How did mao change the face of Essay Example
How did mao change the face of Essay Example

How did mao change the face of Essay Example

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  • Pages: 11 (2795 words)
  • Published: December 14, 2018
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Mao Zedong, a notable revolutionary leader and long-standing undisputed ruler, was instrumental in transforming China during its transition from a period of revolution to becoming the world's most populous nation. Amidst China's efforts towards economic advancement and societal transformation, Mao played a crucial part in molding the country's revival.

Although Mao Zedong was not always in a dominant position, he had a significant impact on the early years of the Chinese Socialist Party. With the exception of the Cultural Revolution, important decisions were not exclusively made by him after the 1940s. Nevertheless, from 1921 until Mao's death in 1976, he is considered as the main driving force behind China's transformation. By 1949, decades of warfare had greatly affected China's economy.

In 1945, many mines and factories were damaged or destroyed during the war with Japan. Around half of the machinery in major ind

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ustrial areas of the northeast was dismantled by Soviet troops and taken back to the Soviet Union. As a result, transportation, communication, and power systems faced significant disruptions due to lack of maintenance. Furthermore, agriculture suffered greatly, causing food production to decrease by approximately 30 percent compared to its pre-war peak. The economic deficits were aggravated by a period of intense inflation, widely recognized as one of the most severe in history.

The Chinese government implemented various measures to control inflation, such as unifying the monetary system, tightening credit, and restricting government budgets. Additionally, centralizing control and ensuring the currency's value were put into effect. State trading companies were also established to promote and regulate commerce by competing with private traders in buying and selling goods. The shift of industrial ownership was a gradual process

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as around one-third of enterprises and a significant portion of the transportation sector had already been under state control during the Guomindang government. Once the Chinese Communist Party took power in 1949, these units were quickly transformed into state-owned enterprises.

Education

Mao placed great emphasis on education in three key areas: addressing illiteracy, preparing individuals for different professions, and shaping people's behavior and attitudes. To accomplish this, a significant number of cadres received thorough training in agriculture, industry, and education. This educational approach shares similarities with the typical short-term training method utilized by communists.

Position of women

In traditional Chinese society, men held primary importance.

In terms of gender hierarchy, there was a preference for sons over daughters, and it was expected that women would be submissive to their fathers, husbands, and sons. Typically, the decision on a marriage partner was not made by the young woman herself (nor by the young man). After getting married, the woman would leave her original family and community to live with her husband's family and community, where she remained subordinate to her mother-in-law. Women had fewer educational opportunities compared to men. Additionally, limited yet consistent demographic data shows that female infants and children had higher mortality rates and lower chances of surviving into adulthood than males.

In extreme cases, female infants were subjected to infanticide, while others were sold as possessions to brothels or wealthy families. Even peasant women were expected to have bound feet, which symbolized the oppressive limitations placed on them. The party believed that women's liberation relied on their involvement in the labor force beyond the household, following a typical Marxist perspective. The position of women in society underwent changes with

Mao's rise to power, and there was a widespread expression of agreement with ideas promoting gender equality for both sons and daughters. Women gained access to education, including schools and universities, served in the People's Liberation Army, and joined the party. The majority of rural women and nearly all urban women held jobs outside of their homes.

Although the Soviet economic model was adopted with the intention of addressing women's economic and social disadvantages, they still found themselves at a disadvantage. The implementation of the First Five-Year Plan involved state ownership in the modern sector, large collective units in agriculture, and centralized economic planning.

In China, the goal was to achieve a high rate of economic growth, similar to the economy in the Soviet Union. The focus was on developing industry, particularly heavy industry and capital-intensive technology, rather than agriculture. To create their plan, the Chinese sought guidance from Soviet planners. Numerous Soviet engineers, technicians, and scientists provided assistance in establishing new heavy industrial facilities, including entire plants and equipment. The government exerted pressure and offered incentives to private firm owners to sell or convert them into joint public-private enterprises under state control as a way to increase its control over the industry. By 1956, around 67.5 percent of modern industrial enterprises were owned by the state, with the remaining 32.5 percent being in joint public-private ownership; there were no privately owned firms left.

During the same period, the handicraft industries were united under cooperatives, which made up 91.7 percent of all handicraft workers by 1956. Agriculture also experienced substantial organizational changes. To streamline the allocation of agricultural resources, enhance farming efficiency, and enable greater government access to

agricultural products, authorities encouraged farmers to form larger and more collective units. Starting from loosely structured mutual aid teams, villages were encouraged to progress to lower-stage agricultural producers' cooperatives, where families still received income based on their land contributions. Eventually, they would transition to advanced cooperatives, or collectives.

