History+LS

The Communist Party of China was founded on July 1, 1921. We fought against the Nationalists for control of China during World War II. People liked the idea of communism because Chairman Mao promised to end the people's oppression from their landlords, introduce land reforms, and industrialize China. Our 3 main goals were to create a better life for the poor, develop a modern economy, and make China a major world power. These goals were very hard to achieve because of our huge population. They were also very hard to achieve because our industries and farms were destroyed during the war. However, we felt that if we got rid of the class system that we would be better able to achieve these goals.

After gaining power we began making land reforms. We took land from people who owned large amounts and divided it up between poorer families. They we formed collective farms. A collective farm is a farm where peasants pool together their land, tools, and labor. They work for the state and part of their harvest has to be sold to the government. The Chairman Mao created a program called the Great Leap Forward. He divided China up into communes. The communes controlled the land of the people and their lives. Families were split up. Each worker was assigned a job. This eventually led to disaster. The people resisted and food production fell. Because workers were guaranteed to make money, many of them didn't work very hard.

After the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao was concerned with the factions in his party. In order to raise the revolutionary spirit he created the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He told young people to not tolerate capitalism within the country. Then the Red Guards was formed. They help big rallies to support Mao. They forced people to admit to "crimes" against Mao. Chaos was created in China. Schools were closed, and factory production slowed. The Chinese army fixed things is 1969. People began to lose faith in Chairman Mao.

When Mao died Deng Xiaoping became the next leader. He created a program called the Four Modernizations. The goal was to modernize agriculture, expand industry, develop science and technology, and upgrade China's defense force. To do this he planned to increase the use of machines in farming and make China a self-sufficient food producer. He then created the Responsibility System which held families responsible for making their own living. They then had to sell some of their harvest to the government. It allowed them to make a profit and the standard of living was raised. Anyone who supported Democracy was harassed and jailed.