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Chapter Five ‖ The Founding of the People’s Republic of China and the Establishment of the Socialist System

Editorial Group of This Book

January 1, 2021

第五章 中华人民共和国的成立和社会主义制度的建立

本书编写组

Chapter Five ‖ The Founding of the People’s Republic of China and the Establishment of the Socialist System第五章 中华人民共和国的成立和社会主义制度的建立

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Originally Written By
Editorial Group of This Book本书编写组
Publisher
CPC History Press中共党史出版社

Chapter Five ‖ The Founding of the People’s Republic of China and the Establishment of the Socialist System

第五章 ‖ 中华人民共和国的成立和社会主义制度的建立

On the afternoon of October 1, 1949, 300,000 soldiers and civilians gathered in Tiananmen Square in the capital Beijing for a grand founding ceremony. Mao Zedong solemnly proclaimed: “The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China is hereby established today.” Fifty-four ceremonial cannons fired twenty-eight salvos, symbolizing the twenty-eight years of struggle the Party had led the people through. The founding of the People’s Republic of China opened a new chapter in Chinese history. The Communist Party of China, which had led and organized the people’s revolution to victory, became the party holding sovereign power across the entire nation, and set out on a new journey to lead the people in creating a happy and prosperous life. A new chapter in the Party’s history was also opened.

October 1st became the National Day of the People’s Republic of China.

I. The Founding of the People’s Republic of China and the Consolidation of the Newborn People’s Sovereign Power

The Tests Faced at the Outset of Governance

Before the founding ceremony, Mao Zedong presided over the first session of the Central People’s Government Committee. The session unanimously resolved to adopt the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as the governing program, and appointed Zhou Enlai as Premier of the Government Administration Council of the Central People’s Government. ▶ A Brief History of the Communist Party of China This was a great leap forward, achieving a high degree of national unity and unprecedented solidarity among all ethnic groups. The Chinese people have stood up! The Chinese people have from this moment firmly grasped their own destiny in their own hands, becoming the masters of the state, of society, and of their own fate! The development and progress of the Chinese nation has from this moment entered a new era!

★ At 3 p.m. on October 1, 1949, the founding ceremony was grandly held at Tiananmen Square. Mao Zedong solemnly proclaimed: “The Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China is hereby established today.”

Mao Zedong was appointed Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission, and Zhu De was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the People’s Liberation Army, among other appointments. Those appointed to lead the Central People’s Government and Government Administration Council institutions included outstanding representatives, prominent figures, and experts from the Communist Party of China, various democratic parties, overseas Chinese, and other patriotic and democratic personages. This fully embodied the guideline of multi-party cooperation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China in building the nation together, as well as the distinctive character of the people’s democratic sovereign power.

The founding of the People’s Republic of China completely ended the history of old China as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society; completely ended the situation of old China being a sheet of loose sand; completely abolished the unequal treaties imposed on China by the great powers and all the privileges of imperialism in China; and achieved the great leap forward from thousands of years of feudal autocratic politics to people’s democracy in China.

The founding of the People’s Republic of China was a great victory of world significance. It broke through the eastern front of imperialism, profoundly altered the world’s political landscape, strengthened the forces of world peace, democracy, and socialism, and exerted a far-reaching influence on the course of world history.

The founding of the People’s Republic of China was a victory of Marxism-Leninism in China, and a victory of Mao Zedong Thought—the ideology that combined the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution. This victory gave Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought great prestige among the Chinese people, who accepted them as the guiding ideology for all undertakings of the People’s Republic, while also expanding their influence worldwide.

The new China that the people had long yearned for was established, and the revolutionary enthusiasm of the people of all ethnic groups across the country ran high, as the land of China presented a scene of renewal in every respect. At the same time, many difficulties urgently awaiting resolution still confronted the Party and the people, and many severe tests lay ahead.

Militarily, the People’s Liberation War had not yet fully concluded. The Nationalist Party still had more than one million troops putting up a last-ditch resistance in southwest China, south China, and the coastal islands. In the newly liberated areas, large numbers of remnant forces left behind by the fleeing Nationalists colluded with local despots and habitual bandits, seriously threatening the establishment and stability of the new social order.

Economically, the new China inherited a thoroughly devastated mess. Production had withered and the people’s livelihoods were in dire straits. The prolonged runaway inflation under Nationalist rule had caused prices to skyrocket and speculation to run rampant. Whether the Party and the people’s government had the capacity to halt the runaway inflation, stabilize the economic situation, and thereby gain a firm economic and political footing—this was, at the time, an even more difficult and severe new test than advancing into areas not yet liberated and suppressing bandits.

Internationally, the United States—which harbored ambitions of global hegemony—refused to abandon its hostile stance toward the Chinese people even after its policy of “supporting Chiang and opposing communism” had failed. It refused to recognize the new China, did everything in its power to prevent other countries from recognizing it, obstructed the People’s Republic of China from recovering its lawful seat in the United Nations, and subjected the new China to political isolation, economic blockade, and military encirclement. Whether the Party and the people could prevail in their contest with American imperialism was yet another severe test.

The Party’s own ranks also faced new tests that came with governing the entire nation. Confronted with the arduous and heavy tasks of construction, the Party had to quickly learn the entirely new skills of economic construction and state governance. More importantly, under the conditions of holding national sovereign power and engaging in peaceful construction, the Party had to continue upholding its fine traditions and work styles, and withstand the assault of the bourgeoisie’s “sugar-coated bullets.”

In sum, the new China had been established, but whether the newborn people’s sovereign power could hold its ground and whether the Communist Party of China could govern the state well remained questions in the minds of a considerable portion of the masses—questions that practice would have to answer. Friends and enemies abroad were also watching and waiting for that answer.

Facing a complex situation and various tests, the Party adopted a series of positive and prudent policies and measures, leading the people of all ethnic groups across the country to meet the challenges with confidence and begin the great struggle to build the new China.

The Establishment of Local People’s Sovereign Power at All Levels

To the sound of the founding ceremony’s cannons, the People’s Liberation Army continued its advance into south China and southwest China, sweeping away the remaining enemy forces with the force of a thunderbolt. By the end of 1949, southern Fujian, most of Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Sichuan had been liberated in succession, while Yunnan and Xikang were peacefully liberated. In the northwest, after Xinjiang announced its peaceful liberation, the troops entering Xinjiang completed the feat of advancing thousands of miles to the frontier. In May 1950, Hainan Island was liberated. By October of the same year, after a year of combat, the People’s Liberation Army had annihilated more than 1.28 million regular Nationalist troops.

Tibet was the last region on the mainland yet to be liberated. Since modern times, Western imperialism had long coveted Tibet and cultivated and supported separatist forces there. After the founding of the new China, a small number of separatists in the upper strata of the Tibetan local government, instigated and incited by imperialist forces, attempted to split Tibet from the motherland. The Party Central Committee accordingly established the unwavering guideline of absolutely not permitting any foreign power to partition Tibet, and waged a struggle combining military and political means against the separatist forces in Tibet’s upper strata. In May 1951, the Central People’s Government and the Tibetan local government signed the Agreement of the Central People’s Government and the Local Government of Tibet on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet (the Seventeen-Point Agreement). In October, the People’s Liberation Army entered Lhasa, Tibet was peacefully liberated, the schemes of imperialism and a small number of Tibetan separatists to create “Tibetan independence” were shattered, and the unification of the mainland was achieved.

In the newly liberated areas, the People’s Liberation Army launched large-scale bandit-suppression operations. By the first half of 1951, more than one million bandits had been eliminated across the country, the bandit menace on the mainland was fundamentally quelled, the people’s peaceful lives were effectively protected, and social order was basically stabilized.