In the advanced producers' cooperatives, income shares were determined solely by the amount of labor provided, and each family had the opportunity to keep a small private plot for growing vegetables, fruit, and livestock for personal consumption. The process of collectivization started slowly but gained momentum in 1955 and 1956, with approximately 93.5% of all farm households joining advanced producers' cooperatives by 1957. The First Five-Year Plan achieved significant economic growth, particularly in the areas prioritized by the Soviet-style development strategy.

From 1952 to 1957, there was significant growth and advancement in key sectors of heavy industry. This included iron and steel manufacturing, coal mining, cement production, electricity generation, and machine building. The expansion and modernization of these industries provided a solid foundation for technological development. A total of 156 major facilities were built to support industrial and mining enterprises. Industrial production experienced impressive progress during this period with an average yearly growth rate of 19 percent. As a result, national income increased by 9 percent annually.

Despite the lack of state investment in agriculture, there was a significant increase in agricultural output, with an average annual growth rate of around 4 percent. This rise can be primarily attributed to collectivization, which resulted in improved efficiency through reorganization and cooperation. However, as the First Five-Year Plan progressed, Mao grew increasingly concerned about the sluggish performance of agriculture and the inability

of state trading companies to significantly enhance grain procurement from rural units for urban consumption. To address this issue, the Great Leap Forward was introduced in 1958 with the aim of accelerating economic and technical development to achieve faster and more substantial outcomes.

The Chinese Communists launched a campaign from 1958 to early 1960 aiming to organize their extensive population, particularly in large-scale rural communes, to address China's industrial and agricultural issues. Their objective was to foster labor-intensive methods of industrialization, prioritizing human workforce over machinery. The intention was for the country to avoid the typical, gradual process of industrialization through the gradual procurement of heavy machinery. The Great Leap Forward strategy prominently featured the establishment of small steel furnaces in every village, eliminating the need for constructing new large factories. The adoption of the Great Leap Forward approach was motivated by the failure of the Soviet model of industrialization in China.

China, due to its dense population and lack of agricultural surplus for capital accumulation, deemed the Soviet model unsuitable. After extensive deliberation, it was determined that a dual development approach could be pursued by shifting attention from machine-centered processes to labor. This resulted in decentralized decision-making in agriculture and politics, with an emphasis on ideological purity rather than expertise. Brigade teams were formed to organize peasants, while communal kitchens facilitated women's participation in the workforce. However, the swift implementation of the program led to errors like melting tools for steel production and disgruntled peasants slaughtering farm animals. Furthermore, a succession of natural calamities compounded the situation along with the departure of Soviet technical personnel.

Between 1958 and 1962, around 20 million individuals in China perished from

famine as a result of the inefficiency of the communes and the diversion of farm labor into small-scale industry. As a consequence, the Chinese economy collapsed, prompting the government to gradually dismantle the Great Leap Forward program starting in early 1960. The peasants regained ownership of private plots and agricultural tools, once again prioritizing expertise while dismantling the communal system. The failure of the Great Leap Forward resulted in a division among party leaders, with one faction blaming bureaucratic elements for excessively implementing its policies.

One faction in the party believed that China should rely more on expertise and material incentives for economic development, citing the failure of the Great Leap Forward. In response to this faction, Mao Zedong initiated his Cultural Revolution in early 1966.

The Cultural Revolution, launched by Mao Zedong, aimed to revive the spirit of the Chinese revolution and address bureaucratic decay within the party. It occurred from 1966 to 1976 during Mao's final decade of power. Mao had concerns about China potentially adopting the Soviet model and sought to safeguard his own historical legacy. As part of this endeavor, he instigated turmoil in Chinese cities and eliminated leaders who had challenged him over time. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution employed a more radical approach compared to previous party rectification campaigns.

The victims, from all levels of the party hierarchy, experienced more than just political disgrace. They were publicly humiliated and detained under harsh conditions, enduring beatings, torture, and even death or suicide. Among them was Liu, who died due to lack of proper medical attention. The slogan "Fight selfishness, criticize revisionism" justified these sacrifices at the time. In the summer of 1966, the

Red Guards emerged as Mao's initial shock troops, proclaiming "To rebel is justified!" This challenged not only the authority of party officials, but all forms of authority. However, it soon became apparent that Mao still believed in the necessity of state power despite advocating for decentralization in 1956 as a means to establish a "strong socialist state."

According to Mao, the demand for the abolition of leaders in their city was considered extreme anarchism and reactionary. He believed that there would always be leaders and stated that communes were not strong enough to suppress counterrevolution without party leadership. Thus, he instructed them to dissolve their leadership and replace it with a revolutionary committee. However, this compromise was overturned before Zhou's death in January 1976. Any acknowledgment by Mao of the importance of professional skills was overshadowed by political rhetoric, and anything related to foreign influences was deemed counterrevolutionary. Mao's last decade, which began with support for the Paris Commune model of mass democracy, ended with admiration for the highly centralized ruler Shih Huang-ti, the first Ch'in emperor.

