Jump to content

History of the People's Republic of China

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  

The History of the People's Republic of China starts in 1 October 1949 with the proclaimation of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Mainland China by the Chinese Communist Party, after the Chinese Civil War against the forces of the Kuomintang.

Since 1949, the paramount leaders have been Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping since 2012.[1]

Mao era (1949–1976)

[change | change source]
Mao Zedong

Following the Chinese Civil War and the defeat of the Nationalists forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan, Mao Zedong founded the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949. After the Korean War in 1953, Mao started the organization of a new economy for China, reduction of the drugs in China, Land Reforms, judgement of landlords by the people and the introduction of a new program for the collectivization, starting the Great Leap Forward.[2][3][4]


The implementation of Marxism-Leninism in China may have been responsible for the deadliest famine in human history, in which 15–55 million people died due to starvation and epidemics, also, the birth rate was nearly cut in half because of malnutrition.[5][6][7][8]

In 1959, an uprising in Tibet with aid of the Islamic Kuomintang started, The People's Liberation Army caused the death of tens of thousands of Tibetans.[9][10]

Mao's failure with the Leap reduced his power in government, with the Chairman of the CCP beign abolished by the Communist Party after Mao's death, creating the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party.

Post-Mao Era (1976–1981)

[change | change source]

After Mao's death, Hua Guofeng turned in the new paramount leader in 1976 after a power struggle between the Gang of Four, Hua Guofeng, and eventually Deng Xiaoping.

Hua Guofeng's government

[change | change source]

Hua Guofeng immediatly arrasted the Gang of Four including Jiang Qing. Hua also ended the Cultural Revolution.

In December 1978, Deng Xiaoping replaced Hua and became the paramount leader of China.

References

[change | change source]
  1. Klaus Mühlhahn, Making China Modern: From the Great Qing to Xi Jinping (Harvard UP, 2019) pp 1–20.
  2. Stephen Rosskamm Shalom. Deaths in China Due to Communism. Center for Asian Studies Arizona State University, 1984. ISBN 0-939252-11-2 p. 24
  3. Scheidel, Walter (2017). The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century. Princeton University Press. pp. 223, 226. ISBN 978-0-691-16502-8.
  4. Walter Scheidel, The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century (2017).
  5. Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present. Ecco Press. 2008. p. [1]. ISBN 978-0-06-166116-7. Mao's responsibility for the extinction of anywhere from 40 to 70,000,000 lives brands him as a mass killer greater than Hitler or Stalin, his indifference to the suffering and the loss of humans breathtaking
  6. Meng, Xin; Qian, Nancy; Yared, Pierre (2015). "The Institutional Causes of China's Great Famine, 1959–1961". The Review of Economic Studies. 82 (4 (293)): 1568–1611. doi:10.1093/restud/rdv016. ISSN 0034-6527. JSTOR 43869477.
  7. Wemheuer, Felix; Dikötter, Frank (2011-07-01). "Sites of Horror: Mao's Great Famine [with Response]". The China Journal. 66: 155–164. doi:10.1086/tcj.66.41262812. ISSN 1324-9347.
  8. MacFarquhar, Roderick. 1974. The origins of the Cultural Revolution. London: Published for Royal Institute of International Affairs, East Asian Institute of Columbia University and Research Institute on Communist Affairs of Columbia by Oxford University Press. p. 4.
  9. "Tibetan Uprising Day: Statement of the Dalai Lama". fas.org. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  10. Bradsher, Henry S. (1969). "Tibet Struggles to Survive". Foreign Affairs. 47 (4): 750–762. doi:10.2307/20039413. ISSN 0015-7120. JSTOR 20039413.