As the People’s Liberation Army advanced victoriously, local people’s sovereign power at all levels was rapidly established. By 1951, the country had established 29 provincial people’s governments, 1 ethnic autonomous region (Inner Mongolia), 8 provincial-level administrative offices, 13 directly administered municipal people’s governments, 140 provincial-level municipal people’s governments, and 2,283 county people’s governments. The people’s democratic sovereign power became a sovereign power that had never existed in Chinese history—one that was truly supported by the people and effectively exercised authority across the entire nation—laying a solid political and organizational foundation for the Party’s governance of the entire country.

The Formulation and Implementation of New China’s Foreign Policy Guidelines

After the end of the Second World War, the world gradually formed a bipolar landscape characterized by the confrontation between the two superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union, giving rise to a situation in which the contradictions between the US and the USSR were intertwined with the confrontation between the two camps of imperialism and peaceful democracy, and between the two social systems of capitalism and socialism. Based on this situation, in the first half of 1949, Mao Zedong successively put forward three basic foreign policy guidelines: “starting the stove anew,” “cleaning the house before inviting guests,” and “leaning to one side”—that is: not recognizing the old diplomatic relations established by the Nationalist government with various countries, and abolishing imperialist privileges in China; considering the establishment of diplomatic relations only after the remnant imperialist forces in China had been thoroughly cleared away; and explicitly declaring that the new China stood on the side of socialism and the world’s camp of peaceful democracy.

In accordance with these guidelines, the new China established diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union immediately upon its founding, and subsequently established diplomatic relations with ten people’s democratic states: Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Korea, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Mongolia, the German Democratic Republic, Albania, and Vietnam. From April 1950 to May 1951, diplomatic relations were also established with four Asian newly independent nations—India, Indonesia, Burma, and Pakistan—and four European capitalist states—Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, and Finland—marking an important step in breaking through the United States’ policy of containment and isolation. In December 1949, Mao Zedong visited the Soviet Union. On February 14 of the following year, China and the Soviet Union signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance and related agreements in Moscow. This was conducive to the new China’s ability to concentrate on domestic construction and to China and the Soviet Union jointly guarding against possible imperialist aggression, thereby striving for and safeguarding world peace.

At the same time, the new China also set about abolishing the unequal treaties signed by old China with foreign countries, eliminating imperialist privileges in China, and eradicating imperialist forces and influence in China. The customs management rights, garrison rights, and inland navigation rights that imperialism had held in old China caused the greatest damage to Chinese sovereignty and were symbols of China’s reduction to a semi-colonial state. After the founding of the new China, these three rights were recovered first. In October 1949, the General Administration of Customs of China was established. From January to September 1950, the military control commissions of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai successively announced the recovery or requisition of foreign barracks. In July 1950, the Financial and Economic Commission of the Government Administration Council issued instructions on unified shipping management. All military and economic privileges of foreign powers on the Chinese mainland were abolished, bringing to a complete end the century of humiliation in which Chinese sovereignty had been trampled upon at will by foreign powers and foreigners had swaggered across Chinese soil since the Opium War.

Confiscating Bureaucratic Capital, Stabilizing Prices, and Unifying National Finance and Economics

Bureaucratic capital was the economic foundation of the Nationalist reactionary regime. It monopolized the economic lifelines of the state, plundered the people’s wealth, and severely obstructed the development of social productive forces. Confiscating bureaucratic capital and placing it under the ownership of the people’s state was one of the economic programs of the New Democratic Revolution. By early 1950, the country had taken over more than 2,800 industrial and mining enterprises and more than 2,400 financial enterprises from bureaucratic capital. On this foundation, a state-owned economy of a socialist character was rapidly established. Once established, it became the leading force of the entire social economy and the principal material foundation for the new China’s development of production and economic prosperity, making important material preparations for the subsequent socialist transformation.

When the Central People’s Government was established, the financial and economic situation was extremely difficult. The speculative capital that had developed in a distorted fashion under the old society continued to stir up trouble in the newly liberated cities, exacerbating price increases. Some even boasted: “The Liberation Army may be able to enter Shanghai, but the renminbi cannot.” Facing an extremely difficult financial and economic situation, the Party carefully led the major struggle to stabilize prices and unify finance and economics.

To halt the market chaos exacerbated by speculative capital manipulation, the Party and the people’s government adopted necessary administrative means and forceful economic measures, successfully organizing the “silver dollar battle” and the “rice and cotton battle” against speculative capital. In June 1949,

the Shanghai Military Control Commission sealed the Securities Building, the headquarters of financial speculation. After the liberation of Wuhan, Guangzhou, and other cities, underground money houses were also successively sealed, dealing a heavy blow to the illegal activities of speculators and ensuring the legal status of the renminbi. In response to speculators hoarding large quantities of grain, cotton yarn, cotton cloth, and coal to once again whip up price surges, the Central Financial and Economic Commission arranged for the concentrated transfer of relevant materials across the country. On November 25th, when prices were rising most sharply, major cities including Shanghai and Beijing simultaneously released supplies in an open-market sale, causing prices to fall rapidly; at the same time, credit was tightened, causing speculators to go bankrupt one after another due to cash flow failures. After these two great “battles,” illegal speculative capital was dealt a crippling blow, and the state-owned economy gained the initiative in stabilizing the market.

To fundamentally stabilize prices, it was necessary to achieve a balance between state fiscal revenues and expenditures and between the supply and demand of market goods. To this end, unified management and unified leadership of the nation’s financial and economic work had to be implemented. In March 1950, the Government Administration Council issued the Decision on Unifying the State’s Financial and Economic Work, resolving to unify national fiscal revenues, materials allocation, and cash management. This decision was implemented swiftly and vigorously across the country, and significant results were quickly achieved. That year, the state’s fiscal revenues and expenditures were nearly balanced. At the same time, with the implementation of measures such as rectifying tax collection and promoting the sale of public bonds, national prices fell further and stabilized.

The work of stabilizing prices and unifying finance and economics was a victory of great significance on the financial and economic front after the founding of the new China. It brought to an end the runaway inflation and skyrocketing prices that had caused the people such suffering since the War of Resistance under Nationalist rule, and created favorable conditions for stabilizing the people’s livelihoods and restoring and developing industrial and agricultural production. This victory caused even those at home and abroad who had doubted whether the Communist Party could manage the economy well to express admiration and call it a “miracle.” Facts proved that the Communist Party was not only invincible militarily and strong politically, but also fully capable in economic matters.

To comprehensively plan the various tasks of the national economic recovery phase, the Party convened the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee in June 1950. The session pointed out that achieving a fundamental improvement in the financial and economic situation would require approximately three years and the creation of three conditions: the completion of land reform, the rational adjustment of existing industry and commerce, and a substantial reduction in the expenses required by state institutions. Mao Zedong delivered a speech at the session entitled “Do Not Strike Out in All Directions,” pointing out: our current overall guideline is to eliminate the remnants of the Nationalist Party, special agents, and bandits; overthrow the landlord class; liberate Taiwan and Tibet; and fight imperialism to the end. Facing such complex struggles, we must properly handle relations with the national bourgeoisie, the various democratic parties, intellectuals, and ethnic minorities; we must not strike out in all directions, make too many enemies, and create nationwide tension. Mao Zedong criticized the erroneous thinking that “it is possible to eliminate capitalism ahead of schedule and implement socialism,” and emphasized that the policy toward the national bourgeoisie remained one of both unity and struggle, with unity as the primary approach—restricting capital rather than driving it away or eliminating it. The Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee was an important meeting convened by the Party Central Committee in the early period of the new China. The guidelines decided at the plenary session established a clear program of action for the Party’s work during the period of national economic recovery.

