The period from 1949 to 1976 saw the biggest change that happened in China. China had developed dramatically and getting stronger. The revolutions led by chairman Mao had taken Chinese people into a new life. On the other hand, The Mao years was also marked as the tragedy years because the largest number of people died in that period. The following are some representative historical events, from which we are able to know the corresponding history and have the image of that time period.
Key time: 1949
Event: The founding ceremony of People's repbulic of China 开国大典
Event: The founding ceremony of People's repbulic of China 开国大典
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The founding ceremony of PRC was held at 3pm of Oct.10 in the Tiananmen square. Mao Zedong read the declaration from the Central People’s Government and claim that the people's republic of China was established. 300 thousands of people gathered in Tiananmen square to celebrate that exciting moment.All the troops to be reviewed passed in front of the Tiananmen Rostrum from East to West with the Tiananmen platform as the center, according to the sequence of the navy, the army, and the air force. This ceremony had a very profound impact on Chinese modern history; it stands for the new era of Chinese history. From then on, China had ended the hundreds years period of being invaded and enslaved to become a independent country.
Key time: 1950-1953
Event: War to resisit US aggression and aid Korea 抗美援朝
Event: War to resisit US aggression and aid Korea 抗美援朝
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On Oct. 1950, Mao held the meeting of Political Bureau of the CPC central committee and put forward a decision to ''resist US and aid Korea". Soon after, China had involved the Korean war, which was the first large-scale war after the establishment of PRC. Chinese military entered Korea to help resisting the aggression of US and the U.N.. The war ended with the winning of Chinese army and it also helped Chinese people to get united and confidence. While the loss of this war was huge. According to the rough statistic, there was more than 100 thousand of soldiers sacrificed on the battle field. Also, the cost of war impeded the country's economic development. Last but not least, it broke Chinese friendly relationship with US, the Soviet Union and even the U.N..
Key time: 1956
Event: Hundred Flowers Campaign 百花运动
Event: Hundred Flowers Campaign 百花运动
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This campaign in 1956 encouraged Chinese citizens to express the diverse culture and to give their opinions of communist regime. As Mao said:" the policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought content is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the process of science." It was supposed to be a good idea to let people evaluate Mao's management and to develop the cultural diversity. While no one realized that this positive policy was Mao's conspiracy to destory the people and organizations that ran contray to his management. After this brief period of liberalization, Mao abruptly changed course. The crackdown continued through 1957 as an Anti-Rightist Campaign against those who were critical of the regime and its ideology. Those targeted were publicly criticized, condemned to prison labor camps and in many cases executed.Mao remarked at the time that he had "enticed the snakes out of their caves." A lot of innocent and upright people was implicated to sufferings.It was definitely an ignominious behvior for Mao and it had a negative impact on his prestige.
Key Time: 1958-1961
Event: Great leap Forward 大跃进
Event: Great leap Forward 大跃进
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This campaign aimed to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a communist utopia society to surpass the economic power of Great Britain (and, eventually, the United States) through centralized industrialization and collectivization. To achieve this, Mao required citizens to hand in everything in their home that made of iron as the material of steelmaking. And he also asked people to involve in agriculture to produce plenty of food to up to his standard. Mao's original intention was good: he wanted to change Chinese poor economic system and to consolidate China's international status. However, the Great Leap Forward was ridiculous and catastrophic. Specifically, the quality and purity of citizen's iron was too poor to make steel, let along the lack of special steelmaking machines.This cause serious resources waste and environment pollution. In addition, the standard of food quantity Mao set was unreachable. To reach the standard, farmers seeded and planted blindly, which largely reduced soil fertility. In a word, the campaign totally divorced from the reality and it resulted in Great famine. The Great leap forward was regarded as the"largest-scale planned massacre in the history", which had caused tens of millions of death. This campagin was the biggest mistake Mao had made, for it deteriorated the country's economic as well as people's well-being. Mao's conceit and lack of the understanding of country's situation directly attributed to this disaster.
Key time: 1964
Event: The explosion of first atomic bomb 第一颗原子弹爆发
Event: The explosion of first atomic bomb 第一颗原子弹爆发
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Since 1960, chairman Mao had called on Chinese scientists to rely on their own efforts and develop China's atomic bomb and it became truth in Oct. 1964, when China exploded its first atomic bomb. China is the fifth member of this exclusive club, joining the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France.Chinese first neclear test aroused the worldwide attention. The success of explosion raised China's international standing in terms of nuclear power, thereby strengthening national defense and military capability. More important, on the same day, the Chinese government made a solemn promise to the world that it developed nuclear weapons only for the purpose of self-defense and safeguarding national security. China would never at any time or under any circumstances be the first to use nuclear weapons. The following video records China's explosion of first atomic bomb.
Key time:1966-1976
Event: Cultural revolution 文化大革命
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After the fiasco that was the Great Leap Forward and the massive tragedy that was the Great Famine, Mao Zedong’s power within the Chinese Communist Party was beginning to falter. In 1966, Mao zedong launched Cultural revolution in order to reassert his authoring over the Chinese government. The two critical objects in cultural revolution were "little red book"( quotations from chairman mao) and " red guards"(the state-sanctioned army of unsupervised teenagers). The " little red book" was the only thing people need to learn, so Mao shut dowm the nation's schools calling for massive youth students to take the revolution. Those students known as "red guard" obeyed Mao's policies unconditionally. To ensure the domination of his thought, Mao suppressed and executed the intellectuals. Mao, who believed in Marxist theory thought capitalsim should be removed from China's society. People who owned property were regarded as capitalists and they were forced to hand in their property and criticized or even executeed in public. In this case, a vast majority of people died just because they had personal capitals or they were intellectuals. From historical view, the cultural revolution was one of the huge mistakes of Mao, which brought negative influence on China's society. In details, it made tens of thousands of innocent and valuable people dead and hindered the country's education development. It also created a indiffernt social conduct which eliminated the trust between each other.
Key time: 1972
Event:1972 Nixon visit to China 尼克松访华
Key time: 1972
Event:1972 Nixon visit to China 尼克松访华
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1972 Nixon visit to People's republic of China marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, which at that time considered the U.S. one of its foes, and the visit ended 25 years of separation between the two sides. It was the most important diplomacy in twentieth century and it was the critical step in formally normalizing relations between China and The united State. During the visit, Nixon and Zhou Enlai agreed to expand cultural contacts between their two nations. Nixon also established plans for a permanent U.S. trade mission in China. He also met and talk to chairmen Mao at zhongnanhai and gave him a wine glass as a gift. The Nixon trip had three objectives: to embrace the People's Republic of China for a peaceful settlement on Taiwan, peaceful settlement of the Vietnam War, and to deter the Soviet Union's sphere of Communist influence after the Sino-Soviet split. The details are showed in the following video.
Key time: 9/9/1976
Event: The death of Mao 毛泽东之死
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About seventeen years of Mao's year ended as the death of Mao on Sept.9 1976. Mao's body was put in the front of Tiananmen square and Chinese people will memorize him. Although Mao had made some huge mistakes like Great leap forward and cultural revolution, we could not deny that he made a lot of effort to develop China. He found a new China with better life quality, military power and nuclear technology. Overall, his contributions triumph his faults. Therefore he should be remembered by Chinese people and history.