Mao Zedong and China's Political Transformation

When Mao Zedong was born in 1893, his homeland of China was in deep political and economic trouble. Long before the rise of Mao, China believed that they were the most superior country in comparison to all other cultures and religions, resulting in complete isolation and a lack of contact with foreign countries. However, China’s political stability was tested in the early 1830’s when Western countries such as Great Britain, Germany, France, and the United States of America threatened China to open up their main trading port known as Canton, modern day Guangzhou. As a result, the Chinese faced unequal treaties and rights through this sphere of influence, leading to the loss of land to the West. 1 Furthermore, the Imperial Government and Republic

of China grew unpopular to the citizens, causing the rise of revolutionary movements. Mao Zedong, who, was one of these revolutionaries, aimed to defeat the last of the Qing Dynasty, in addition to his nemesis Chiang Kai-Shek, the leader of the Republic of China. Mao Zedong, often known as “Chairman Mao”, is arguably the most contentious leader in all of history due to the fact that he has been a savior to China, but, has also been a dictator and a tyrant to his people.

One can argue that all of Mao Zedong’s progress and reputation grew when the Chinese Communist Party made their rise to power; however, controversy and an aura of anxiety spread throughout China as Mao Zedong’s decisions were questioned by his own

people.1
As the Qing dynasty refused to modernize, the Kuomintang, or the Nationalist Party, slowly grew as a popular opposing party. Sun Yat-sen, an intellectual Nationalist revolutionary, became the president of the new Republic of China in 1912. Nationalism, People’s rights, and People’s livelihood were the three goals Yat-sen constantly stated in his path to achieve a modern society.2 However, Sun Yat-sen lacked the authority and military support to run a country, resulting in the popularity of his party declining all the way until his death in 1925. Because China’s political imbalance was during the time of World War I, the country entered a period known as the Warlord Period. When China lost a great deal of their land to Germany when the Versailles treaty was signed, they believed that joining the side of the Allies against Germany would cause the country to repossess the land they lost.2 However, the Allied leaders gave Japan these territories. After the country of China heard this news, thousands of citizens were outraged and embarked on a national movement known as the May Fourth Movement. This movement was arguably the foundation and beginning of all of the changes that China would encounter in the next 50 years.3 Moreover, this protest showed China’s goals of becoming a strong and modern nation. Sun Yixian, the ruler of the Warlord period, couldn’t strengthen this movement regardless of his praise for the May Fourth Movement. This failure marked a huge shift in political views that lead to the rise of Mao Zedong. Intellectuals were starting to turn against democracy and favored Vladimir Lenin and Karl Marx style of Soviet communism.3
In 1893, Mao Zedong was born into a decently wealthy family in the Hunan province. His father became wealthy as a farmer and grain dealer. In Mao Zedong’s province, education was praised and valued as a form of training for accounts and records. Through the age of 13, Mao was forced to learn and develop the ideas of Confucianism regardless of his own views. 3 Zedong’s relationship with his father can be viewed as a turning point that lead to his rise in the political ranks. When Mao was forced to work on the family farm, he rebelled against his father’s authority. In addition to this, he was forced into an arranged marriage in which Mao never contacted his wife.3 As a result, Mao Zedong escaped his family and province entering a high school in a new province known as Changsha. At his new school, young Mao Zedong was exposed to new ideas from the West and also learned about the type of leader Sun Yat-sen was.3 Towards the end of 1911, the citizens fight against the Qing Dynasty broke out and spread to the location of Changsha. Although Mao played a small role as a volunteer soldier in this movement, it was the first of many encounters to the opposition he would embark on. Intrigued by political activism, Zedong went to Peking University in Beijing and became a librarian.4 Two men known as Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu really introduced Mao to Marxist ideas, convincing him that the only way China would recover from the failures by the Qing Dynasty was through a political and social revolution. Whether it was from Imperial China, the Republican government, or the Warlord Period, the disorder his country went through added more motivation to Mao. Zedong led to believe that the only way to gain power and rise his political stature in China was through violence and brutality.3
In addition to those two men who aided Mao with his political views, Mao Zedong and nine other men founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).4 While this CCP was forming and making their rise, Sun Yat-sen became distant from the West due to their lack of support in a struggling government. 2 As a result, Sun decided to make an alliance with the CCP in hopes of uniting all revolutionary groups for the same goals. Rather than dealing with the working class, Mao Zedong believed that the peasants were the foundation of the revolution due to their large population in China. 1 This resulted in most of his time being devoted to organizing peasant unions in a handful of provinces. After Sun Yat-sen died in March of 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the Nationalist party. Because he wanted to have sole power in China, he evicted most of the communists in his party. However, Kai-shek put his differences with Mao aside when they helped each other in defeating the warlords.2 Almost all of Kai-shek’s followers were affluent bankers and landowners who strongly opposed Communism. Mao later ended the CCP’s tie with the Nationalist Party due to this and a growing state of resentment resulted.
About three months after these two parties separated, Chiang Kai-shek began a “Northern Expedition” striving for the unification of China while bringing down all opposition.3 While Mao believed that his peasant organizations would be able to overthrow this movement, he fell short and the CCP was completely wiped out in the cities. Depleted and defeated, Mao took a few hundred peasants from the province of Hunan to the Jinggang mountains. 3 There, Mao and the peasants organized a guerilla resistance, formally known as the Autumn Harvest Rising. Mao Zedong continued to show dedications towards the emphasis of a peasant revolution. In addition to this, Zedong was at a huge disadvantage in his fight vs Kai-shek because of the fact that Kai-shek received aid from the West. 2 The West gave the Nationalist Party weapons because they believed in containment, the act to restrict communism from further spreading. Feeling the pressure from the Nationalists, around 86,000 communists slipped through Kai-shek’s blockade and retreated six thousand miles from the south of China to the caves of Shaanxi known as the Long March.4 “If we can survive all this, we can survive everything.” 2 These were the words Mao spoke after only 8,000 communists survived this march. Because of the civil war and disorder in China, Japan became interested in invading China. As a result, Kai-shek and Zedong made a temporary alliance to defeat the Japanese in what is known as the Second Sino-Japanese war.4 After a close victory, Mao ended his truce with Kai-shek and made his final push to the top.
As stated earlier, the United States also gave 2 billion dollars to Kai-shek to stop the communist spread. However, Chinese citizens started to realize that the economy of China would be terrible without the aid from the West. Thousands of Nationalist soldiers began deserting to the CCP; as a result, Mao’s troops, known as the Red Army, began to take control of many cities. In addition the Red Army siding with Mao, they were ecstatic when their new leader promised to return the land to the peasants. The remaining of Kai-shek’s army fled to the south and Mao Zedong officially gained control of the country. 2 He called it the People’s Republic of China. In the meantime, the United States were frightened by this news; in addition to Mao signing a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union.
Immediately after Mao gained sole control of the country, the Communists were not gentle in making their presence known. Though they only made up one percent of China, they were a well-trained group who was growing by the day.2 Because Mao was determined to reshape China based on Marxist socialism, he granted 10 percent of the rural population to control 70 percent of the farmland.2 In addition to this, his forces killed over a million landlords who resisted this demand. John Roderick was an American journalist who covered Mao Zedong. He wrote, “In his early years, as absolute ruler, Mao did much to alleviate the poverty, epidemic disease and natural disasters that had plagued China for centuries.” Later on, peasants were forced to join collective farms, 200 to 300 households consisted in one of these farms. In Mao’s mind, the Soviet Path was the only path. 5 For many citizens, daily life improved after these economic changes; however, Mao Zedong wanted better results and was impatient for more progress.1 Because of his impatience, Mao Zedong made many impulsive decisions resulting in many believing that he failed to save China and “created horrific destruction” for the Chinese people.
Mao Zedong’s first poor decision came when he dreamed of a movement known as the “Great Leap Forward.” He believed that it would quickly take China out of poverty and create a modern and lucrative state.5 In addition the China’s economic state causing this movement, Mao’s mental state was all over the place due to the fact that he couldn’t accept failure, and blamed others for his own mistakes and decisions.1 The “Great Leap Forward” composed of nearly impossible economic goals, the elimination of private property, and the goal of reaching Communism all across the country in an extremely short time. Moreover, Mao Zedong chose his faith in labor rather than focusing on technology that would help China modernize the most. 3 Though Mao didn’t inform the country of these goals and failures, he couldn’t hide that famine was spreading all around China. One of Mao’s greatest flaws as a leader was his reluctant inability to accept advice from others. 5 He believed that only his way of “doing things” was the right way. The cooperation between the Soviet Union and China began to fade after the Soviet Union viewed the decline of China. In addition to this, these two countries grew more competitive when trying to lead the worldwide Communist movement.2 After China took a step backward rather than forward, Mao reduced his role in the Chinese government. 3 This was a sign that Mao Zedong finally started to take the blame on himself. However, Mao was concerned about his slight power loss and that this whole revolution wouldn’t make it past his death.3 As a result, the Cultural Revolution began.
Mao Zedong’s second costly mistake, the Cultural Revolution lasted a decade from 1966 to 1976.

