Mao Zedong

In 1949 china was under the expression of a communist state. The regime of china was set up in similarity to the regime of Vladimir Lenin in the Soviet Union. Mao Zedong was part of the communist party. He followed the vision of Karl Marx, by envisioning a society under his regime that all shared equal prosperity and communism. In order to bring this vision to reality, he wanted to eliminate all capitalism and its emphasis on property rights, profits, and free-market competition. In the 1950’s in the rural of china, Mao banned free markets, which involved peasants selling farm products. However the trade of capitalism still existed through the private enterprise of remnants. Mao was dissatisfied with the outcomes towards an economy of Marxism. So he strived for a stronger approach by coming up with the Great Leap Forward. However, after the intense economic development that china had suffered from the great leap forward, it left millions of individuals throughout china suffering from the masses and deaths from the collapse of the food system. Because of the major consequences that were suffered from this approach it was unable to be left unnoticed. So, in 1960 after Moa Zedong declined all responsibility towards the disaster from the Great Leap Forward, Lui Shao-chi and Deng Xiaoping were left to rectify and administer the crisis. However, their attempt to repair the economic damages towards china, only led to the reverse of Mao’s earlier policies. That were

When he put himself as the leader of China, he renamed the country, “The people's republic of China”. In 1958, Zedong wanted a more Chinese form of communism, so he launched “The Great Leap Forward”. This was an attempt to improve agricultural and industrial production, which were major parts of the Communism promise. Soon, his idea led to poor harvests, famine and the deaths of millions. Mao Zedong’s leadership position was weakened. In order to reactivate his power, Mao Zedong called for a cultural revolution.” He said, “If you want to know the taste of a pear, you must change the pear by eating it yourself. If you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience.” -Mao Zedong. (brainyquotes.com). In the cultural revolution, he wanted to purge his country of all its impure elements, and renovate the revolutionary spirit and build support of Communist principles. In the process, he killed one and a half million people. One year after, 1967, cities were on the verge of anarchy, Chairman Mao sent in the army to restore order. Zedong started to feel pressure from other countries to stop treating his citizens badly, so he looked for a way to make himself look better. He decided to meet with the American President Nixon, as China and America are complete opposites, in terms of government, and try build a bridge to establish peace and show how

Mao was the leader of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Above everything, he was a communist. His world revolves around him being a communist (Wood, 8, Class Notes). He believed that the world was divided into two separate sides, the communists and the capitalists. This shaped the way in which he conducted matters for mainland China because everything he did was justified by his communist ideologies (Mao, 13). Many of the things he did was because he always thought about communism being his number one priority. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are two main events that Mao led that shape his worldviews in having an underlying tone of communism which will be discussed later on in the essay. Mao wanted equality within all aspects of life throughout all classes in society. He believed that every individual should be treated the same (Mao, 19).

In the speech, Mao emphasized three major concepts: 1. Different from any other socialism revolution happened before, Chinese revolution was in form of both capitalism and socialism ideology. The revolution was initiated by elite class, representing capitalism, but promoted and developed by workers and peasants, representing communism. Mao focus discussing about it in the fifth part of speech, by directly indicating “Therefore, the proletariat, the peasantry, the intelligentsia and the other sections of the petty bourgeoisie undoubtedly constitute the basic forces determining China 's fate”. (Page 10, Mao) 2. The Chinese revolution can be broke into two parts, and these two parts must be completed step by step. Mao argued only after China finished the new democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism it could start the socialism revolution. Mao also had a famous quote describing the revolution process: “We should clean up dirt in our living room before welcoming the guest”, in which dirt symbolizes semi-colonial status from Qing dynasty and guest symbolizes the bright future for China. 3. New-democratic China should be rebuilt both politically and economically. Mao brought out his argument in fifth and sixth part of the speech, and demonstrated in the following

Viewing both the leaders’ policies, solely on the basis of economic success, it can be said that Stalin’s policies were somewhat successful as Stalin took a backward country and turned it into a massive urban working class with most of the country being electrified, which was not available before. In addition, the policy of collectivisation fulfilled its goals as peasants were now paid wages and land and machinery was collectively owned. Looking at the human cost of the policies, both industrialization and collectivisation were hard on the population, creating poor working conditions and famines throughout the nation. Stalin had also maintained his power throughout all of his economic policies, unlike Mao who after the Great Leap Forward had to re-establish himself through the Cultural Revolutions. Despite Mao’s fall, his economic policies were also to some extent, successful as more than half of China became irrigated and the railway network virtually doubled. In addition, Mao’s reforms motivated the common people to work together and embody a Communist worker, whereas Stalin’s reforms produced “Stakhovanites”.

As many other countries around the world China has its long history of a struggle for equality and prosperity against tyrants and dictatorships. The establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949 seemed to have put an end to that struggle for a better life. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of China’s Communist Party (CPP) – a leading political force in the country for the time. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led buy the CPP, as the leader of the working class.

