ABSTRACT
Warren Sun describes Mao Zedong’s creation of a New China. Mao jettisoned China’s ancient Confucian and imperial institutions to follow the Soviet model. This entailed collectivizing agriculture, nationalizing industry, governing through five-year economic plans, and channeling resources from the rural to the urban economy. Mao’s risky decision to intervene in the Korean War forced a stalemate against a great-power coalition, winning himself both domestic prestige and international standing, but at the price of total diplomatic isolation from the West. Mao, however, stressed national independence from both the East and the West. The Great Leap Forward reflected his determination to improve on the Soviet model, to Sinify Marxism-Leninism, and to restore China’s historical position as a great power, all to be accomplished at breakneck speed. The introduction of the commune system in combination with unrealistic urban and rural production targets disrupted production, caused a lethal nationwide famine, and contributed to the break in relations with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Mao believed his basic approach to be correct and made a second attempt to Sinify Marxism-Leninism with the equally disruptive Cultural Revolution. Immediately upon his death his successors abandoned the Cultural Revolution. Nevertheless, they remained equally determined to restore China’s international position.
