Mao Zedond and the Communist Party

Mao Zedong also known as MaTse-tung was born in December 26, 1893 in Hunana province in China. Mao was a soldier and a Maxist theorist who was helped form the People’s Republic of china. Mao is probably the most known statesman in modern China. He became the leader of the Chinese Communist Party in 1935 a vessel he used to lead the communist revolution and bring communism into China. Mao detested the western culture an entrenched communism into the Chinese people. After his death economic reforms were engaged to keep up with the west. Mao still had many people within his party who believed in communism and to achieve economic growth the new leadership knew they had to conform to the west. This paper will look at how this was achieved but by first it will look at how Mao managed to entrench communism into China. 

After the great Cultural Revolution, China emerged as the most populous nation on earth and began setting its path towards social change and economic development 1 . Some would argue that CPP was managed by a group of leaders and so it was a group who shaped the new China. The truth is there were key leaders who were involved in the decisions that steered China towards the direction of economic and social change, the most notable being Mao Zedong. But it was without a doubt that Mao Zedong is the one who architected the new communist China 2 . 

When Mao began his control over China he went into achieving three main agendas; first was economic and social change, second was national unity and lastly was freedom from foreign interference 3 . The CPP commenced by first revolutionizing rural China. The peasant farmers were given land and educated to support the revolution. Many rich Land lords were killed and land given to the state who in turn gave them to the poor peasant farmers in return the farmers supported the party maintained party control in the villages. CPP was doing as the soviets did in a bid to adopt their way of government 4 . 

In the cities, Mao took a more careful approach. He implemented a policy of alliance rather than to conquer. He made alliances with the intellectuals and the merchant middle class to take control of the cities and implement communism. The state took over the control of transport, industries and banking but did not take over private businesses 5 . The state was tolerant in the first years of the revolution. This was, however, short lived for the private business owners 

In 1950 CPP introduced the new marriage law which was seen by many in China as a radical reform. Reformist thinkers in China were leading the fight for women liberation for a while now and significant gains had been made. The new law was inconsistent with the progress. 

Mao at the beginning of his rule he wanted to have a good working relationship with the US government but America saw CPP to be working with the Soviets, had its doubts and made it very clear to CPP that she would not work together with China 6 . This did not go well with Mao who had good intentions for their relationship. US-Soviet relations were already strained and any country that was deemed to be a sympathizer to the Soviets was seen as an enemy by the Americans. The Korean War further deteriorated the relationship between the two countries with CPP forging for a major alliance with the Soviet Union. US responded with trade embargos against China 7 . 

U.N troops predominantly made of US troops eventually managed to drive the Chinese and the North Koreans out of the South which led to the division of the country to North and South Korea. USSR supplied China with most of its weapons in the war. 

After the Korean War Mao continued with radical changes trying to purge the republic of anti-revolutionaries. He had developed a strong hatred for the Americans. Western culture including music was abolished in China. During that period, Mao’s administration is estimated to have killed between one to three million people 8 . Mao then began a process of cleaning up the party targeting those who opposed the party. The administration targeted the middle class with calls for anti-theft of government secretes, tax evaders, fraud and many more which the government used. A charge like selling government secretes could not be substantiated by the arresting person and led to the incarceration and killing the innocent. 

This concentrated attack on the middle class was a deliberate effort to make them give up their properties to the state and work in the state enterprises. Those who became adamant were arrested and sentenced to long jail terms. The government at this point had claimed most of the private property and reverted them into state property. 

In 1953 Mao launched the strategy for developing China economy anchored on the soviet model. USSR was the only country in the whole world with a communist economic system so China did not have anywhere but the Soviet Union to learn from. China gave priority to heavy industry as the Soviets did 9 . 

Communism continued till Mao’s death in September 6, 1976 at the age of 83 years. Deng then took over and became the most powerful leader in China by the year 1977 becoming a new position known as Chairman of the central military commission 10 . 

Deng then immediately came up with a strategy to keep up with the west and reforms on the communist system of government began. His administration laid down four modernization pillars; agriculture, notional defense, science and technology and industry 11 . Deng wanted the economic success of the west without its democracy. His administration from the beginning made it very clear that there will be no political liberation in China. Anyone who would defy this and demand for democracy would be dealt with. This adoption of western economic way of doing things but not the political way meant the Deng was not ready to fully move from communism. 

Deng in a bid to try and make his economic policies popular, he relaxed control of the media which worked for a moment 12 . This is the complete opposite of what Mao would do. The media started by criticizing Deng’s opponents but the criticism went further to find fault with the party. The media who started advocating for democracy as a fifth modernization pillar were soon punished and freedom of the media was abolished. Without a free media or free political environment, the country went back into a communist political dictatorship. 

