ABSTRACT
Mao Zedong was under no illusions that the revolution had been won when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power on the mainland: He explicitly compared the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to the first step on a new Long March. Under the leadership of the working class and the CCP, the People’s Democratic Dictatorship would suppress the lackeys of imperialism: landlords, bureaucratic capitalists, and Kuomintang reactionaries. Consonant with the concept of a people’s democratic dictatorship, the communist party is, and has been, the only meaningful party in China since 1949. From its earliest years, the party made considerable efforts to draw the average individual into the political process. The Hundred Flowers campaign seemed to disprove the idea that China could move gradually toward communism, with people’s attitudes moving inexorably toward acceptance of socialist goals.
