Mao Zedong and the Chinese Revolution Essay

Words: 1579
Pages: 7

In 1949 a powerful communist leader by the name of Mao Zedong came to power based on his idea for a, “Great Leap Forward.” This idea was meant to bring China’s economy into the twentieth century. He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history. However, the product of this revolution created a massive national shortage in vital materials and initiated a wide scale famine to China’s people (Gabriel). Mao Zedong was a powerful leader, who was able to insight action into his followers. The author of forty poems and a charismatic speaker, it is
("The Great Leap Forward") This was known as the hundred flowers campaign, which is derived from the phrase, "Let a hundred flowers bloom." Mao believed that, "It is only by using discussion, criticism and reasoning that we can really foster correct ideas, overcome wrong ideas and really settle issues ("The Great Leap Forward")." This was an interesting point but unfortunately it is not what happened (Jackson). ("The Great Leap Forward") What Mao did not expect was the citizens had so much to say about the government, and very little of it was good. This camping was based on an unrealistic faith that the people would say only helpful things about the government, in reality China's people were unsatisfied with the performance of the Communists. However, the shortly experienced free speech was helpful to Mao, because it shed light on his critics which were quickly arrested and sent to "thought reform camps," as soon as the government censorship was reinstated. This is a classic example of the golden rule of a one-party state, fear and oppression control any critics of the government ("The Great Leap Forward") . Mao Zedong was satisfied with the progress in 1958 and was looking forward to another year of prosperity except things began to go wrong. Political leaders began to ask for the impossible in production of the