Deng, then, made efforts and established a close working relationship with the US and the benefits of this relationship began with educational reforms 13 . Deng knew that the key to scientific and technological success was to be achieved through well-educated population. He knew that innovations in science, engineering and technology while having the challenges faced by everyday Chinese was the key to unlock economic prosperity 14 . He understood that the country had to have skilled labor and internationally competitive skilled labor in order to compete with the west. Many Chinese students were sent to study abroad. They would then come back and work in China transferring what they had learnt back to the country. American students were also brought to study in China in an exchange program. Many other American Universities allowed for student exchange program with China 15 . This strategy was to educate many Chinese students in the science and technology of the western world then make them come back home, implement the acquire education and enable the country to catch up with the west. Western music was also allowed back into the country but on a restricted basis. 

At the same time, Deng began the purge of Maoists from the party. He knew that economic reforms he was carrying out by adopting the western way would raise a lot of resistance from the old party members. By 1983 he had exiled about 5,500 members from the party. The remaining members had to undergo training on the change of ideology focusing on moderate change for greater economic development 16 . The army also received the same fate of exile as the party members. The soldiers who served in the red army or were Maoist sent awy from the army. He was however careful not to purge the long march veterans. They were instead persuaded to resign 

The agricultural reforms were very successful. Deng implemented the “contract responsibility system”. This system offered support for private farmers by first allocating them land that the government had initially taken. The government then dissolved the great land communes and leased the farms to farmers. The farmers had to first fulfill the government quotas. After the fulfillment the rest of the produce could now be sold by the farmer 17 . The strategy on agriculture was so successful that the amount of food produced in the period from 1979 to 1984 doubled the amount produced in the last 20 years of farming. 

Agricultural reform was the first among the four reform agendas. Private businesses were allowed back into the cities. Western businessmen were encouraged to invest in China in joint ventures. More technology was imported into the country in these joint ventures 18 . 

Post Mao China saw increased economic development and abolishment of communism. However, communism was not fully abolished. Economically post Mao adopted the capitalist way of doing things. All the properties that were acquired by the state were privatized. This saw increased efficiency and better production methods. The political side was still in the Mao error. There was no political liberties and no freedom of the media. This system of governance is a hybrid of communist and capitalist, 

Bibliography 

An, Tai Sung.  Mao Tse-tung's cultural revolution . Pegasus, 1972. 

Baum, R. (1986). Modernization and legal reform in post-Mao China: the rebirth of socialist legality.  Studies in Comparative Communism ,  19 (2), 69-103. 

Chen, Chung, Lawrence Chang, and Yimin Zhang. "The role of foreign direct investment in China's post-1978 economic development."  World development  23, no. 4 (1995): 691-703. 

Evans, Richard.  Deng Xiaoping and the making of modern China . Penguin Group USA, 1997. 

Lenin, Vladimir Ilich.  The Agrarian Programme of Social Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905-1907 . Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954. 

Lin, Jing.  Education in Post-Mao China . Praeger Publishers, 1993. 

McMillen, Donald Hugh.  Chinese communist power and policy in Xinjiang, 1949-1977 . Westview Press, 1979. 

Mok, Ka Ho. "Privatization or marketization: Educational development in post-Mao China."  International Review of Education  43, no. 5 (1997): 547-567. 

Watson, Andrew. "Modernizing China: Post-Mao Reform and Development." (1988): 330-332. 

1 An, Tai Sung.  Mao Tse-tung's cultural revolution . Pegasus, 1972 

2 McMillen, Donald Hugh.  Chinese communist power and policy in Xinjiang, 1949-1977 . Westview Press, 1979. 

3 An, Tai Sung.  Mao Tse-tung's cultural revolution . Pegasus, 1972. 

4 Lenin, Vladimir Ilich.  The Agrarian Programme of Social Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905-1907 . Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954 

5 An, Tai Sung.  Mao Tse-tung's cultural revolution . Pegasus, 1972 

6 Ibid 

7 An, Tai Sung.  Mao Tse-tung's cultural revolution . Pegasus, 1972 

8 Ibid 

9 Lenin, Vladimir Ilich.  The Agrarian Programme of Social Democracy in the First Russian Revolution, 1905-1907 . Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954. 

10 Evans, Richard.  Deng Xiaoping and the making of modern China . Penguin Group USA, 1997. 

11 Baum, R. (1986). Modernization and legal reform in post-Mao China: the rebirth of socialist legality.  Studies in Comparative Communism ,  19 (2), 69-103. 

12 Evans, Richard.  Deng Xiaoping and the making of modern China . Penguin Group USA, 1997 

13 Mok, Ka Ho. "Privatization or marketization: Educational development in post-Mao China."  International Review of Education  43, no. 5 (1997): 547-567.

14 Evans, Richard.  Deng Xiaoping and the making of modern China . Penguin Group USA, 1997.

15 Lin, Jing.  Education in Post-Mao China . Praeger Publishers, 1993 

16 Baum, R. (1986). Modernization and legal reform in post-Mao China: the rebirth of socialist legality.  Studies in Comparative Communism ,  19 (2), 69-103.

17 Mok, Ka Ho. "Privatization or marketization: Educational development in post-Mao China."  International Review of Education  43, no. 5 (1997): 547-567. 

18 Ibid