II. The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Land System Reform, and Other Democratic Reforms

Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Defend the Homeland

Just as the people of the entire country were concentrating their efforts on achieving a fundamental improvement in the financial and economic situation, the new China faced the threat of external aggression. On June 25, 1950, the Korean civil war broke out. The US government immediately decided to intervene militarily in the Korean civil war, dispatched the Seventh Fleet to intrude into the Taiwan Strait, openly interfered in China’s internal affairs, and obstructed China’s cause of unification. In early October, US forces brazenly crossed the 38th parallel in defiance of repeated warnings from the Chinese government,

bringing the flames of war to the Chinese-Korean border and directly threatening the national security of the new China. At this critical juncture, the Korean Workers’ Party and government requested China to send troops in support.

Whether to dare and be able to confront American imperialism—the world’s most economically powerful and militarily strongest force—was a tremendous challenge for the new China, which had been established only a year earlier and had a thousand things waiting to be done. Given the extreme disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, if we sent troops to fight, could we win? Would it “set fire to our own house” and “bring disaster to our door,” making it impossible to carry out economic construction? The Political Bureau held multiple meetings, comprehensively assessed the domestic and international situation, soberly recognized the difficulties at hand, and deeply analyzed the necessity and possibility of sending troops into battle. It made the historic decision to dispatch the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army to fight in Korea—to resist US aggression and aid Korea, and to defend the homeland.

On October 8, 1950, Mao Zedong issued an order forming the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army, with Peng Dehuai as Commander and Political Commissar. On the 19th, the Volunteer Army crossed the Yalu River with soaring spirits. This was a righteous army undertaking a righteous cause. The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army worked in close coordination with the Korean military and people, fighting the first battle at Liangshuidong, the fierce battle at Yunshan, the campaign at the Qingchuan River, the grueling battle at the Changjin Reservoir, and subsequently constructing deep defensive positions as solid as walls of bronze and iron, launching multiple offensive campaigns, smashing the “strangulation campaign,” resisting “germ warfare,” and fighting the bloody battle at Triangle Hill—creating a magnificent and heroic war epic. After arduous and extraordinary fighting, the Chinese and Korean forces defeated an adversary armed to the teeth, shattered the myth of the US military’s invincibility, and compelled the arrogant aggressors to sign the armistice agreement on July 27, 1953. The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea declared to the world in a great victory: “The era when Western aggressors could dominate a country simply by planting a few cannons on an eastern coastline is gone forever!”

In the magnificent War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the heroic Chinese People’s Volunteer Army consistently carried forward the patriotic spirit of placing the interests of the motherland and the people above all else and giving one’s all for the dignity of the motherland and the nation; the revolutionary heroism of courage and tenacity and willingness to sacrifice one’s life; ★ The Chinese People’s Volunteer Army crosses the Yalu River to fight in Korea. There was Yang Gensi, who embraced a satchel charge and perished together with the enemy; Huang Jiguang, who used his chest to block a gun port and open the way for his comrades to charge; Qiu Shaoyun, who remained motionless as flames engulfed him until he died a heroic death; Luo Shengjiao, who leapt into an icy river and gave his life to save a Korean boy… They wrote a heroic epic that moved heaven and earth and made ghosts weep with their lives, and were called “the most beloved people” by the people of the motherland. The great spirit of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea transcends time and space and grows ever more vibrant with the passage of time; it must be perpetually passed down and carried forward from generation to generation.

the revolutionary optimism of never fearing hardship and difficulty and always maintaining high morale; the revolutionary loyalty of generously dedicating everything for the mission entrusted by the motherland and the people; and the internationalist spirit of striving for the cause of human peace and justice—forging the great spirit of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea. Mao Zedong’s eldest son, Mao Anying, was among the first to enter Korea and fight, and died heroically on the Korean battlefield. The Volunteer Army soldiers faced a powerful and ferocious adversary and endured a harsh and brutal battlefield environment. They shed their blood and gave their lives, overcoming “more steel but less spirit” with “less steel but more spirit.” They said: behind us is the motherland; for the peace of the motherland’s people, we cannot retreat a single step! They charged bravely through a hail of bullets, held their positions under relentless bombardment, used their bodies as human ladders, clutched satchel charges and explosive tubes and charged into enemy formations, endured hunger and cold without ever retreating, and dared to “duel in the air with bayonets.” This fighting spirit chilled the enemy and moved heaven and earth! Among them emerged more than 300,000 heroes and meritorious individuals and nearly 6,000 meritorious collectives, including those who resolutely embraced satchel charges and perished together with the enemy,

During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Party Central Committee took command of the overall landscape, implemented powerful war mobilization and correct war guidance, adopted the guideline of fighting, stabilizing, and building simultaneously, and launched the magnificent movement to resist US aggression and aid Korea. The people of all ethnic groups across the country united as one to sustain this great struggle that bore on the future and destiny of the state and the nation.

The great victory of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was a declaration to the world that the Chinese people, having stood up, stood tall in the East; it was an important milestone on the Chinese nation’s march toward great rejuvenation, and it had profound and far-reaching significance for both China and the world. Through this war, the Chinese people shattered the aggressors’ scheme of massing troops at China’s gates and strangling the new China in its cradle—as the saying goes, “land one punch and avoid a hundred”—and imperialism never again dared to attempt an armed invasion of the new China; the new China truly found its footing. Through this war, the Chinese people completely swept away the century of humiliation of being at others’ mercy and dependent on others’ goodwill that had persisted since modern times, and completely threw off the label of “the sick man of East Asia”; the Chinese people truly held their heads high. Through this war, the Chinese people defeated the aggressors and shook the entire world, establishing the new China’s important position in Asian and international affairs and demonstrating the new China’s status as a great power. Through this war, the people’s army learned warfare through warfare, growing ever more courageous and stronger with each battle, gained important military experience, achieved the transformation from a single-branch force to a combined-arms force of multiple services and branches, and greatly advanced the modernization of national defense and the military. Through this war, the strategic landscape of Asia and indeed the world in the aftermath of the Second World War was profoundly sculpted; the just cause of oppressed nations and peoples around the world striving for national independence and people’s liberation was greatly inspired; and the cause of world peace and human progress was powerfully advanced. This war secured the safety of our mountains and rivers and the peace of our homeland; it brought out the spirit and mettle of the Chinese people; the combat strength of the people’s army awed the world; it made the entire world look at China with new eyes; it fully demonstrated the iron will of the Chinese people to fear no force, their tenacious character of being united as one, their fighting spirit of daring to fight and being certain to win, and their steadfast determination to safeguard world peace; and it once again proved that justice will always triumph over power, and that peaceful development is an irresistible historical tide.

Abolishing the Feudal Land System and the Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries

When the new China was founded, more than half of the national population lived in newly liberated areas where land reform had not yet been completed, severely obstructing the development of social productive forces. While conducting the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Party led the broad newly liberated areas in carrying out the reform to abolish the feudal land system from the winter of 1950 to the end of 1952.

On June 30, 1950, the Central People’s Government promulgated and implemented the Land Reform Law of the People’s Republic of China. It summarized the Party’s past experience and lessons in leading land reform, and also established new policies suited to the new situation after the founding of the new China, proposing the preservation of the rich peasant economy, non-interference with middle peasant land, and limits on the scope of confiscating landlord property—so as to protect middle peasants and divide the landlord class, reduce resistance to land reform, and promote the restoration and development of production. It became the basic legal basis guiding land reform in the newly liberated areas. By the end of 1952, land reform had been basically completed across the mainland, with the exception of some ethnic minority areas. Including the old liberated areas, approximately 300 million landless or land-poor peasants across the country received approximately 700 million mu of land free of charge, and were exempted from the land rent of more than 30 million tons of grain that had previously been paid annually to landlords.

