Socialist Scholar

Mao’s socioeconomic ideals implemented in China during the 1950s, such as the Great Leap Forward were both immensely successful and a terrible failure, in both political and economic terms. It is important when analysing the events instigated by Mao during this time to understand the context of China during the early 20th century and the impact of Mao’s political campaigns in addition to the scenarios that took place during Mao’s rule.

First of all, China is the oldest surviving civilization in the world today, with records of its cultural legacy dating back several thousands of years. China has been, up until the modern era, a truly advanced civilization when compared to other areas of the world such as medieval Europe. Until radical social advancements were achieved in Europe during the 17th century, China had enjoyed thousands of years of relative social and political stability, as what was mostly an agrarian society, under the rule of an Emperor.

China was unique in the Southeast Asian region in the sense that it was never a formal colony of a European state. Mao Zedong described China as a ‘semi-colony’. The social climate of China changed rapidly during the colonial era, where Europeans began trading with the Chinese more frequently, thus inciting special trading rules to be set up by the Chinese government, in order that the market may not be exploited by foreign interests. The rules were made by Chinese regulators in such a way that the British owned East India Company demanded the Emperor of China to allow for more lax regulations and better privileges for foreign traders. The Emperors declination of such demands eventually led to the instigation of the infamous Opium Wars.

As a result of the Opium Wars, Britain was allowed control of special trading zones in key port cities in China, including Hong Kong. In this way, parts of Eastern China were effectively colonised by the British and China had been opened up to full-fledged commercialization.

Japan had become interested in China and its resources during the latter 19th century. Following the collapse of the Qing dynasty, Japan had managed to occupy much of the East coast, as far south as Hong Kong by the late 1930s. By the end of the second World War, China was in a complete state of chaos.

According to Jonathan D. Spence, who wrote about Mao as Time magazine’s ‘Person of the Year’ in 1998, his ruthless vision united a fractured people and inspired revolutions far beyond China’s borders. Spence also suggested that in spite of the pain and suffering that Mao had caused, Mao could be described as both a visionary and a realist. It is evident that Mao Zedong brought about a massive social change in China during mid 20th century. He proclaimed the creation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. This was probably his greatest political achievement and speaks for itself in terms of the impact that Mao had on China during his time as ruler.

Mao was born as a peasant in a small village in the Hunan province, in 1893. He grew up in a time were there was much suffering in China as the agricultural industry suffered droughts and floods, where Western powers had imposed themselves on China in a ‘scramble for concessions’, such as the lease of Hong Kong in 1898 by the British. China was effectively being taken over by foreign interests, as the people became poorer and poorer.

Mao rejected traditional Confucian values and studied the economic and military successes of the West, in order to figure out how China could be as powerful. Mao converted to Marxism in 1920 after taking a liking to Russian sociology. Mao established the Red Army after retreating to the mountains in Southern China following a defeat of the CCP to Chiang Kai Shek of the Guomindang.

The CCP was, at the inception of the PRC, considered to be a ‘highly revolutionary party’. Its initial task was to set up the country for massive socioeconomic change. One of the first and most important changes implemented was land reform, involving the destruction of class distinctions. Marriage reform was also established early, which involved moving towards equality between the two sexes.

The CCP had managed to successfully consolidate its power over the entire country by 1952, despite having met much opposition and violence. The United States had even refused to acknowledge the creation of the CCP, in a similar manner to how Myanmar is seen today. Mackennas argued that despite this strong opposition, the CCP’s rule had also enjoyed some real successes during its early years. Inflation was under control during this time and the economy had been stabilised. The country was undergoing renewal, and emerging from its previous state of anarchy. And, of course, a new political system had been set up.

Probably the most widely known events during Mao Zedong’s rule of China, apart from the creation of the PRC, might have been Mao Zedong’s Great Leap Forward, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Lee Feigon (2003) argued that both of these events made a benefit for China, since it forced the country to ‘break away’ from its Stalinist history. Incidentally, Lee’s book, Mao: A Reinterpretation was reviewed positively, even by the Far Eastern Economic Review.

Mao had for a long time believed in the concept of bu duan geming (ongoing revolution). He posited that social stability would lead to laziness and complacency, inevitably resulting in a corrupt administration. Mao noted that “People say that poverty is bad, but in fact poverty is good. The poorer the people are, the more revolutionary they are. It is dreadful to imagine a time when everyone will be rich”.

The first ambitious project undertaken by the PRC, known as the First Five Year Plan, began in 1953. The First Five Year Plan was a socialist economic plan that focused on the development of heavy industry, having been modelled after a similar plan of the Soviet Union. As this plan was implemented, the state took ownership of most of the industrial enterprises in China. The agricultural industry, too, was transformed by the First Five Year Plan, and became known as a ‘collective’, in which farming resources and labour were pooled and dividends shared amongst farmers. Industrial output had doubled after the First Five Year Plan, but Mao was still not satisfied.

Thus began the Second Five Year Plan, the early years of which were known as the Great Leap Forward. Essentially, the government had set high targets to double steel production and encouraged workers to produce as much steel as possible. Thousands of ‘backyard furnaces’ were set up to meet the demand for steel production. The steel produced during the Great Leap Forward became practically worthless as a result of the hastily strewn together mills and questionable methods of producing the steel.

Farmers were sent to work the steel mills and abandoned their crops. Birds were to be killed under the Great Leap Forward, as they would eat and destroy the rice, but when the birds were killed, there was nothing left to kill the insects. The crops failed as a result of this and the abandonment of the crops to work the steel mills, and the massive amounts of fuel needed for the furnaces. A great famine ensued, that reportedly killed millions of people. Thus the Great Leap Forward has been infamously dubbed by some as ‘The Great Leap Backward’, and may be construed as an ultimate economical failure.

Nevertheless, the economy had recovered by the early 1960′s, and much that was built up, especially with agriculture, during the First and Second Five Year plans would become useful for the recovering economy. Mao resigned as chairman of the PRC in 1966, although he still remained the leader of the Chinese Communist Party until his death in 1976.

Colin Mackerras (1999) stated that the history of the PRC was divided into two periods, one during Mao Zedong’s rule and until the end of 1978, and the other since Deng Xiaoping came into power. He argued that these periods, although China was under the rule of communism, differed greatly. The dominant issue that ran through the life of the PRC was, according to Mackerras, ‘what kind of socialism can save China?’.

China chose to emulate a foreign model the Soviet model in its initial attempt at nation-building in 1949. Mao eventually came to believe that this model needed to be adapted in order to fit in with his own country. It was not, however, until 1971 that the communist regime of China was officially recognized as a legitimate government and admitted to the United Nations.

Tsou (1999) argued that the totalitarian regime in China, which was set up as a result of the political disintegration of the country during the early 20th century was an immense success, due to its distinguishing features of total control and total mobilization. In 1927, Mao wrote: Revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, and act of violence by which one class overthrows another.

It cannot be argued that Mao Zedong’s revolution was implemented peacefully or without much suffering or substantial loss of life. In this sense one may be inclined to believe that Mao’s Cultural Revolution was a terrible failure. On the other hand, however, Mao Zedong had united the people of China under one government and set up the economy for future success, in which Deng Xiaoping had later taken advantage of.

In many different ways, Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution can be seen as an immense success, or not only a failure but a terrible tragedy. It depends on one’s point of view. All political issues aside, however, the Cultural Revolution, although its methods were suspicious and questionable, was a success at launching the country into a relatively much more prosperous and united communist regime, and although the PRC today is leaning towards a much more capitalist society, Mao’s legacy lives on in the government of the PRC.

By: Luthor Laine

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