Incidents and Massacres During the Reign of Chairman Mao - Essay Example

Introduction Before the two World Wars, China was in a very poor As other nations were developing rapidly China lacked in every field. At thattime only a genius could have saved them from being destroyed completely and that genius came in the form of Chairman Mao. Before the two World Wars, China was in a very poor state. As other nations were developing rapidly China lacked in every field. The falling Qin dynasty was not able to handle social and economical condition that was deteriorating, and had mortgaged the revenues and other of its natural resources to the strong foreign countries. Mao used an approach similar to that of Qin dynasty that is ruling with spreading fear and hatred against himself due to his policies and style. After his victory over Chiang Kai-shek in 1949 that was a communist leader, and the creating of the People's Republic of China, Mao's position was seen as very strong in China. Although Chinese people had endured a lot during this time, but it seemed not too hard for Mao to persuade them of his visionary force and practical need for the Great Leap Forward of the late 1950s and he was successful in doing so. Despite the deaths of millions he caused, Mao was both a creative thinker and a practical person. He learned as a youth not only how Shang Yang a previous Qin Dynasty leader brought cruel laws to the Chinese people. Mao also knew that the Qin rulers had been both hated and feared and that there dynasty was soon ended due to their actions, despite its strength of force and efficient use of terror. Finally Mao died in 1976 but left a mark on the history of China. Failure of Chairman Mao Mao had difficulty during his time to establish a successful domestic economic and social policy for China. In 1958, Mao placed a Great Leap Forward, which was mainly a trial to break with the Russian model of Communism and to fill the Chinese people with renewed radical energy. Approximately 20-30 million people died in the food crisis as the program badly failed, between the years 1958-61. Thus, Mao withdrew temporarily from public view. As the result of the failure, help from Soviet Union also ended which was another shock for China. The major cause of the failing of every strategy implied by Chairman Mao whether its socialism, capitalism, dictatorship or democracy was his way of ruling over the people. A solid proof is his continuous changing of the five-year plan. Chairman Mao is held in high regard in China and is often portrayed as a great revolutionary leader and a military and political genius. He led China through difficult times such as of the War of Resistance and the Civil War and changed China from a weak country into a major power through his social and economic reforms. However a number of the reforms put into action by Mao have been condemned and held responsible by critics from inside and across the borders of the territory of China to result in stern harm to the culture, economy, society, and foreign relations of the country on the whole. Mao launched the First Five Year Plan in 1953-58. It aimed to end Chinese reliance upon agriculture in order to become a world power. With assistance from USSR, new plants were set-up and agricultural production declined heavily and low enough from the point where the industrialization prospered enough that the country needed no further support from the USSR. The success of the First Five Year Plan gave confidence to Mao to instigate the Second Five Year Plan, the Great Leap Forward, in 1958, which turned out to be a major failure because of his tyranny. The opposition against him was so large and strong that he had to take some action, which he did in the form of massive killings. Another reason for the failing of all kinds of reforms implemented by Chairman Mao was the motive behind them. According to many writers this is proved that every five-year plan and every social or economic policy Chairman Mao implemented was to reduce the power of his opponents or was to eliminate them. During the Great Leap Forward the reason for the failure was not a single one but many. Under this movement Mao and his partners ordered implementation of a range of not proven and unscientific new agricultural methods by the new communes. Together with the labor changes to manufacturing steel and basic infrastructure schemes and the decreased individual incentives under a community scheme this led to approximately 15% decline in production of grain production during the year 1959, and further 10% decline in 1960 and with no betterment in 1961. A huge number of peasants and prisoners were forced to work on a number of the infrastructure schemes eventually turned useless because the construction took place without appropriate input from any trained engineer; mainly due to the fact that Mao had rejected them on grounds of ideology. Next the Cultural Revolution failed for a number of reasons as well. In the Cultural Revolution, Mao closed the schools in China and the young people living in the cities were commanded to the countryside. They were forced to produce weapons for the Red Army that was under Chairman Mao. The Revolution led to the annihilation of much of China's cultural legacy and the detention of a great number of Chinese people, as well as making general economic and social confusion in the country. Millions of lives were ruined all through this period. The major reason for failure here was tyranny again. Hatred for Chairman Mao doubled during this time. Making arms rather than studying abused future of China. Summary The reign of Chairman Mao has been full of incidents and massacres. Millions were killed in useless movements that resulted in failures. Chairman Mao always wanted to get every single enemy out of his way by killing them, every of his movement and five-year plan were aimed to reduce opposition of any form; although he always believed on hard work and was a genius in every field of politics but most of his political tactics failed. The major reason in contributing to these failures as mentioned above is the way he ruled with no mercy and ruthlessness. Bibliography W. Scott Morton, Charlton M. Lewis, Charlton Lewis. China: Its History and Culture 4th Edition. McGraw-Hill. (June 1, 2004). Zhiyue, Ph.D. Bo. Chinese Provincial Leaders: Economic Performance and Political Mobility Since 1949. East Gate Book (April 2002). Roderick MacFarquhar, Eugene Wu, Timothy Cheek. The Secret Speeches of Chairman Mao: From the Hundred Flowers to the Great Leap Forward. Harvard University Asia Center. (October 1989). Read More