An Analysis of the Negative Impact of Mao Zedong’s Legacy in China through the Totalitarian State and the Failure of Communist Ideology This historical study will define the negative impact of Mao Zedong’s economic and cultural policies that defined the failed communist state and the rise of socialist/capitalist China. During the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s, Mao was responsible for rapidly improving the industrial modernization of China, yet this policy resulted in poverty and famine. During the 1960s, the Cultural Revolution defined opposition to Mao’s economic policies, which utilized the state as a way to condemn political opponents, such as Deng Xiaoping, that defined the failure of the communist state. Mao’s downfall began to The victory of the Communist Party of China (CPC) defined an era in which the promise of a collective state would serve the unite the Chinese people and bring them together against common foes, such as the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party and the Japanese invaders that constantly attacked China during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The underlying focus of communism was to derail the top-down economic hierarchy of the elite capitalist classes and to bring greater value to the identity of the peasant worker as a contributing member of the state. After Mao took control of the CPC in the 1940s, he began to use the state to promote an extremely rapid economic development in the Great Leap Forward. This form of massive industrial expansion marked the beginning of governmental abuses that followed a totalitarian states, instead of a communist Mao’s radical use of the state to control the economy, industrial development, and the social progress of the communist ideology had a negative impact, since Deng had simply followed this path in the state control of capitalist enterprises that by no means served the proletariat, worker as an equal participants in economic progress. Finally, the 21st century defines a major devolution of the communist ideology as a mere symbol in the extreme forms of capitalist enterprise defined under the guise of “state power.” Mao had a negative impact on the Chinese economy by giving the state too much power to make decisions, which ultimately conform to neo-liberal economic ideologies that exploit the Chinese proletariat. Much like the great Leap Forward killed 45 million workers in the late 1950s, so does the current mode of economic development in an increasingly stratified class divisions centered in urban
Mao Zedong was born December 26, 1893 and lived until September 9 in 1976 when he died in Beijing China. Mao Zedong died from the Motor neuron disease. Mao Zedong was born into a peasant family in the place Shoshanna near Hunan. During the years of 1928 throughout 1931. Mao Zedong and others that worked with Mao Zedong established armies in the hinterlands and created the Red Army which was known as the most feared “army” in china during the time of the revolution.
Jonathan Spence tells his readers of how Mao Zedong was a remarkable man to say the very least. He grew up a poor farm boy from a small rural town in Shaoshan, China. Mao was originally fated to be a farmer just as his father was. It was by chance that his young wife passed away and he was permitted to continue his education which he valued so greatly. Mao matured in a China that was undergoing a threat from foreign businesses and an unruly class of young people who wanted modernization. Throughout his school years and beyond Mao watched as the nation he lived in continued to change with the immense number of youth who began to westernize. Yet in classes he learned classical Chinese literature, poems, and history. Mao also attained a thorough knowledge of the modern and Western world. This great struggle between modern and classical Chinese is what can be attributed to most of the unrest in China during this time period. His education, determination and infectious personalit...
The birth of the early 20th century gave way to many political changes around the world such as the emergence of communism as a new way to govern countries. The Soviet Union was the first country to convert to this way of governing through the Russian Revolution in 1917. With the rise of the Bolsheviks party, a small socialist party who supported the working class more than the upper class, as an outcome to this revolution many countries were inspired to follow their footsteps. One such country was China. As China fell imperially in 1911, the Chinese Communist party emerged, reflecting the same values as its inspiration by organizing the country’s urban-working class. With the invasion of Japan, China’s enemy, in 1937 the CCP’s internal opposition,
The Cultural Revolution was a social-political movement used to eradicate revisionists from China and was led by the communist Emperor Mao ZeDong. This cultural cleansing was used to break ties with capitalism to help make way for the new socialist country. The communist party that was leading China was not taking it in the right direction in Mao Zedong’s eyes, so he created an extremist cult to help reassert his force over the Chinese government. After his unsuccessful “Great Leap Forward”, Mao Zedong had lost much of his power, if he remodeled China he would be viewed as the great emperor he strived to be. This movement persecuted millions of people, killed 1.5 million, and impaired China economically and socially for a long time.
Millions of peoples was falsely accused and persecuted during the political movements of the Mao period as the CCP focused on class struggle instead of economic development during the period and tens of Millions of peoples died due to starvation as there were widespread food shortages during the great leap forward movement. This raises the problem, does the cost of the revolution outweighs the benefit and if so, can the revolution still be considered a success. This is a very difficult question as the value of human lives cannot be quantified and therefore the comparison of cost and benefit automatically creates a very excruciating dilemma. However, one study done by Barrington Moore in his classic Social origins of Dictatorship and Democracy demonstrated the experience of India during the same period of time. India shares many similarities with China in terms of population, land size and geographic proximity and therefore the two countries’ economy is highly comparable. India, which did not go through a socialist reform, nor a land reform, thus a weak industrial base and low economic growth is currently in an economic situation where half of the country is ‘slowly starving to death’, that is, more than half a billion people are chronically malnourished and will die prematurely . Comparing China with India, it can be argued that the revolution brought more benefit than cost to China and its people and therefore is a success, although the misconducts and terrors created during the Mao era were indefensible and it can be contended that the socialist reform can still occur without the persecutions and famines, however, it should be kept in mind that history cannot be assumed and thus one may only analyze what has already
Pei, M. From Reform to Revolution: The Demise of Communism in China and the Soviet Union. Harvard University Press, 1994.
