Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong led the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Mao's Red Army overthrew Chiang- Kai Shek in 1949, and the communists seized power of mainland China. The People's Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949 after two decades of civil and international war.
Whilst other leaders argued for a slow and stable process of economic development based on Soviet Leninist principles, Mao argued for mass mobilization which concentrated on the peasants instead of the urban working class. He wanted rapid economic development to take place in China. The success of his rapid collectivization of the countryside, lead him to implement the ‘Great Leap Forward’ in which the relatively small agricultural collectives were merged into far larger people's communes. Many of the peasants were ordered to work on massive infrastructure projects and the small-scale production of iron and steel. Some private food production was banned; livestock and farm implements were brought under collective ownership. The program failed and lead to a famine between 1961-63. Instead of taking the blame upon himself, he blamed other Chinese leaders such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaping.
He launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966, due to fear of his decreasing power and to eliminate counterrevolutionary elements in the country's institutions and leadership. He organized China's urban youths into groups called the Red Guards, shut down China's schools, and encouraged the Red Guards to attack all traditional values and "bourgeois things." The Cultural Revolution was repudiated after Mao’s death. His policies caused the death of millions of people.
His foreign policy was focused on containing capitalism and stopping American influence in the states around China. He also wanted to promote its interests in Tibet, which he believed to be essential to the Chinese state. It was involved in the Korean War and supported North Korea as South Korea was being supported by the U.S.A. India wanted to maintain good relations with China and was one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with China. It also signed the Panchsheela agreement in 1954. However, things de-escalated with the Tibetan uprising in 1959, followed by an increasing number of border skirmishes which led to the Indo-China war of 1962.
China initially had good relations with the Soviet Union and borrowed many of its ideas as well. However, relations started worsening starting from 1956 as the countries began to drift apart ideologically as is seen by the implementation of the Great leap forward. Chinese leaders were also disturbed by the Soviet Union's moves under Nikita Khrushchev toward de-Stalinization and peaceful coexistence with the West. Mao also called for a militant policy toward the non-communist world in contrast to the more conciliatory policy of the Soviet Union. During the 1960s the Sino-Soviet ideological dispute deepened and spread to include territorial issues, culminating in 1969 in bloody armed clashes on their border. The Sino-Soviet dispute was also intensified by increasing competition between Beijing and Moscow for influence in the Third World and the international communist movement. China also criticised the Soviet Union for signing the Test Ban treaty with the United States in 1963. The Chinese Communist Party broke off ties with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1966, and these were not restored till mid-1987.