Mao Zedong died in Peking on Sept. 9, 1976. The consequences of The Cultural Revolution, which included Mao's failure and death, had a significant impact on China. Although rural areas were largely unaffected, the entire country suffered from political instability and constant changes in economic policies, resulting in slower economic growth and a decline in government efficiency. This led to bureaucratic timidity as officials feared the repercussions of implementing new policies. The Cultural Revolution officially ended in 1977 after Mao's death and the purge of the Gang of Four in late 1976. Following these events, nearly three million party

members and numerous wrongfully purged citizens awaited reinstatement.

China took bold measures in the late 1970s to address immediate issues, but the lingering effects of the Cultural Revolution were still problematic. One significant issue was the generation gap caused by the revolution. The young people who endured the Cultural Revolution were denied education and encouraged to address their grievances through street protests. The post-revolution policies prioritized education and taking initiative, which left little opportunity for these millions of individuals to pursue successful careers. It took several decades to fully repair the damage done to the education system as a whole. Additionally, corruption within the party and government was another serious problem.

During the Cultural Revolution, both the fears and the scarcity of goods forced people to rely on traditional personal relationships and bribery to achieve their goals. This led to disillusionment with the party leadership and the system, as urban Chinese witnessed power plays under the guise of political principles. The post-Mao era saw a rejection of the Cultural Revolution's objectives and consequences, causing many to abandon politics altogether. Within society, deep factionalism persisted as opposing sides during the Cultural Revolution often worked together in the same unit for their entire careers. It is unprecedented in history for a political leader to unleash such massive forces against his own created system. As a result, the damage to the system was profound and Mao's intended goals remained elusive.

Mao's final years

Even though Mao Zedong's involvement in politics decreased in his later years, it still played a crucial role. Despite claims of Mao's diminished mental abilities, his influence remained strong in the months leading up

to his death. His orders to dismiss Deng and appoint Hua Guofeng were immediately accepted by the Political Bureau. The political landscape had become divided and hostile in the years prior to Mao's death, with factions that were increasingly bitter and unable to reconcile. However, while Mao was alive and pitting these factions against each other, the conflicting forces were kept under control.

His death only solved a portion of the issues related to the power struggle for succession.

The Post Mao Period

Deng Xiaoping, who had previously served as the party secretary, became Mao's successor. The mistakes made during the Cultural Revolution were rectified and the policy of blindly supporting Mao's decisions was discarded. Instead, the focus shifted towards the Four Modernizations, abandoning the previous emphasis on prolonged class struggle.

In the future, economic goals would be the determinant of policy success or failure, surpassing politics. Deng implemented a strategic shift in policies by appointing key allies to the Political Bureau, including Chen Yun as an additional vice chairman and Hu Yaobang as a member. Hu Yaobang was also appointed as secretary general of the CCP and head of the party's Propaganda Department. While assessments of the Cultural Revolution and Mao were postponed, a decision was made regarding unresolved historical matters. Past incidents such as the 1976 Tiananmen Square event, the removal of Peng Dehuai in 1959, and other notorious political maneuvers were reversed under the new leadership. Additionally, new agricultural policies were enacted to reduce political constraints on peasants and enable them to be more self-reliant in production.

Conclusion

Despite the Cultural Revolution being the logical outcome

of Mao's approach to revolution in his last two decades, it should not be the sole basis for evaluating his work as a whole. Mao Zedong deserves significant recognition for developing the strategy of guerrilla warfare in the countryside, which ultimately led to the triumph in the civil war, the overthrow of the Kuomintang, land redistribution to peasants, and the restoration of China's independence and sovereignty. These accomplishments should be given appropriate acknowledgement considering the prevailing injustices in Chinese society prior to the revolution and the humiliation caused by foreign powers' division of China. In September 1949, Mao declared, "We have stood up."

These words will always be remembered. Mao's record after 1949 is somewhat unclear. According to the official Chinese perspective, established in 1981, his leadership was mostly accurate until the summer of 1957. However, from that point onward, it was often a combination of both positive and negative, but frequently incorrect. It is undeniable that Mao's two significant endeavors during his later years, namely the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, had highly detrimental outcomes.

While Mao's goals of combating bureaucracy, promoting popular participation, and emphasizing China's self-reliance were commendable, the methods he employed to achieve these objectives, although innovative and daring, were largely counterproductive. When considering Mao's entire career, it becomes challenging to quantify the positive and negative aspects. How does one measure the benefits peasants gained through land acquisition against the millions who suffered execution and death during the civil war? How does one reconcile the actual economic accomplishments post-1949 with the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward or the chaotic brutality of the Cultural Revolution? Perhaps it is plausible to

accept the official assessment that, despite his later mistakes, Mao's virtues outweighed his flaws, yet acknowledging that this evaluation is finely balanced.

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