One of Mao Zedong’s motivations for beginning the Cultural Revolution was his view that a cutting-edge bureaucratic ruling class had surfaced because of the centralized authoritarian nature of the political system, which had little hope for popular participation in the process of economic development (The Chinese Cultural Revolution revisited). The motivations of Fidel Castro, on the other hand, were different in that he wanted all people of all classes to be equal. The notion that the poverty-stricken could live a life equal to all other humans was an immense sense of happiness and alteration. In China, Mao Zedong developed many things to entice people.
Overview the history timeline, Mao Zedong made the cultural revolution because he wanted to remove all capitalism in the country to consolidate his party. In other words, he tried to firm his stage and power in the country, remove capitalism maybe just is an excuse of his hunger. Because a lot of evidences show that before he made this revolution, a lot of people was not side with him. Furthermore, his party do not had a lot of fund to support the party work well. Red Guard may could be considered as the way to obtain more money to build up the party (Knight). In the Western, Religion leaders also wanted people to be loyal. They were fear someone would overthrow them. To prevent it happen, Mao abuse the violent and punishment to firm communism. It caused by personal desire. Nevertheless, this way could control people in short time but not forever. Moreover, people’s beliefs also can determine the fate of a country. Because of that, Chinese leaders spent a lot of energy to unity people’s mind. First, they print out “Mao Zedong’s Quotation” and require everyone must read it and study it (Knight). It is the reason why no one tried to say no to Mao’s direction. Second, the party controlled all kind of publication, that make people can just obtain the information that the party want people to get (Princeton University). A good modern
This essay has critically analysed and examined the effect of Communism on the Chinese Society during the period of 1946-1964. The overall conclusion that can be drawn is that the Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat the Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party and achieve victory in the Civil War, in spite of alienation by the Soviet Union and opposition from the U.S. This was primarily because of the superior military strategy employed by the Communists and the economic and political reforms introduced by this party which brought more equality to the peasants in the form of land ownership and better public services. This increased China’s production and manufacturing which not only boosted the country’s economy but also provided a more sustainable supply of food, goods and services for the Chinese people.
In China, the People’s Republic of China was the Chinese communist party headed by Chairman Mao Zedong. During his rule, Chairman Mao’s most famous event was his second “5 Year Plan” or better known as China’s Great Leap Forward in 1958. The Great Leap forward was similar to Russia’s 5 year plan as it had focused on focused on the countries heavy industry. The People’s Republic of China had put in price controlling regulations on the market, enforced a Chinese character simplification in order to increase the low literacy rates, and finally implement large-scale industrialization
This essay will concentrate on the comparison and analysis of two communist figures: Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party in China, and Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union. The main focus of this paper will be to explore each figure’s world view in depth and then compare and contrast by showing their differences and similarities. Joseph Stalin was a realist dictator of the early 20th century in Russia. Before he rose to power and became the leader of the Soviet Union, he joined the Bolsheviks and was part of many illegal activities that got him convicted and he was sent to Siberia (Wood, 5, 10). In the late 1920s, Stalin was determined to take over the Soviet Union (Wiener & Arnold, 1999).
From 1977 to his death in 1994, China was under the influence of Deng Xiaoping’s rule. Deng Xiaoping was the mind behind most of the economic and social changes. Hua Guofeng took power right after Mao’s death in 1976. However, he was removed for being too soft on student revolts in 1987. Some of the changes were big changes to the economy, which also changed the government from a socialist type to a Bureaucratic government to a what government?. Under Mao, the country was strictly communist, and everything was controlled by the state. These implemented changes in the system of the economy and the that impacted the changes in everyday life in modern day China. Deng Xiaoping’s reforms were a detrimental economic impact for both China and the
In late 1960, they abandoned the Great Leap Forward. Private ownership of land was reinstated and communes were cut down to a manageable size. Peasants also had the incentive to produce as much spare food as was possible as they could sell any spare that they had a market.If Mao would have not been so unreasonable and too extreme the people of China would have been able to keep a firm grasp on their farming needs.Therefore China wouldn’t have suffered so harsh of a recession, and people would have not been demortalized Mao had expected too much while the deadline was intimidating.
When the new Chinese Government was set up in 1949, the new government faced a lot of problems. First on their agenda was how to re-build the country. As Communist Party of China (CPC) is a socialist party, their policies at the time were similar to that of the Soviet Union’s. Consequently, the CPC used a centrally planned strategy as its economic strategy when it first began. For a long time, the Chinese economy was a centrally planned economy in which none other than the state owned all companies. In fact, there were absolutely no entrepreneurs. As time went on, the problems of a centrally planned economy started to appear, such as low productivity, which was the key reason for restricting the development of China. With the population growing, the limitations of the centrally planned economy were clear. In 1978 China started its economic reform whose goal was to generate sufficient surplus value to finance the modernization of the Chinese economy. In the beginning, in the late 1970s and early 19...
Mao resigned as president of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in April 1959 , after the Great Leap Forward, planning for Chinese production to “overtake Britain in 15 years”, failed and caused a widespread famine in China, where 20-30 million people starved. President Liu and General Secretary Deng began to restore China , while Mao remained ceremonial head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Liu and Deng introduced many liberal and effective policies , which involved stepping back from communist ideals. Collectivisation and communal cafeterias were abandoned and peasants recommenced private, “capitalist” farming. They even rehabi...