your
Custom Term Papers, College Essays and Research Papers
The contribution of Mao in building modern China is remarkable. He was at the
same time a revolutionary and a nationalist. After the civil war, he was the one
who got millions of Chinese united and set it on the path of prosperity and
development. He laid the foundation of Socialism and the country progressed from
a backward, predominantly feudal, agricultural base to a (considerable) level of
industrial sophistication. He abolished the citizens’ right to private property
and placed it under the control of central government. In the process, the
Chinese businessmen lost their properties and businesses. Not only this but they
were put on trails and many of them were executed. The rich and feudal class was
considered as an enemy and the peasantry and the members of the Communist Party
were provided all sorts of economic advantages. Mao took strict rather brutal
steps to keep China under the hold of Communism.
His development program included rural collectivization, central planning, state
control and ownership of industry, self-reliance and isolationism. In October
1955, Mao ordered Chinese peasants to be organized into collectives of 100-300
families. These families were made to work collectively on large farms and their
small land pieces were taken away by the state. As a result, in 1956, China
faced a decline in the grain yields by up to 40 percent. Mao further ordered
farmers to put into practice several Lysenko-ist practices, which combined with
the collectivization, decimated Chinese agriculture.
The Mao system had its own advantages no doubt, but he blindly copied Lenin and
the extreme Soviet policies like that of import substitution strategy for
industrialization. This resulted to an embargo against foreign inputs during
Mao's era. In order to make China beat the economies of Britain and the U.S. in
a target time of about 15 years, he ordered that every Chinese should produce
smelt iron. Hundreds of millions of citizens neglected their farms and started
making low-grade pig iron. For this purpose, the urban and rural population was
compelled to contribute to the process of industrialization by setting up
"backyard steel furnaces". The people were supposed to collect scrap iron from
pots and pans and used it as raw materials. Despite of all these efforts, the
agricultural production declined, food shortage prevailed and the products of
the "backyard steel furnaces" were found useless.
The centrally planned Soviet command economy was implemented in China with a
conviction that it would allow China to surpass the capitalist prowess of the
United States and Great Britain. Stalin's proletarian dictatorship was copied,
resulting in unprecedented political control over all aspects of the life of
individuals: production, consumption and distribution. Private property rights
were banned and any resistance to the state's expropriation, commandeering and
requisition of land, capital and labor were ruthlessly crushed. This formed the
rationale for the disastrous "Great Leap Forward" (1958-1960) a decade after Mao
assumed power.
....
Order Your
Custom Term Papers, College Essays and Research Papers
