From the start of his participation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1943 to his death in 1976, Mao Zedong, or Mao Tse-Tung, influenced the People’s Republic of China and helped to end the Republic Period by leading in the Chinese Rebellion. However, Mao Zedong was not a beneficial leader. He was rather detrimental as is evident through the social, political, and cultural changes of China during this time period. While historians argue that Mao Zedong was one of the most destructive rulers of history, loyal Chinese and other historians argue that Mao Zedong helped improve China due to his leadership in the Sino-Japanese Wars. Here, he used guerilla tactics to change Chinese warfare. Some argue that the “successful Communist guerilla resistance
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Although Zedong intended China to strive from this switch from agrarian society to a socialist society, the Great Leap Forward was a failure. This was the reform that led to the Great Chinese Famine. The rapid industrialization and collectivization that went hand in hand with this project was only possible through forced labor. The whole event ended with more deaths than experienced in the holocaust. Even though communism increased the economy for a short period, it ended up harming the environment and degrading agriculture. For example, China lost fifteen percent of fertility in their provinces from 1959 to 1956. Without agriculture, it is hard for an economy to continue to strive. However, Zedong did not think of this. Luckily, the north and south provinces did not struggle too much. Unfortunately, central China was particularly negatively affected. His ideology involved industrialization replacing …show more content…
Zedong, in order to strengthen his political power, rallied youths and called them the “Red Guards.” Their job was to punish people who were involved with the failure of the Great Leap Forward. Religious texts and architecture was burned in the process. It was called the Cultural Revolution. It was another attempt of Zedong’s to change the Chinese way of thinking. Eventually, this reform also failed and China was damaged once again. In Beijing, the Red Guards destroyed more than seventy-two percent of the historical and cultural buildings in the area. People with capitalists thoughts were publicly disgraced and punished. For example, “over one million died, millions more were banished from urban homes to the countryside and tens of millions were humiliated or tortured”. This is best seen through the story of a Chinese poet named Ai Qing. He and his family, because they thought differently than Zedong, were banished from China to Xinjiang. There they lived in hunger and poverty. Ai Qing watched his family suffer day after day. One Chinese source said, “girls were raped; boys were starved. No wonder older Chinese do not want to revive such memories”. The culture of China darkened and people wanted to
Although Zedong intended China to strive from this switch from agrarian society to a socialist society, the Great Leap Forward was a failure. This was the reform that led to the Great Chinese Famine. The rapid industrialization and collectivization that went hand in hand with this project was only possible through forced labor. The whole event ended with more deaths than experienced in the holocaust. Even though communism increased the economy for a short period, it ended up harming the environment and degrading agriculture. For example, China lost fifteen percent of fertility in their provinces from 1959 to 1956. Without agriculture, it is hard for an economy to continue to strive. However, Zedong did not think of this. Luckily, the north and south provinces did not struggle too much. Unfortunately, central China was particularly negatively affected. His ideology involved industrialization replacing …show more content…
Zedong, in order to strengthen his political power, rallied youths and called them the “Red Guards.” Their job was to punish people who were involved with the failure of the Great Leap Forward. Religious texts and architecture was burned in the process. It was called the Cultural Revolution. It was another attempt of Zedong’s to change the Chinese way of thinking. Eventually, this reform also failed and China was damaged once again. In Beijing, the Red Guards destroyed more than seventy-two percent of the historical and cultural buildings in the area. People with capitalists thoughts were publicly disgraced and punished. For example, “over one million died, millions more were banished from urban homes to the countryside and tens of millions were humiliated or tortured”. This is best seen through the story of a Chinese poet named Ai Qing. He and his family, because they thought differently than Zedong, were banished from China to Xinjiang. There they lived in hunger and poverty. Ai Qing watched his family suffer day after day. One Chinese source said, “girls were raped; boys were starved. No wonder older Chinese do not want to revive such memories”. The culture of China darkened and people wanted to