Buddhism and Ecotourism

1059 Words3 Pages

Following Mao Zedong’s Communist forces victory over the Kuomintang forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, “Mao declared the founding of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949.” (History of PRC) This marked the beginning of the socialist transformation under Mao’s rule in which he planned to unify China and raise the standard of living through the development of China’s infrastructure, industry, healthcare, and education. Mao’s two main campaigns during his time in power were the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Through these campaigns he hoped to purify China’s culture by eradicating the landlord ownership system and focusing on class struggle by implementing a distribution system in favor of poor, landless peasants. Unfortunately, these campaigns contributed to or caused the deaths of millions, high economic costs, and the damaging of China’s cultural heritage by destroying anything that resembled China’s feudal past. Following the death of Mao Zedong’s, Deng Xiaoping worked his way to the top of China’s leadership by 1982. Deng soon initiated his plans for Economic Reforms and Openness, which consisted of policies such as the de-collectivization of the countryside and industrial reforms to help decentralize the government’s control over industries. Even though standards of living had improved significantly due to the economic and industrial recovery, Deng’s reforms were still greatly criticized. Some people still think that through Mao’s campaigns China was able to rebuild itself into an even stronger country than before. They believed it was because of the destruction and turmoil from these campaigns that China was able to rebuild itself on a stronger foundation that it continues to build upo...

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