The Chinese Communist Revolution: Mao to Deng Xiaoping

In 1949, Mao Zedong stood above Tiananmen Square and declared a new state. Twenty-eight years before, his party had begun with a few dozen members. Its story runs through a long march, a famine and a revolution that turned on itself. Then came a quiet shift under Deng Xiaoping.

In this lesson, we follow the Chinese Communist Party from 1921 to 1989. We see the Jiangxi base, the Long March and the victory of 1949. Then we meet the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Deng’s reforms and Tiananmen.

1How did Mao build a peasant revolution?

The Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921. Its early leaders were thinkers such as Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. Mao Zedong was one of the founding members. He was not yet its leader.

Russian Marxists had looked to city workers. Mao looked at the Chinese countryside instead. Most Chinese people were poor farmers. He believed they could carry a revolution.

In November 1931, Mao and Zhu De helped proclaim the Chinese Soviet Republic. Its capital was Ruijin, in the Jiangxi Soviet. There the Party tested land redistribution and ran its own army and government.

• Party founded in 1921. Mao was a founding member, not the founder.
• Mao’s base was the peasantry, not city workers.
• 1931: Chinese Soviet Republic, capital Ruijin in Jiangxi.

2What was the Long March?

Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist army attacked the Jiangxi base again and again. After the Fifth Encirclement Campaign, the Party decided to leave. It set out on 10 October 1934.

About 86,000 troops in the main force marched west and north. The wider march lasted until October 1935. Marchers covered roughly 10,000 kilometres, or about 6,200 miles. They crossed rivers and mountains under attack.

Only about 8,000 troops ultimately survived the whole march. They reached Yan’an in Shaanxi province. During the march, Mao rose to the top of the Party. Yan’an became the Communist base for years.

• October 1934 to October 1935: the Long March.
• About 10,000 km. About 8,000 survivors.
• Destination: Yan’an in Shaanxi, not Shanxi.

3How did the Communists win in 1949?

The Communists and Nationalists first fought from 1927. They paused to face the Japanese invasion. After 1945, the civil war began again. The Communists won by 1949.

On 1 October 1949, Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China. He spoke at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. On 7 December 1949, the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan.

• Civil war resumed after 1945. Communists won.
• 1 October 1949: People’s Republic proclaimed in Beijing.
• 7 December 1949: Nationalists retreat to Taiwan.

4What went wrong in the Great Leap Forward?

In 1958, Mao launched the Great Leap Forward. The aim was to turn China into an industrial power fast. Farmers were gathered into huge people’s communes. Private farming was banned.

Villagers were told to make steel in backyard furnaces. They melted pots and tools to meet targets. The steel was poor. Meanwhile, fields were neglected.

Officials sent in false reports of huge harvests. The state then took grain based on those numbers. Villages were left hungry. The Great Chinese Famine ran from 1959 to 1961.

Estimates of deaths range from 15 million to 55 million. The numbers are debated, but the scale is not. In 1962, Mao gave up day-to-day leadership to moderates such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.

• 1958-1962: Great Leap Forward. People’s communes.
• Backyard furnaces made poor steel.
• False harvest reports led to famine, 1959-1961.
• Deaths: an estimated 15 to 55 million.

5What was the Cultural Revolution?

Mao feared that his rivals were taking China back toward capitalism. In May 1966, he launched the Cultural Revolution. It lasted until his death in 1976.

Students formed Red Guard groups. They attacked teachers, officials and old customs. Schools closed. Many leaders were purged. Deng Xiaoping was among them.

By the end, the Party itself was divided and weakened. Many Chinese people wanted stability and a better life. That mood helped Deng’s later reforms.

• Launched in May 1966. Ended with Mao’s death in 1976.
• Red Guards attacked teachers, officials and old customs.
• Many leaders were purged, including Deng.

6How did Deng change China?

Mao died in September 1976. By the end of 1978, Deng Xiaoping was the leading figure in the Party. He set the country on a new course, called Reform and Opening.

The goal was the Four Modernizations: agriculture, industry, defence, and science and technology. Premier Zhou Enlai had announced them earlier. Deng made them the centre of policy.

In the countryside, the household responsibility system spread from 1979. Families farmed their own plots and kept extra grain. It was made official in 1982. Rural factories, called township and village enterprises, grew fast in the 1980s and 1990s.

Shenzhen became the first special economic zone. It turned a fishing town into a manufacturing city. In 1978, the writer Wei Jingsheng put up an essay on Beijing’s Democracy Wall. He called democracy a “Fifth Modernization”. He was later jailed.

Population policy also tightened. A near-universal one-child limit began in 1980. It ran until 2015, when two children were allowed. In 2021, the limit rose to three.

• 1978: Deng’s Reform and Opening.
• Four Modernizations: agriculture, industry, defence, science and technology.
• Household responsibility system from 1979. Official in 1982.
• Shenzhen: first special economic zone.
• One-child policy: 1980 to 2015.

7What happened at Tiananmen in 1989?

Economic change brought new hopes and new anger. Prices rose, and many people disliked corruption. Others wanted more political freedom.

The death of the reformist leader Hu Yaobang on 15 April 1989 sparked student protests. They filled Tiananmen Square. The year was also the seventieth anniversary of the May Fourth Movement of 1919.

On 20 May, martial law was declared. Troops entered central Beijing in the early hours of 4 June. The Party ended the protests by force. Economic reform continued, but political change did not.

• Protests: 15 April to 4 June 1989.
• Trigger: death of Hu Yaobang.
• Link: 70th anniversary of May Fourth.
• Martial law on 20 May. Troops cleared the area on 4 June.

8What are the exam traps?

• Yan’an is in Shaanxi. Shanxi is a different province.
• The Cultural Revolution began in 1966, not 1965.
• The Great Leap Forward was 1958. The Cultural Revolution came later.
• Mao was a founding member of the Party, not its sole founder.
• One-child policy ended in 2015 with two children, then three in 2021.