The completion of land reform marked the complete elimination of the landlord class’s land ownership system—the foundation of the feudal system that had persisted in our country for thousands of years—and the peasants truly became masters of the land. This was a great historic victory. It fundamentally liberated the rural productive forces, stimulated the political enthusiasm and productive initiative of the broad peasantry, promoted the rapid restoration and development of agriculture as well as the development of rural culture and education, and opened the road for the new China’s industrialization.

Simultaneously with land reform, a vigorous campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries was launched across the country. After the outbreak of the Korean War, the counterrevolutionary elements left behind on the mainland by the Nationalist Party became even more brazen, spreading rumors on a large scale, engaging in various acts of sabotage and disruption, murdering revolutionary cadres and masses, and attempting to coordinate with external forces to subvert the people’s sovereign power. In 1950, nearly 40,000 cadres and masses were killed by counterrevolutionary elements across the country, with more than 7,000 in Guangxi alone. In October 1950, the CPC Central Committee issued the Directive on Suppressing Counterrevolutionary Activities, deciding to resolutely suppress counterrevolutionary elements who had committed the most heinous crimes and showed no repentance. Beginning in December, the campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries was launched across the country. By the end of October 1951, the nationwide campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries had basically concluded.

The campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries swept away the remnant counterrevolutionary forces left behind on the mainland by the Nationalist Party, basically eliminated reactionary organizations such as special agents, underground armies, and secret societies, achieved unprecedented social stability, and powerfully supported land reform and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.

Democratic Reforms in Various Spheres of Society and the “Three-Anti” and “Five-Anti” Campaigns

With land system reform at the center, the Party also led democratic reforms in multiple areas, including social transformation.

Democratic reforms were carried out in state-owned industrial, mining, and transportation enterprises. Most of these enterprises had originally been bureaucratic capitalist enterprises, and after being taken over, they needed to undergo democratic reform so that the new socialist production relations could be further manifested. Under the leadership of party committees in various localities, remnant counterrevolutionary forces hidden within enterprises were eliminated; the bureaucratic management structures and feudal gang-boss systems, body-search systems, and other remnants of the old society were abolished; factory management committees were established; and workers were mobilized and organized to participate in enterprise management through trade union committees and workers’ representative conferences. A democratic management system suited to production needs was initially established, stimulating the enthusiasm of the broad working masses to be masters of their own affairs and develop production, and achieving notable results in the restoration of industrial production.

Reforming the feudal marriage system was another important aspect of the Party’s promotion of democratic reform and social transformation. On May 1, 1950, the Central People’s Government promulgated the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China—the first law enacted by the new China. It explicitly stipulated: “The feudalist marriage system based on arbitrary and compulsory arrangements and the superiority of man over woman, and in disregard of the interests of children, shall be abolished. The New Democratic marriage system, which is based on the free choice of partners, on monogamy, on equal rights for both sexes, and on the protection of the lawful interests of women and children, shall be put into practice.”

★ After the implementation of the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, a newlywed couple in the suburbs of Beijing holds their wedding ceremony. This was a great transformation in Chinese social and family life spanning thousands of years. Through the movement to implement the Marriage Law, the broad masses universally established the ideas of freedom of marriage and equality between men and women, and a new social ethos began to take shape. The broad women who constituted half of the national population were liberated from the shackles of the feudal marriage system, and their social status was greatly elevated.

A Brief History of the Communist Party of China

The struggle to ban the ugly phenomena left over from the old society—prostitution, drug trafficking and drug use, and gambling—was also an important component of sweeping away social ills and carrying out social transformation. After approximately three years of effort, social chronic diseases such as prostitution, gambling, and drugs—which had been impossible to eradicate in old China and were regarded as intractable problems even in Western countries—were basically eliminated under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea was a continuation of the anti-imperialist struggle of China’s people’s democratic revolution, while land reform and other democratic reforms were the completion of the anti-feudal struggle of China’s people’s democratic revolution. The flood tide of revolution washed away the filth and mire of the old society, and China’s social landscape and social customs underwent tremendous change. These historic changes further consolidated the sovereign power of the people’s democratic dictatorship and provided the necessary social and political conditions for the work of restoring and developing the economy.

In the course of the entire nation’s efforts to increase production and practice strict economy, corruption, waste, and bureaucratism were exposed within party and government organs in various localities. Based on the serious situations reported from the Northeast and North China, on December 1, 1951, the CPC Central Committee issued the Decision on Implementing Streamlining of Organizations and Personnel, Increasing Production and Practicing Economy, and Opposing Corruption, Waste, and Bureaucratism, requiring the use of mass movement methods to boldly and vigorously expose all large, medium, and small corruption cases and launch the “Three-Anti” struggle. During the struggle, typical major cases were seized upon and handled to arouse the vigilance of the entire Party and the attention of the entire society. Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, while serving as Secretary of the Tianjin Prefectural Party Committee and Commissioner of the Tianjin Administrative Office respectively, abused their positions to embezzle public funds, engaged in illegal business activities, led degenerate lives, and degenerated into major corrupt criminals; they were sentenced to death. This demonstrated to the people of the entire country that the Communist Party of China would absolutely not tolerate corruption involving the use of the ruling party’s position for personal gain, and that corrupt elements, once discovered, would be severely punished without exception regardless of their seniority or rank.

The “Three-Anti” campaign lasted more than half a year and concluded in October 1952. This struggle was the Party’s first battle in maintaining the integrity of communists and leading cadres and combating corruption under conditions of governance. It eliminated the parasites within the cadre ranks, educated the majority of cadres, and played a major role in resisting the erosion of old social bad habits and bourgeois decadent thinking, and in forming a clean and upright party and government work style and a healthy social ethos.

During the “Three-Anti” campaign, it was discovered that corruption within party and government organs was often linked to collusion with unlawful businessmen. A large body of facts showed that a small number of capitalists used various illegal means to reap excessive profits—some even manufactured first-aid kits from waste and rotten cotton to sell to the Volunteer Army, causing wounded soldiers to be permanently disabled or to die—provoking public outrage across the nation. In January 1952, the Center decided to launch a “Five-Anti” campaign in the private industrial and commercial sector against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, fraud in fulfilling contracts, and theft of state economic intelligence. During the campaign, the Party and government broadly mobilized the masses to engage in reasoned struggle and expose the illegal facts of unlawful businessmen. At the same time, the Center also instructed that it could not be denied that the national bourgeoisie still had its positive side; the political and economic status to which it was entitled as stipulated in the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference had not changed; and care had to be taken to maintain the normal functioning of economic life.

The “Five-Anti” campaign concluded in October 1952. It effectively struck at the serious “five-poison” behaviors of unlawful capitalists, conducted a comprehensive education in law-abiding business practices among industrial and commercial operators, promoted the establishment of workers’ supervisory systems and democratic reforms in private enterprises, and made important preparations for the subsequent peaceful and gradual transformation of capitalist industry and commerce.

III. The Restoration of the National Economy and the Unfolding of Various Construction Efforts

The Restoration and Initial Development of the National Economy

Old China’s economy was already extremely backward, and the Japanese imperialist war of aggression against China and the Nationalist reactionaries’ anti-people war had caused it severe damage. Concentrating efforts to restore the national economy became an urgent task before the Party and the people. The Party and the government concentrated all efforts on restoring the national economy in accordance with the basic guideline of “giving consideration to both public and private interests, benefiting both labor and capital, facilitating exchange between urban and rural areas, and promoting domestic and foreign trade.”

