ABSTRACT
Social turmoil or prosperity was seen as due to the moral qualities of individuals and groups rather than material conditions. The China in which the Communist Party was founded in 1921 was politically, economically, socially and ideologically fragmented. Warlord regimes vied for power. The wealth and social position of rural classes was subject to sudden and extreme variations as intermittent civil war took its toll. The China in which the Communist Party was founded in 1921 was politically, economically, socially and ideologically fragmented. Modern capitalism coexisted with a 'feudal' agrarian economy. Change within China during the last three decades has been away from a society which the Chinese Communist Party describes as 'feudal'. During the course of the campaigns, the Communist Party switched from its earlier concentration on mobilising the industrial workers to developing a peasant movement and a radical programme of land reform.
