By 1947, the Communist policy of land reform was reaping rewards and gaining the support of people in the countryside. In 1948-9, the Communists gained decisive victories over the KMT. On 1 October 1949 Chairman Mao pronounced the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Chiang Kaishek fled to Taiwan, establishing a Nationalist government and taking with him many Imperial treasures.
In the early years of the People’s Republic, the Chinese worked hard to rebuild a country devastated by 100 years of turmoil. New laws sought to redress inequities of the past, redistributing land and outlawing arranged marriages. The Party promptly branded intellectuals as “rightists” and sent them to the countryside for re-education. Frustrated with the slow rate of change, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958. Large communes providing food and childcare replaced the family, releasing manual labor and improving productivity. But unrealistic productivity targets and the falsification of statistics concealed the disastrous effect of Mao’s experiment. Agricultural failure coupled with natural disasters resulted in the starvation of millions.
Having reformed agriculture and industry, Mao sought to transform society and launched the Cultural Revolution in 1965. The greatest excesses of the period were over by 1971, but the country was tightly controlled and directed until Mao’s death in 1976. Deng Xiaoping emerged as leader, implementing economic reforms which returned land to the peasants and encouraged greater economic freedom.
The economic liberalization of the 1980s stimulated the economy but was unmatched by political freedom. On 4 June 1989 the democracy movement which called for political reform break out in Tian’an Men Square. Deng Xiaoping pressed on with economic reform, and the 1990s saw the opening of Special Economic Zones and stock exchanges in most major cities. By 1992, China’s economy had become one of the largest in the world.
The unprecedented rate of economic growth in the 1990s was matched by the transformation of the landscape as traditional buildings made way for modern high-rises. The former colonies of Hong Kong and Macau were returned to China and foreign investment flooded in. Entrepreneurs prospered, and the Communist Party has been keen to attract this new class into its ranks. Disbanding the state economy has also spawned inequity, and the gap between rich and poor grows increasingly wider. How the most populous nation on earth resolves the many issues it faces is of compelling interest to the rest of a world on whose future a reawakened China is going to have a massive impact. The 2008 Olympics, to be held in Beijing, may provide a glimpse of the shape that future takes.