In agriculture, while giving full play to the initiative of individual peasant farming, the Party gradually promoted mutual aid in labor among individual peasants. State investment in agriculture increased year by year, and efforts were concentrated on harnessing the Huai River and constructing key projects such as the Jingjiang flood diversion works and flood control projects in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, initially changing the situation in old China where river embankments had fallen into disrepair over the years and floods were frequent. Various localities also vigorously repaired irrigation canals and reservoirs, expanding the area of irrigated farmland. These infrastructure construction projects promoted the rapid restoration and development of agricultural production. In 1952, the nation’s total grain output increased from 113.184 million tons in 1949 to 163.931 million tons, an increase of 44.8%.

In industry, the focus was placed on restoring the mining, steel, power, and machinery manufacturing industries and major chemical industries urgently needed for the national economy and people’s livelihoods, while also restoring and increasing textile and other light industrial production. In terms of regional distribution, the restoration of the Northeast industrial base was the priority, while inland industry was also attended to, and a number of backbone enterprises were newly established in a planned manner. By the end of 1952, the output of major industrial products and light industrial products had all surpassed their historical peaks.

In transportation, the state’s investment in transportation totaled 1.77 billion yuan, ★ In December 1954, the Kangzang and Qingzang highways traversing the “Roof of the World” were opened to traffic along their entire length. accounting for 22.6% of total national capital construction investment. The original railway network was basically restored, reconnecting North China and South China. The construction of the Chengdu-Chongqing Railway traversing the hinterland of the southwest and the Tianshui-Lanzhou Railway in the northwest was completed. The Chengdu-Chongqing Railway was a section of the Sichuan-Hubei Railway for which funds had been raised for construction since the late Qing dynasty; it had been delayed for nearly half a century without completion, but was built and opened to traffic in just two years after the founding of the new China. The state also newly built and renovated a number of major trunk lines and county and township roads; the total mileage of roads open to traffic nationwide increased by more than 50% compared to the early days of the new China. The Kangzang Highway (today’s Sichuan-Tibet Highway) and the Qingzang Highway leading to the “Roof of the World” began construction in 1950.

100 million yuan, accounting for 22.6% of the total national infrastructure investment. The original railway network was essentially restored, reconnecting North China and South China. Construction was completed on the Chengdu–Chongqing Railway, which passes through the heartland of the greater southwest, and the Tianshui–Lanzhou Railway in the northwest. The Chengdu–Chongqing Railway was a section of the Sichuan–Hubei Railway for which funds had been raised in the late Qing dynasty; it had dragged on for nearly half a century without completion, yet was built and opened to traffic in just two years after the founding of New China. The state also built and renovated a number of major trunk lines and county- and township-level roads. The total mileage of roads open to traffic nationwide grew by more than 50% compared to the early days of New China. Construction of the Kangding–Tibet Highway (today’s Sichuan–Tibet Highway) and the Qinghai–Tibet Highway, leading to the “Roof of the World,” began in 1950.

The restoration and development of trade was an important link in promoting the exchange of goods between urban and rural areas and restoring the entire national economy. After several years of effort, state-owned commerce and cooperative commerce gradually developed and grew, becoming the main channels of circulation. By the end of 1952, a unified state-owned commercial system encompassing various categories from top to bottom had basically taken shape across the country. After prices were stabilized and finance and economics were unified, to address the problems caused by the disappearance of the false purchasing power created by inflation, the government adopted measures such as expanding processing orders and purchases for private factories, purchasing large quantities of agricultural and sideline products to raise rural purchasing power, adjusting the tax burden, appropriately contracting state-owned commerce, and educating workers in private enterprises to earnestly fulfill production tasks—rationally adjusting public-private relations, labor-capital relations, and production-sales relations, enabling private industry and commerce to develop considerably.

After more than three years of arduous struggle by the people of the entire country, the national economy, which had suffered severe damage before the founding of the new China, was fully restored and had achieved initial development. By the end of 1952, the total output value of industry and agriculture was 81 billion yuan, an increase of more than 77% compared to 1949. State fiscal revenues increased several-fold, with revenues and expenditures balanced. The incomes of urban and rural residents increased year by year, and living standards generally improved. Compared with 1949, the average wages of workers nationwide increased by 70%, and peasant incomes generally increased by more than 30%. In the course of economic recovery, the structure of the national economy also underwent profound changes. The proportion of the state-owned economy rose, while the proportion of private capitalist economy declined year by year. The position of industrial productive forces was strengthened, and the proportion of modern industry increased somewhat, laying the foundation for our country’s gradual transformation from an agricultural country to an industrial country, and thereby ensuring that the entire country steadily advanced from New Democracy toward socialism.

Sweeping Away the Old and Establishing the New in Education, Science, Culture, and Public Health

As the high tide of economic construction arrived, a high tide of cultural construction was also arriving, with corresponding development in all other areas of construction.

Cultural construction had two purposes: first, to adapt to and advance political transformation; and second, to adapt to and advance economic construction. In order to build a national, scientific, and popular culture, the Party led the step-by-step reform of existing school education and social cultural undertakings, striving to win over all patriotic intellectuals to serve the people.

Mastering the tools of public opinion and establishing the guiding position of Marxism throughout the country: in taking over cities, newspapers, periodicals, radio stations, news agencies, and other cultural undertakings serving as important tools of propaganda and mass communication were placed entirely under the unified leadership of the Party and the state. To systematically study and propagandize Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, Volumes 1 through 3 of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong were published from 1951 to 1953; translation and publication of the Complete Works of Lenin began in 1955; and translation and publication of the Complete Works of Marx and Engels began in 1956.

In educational reform, in addition to implementing state leadership over schools, abolishing reactionary political education, and bringing Marxist-Leninist education into schools, there were two main aspects: first, resolving the problem of opening the doors of education to the broad worker and peasant masses. In response to the situation in the old society where laboring people had little opportunity for education, the Party and government established the educational guideline that “education must serve production and construction, serve workers and peasants, and schools must open their doors to workers and peasants.” Second, developing and reforming higher education. From late 1951 to 1953, the Ministry of Education carried out a reorganization of departments and schools in universities and colleges across the country, greatly expanding enrollment to meet the urgent need for specialized personnel in industrialization construction.

In literary and artistic work, the approach of literature and art serving the people and serving workers, peasants, and soldiers continued to be advocated, and the guideline of “letting a hundred flowers bloom and weeding through the old to bring forth the new” was put forward, pointing the direction for the flourishing of our country’s literary and artistic undertakings. Broad numbers of literary and artistic workers went deep into social life and created a number of outstanding literary and artistic works on the themes of revolutionary war and social transformation that inspired the people’s political consciousness and encouraged the people’s enthusiasm for labor.

In scientific work, the Party and government attached great importance to the important role of science and technology in construction undertakings. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was established at the very outset of the new China. The Center required that the Chinese Academy of Sciences serve as the center of scientific research for the entire country, guide the establishment of local scientific research institutions, and simultaneously develop scientific research institutions in universities and industrial departments, gradually forming a relatively complete scientific research system. By the end of 1955, the country had more than 400,000 scientific and technological personnel and more than 800 specialized scientific research institutions. This force played an important role in the various construction undertakings of the state.

In medical and public health work, the Party and government put forward the guidelines that health work should “face workers, peasants, and soldiers,” “prioritize prevention,” and “unite Chinese and Western medicine.” At the grassroots level in rural areas, urban neighborhoods, and industrial and mining enterprises, basic health organizations were universally established, along with various specialized epidemic prevention institutions and epidemic prevention teams. At the same time, large-scale patriotic health campaigns were launched across the country, greatly improving the backward sanitary conditions in both urban and rural areas.

