The People's Republic of China (1949–2020)

1 October 1949, declared by Mao Zedong from Tiananmen Gate, after the CCP's victory in the civil war.

Peasants were mobilised in 'speak bitterness' meetings to accuse landlords, whose land was seized and redistributed; an estimated 1–2 million landlords were killed.

A mass terror campaign against spies, Guomindang loyalists, and wider 'class enemies', often driven by execution quotas set in advance by local officials.

The right to choose their own spouse, divorce, and own property; it banned arranged marriage, child betrothal, and buying/selling brides — though enforcement was weaker in rural areas.

Peasants' private land (recently granted in land reform) was pooled into agricultural cooperatives and then large collective farms, in theory to raise output.

Mao invited open criticism of the Communist Party from intellectuals and officials, encouraging honest feedback to 'let a hundred flowers bloom'.

A sudden crackdown on the very critics encouraged by Hundred Flowers; 400,000–550,000+ people were branded 'Rightists' and sent to labour camps or lost their jobs.

Hundred Flowers (early 1957) invited open criticism of the Party; the Anti-Rightist Campaign (from mid-1957) punished that same criticism, silencing honest feedback for years.

Mao's campaign to rapidly industrialise China, merging collectives into giant People's Communes and pushing peasants into 'backyard furnace' steel production alongside farming.

Most historians estimate between 15 and 45 million deaths from starvation and related causes — one of the deadliest famines in history.

Whether it was mainly natural disaster and honest mistakes, or mainly man-made political failure — inflated harvest reports from a fear culture created by the Anti-Rightist Campaign, worsened by Mao purging critics like Peng Dehuai.

He criticised the Great Leap Forward's failures; Mao responded by purging him from power rather than reversing the policy.

Mao feared a US/UN victory would put a hostile power on China's border and threaten the new communist state, especially once UN forces crossed the 38th parallel and neared the Yalu River. Around 3 million 'People's Volunteers' fought under Peng Dehuai.

The line of latitude that divided North and South Korea before, during, and (as the DMZ) after the Korean War.

The 1953 Armistice restored roughly the pre-war border near the 38th parallel. China's intervention was hugely significant: it fought the world's most powerful military to a standstill, proved the new PRC could defend itself, but cost 400,000+ Chinese casualties and hardened US containment of China for two decades.

The breakdown of the China-USSR alliance from the late 1950s over ideology, leadership, and national interest, turning two communist giants into rivals.

1) Khrushchev's 1956 'de-Stalinization' speech, which Mao saw as a betrayal of revolutionary struggle. 2) Mao's anger at the USSR withdrawing aid/advisers (1960) and refusing to share nuclear technology. 3) A border dispute erupting in armed clashes at the Ussuri River (1969), plus rival claims to leadership of world communism.

The surprise invitation of the US table tennis team to China in April 1971, used as a low-risk public signal that both countries were ready to talk after 20 years of hostility.

Both wanted to use each other against the USSR (triangular diplomacy): Nixon wanted leverage over Moscow and an exit from Vietnam; Mao, after the Ussuri clashes, wanted a counterweight to a hostile Soviet Union on his border. The result was the Shanghai Communiqué, acknowledging 'One China' while leaving Taiwan's status unresolved.

Mao died in September 1976. The radical 'Gang of Four' were arrested within a month. Deng, twice purged during the Cultural Revolution, was rehabilitated and outmanoeuvred Mao's chosen successor Hua Guofeng, becoming China's paramount leader by December 1978 without ever holding the top state or party title.

Four radical Cultural Revolution leaders (including Mao's wife Jiang Qing) blamed for its excesses and arrested weeks after Mao's death.

The Third Plenum (December 1978) shifted the party's focus from 'class struggle' to economic modernization. The 1981 Party 'Resolution on History' judged Mao '70% right, 30% wrong', formally closing the Cultural Revolution era while keeping Mao as a legitimizing symbol.

Students and workers gathered from April 1989 (sparked by the death of reformist leader Hu Yaobang) to demand anti-corruption measures and political reform, amid inflation and frustration that economic opening hadn't brought political change. On 3-4 June, Deng ordered the army to clear the square by force; hundreds to thousands were killed.

Deng built collective leadership and fixed term limits partly to prevent another Mao-style personality cult. Xi has reversed this: removing presidential term limits (2018), enshrining 'Xi Jinping Thought' in the constitution, and centralizing power through anti-corruption campaigns and tighter party control.

This is a live historical debate: Deng rejected Mao's economics (radical collectivization, Cultural Revolution chaos) but preserved Mao's core principle of one-party political control, shown clearly by the Tiananmen crackdown — reform without democratization.

Agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology — the four sectors Deng's reform programme aimed to modernise after Mao's death in 1976.

The Communist Party's label for keeping total political control while allowing market forces, private enterprise and foreign investment to drive the economy.

A 1978–80s reform replacing Mao's collective farms: families could lease land, sell surplus crops for profit, and keep the proceeds themselves.

Shenzhen — grew from a fishing town of about 30,000 people in 1980 into a city of millions, becoming a showcase for market reform.

2001 — it opened global markets to Chinese exports, accelerating China's role as 'the world's factory' and driving rapid GDP growth.

China's household registration system tying access to schools, healthcare and services to a person's birthplace, leaving migrant workers in cities without full local benefits.

Slowed population growth, but caused a skewed gender ratio (preference for sons) and a rapidly ageing population with fewer young workers.

Deng: cautious, 'hide strength, bide time', avoid confrontation while building the economy. Xi: confident and assertive, launching global projects like the Belt and Road Initiative.

A Chinese-funded programme (launched 2013) building ports, railways, energy and digital infrastructure across Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America, echoing the ancient Silk Road.

The claim that China deliberately offers large loans so it can seize strategic assets on default — e.g. Sri Lanka's Hambantota port, leased to China for 99 years in 2017.

Succeeded: hundreds of millions lifted out of extreme poverty. Serious problems: inequality between coastal and rural China widened dramatically.

Hong Kong was returned to China from Britain under 'one country, two systems', recovering territory lost in the 19th century without war.