Rise of China - 'The Great Leap Forward'

by Panzer
China, 1949.
From Peking’s Tiananmen Square, Communist leader Mao Zedong has
proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
A new age for China, for the Chinese Communist Party - and for Chairman Mao.
He has devoted his life to revolution, and to his dream of transforming China.
Now is his moment.
Mao's government calls itself a ‘people’s
democratic dictatorship’. But democracy is not on the agenda.
Instead, the heart of government is the Central Committee of around 100 senior party members.
Above that, the 12-strong Politburo.
And within that, the Politburo Standing Committee, where true power lies.
There are five members… including:
Liu Shaoqi, a veteran labour organiser who studied in Moscow;
he is now vice-chairman of the Communist Party…
Zhou Enlai, a hero of the Revolution, once Mao’s superior within the party,
but who has now publicly and privately committed to Mao’s leadership. Charming
and polite, he has shown a great talent for diplomacy,
and will serve as Communist China’s first state premier, and foreign minister…
And… Mao himself, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and paramount leader.
Aged 55, Mao now wields unchallenged personal authority – the result of his
inspiring leadership in the struggle against the Japanese and Nationalists.
Though never a natural orator, Mao is a charismatic figure,
capable of deep intellectual thought, shrewd political tactics, and stirring writing.
Since 1938, he has been married to his fourth wife, the famous actress Jiang Qing.
She is a powerful personality in her own right – ferociously loyal to Mao,
and scathing of his rivals - real or imagined.
After years of revolution, invasion and civil war, China is impoverished,
and in desperate need of reform and rebuilding.
The Communist Party gets to work immediately,
to impose a vision on the country that is heavily inspired by Soviet thinking.
To this end, around 10,000 Soviet advisors arrive in China, to assist in reconstruction.
The country remains an overwhelmingly agrarian society.
In 1949, by rough estimate, every fifth person on earth is a Chinese peasant.
They have long provided the base for Communist success in China – wooed by the promise of
land redistribution, which has been enforced in Communist-controlled areas since the early 1930s.
Now it is to be rolled out on a national scale.
Rural landowners, who have dominated the Chinese countryside for centuries,
are vilified for abusing their power over peasants.
They are publicly humiliated by the Communists, put on trial and executed in huge numbers.