Consolidation and crises: Maoism, 1950–1976

Chinese communism had a very different trajectory. It had shared Soviet utopian aspirations amid a similarly inhospitable environment and stabilized under a highly repressive regime. Yet after one disastrous false start, Chinese communists found an economic solution, which has so far avoided the dislocations of further revolution, they have generated enduring economic growth and they have restored China’s historic status as Asia’s giant. Though this has not yet led toward either democracy or equality, it has been much the better outcome for the mass of the people. How did this remarkable trajectory happen?

There were major differences from the Soviet Union. Time was one, for China became communist later, in a less threatening geopolitical environment, and it could learn from Soviet mistakes. China was far more ethnically homogeneous, which provided more social cohesion and enabled less centralized government. Its greater provincial and county level political autonomy proved an advantage. Yet at the time of its revolution China was much more backward than Russia. Its revolution had been not urban-industrial but agrarian, based on core support among poor and middling peasants. Most leaders, unlike the Bolsheviks, were of peasant origin. The ascent to power differed too, following civil war, not preceding it. The Red armies took much of the credit inside China for victory in the War against Japan, and they defeated the Nationalist armies in the civil war that followed. By 1950 communist rule and the personal leadership of Mao Tse-tung were unchallenged. Support was widespread, especially in the countryside, where 85 percent of the population lived. The communists had restored peace, national unity, and freedom from foreign domination – and the peasants had the land.