The ideological remolding of intellectuals was one of the important conditions for comprehensively achieving democratic reform and gradually implementing industrialization in our country. In order to give full play to their positive role in state construction, the Party attached great importance to the work of uniting, educating, and remolding intellectuals. In September 1951, twelve renowned professors at Peking University responded to the Party’s call and initiated a political study movement among Peking University faculty; universities in Beijing and Tianjin promptly launched a relatively concentrated ideological remolding study movement. On September 29 of the same year, Zhou Enlai delivered a report entitled “On the Question of Intellectuals’ Remolding” to teachers at a study conference for teachers from universities in Beijing and Tianjin, encouraging all intellectuals with patriotic thinking to strive to stand on the side of the people and on the side of the working class. Later, the study movement gradually expanded to the entire intellectual community. The majority of intellectuals, through studying Mao Zedong’s writings, conducting criticism and self-criticism in connection with their thinking and work, eliminating the influence of feudal comprador thinking, and criticizing bourgeois and petty-bourgeois thinking, mastered the fundamentals of Marxism, thereby advancing from a national and patriotic standpoint to the standpoint of the people, and threw themselves with great enthusiasm into the construction of the new China.

The Modernization of the Military and National Defense

Establishing a consolidated modern national defense and building a powerful, regularized, and modernized revolutionary army was a major task put forward by the Party after the founding of the new China. Especially after the experience of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the Central Military Commission systematically summarized the experience of fighting against the highly modernized US military, and promoted the People’s Liberation Army’s adaptation to the requirements of modern warfare, gradually implementing the strategic transformation from a single-branch force to a combined-arms force of multiple services and branches.

Implementing unified command, unified institutions, unified organization, unified discipline, and unified training, and achieving close coordination among the various services and branches, was an indispensable and important condition for building a modern national defense. In accordance with the directives of the Central Military Commission, the People’s Liberation Army underwent large-scale streamlining and reorganization. At the same time, the organizational structure of military leadership organs was adjusted; on the basis of the existing army, the air force, navy, air defense force, public security force, and other services were successively established, along with leadership organs for the artillery, armored forces, and other branches and their subordinate units. The People’s Liberation Army initially developed into a military force with a relatively complete range of services and branches.

Building a regularized and modernized revolutionary army required strengthening Party leadership. In April 1954, the CPC Central Committee and the Central Military Commission promulgated the draft regulations on political work in the People’s Liberation Army. This was of great significance for ensuring the Party’s absolute leadership over the military and giving full play to the People’s Liberation Army’s role as a strong pillar consolidating the people’s democratic dictatorship.

To strengthen national defense industry construction and raise the level of modernization of the People’s Liberation Army’s weapons and equipment, in August 1953, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee discussed and approved the arrangements for the First Five-Year Plan for national defense industry construction. In January 1955, the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong made the decision to develop the nuclear energy industry and develop atomic bombs. Mao Zedong said: “In today’s world, if we are not to be bullied by others, we cannot be without this thing.” History has proven that the decision to prioritize the development of cutting-edge technology was a far-sighted and bold strategic decision of great and far-reaching significance for the development of China’s national defense science and technology and the modernization of national defense.

Based on the assessment that the overall trend of the international situation was toward relaxation, but that the possibility of imperialism launching a war still existed, the enlarged session of the Central Military Commission convened in March 1956 for the first time explicitly established the strategic guideline of active defense, pointing the direction for the People’s Liberation Army in carrying out combat readiness tasks and conducting military training, and bringing the regularization of the military and the modernization of national defense into a new stage.

Striving for an International Peaceful Environment Conducive to Construction

In order to create a favorable international peaceful environment for domestic construction, the Party required active work and struggle in the diplomatic sphere.

To develop relations with newly emerging nationally independent states, especially neighboring newly independent states, in December 1953, our state’s government, in negotiations with India over issues existing between the two countries—particularly the question of India’s relations with China’s Tibet region—put forward the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence for the first time. Their formulation was later established as: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, mutual non-interference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence. The putting forward of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence was of great strategic significance. They were a powerful instrument for the new China to conduct activities on the international stage, break through the United States’ policy of isolation and containment, and expand external contacts; they not only became the cornerstone of our country’s foreign policy, but were also gradually accepted by the international community, making a historic contribution to promoting the establishment of just and reasonable new international relations.

After the Korean armistice, tensions in Asia eased somewhat. However, the United States not only had no intention of withdrawing its troops from the Korean Peninsula and peacefully resolving the Korean issue, but its naval fleet continued to occupy the Taiwan Strait, interfering in China’s internal affairs, and it attempted to contain China from the Indochina region. This approach of maintaining international tension was unpopular. In April 1954, a conference attended by the foreign ministers of China, the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, and relevant countries to discuss the Korean issue and the Indochina issue was convened in Geneva, Switzerland. This was the first important conference at which the People’s Republic of China participated in discussing international issues as one of the five great powers. During the conference, the Chinese delegation led by Zhou Enlai conducted outstanding diplomatic mediation, facilitating the conference’s achievement of agreements to restore peace in Indo- ★ In April 1955, Zhou Enlai led the Chinese delegation to attend the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia. china, and on the issue of easing tensions in the Taiwan region in particular. This statement prompted China and the United States to begin ambassadorial-level talks in August 1955.

china, with France withdrawing its troops from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and confirming the national independence status of the three countries. The success of the Geneva Conference further eased the situation in Asia and the international situation, and enhanced the security of our country’s southern border.

Against the backdrop of the rising tide of national liberation movements in Asia and Africa, in April 1955, the heads of government of twenty-nine Asian and African countries held a conference in Bandung, Indonesia. Zhou Enlai led the Chinese delegation to attend the conference, and at the conference clearly put forward the guideline of “seeking common ground while reserving differences,” calling on all countries to set aside their differences and strengthen solidarity and cooperation for the common interest of opposing colonialism. This was endorsed by the participating countries and opened the door to broad contacts between China and Asian and African nations. The Final Communiqué of the Asian-African Conference adopted by the conference incorporated the proposals of the Chinese delegation, forming ten principles of peaceful coexistence and friendly cooperation. The conference was a complete success. During the conference, Zhou Enlai also issued a statement that the Chinese government was willing to sit down with the US government to negotiate and discuss the easing of tensions in the Far East, particularly the issue of easing tensions in the Taiwan region. This statement prompted China and the United States to begin ambassadorial-level talks in August 1955.

These highly effective diplomatic efforts and diplomatic struggles promoted the easing of international tensions, expanded our country’s international contacts, demonstrated our country’s important role in international affairs, and also secured a relatively favorable international peaceful environment for our country’s socialist construction.

Strengthening the Party’s Own Development After Taking Power Nationwide

After the founding of the new China, the Party attached great importance to the development of party organizations themselves under conditions of governance. In May 1950, in response to the complacency and arrogance of considering oneself a meritorious veteran, as well as the bureaucratism and commandism that had grown among some within the Party in the wake of the nationwide revolutionary victory, the Party Central Committee issued the Directive on Launching a Rectification Campaign Throughout the Party and the Military, requiring strict rectification of the work style of the entire Party, and first and foremost the work style of cadres.

In March and April 1951, the CPC Central Committee convened the First National Organizational Work Conference, deciding to conduct a comprehensive consolidation of all grassroots party organizations throughout the Party, and to conduct education among all party members on the eight conditions that a communist party member must possess—particularly education on the prospects of socialism and communism. On this basis, each party member was to be earnestly reviewed and registered, and organizational measures were to be taken against those who had committed serious errors or did not meet the conditions for party membership. Party consolidation began in the second half of 1951 and was basically concluded by the spring of 1954. Through party consolidation, a total of 410,000 people were expelled from the Party or persuaded to withdraw, strengthening the purity of party organizations. At the same time, party organizations at all levels actively yet prudently developed new party members; the number of party members grew from 5.8 million before party consolidation to more than 6.369 million, adding new blood to the Party’s ranks.

