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What legacy did Mao Zedong leave his successors?
Mao Zedong is one of the most controversial leaders of the twentieth century. The Chinese people know him both as a survivor and a tyrant. From his tactical success of the Long March to his embarrassing failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao has greatly influenced the result of what China is today. Most of Mao's major successes have been in the Cap's rise to power, while Mao's failure have come at the time when the CCP was in power. To focus on Mao's legacy one has to illuminate the questions why Mao despite all his big failures and his tyranny hold such a hero status? And how did his successors elude with his controversial legacy?
China was a "predominantly rural society, with more than 80% of its people peasants" before Mao came into power. The economic problems were so big that the totalitarianism with which Mao reigned was necessary. "The collectivisation and industrialisation programmes that Mao enforces may not have accorded with civil rights as understood and operated in other nations but China's needs made them unavoidable." Mao's way of reign was ruthless and despotic but it saved China from "disintegration and laid the basis for the 'revolution' of the 80's when Deng was able to build the four modernisations upon the hard won achievements of the Maoist-Years." Mao altered the fundamentals of Chinese government he introduced into China something that it had not known before "the concept of continuing revolution". Mao's conception of democracy was based on the doctrine of popular dictatorship, in which the party would exercise leadership through constant attention to the masses. "All authority came from the top and it was the people's duty to obey " and Mao and his politic with the communist party CCP was sufficient to satisfy all China's wants. The Chinese belief in the perfectibility of man through education, self-cultivation, and the moral example of rulers was reflected in the CCP style of rule under Mao; party members, steeped in Maoist thought, were supposed to lead by their personal commitment and moral example. Maos philosophy was particularly evident in the treatment of those who deviated from party policy; if anyone strayed from the party line, a struggle would be undertaken to reform and return the deviant to what was viewed as a useful role in society.Rectification campaigns and criticism/self-criticism meetings were used to convince people of the error of their opinions or habits. Mao altered Marxist-Leninism in two major ways. First, he argued that the Chinese peasants, instead of the urban proletariat, could be the key element in the revolutionary struggle. Second, he extended the Chinese folk belief that man could overcome objective conditions and accomplish things by sheer force of will. One can say "Maoism was not so much a Marxist ideology as a practical expression of China's age old belief in its superiority over all other cultures. In the term 'Chinese Communism' the adjective not the noun is important. Mao was engaged in an essentially Chinese exercise. His espousal of worldwide revolution was not an appeal for the unity of international Marxism but a demand that revolutionaries everywhere follow the Maoist path." In the eyes of his people Mao was the great leader, the survivor and he was a typical Chinese scholar, who pursued character perfection and was also something of a romanticist. This is why he stayed close to the people, sharing with them their happiness and woes even after the founding of new China. The Chinese people still respect Mao as a great person. In certain remote mountain villages, his image can be seen in temples being worshipped alongside that of Sakyamuni. In cities, his miniature portrait often hangs in taxis. The general attitude towards Mao is similar to that generally held towards the CCP many may complain about its mistakes, but the majority has to admit that there could be no stable, developing China without the CCP.
Nevertheless one has to point out very clearly that Mao had to take the largest responsibility of the lasting effects from the Great leap Forward (158) and the Cultural Revolution (166), these terrible campaigns which influenced the social, economical and cultural developments in China until the present. His utopianism, radicalism and authoritarianism had not only led him and CCP to victory over Guomindang, but also changed the entire nation into the sufferings from revolutions and confrontations. As Edgar Snow remarked, Maos achievement was perhaps unique… a dreamer, warrior, politician, ideologist, poet, egoist, revolutionary destroyer-creator," Mao was the sole leader of the Chinese people, but his failure in the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution destroyed his personality cult and heroic image in the peoples mind. There is no doubt that Mao was never " qualified as an economic planer", he had been a revolutionary and his experiences lay in fighting for political rights and military strategies. But this "had in no way prepared him for the task of shaping the economy of a vast nation". Mao's economic strategy and his campaigns, which served Maos desire on creating a communist utopian society "proved to be flawed and misconceived". "He believed that by relying on Chinas unlimited manpower he could effect the same advance than the western industrial" with good economy plans and elaborate policy. His collectivisation programme produced no additional food but famine. Millions of people died.The reason of such huge famine was Maos policy on constructing dams around the country by massive human labour force and the backyard steel furnace. Males only put these massive projects together from the countryside, which left no healthy and strong labours in the field to do the agricultural works. Even in the crop period, there was not enough labour force to reap the yield. The shortages of food combined with the cooperativization of agriculture from the Peoples Communes system led to corruption and violence for food in every village. The backyard steel furnace also contributed into this disaster. Massive labour force had constrained into this dull project. Furthermore, people had to contribute all their metal and firewood to supply the raw material needed for forging steel. It turned out the quality of steel was inferior. The perplexity from the backyard steel furnace and the Commune system had started the resistance in the mind of people, especially from the bourgeoisie and rich peasants.
