Mao’s Ideology

Chang Hai Shek, leader of the KMT became the leader of China and opted for China to be modernised. The CCP then came into the frame and civil war broke out between the two parties. The KMT controlled the coastal areas and the industrial areas and cities whereas the CCP where based in the interior of China. The Second World the people horrifically. The KMT and CCP united temporarily to try to drive out the Japanese with help from the USSR and US. However after the Japanese were wiped out the civil war resumed. The KMT had backing from the U.S but the CCP seized control of the nation and Mao came to power.

Son of a rich peasant, Mao Zedong was born in a village in the Hunan province on 26th December 1893. During his early years the Chinese Dynasty was disappearing and new western ideas were undermining faith in traditional values and beliefs. Mao became assimilated with a broad range of western ideas and became involved with New Youth Magazine, a western influenced magazine. He was introduced to Marxism in late 1918 and later became attracted to Lenin’s ideas. His conversion to communism occurred around the summer of 1920. One of the main problems Mao faced when in power was the tension between economic development and ideology. His ideas on industry, agriculture, political control and culture did not always relate to the stability of the country both economically and socially.

Like Russia before 1917, China in the 1920’s and 1930’s had not experienced much industrialisation, all the industry they had had been because of foreign investment in the period of the nationalists. The KMT had established a committee which had used state power to coordinate industrial production; however Mao did not follow these same ideas. Like Stalin, Mao believed that vigorous application of the states power could be used to revolutionise the economy. Also that mass mobilisation of the people and co-ordination of the state’s resources should be used to achieve this. The first five year plan was put together with these ideas. The main objectives of the plan were to rapidly and dramatically develop and expand heavy industry and infrastructure. The results of this plan were good however like those of Stalin’s Russia; need to be treated with caution. However, it seems clear that the five year plan did result in a significant growth of output in the essential areas of coal and steel production as well as electricity generation. Urbanisation also occurred in China as the amount of city dwellers grew from 57 million to 100 million in 8 years.