In February 1954, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee passed the Resolution on Strengthening Party Unity. The resolution emphasized that Party unity is the lifeblood of the Party, and required the entire Party—especially senior party cadres—to raise their consciousness in safeguarding Party unity. In March 1955, the National Conference of the Party decided to establish central and local discipline inspection commissions at all levels, and elected the Central Discipline Inspection Commission.

Generally speaking, in the early period of the new China, the overall spirit of the entire Party was relatively good, and the arduous and plain-living work style and close ties with the masses that had characterized the revolutionary war years were maintained. The strong unity formed within the Party Central Committee since the Yan’an Rectification Campaign and the Seventh Party Congress continued to be maintained under the conditions of holding national sovereign power. A strongly united Party—a Party that acted in unison and strove hard for the correct goals set by the Party—was the most important guarantee for the smooth progress of all our work in the early period of the new China.

IV. The Party’s General Line for the Transition Period and the Beginning of Planned, Large-Scale Economic Construction

The Putting Forward of the Party’s General Line for the Transition Period

After the restoration of the national economy, our country’s development faced a new situation and many new problems. The Party needed to put forward new tasks and goals to lead the people forward.

By the end of 1952, land reform had been basically completed, the task of restoring the national economy had been smoothly accomplished, and the two sides in the Korean armistice negotiations had reached agreement on the main issues, with the end of the war expected soon. This indicated that our country had already possessed the conditions for carrying out large-scale economic construction in a planned manner. The Party promptly decided to begin implementing the First Five-Year Plan for developing the national economy starting from 1953. The main body of the plan was, of course, state industrialization. This was a goal the Chinese people had dreamed of for a hundred years, and was the key to transforming China’s backward state and achieving prosperity and strength. Now, the Chinese people could finally take great strides forward on the road of industrialization.

At the same time, some new contradictions had also emerged and accumulated in our country’s social life. In the countryside, after land reform, the scattered and backward individual peasant economy was difficult to satisfy the continuously growing demand of cities and industry for grain and agricultural raw materials, while the emergence of wealth disparities caused the Party and government to be concerned about polarization. In the cities, the struggle between the working class and the bourgeoisie over restriction and counter-restriction rose and fell repeatedly, exerting a major influence on the country’s economic life. This situation compelled the Party to consider intensifying and expanding the rural mutual aid and cooperative movement and urban measures to restrict capital. In this way, the task of systematically carrying out socialist transformation of the national economy was placed on the agenda.

It was precisely against this backdrop that, after nearly a year of deliberation, the Party Central Committee formulated and put forward the Party’s General Line for the Transition Period: “From the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the basic completion of socialist transformation, this is a transition period. The Party’s general line and general task for this transition period is, over a fairly long period of time, to gradually realize the socialist industrialization of the state and gradually realize the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce.” This general line clearly put forward to the people of the entire country the great task of building socialism. This was a major strategic step taken by the Party at a critical historical juncture.

Realizing socialism in China was the goal of struggle established by the Communist Party of China from the time of its founding. But under the historical conditions of a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, realizing socialism had to proceed in two steps: first achieving victory in the New Democratic Revolution against imperialism and feudalism, and only then transitioning to socialist revolution. As for when to transition to the socialist stage, this needed to be determined in the course of revolutionary development in practice based on concrete circumstances. After the founding of the new China, following three years of practice, the Party Central Committee concluded that the time and conditions were ripe to formulate the Party’s General Line for the Transition Period and clearly put forward to the entire Party and the people of the entire country the task of gradually transitioning to socialism. The reasons were: first, a relatively powerful and rapidly developing socialist state-owned economy already existed, forming an important material foundation for the transition to socialism. Second, much experience had been accumulated in utilizing and restricting private industry and commerce, and preliminary transformation had already been carried out. Third, much experience had been accumulated in developing agricultural mutual aid and cooperation in rural areas after land reform, which in practice constituted the initial steps of socialist transformation of individual agriculture. Fourth, from the perspective of the international environment, capitalist countries were in a very poor state, while socialist countries were full of vitality and upward development. This was also a factor that prompted the Party to conclude that it was time to put forward the beginning of a gradual transition to socialism.

After the General Line for the Transition Period was put forward, extensive and in-depth study, propaganda, and education were conducted throughout the Party and among the people of the entire country. Within the Party, understanding was rapidly unified; the general line also won the support of the people of the entire country, becoming a new program for uniting and mobilizing the entire nation to strive together to build a great socialist state. The entire Party and the people of the entire country shifted their attention to the task of socialist industrialization, and with great enthusiasm welcomed and threw themselves into the high tide of large-scale, planned economic construction in the new China.

The First Five-Year Plan and the Beginning of Socialist Industrialization

Formulating a practical and feasible medium-term plan for developing the national economy was an important step in completing the main task of industrialization stipulated by the General Line for the Transition Period.

Realizing state industrialization was the only path for the Party to lead the people of all ethnic groups in achieving state independence and prosperity, enabling China to stand on its own among the nations of the world. Mao Zedong had long said: “Without industry, there is no solid national defense, no well-being for the people, and no prosperity and strength for the state.” But by 1952, the starting point for our country’s industrialization was still very low. The proportion of modern industrial output value in total industrial and agricultural output value was only 43.1%, and heavy industry accounted for only 35.5% of total industrial output value. The per capita output of many important industrial products was not only far behind industrially developed countries,

but also lower than newly independent countries like India. In 1954, Mao Zedong gave a memorable description: “What can we make now? We can make tables and chairs, we can make teacups and teapots, we can grow grain and grind it into flour, we can make paper—but we cannot make a single automobile, a single airplane, a single tank, or a single tractor.” Especially after the experience of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in contending with the United States—the world’s foremost power—the urgency of changing our country’s industrially backward situation became particularly acute. Taking the above actual circumstances into consideration, the Party Central Committee made the decision to prioritize the development of heavy industry, requiring that the basic construction of heavy industry and national defense industry be guaranteed first, and in particular ensuring the completion of those major projects that played a decisive role for the state and could rapidly strengthen the state’s industrial foundation and national defense capabilities.

As a large country with a backward economy and culture, under the conditions of the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance, China’s realization of industrialization could only take the socialist road. Only under the socialist system, by giving full play to the superiority of concentrating strength to accomplish great tasks, could the state’s industrialization be accelerated and genuine economic independence be won.

In preparation for planned economic construction, our country began drafting the First Five-Year Plan in 1951. In the process of drafting and implementing the First Five-Year Plan, several major relationships in our country’s economic construction were handled relatively well: concentrating the main forces on developing heavy industry while not relaxing agriculture and light industry, making overall plans and comprehensive arrangements for all sectors of the national economy; scientifically planning the industrial layout to change the irrational situation in which most of our country’s industry was concentrated in coastal areas; setting the average annual growth rates for industrial and agricultural production in an active yet prudent manner based on our country’s national strength; appropriately combining the development of production with the improvement of the people’s livelihoods; and while striving for foreign assistance, simultaneously emphasizing self-reliance, with state construction relying primarily on domestic forces. These had far-reaching guiding significance for our country’s subsequent economic construction.

Beginning in 1953, economic construction work was carried out in a planned manner across the country.

