China:
the formation and formation of the PRC

During the many years of civil war (almost a quarter century) in China in 1949, the Communist Party (CCP) won. The remnants of the Kuomintang regime were evacuated to the island of Taiwan, where the power and jurisdiction of the Republic of China formally remained.

On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed in Beijing; Mao Zedong became the first head of the PRC government. The USSR was the first to recognize the PRC government and provided serious support in laying the foundations of Chinese industry, in training specialists, and in ensuring the country’s defense capabilities.

In 1950-52 in China, the complex tasks of restoring the national economy were being addressed. Landlord tenure was abolished, land was divided between peasants, foreign capital enterprises were nationalized. In 1953, the CPC determined the strategy of socialist transformations in China, which were to be carried out on a gradual basis over three five-year periods. It should be noted that the Soviet model was introduced in China with the decisive role of the state and central planning. The death of Stalin and the swift condemnation of his personality cult by the 20th Congress of the CPSU provoked a double reaction in China. On the one hand, the CCP condemned the cult of personality, emphasizing the need for collective leadership. On the other hand, China began to emphasize that it was China that could and should become the center of the world revolutionary movement and an example in socialist construction.

The leadership of the CCP, led by Mao Zedong, advocated accelerating socialist transformations. First of all, it was about the accelerated cooperation of the peasantry. In the village for a short period - towards the end of 1956, the formation of socialist cooperatives was completed, for which the Chinese peasantry was neither economically nor organizationally ready. The enterprises and trade belonging to the national bourgeoisie were nationalized in the city. During conversations about Chinese characteristics, a breakdown of the traditional oriental society actually took place, the traditional layers (craftsmen, traders) characteristic of the Chinese city disappeared. Mao Zedong and his supporters imposed on the party and the country in 1958 a new general line - "bigger, faster, better." The idea of the “Great Leap Forward” was to mobilize China’s raw materials and huge human resources for accelerated coal mining and the production of pig iron and steel. In fact, the construction of tens of thousands of practically artisanal mines and a domain has become the largest financial and economic adventure, a huge waste of funds and resources. Numerous ideological campaigns and purges were used to suppress dissatisfaction with such a course within the party.

In August 1966, the beginning of the "cultural revolution" was proclaimed in China. It was supposed to destroy the barriers that impeded the revolutionary development of China: the eastern cultural tradition, the bureaucracy, the "bourgeois" leadership and the intelligentsia. The shock force of the "cultural revolution" was proclaimed "hungweibins" from among students and schoolchildren and "zaofani" from among young workers. In reality, of course, the decisive force of the “cultural revolution” was the army. The cultural revolution plunged the country, and, above all, its economy, education and science into chaos. About a hundred million people became its victims, three hundred thousand died. The USSR was declared the “main enemy”.

After the death of Mao Zedong (September 1976), the "cultural revolution" was discontinued. At the end of 1978, a group of pragmatic leaders led by Deng Xiaoping came to the leadership of China. They said that 20 years of radical “socialist experiments” and a “cultural revolution” were time wasted for China. The new leaders put economic development of the country and the gradual implementation of reforms at the forefront. In agriculture, the main production unit was the peasant’s yard. The peasants received land in a family contract and the opportunity to independently dispose of the products of their labor. In the cities of China, entrepreneurial activity of artisans, artisans, and then cooperatives began to be encouraged. Millions of city dwellers were given the opportunity first of limited, and then freer entrepreneurial activity. State enterprises were given greater freedom of action and initiative.

An important and integral part of the reforms was the “open door” policy. It is about attracting foreign capital to China, creating favorable economic and legal conditions for this. But reforms in China are not developing deeply. They are accompanied by corruption among party and government officials, increased social disengagement, and growing differences in the level of development between coastal areas and the outback. Reforms are also not accompanied by the democratization of political life.

However, China’s progress along the reform path continues. On this path, new problems and contradictions await him. But by the end of the 20th century. China has become a great economically and politically powerful nuclear weapon, maintaining a high pace of economic development.

Pavlova Ekaterina Pavlovna