Sixty years of changes in the structure of social classes and strata in China1

At different stages of social development, the structures of social classes and strata are different. This chapter discusses the changes in the structure of social classes and strata in the period of socialist transformation. In 1926, in his Analysis of the Classes in Chinese Society, Mao Zedong systematically and profoundly explained the situation of social classes and strata in China before the founding of New China. The social classes and strata of New China were reconstructed. The First Five-Year Plan laid the foundation and made a good start for subsequent industrialization in China. By the end of 1956, China’s “one change and three transformations” had made more progress than originally planned. The years from 1957–1977 was a period of great progress in China’s industrialization. Politically, China was a state under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.