Mao shifted his emphasis from the peasants and focused on the youth of China. 2 He urged a mass movement of youth and fight against the “four olds”: old customs, old culture, old thinking, and old habits.2 As a result, the Red Guards were created. This youth group would assault those whom they believed were followers of the old culture in China. It seemed as if Mao Zedong was going against the plan of building a “strong socialist state” because he still believed in the need for state power. Buildings, museums, homes, and colleges were burned if they represented any elements of the four olds.2 Furthermore, intellectuals, Mao’s old support group, were forced into hard labor in remote villages. Pandemonium had entered the country of China. This chaos messed with farm production and closed down all factories.2 Surprisingly, Mao Zedong admitted that the Cultural Revolution needed to conclude and it ultimately hindered China’s growth. After Mao assigned Zhou Enlai and Xiaoping to help save this revolution, he believed that they were threatening to end the whole revolution.3 This lead to more minor violent movements and Mao Zedong’s eventual decline. The Cultural Revolution had bad written all over it as soon as Mao and the country of China entered

it.
Mao Zedong was a talented revolutionary motivated by visions of a socialist society and domestic success.3 Mao Zedong should be given a great deal of credit in causing a victory in the civil war against Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. Resurrecting China’s independence is another aspect that should be appreciated and credited towards Mao Zedong. However, the way and approach Mao ruled China after 1949 is a lot more debatable.3 It cannot be argued that the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution had terrible results and led to decades of consequences for China. The inability to accept personal responsibility for failure resulted in his reputation spiraling down and losing control of the country he once had.5 Mao Zedong’s failures outweighed his successes, resulting in him being viewed as a dictator and a tyrant to his own people.