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Following the disaster of the Great Leap Forward Mao launched the Cultural Revolution. Red guards were formed in 166 and sent into the countryside to force bureaucrats, professors, technicians, intellectuals, and other no peasants into rural work. Thousands were murdered or forced to give up their job. The resulting anarchy, terror and paralysis completely disrupted the urban economy, industrial production dipped. The Cultural Revolution served Maos intention on purging Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, but the outcomes of this revolution, as Harry Harding argued, was unrelenting intrigue, betrayal, and violence at the highest level of leadership. Ironically the ideology and the cult of Mao surged to the highest point in the Cultural Revolution. It caused a barrier of other ideological and philosophical development in the culture. A long-lasting effect from the time of Cultural Revolution was the rapid growth in population. There were about two hundred million children born during the ten years of the great rebellion. The birth control planning lost the designator because of many experienced cadres in this field were criticised and purged, and also the romanticism from the revolution increased the sexual activities in the masses. The cult of Mao made people fell into Maos theory of a newborn child was a set of productive hands waiting to work, rather than as a hungry mouth waiting to be fed.As the young people being born during the Maoist baby boom began to reach working age in the late-170s, unemployment and underemployment of the urban labour force became the major problem in the early Dengs era. Another Maos legacy suffered by the Chinese people was his persecution toward the intellectual and educational culture during the Cultural Revolution. Maos beliefs of intellectuals were all evil which could be trace from his background in the studies of traditional Chinese philosophy, especially Legalism. In addiction, Maos hatred toward intellectual could be seek back to the criticism Mao suffered in the Hundred Flower campaign, his strategy of using intellectuals to criticise his foes within the party had backfired. Mao had also uttered his view toward intelligentsia to Doctor Li, which explained why Mao used the Cultural Revolution for not only removal Liu and Deng, but also the irritating intellectuals, just liked the bourgeois. Mao was deeply suspicious of Chinas intellectuals… intellectuals had to be reformed. Mao put the intellectuals in the bourgeois camp. Intellectuals are unstable… swinging with the wind… they are ignorant of real life." " The party has not yet properly educated the intellectuals. The bourgeois spirit hangs like a ghost over their heads. They are vacillating. …His (Maos) lifelong disdain for the arrogance of parasitic intellectuals. Maos lack policy on the economic development and his ignorance of the need of practical preparation from economist led to unproductive and limited economic development that was not up to Chinas potential.
During the next six years, Maos health gradually deteriorated and he inevitably ceded most of his power to his wife and the Gang of Four, a radical group consisting of Maos wife and three others. They ruled China while Mao grew more incapacitated. But even in the waning years of his life, Mao continued to write and espouse his belief in the power of Sinified-Marxism. On September th 176 Mao died. After his death, there was a power struggle over who would control China. Despite all the woe, death and a country left on the verge of collapse " Mao's role during the years 166-76 was clear to everyone; he was the author and prime mover of the great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. A repudiation of it would automatically mean evaluating his position and activities. Could this be accomplished without irreparably shattering his image as the founder of People's China, and perhaps, still more important, without inflicting permanent damage on the prestige and credibility of the party?" Because of this a lot of the top CCP leaders and the first successor of MaoHua Guefong- decided to follow Maos direction to stabilise the party and extended Maos influence into every part of the country. Huas legitimacy was based on his theory of two whatever - whatever Mao had decided would remain valid and whatever Mao had instructed should not be contravened. The two whatever theory was an endeavour by Hua to not only solidify his authority in the CCP and PRC, but also an attempt to eliminate any Maos damaging legacy after his forty years of authoritarianism. Hua did not step away until 180 but during this time Deng's power grow at the expense of Hua's. "Deng was a natural survivor". He had an "instinctive feel for politics and his strength lay in his reputation and his range of contacts". Furthermore "developments in foreign affairs further accented the shift of power to Deng". He had learned of the greatest international statesman Zhou Enlai, with whom he worked together for a couple of years until his dead. Beginning in 178, Deng Xiaoping became China's paramount leader. He didn't take the highest official position himself. Instead his associate Hu Yaobang replaced Hua as a premier in September 180. It was difficult for Deng to change things because of the god-position that Mao still held in but he found the compromise in saying that Mao was a great leader in his days but that he made mistakes that had to be corrected now. Deng began to push for the reform of Mao's socialist economy. He created the Open Door Policy, and China began to open to the outside world. Tourism was allowed, students began to go overseas, special economic zones were established, and joint ventures with foreign firms were encouraged to bring in foreign technology, investment, managerial know-how, and market access. He emphasised that state firms government agencies should be led by those who had some expertise, not just by those who showed the proper revolutionary favor. He encouraged the elemination of rural communes, and land was turned over to the rural household. Agricultural productivity jumped dramatically, free markets were created to sell food. A large number of rural workers began to pour into other economic activities. A two-tier piercing scheme was created that encouraged first farmers and then state firms to produce more than their planned quota, and the economy began to "grow out of the plan", in the words of Naughton. State owned enterprises were given to improved managerial incentives, allowed to keep much of their own profits for reinvestment and worker bonuses, and forced to rely loans from state banks rather than direct government grants. Eventually, the planned economy, with its quotas and its fixed prices, would be dismanteled, but unlike in the former Soviet Union it did not happen suddenly and did not leat to an economic collapse. State firms were encouraged to compete with each other, and new types of firms were also allowed to compete in formerly monopolized sectors. Rural firms were allowed to compete, and by the late 80's they accounted for most of China's exports. Small family firms would be allowed as well.
In these years Deng has succeeded where Mao failed developing the country. But even though he never got a similar popularity as Mao.
Chen Yun, a leading economic planner, drew the conclusion of the life and legacy of Mao in a speech at a national Party work conference a few year after Maos death
Had Chairman Mao died in 156, there would have been no doubt that he was a great leader of the Chinese people… Had he died in 166, his meritorious achievements would have been somewhat tarnished. However, his achievements were still very good. Since he actually died in 176, there is nothing we can do about it. Chens statement summarised the dominant view of the Chinese people after Maos death if there were no Great Leap Forward and no Cultural Revolution, Mao would have remained the greatest leader of the Chinese people in the twentieth century. The legacy of Mao could draw into two spheres one was the admirable and loveable figurehead of uniting the mainland China, resisting western imperialists and Japanese invasions, developing a centralised bureaucratic socialist government structure, and most importantly, uniting the Chinese people to stand up. In the other sphere, Mao responsibilities of the disturbance and disaster of the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution were another legacy of Mao.
Bibliography
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