Mao Zedong and the People’s Republic of China
Many today believe that China is on its way to becoming one of the world’s top superpowers. Increased diplomatic talks with the United States and its recent admission into the World Trade Organization only emphasize its growing political and economic importance. According to an article in TIME Magazine: “the People's Republic is the buzz of all Asia as a candidate superpower of the next century.” All this from a country that at the beginning of the last century lacked an effective central government, and was still holding fast to socio-political traditions that were centuries old. Today, China has achieved the unity that has so long been an issue in its history, and that eluded political leaders from 1912 to 1949. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, no one could have imagined such progress, and it is possible that China would not have progressed at such a rate were it not for one man. Mao Zedong led China through a successful revolution, and instituted vital changes that allowed China to begin its journey to superpower status. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, China was a land of tradition, mostly untouched by time. About ninety-four percent of the Chinese population lived in small rural villages. With a popu . . .
The CCP meanwhile was slowly growing. In this way, the Long March can be compared to the Winter of 1777 at Valley Forge during the American Revolution. The Communists managed to easily advance through China mainly because they had the overwhelming support of the people. People were asked to donate money for the war cause, and that vast majority of them did, one woman giving two weeks of her salary . Out of this, Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party were supposed to build a strong, peaceful, modernized, unified, and most importantly socialist nation. What made things worse for the poor was the emergence of regional warlords after the fall of Emperor Ch’ing in 1912. New hospitals were built, an official national currency was standardized, and a modest transportation and communication infrastructure were created. In Yanan, Mao was busy adapting Marxism so that it could work in China. When the Korean war began on June 25th, 1950, the North made enormous advances into the South. China needed to be fundamentally reformed, and this needed to be done with the support of its population. Back in China, the effect the war had on national pride and moral was incredible. Japanese aggression was increasing, and when the Japanese occupied Manchuria and began slowly moving south, Chiang did nothing to stop them. All of these changes, while raising the standard of living for the average person, also exponentially increased the amount of control the CCP had over the populous. To achieve this, they set out immediately. They also organized people into work units, which gave people employment, housing, and access to health care and education.
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