Mao ZeDong is one of the greatest leaders in the history of New China. The influence of Mao’s theory is profound and lasting. He is a great thinker, poet, and a highly intelligent military strategist. Under his leadership and the actions he performed during The Long March, Chinese Civil War then defeating the Kuomintang Party to built the New China are the main epic episodes. Mao ZeDong's extravagant actions made two of the many changes to China. They are the shift from a capitalist system to a socialist system and the achievement of China's independence against Japanese imperialism (Somo, 2013a). The influence of Mao’s theory has been widespread to the world up until this day. Especially, in the countries of the third world have

This document shows how living conditions and independence did not improve for landowners. Landowners only lost their land and homes. It wasn’t fair how low classes were able to make more money when landowners couldn’t have better living conditions. Document 9 by an unknown person who was an economist made a line graph for people interested in China’s GDP to see how China’s GDP was at that time. This line graph shows how the quality of people’s life wasn’t improving because there wasn’t any jobs for them. The economy was very weak since there wasn’t enough jobs. Factories didn’t improve either they stayed the same because of the value of the materials. People couldn’t afford things because since there wasn’t jobs they didn’t have enough money to be able to buy things. The Communist China notes talks about the Great Leap Forward. The Great Leap Forward began from 1958 and ended in 1960. During 1959 through 1961 about 50 million people died of starvation. Mao forced people to work and it

While Mao’s interpretation of Marxism included using peasants as the basis for revolution, Stalin felt that workers were meant to lead an urban-based class war. This led to Stalin’s view that the revolution in China was not genuinely Marxist and his refusal to support the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). However, Stalin also feared Mao as a rival, did not want the Cold War to spread to Asia, and favored the Guomindang over the CCP. These personality clashes and Stalin’s instinct for self-preservation convinced Mao that Stalin wished for a divided and weak China that would be unable to

During the second half of the twentieth century, many citizens in China fell victim to economic and social hardships as a consequence of the Great Leap Forward. As a result, Mao Zedong was marginalized and new power arose. However, fearing that traditional chinese culture and “ bourgeois ideology” were at risk of recurrence, Mao established the Cultural Revolution as his final attempt at abolishing his concerns. The Cultural Revolution brought about many young, loyal Maoists ready to risk it all in order to establish a new regime that rid chinese society of what Mao believed to be impurities. Among these revolutionaries included Red Guards and some members of the sent-down youth. In the memoirs, Call Me Qingnian but Not Funü: A Maoist Youth in Retrospect and Images, Memories, and Lives of Sent-Down Youth in Yunnan, it is expressed that the Cultural Revolution greatly affected the lives of the revolutionaries, and although both stories entail different circumstances, the Red Guards and sent-down youth experienced both different and similar feelings of optimism as well as concern and apprehension for the future during a critical time in both chinese history and their personal lives.

“The arming of the people for resistance against Japan had placed the peasants in a position to challenge the landlords and money lenders in the countryside”. This shows that the peasants have gotten rights and the ability to resist. Socially the peasants are becoming equal to those of the Chinese communist party by being able to challenge the Japanese and the landlords. “The new democratic marriage system, which is based on the free choice a partner in monogamy , on equal rights on both sexes, and the protection on the lawful interests of women children is put into effect”. (Doc 7) This shows that the Chinese people are now getting more rights. Because arranged marriage and supremacy are not put away with, the equality and rights of the Chinese are becoming closer to those who have free marriage rights. Here the Chinese communist party greatly changed the societal right so wonen. In document 8 peasant land ownership is introduced and the rights of landlords are now taken away. Here peasants are gaining rights to land which is a big accomplishment during this time. The Chinese communist party advocated for equal land rights and through this peasants were able to experience great social reform. In document 9 a peasant and her landlord reflect on the new set standards for peasants societal reformation. This broke hierarchical

The cultural revolution is a strange period in Chinese history laced with intense struggle and anguish. The cultural revolution mobilized the all of society to compete for all opposing factions that they belonged to (Ong, 2016). Mao mobilized the young people of society during a background of political turmoil, which helped Mao to mobilize the students in order to enforce his political legitimacy and ideas (Ong, 2016). Mao’s charismatic authority created his personality cult and most defiantly leant a helping hand in mobilizing the red guard movement (Ong, 2016) (Weber, 1946) (Andreas, 2007). No matter which faction of the red guard they belonged to, they all mobilized against their common enemy; the better off, upper class. (Ong, 2016). Multiple ideologies within the youth led red guard movement explain why the movement gained momentum and became incredibly powerful (Walder, 2009).

It is clear that Mao’s initial goal was to gain power in China, which is demonstrated by his determination to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang (KMT) via his idiosyncratic version of communist revolution. In order to do so, Mao utilised methods he deemed most suitable for the communists and, more broadly, Chinese society. For example, unlike his Marxist predecessors, Mao believed that peasants, not urban workers, were the key to rebellion in China. Subsequently, in 1926, he organised peasant unions

Mao’s strength and superior methods allowed to him to exploit the weaknesses of the GMD government. Mao believed that a permanent, two-stage revolution derived from the peasants was a key aspect. Thus the support of the peasants was crucial success to any political party and Mao’s strategy for winning their support was discipline and land reform. He believed rent reduction must be the result of mass struggle, not a favour from the government and the policy of

In 1949 a powerful communist leader by the name of Mao Zedong came to power based on his idea for a, “Great Leap Forward.” This idea was meant to bring China’s economy into the twentieth century. He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history. However, the product of this revolution created a massive national shortage in vital materials and initiated a wide scale famine to China’s people (Gabriel).