Cities and rural areas across the country rapidly formed a fervent atmosphere of participating in and supporting state industrialization construction. This was an era of burning passion; the boundless yearning for industrialization ignited a passion for labor among workers, peasants, and intellectuals unlike anything seen before. “Every second laboring to create a socialist society”—this call, full of the spirit of the times, vividly reflected the construction enthusiasm ignited by the goal of industrialization. The new China was changing almost every single day. Good news poured in from the industrial construction front. In December 1953, the three major projects of the Anshan Iron and Steel Company—the large rolling mill, the seamless steel tube plant, and No. 7 blast furnace—held their inauguration ceremonies. Large iron and steel enterprises in Baotou and Wuhan successively began construction. Among the larger projects above the quota, on average one broke ground or was completed every day. A large number of basic industrial sectors that did not exist in old China were established one by one, and a large number of industrial and mining enterprises were set up in the interior. The excessively backward state of heavy industry and its irrational distribution in old China were greatly improved. The achievements in industrial production over the five years

★ In July 1956, China’s first batch of domestically produced automobiles—”Liberation” brand trucks—were successfully trial-produced at the First Automobile Works in Changchun. far surpassed the entire century of old China. The new China rapidly rose from the ruins, laying the foundation for our country to establish an independent and complete industrial system and accumulating precious experience for socialist construction.

V. The Basic Completion of Socialist Transformation and the Establishment of the Socialist System

The First Session of the First National People’s Congress and the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China

With the beginning of the state’s large-scale economic construction, strengthening the construction of the political and legal superstructure to better serve the establishment of the socialist economic base became an important and urgent task. To this end, Mao Zedong devoted great energy to personally presiding over the drafting of the new China’s first constitution.

In September 1954, the First Session of the First National People’s Congress was held in Beijing. One of the congress’s major contributions was the unanimous adoption of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. This was a constitution of the socialist type, embodying the principles of people’s democracy and socialism. In the form of the fundamental law, it confirmed the heroic struggle waged by the Chinese people for more than one hundred years of modern times against internal and external enemies to win national independence and the freedom and happiness of the people; confirmed the historic transformation in which the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to achieve victory in the New Democratic Revolution and the Chinese people took hold of state power; established the political system through which the Chinese people exercise their right to be masters of their own affairs; and pointed out the correct road for continuing to strive to build a socialist society.

The constitution further established our country’s fundamental political system, explicitly stipulating: “The People’s Republic of China is a people’s democratic state led by the working class ★ Deputies attending the First Session of the First National People’s Congress enter the meeting hall. This is the historical conclusion drawn from more than one hundred years of intense transformation and turbulent development of Chinese society; it is the inevitable choice of the Chinese people in standing up and grasping their own destiny. Establishing a new type of political system in which the people are masters of their own affairs in a country like China—with more than five thousand years of civilization and hundreds of millions of people—is of epoch-making significance in the history of China’s political development and indeed in the history of world political development.

and based on the alliance of workers and peasants.” “All power in the People’s Republic of China belongs to the people. The organs through which the people exercise power are the National People’s Congress and the local people’s congresses at various levels.” “The National People’s Congress, the local people’s congresses at various levels, and other state organs all practice democratic centralism.” The constitution also established the configuration of the state structure: the National People’s Congress is the highest organ of state power; the State Council, i.e., the Central People’s Government, is the highest organ of state administration.

The congress elected Mao Zedong as Chairman of the People’s Republic of China and Zhu De as Vice Chairman; elected Liu Shaoqi as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, with Song Qingling and 13 others as Vice Chairmen; and decided that Zhou Enlai would serve as Premier of the State Council.

The system of people’s congresses is our country’s fundamental political system. The convening of the National People’s Congress marked the establishment of the people’s congress system. Implementing the people’s congress system in China is a great creation of the Chinese people in the history of human political systems, and is the conclusion drawn from a profound summing-up of the bitter lessons of China’s political life since modern times.

The system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is one of our country’s basic political systems, and is a new type of party system that grew from Chinese soil. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China explicitly stated: “In the great struggle to establish the People’s Republic of China, the people of our country have already formed a broad people’s democratic united front, led by the Communist Party of China, comprising the various democratic classes, democratic parties, and people’s organizations.” In the future, “the people’s democratic united front of our country will continue to play its role.” After the First Session of the First National People’s Congress was convened, the task of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in exercising the functions and powers of the National People’s Congress was declared concluded. In December 1954, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held the First Session of its Second National Committee. The session adopted the Charter of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, affirming that the CPPCC, as an organization of the people’s democratic united front, still needed to exist. The session clarified the nature, status, role, and tasks of the CPPCC after the convening of the National People’s Congress, as well as the relationships between the CPPCC and the NPC and the government, further consolidating the people’s democratic united front and laying the foundation for our country’s long-term adherence to the basic political system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. The CPPCC is the great achievement of the Communist Party of China in combining Marxist-Leninist united front theory, party theory, and democratic political theory with Chinese realities, and is a great creation of the Communist Party of China in leading the democratic parties, non-party personages, people’s organizations, and personages from all ethnic groups and all walks of life in the realm of political institutions.

An important content of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was to establish in the fundamental law the relationship of equality, friendship, and mutual assistance among the various ethnic groups within China, and to guarantee the autonomous rights of the various ethnic minorities. The constitution explicitly stipulated: “The People’s Republic of China is a unified multi-ethnic state.” “Regional autonomy shall be practiced in areas where ethnic minorities live in concentrated communities. All ethnic autonomous areas are inalienable parts of the People’s Republic of China.”

The system of ethnic regional autonomy is one of our country’s basic political systems, an important component of the correct path of resolving ethnic issues with Chinese characteristics, and a major creation of the Party in applying Marxist ethnic theory to resolve China’s ethnic issues based on the characteristics of China’s history and realities. In September 1949, the Common Program of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference established the implementation of the system of ethnic regional autonomy. In August 1952, the Central People’s Government promulgated and implemented the Program for the Implementation of Ethnic Regional Autonomy of the People’s Republic of China. The 1954 constitution standardized ethnic autonomous areas into three levels—autonomous regions, autonomous prefectures, and autonomous counties—with ethnic townships established in ethnic minority concentrated communities below the county level. The implementation of the system of ethnic regional autonomy has great and long-term significance for China’s ability to always maintain the complete unity of the state and promote solidarity, mutual assistance, and development and progress among all ethnic groups, under any complex international or domestic circumstances.

The establishment of the fundamental political system of people’s congresses, the basic political systems of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and ethnic regional autonomy constituted our country’s socialist political institutional system, providing political guarantees for our country’s establishment of the socialist economic base and corresponding economic institutions.

The Socialist Transformation of the Private Ownership of the Means of Production and the Establishment of the Socialist Economic System

With the implementation of the First Five-Year Construction Plan and the beginning of socialist industrialization, and with the putting forward and propagandizing of the Party’s General Line for the Transition Period, the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts, and capitalist industry and commerce was also advancing step by step.

▶ A Brief History of the Communist Party of China

▶ 中国共产党简史

The socialist transformation of agriculture had in fact already begun before the General Line for the Transition Period was put forward. In September 1951, the Party Central Committee formulated the Resolution on Mutual Aid and Cooperation in Agricultural Production (Draft), emphasizing that the mutual aid and cooperative movement should adopt the guideline of steady progress based on the needs and possibilities of production development, must implement the principles of voluntariness and mutual benefit, and should adopt the methods of model demonstration and gradual promotion to guide peasants onto the road of mutual aid and cooperation. After the General Line for the Transition Period was announced, in December 1953, the Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Developing Agricultural Producers’ Cooperatives was also adopted. The rural mutual aid and cooperative movement advanced steadily under the guidance of these two resolutions. In the early stage of the agricultural cooperativization movement, the main focus was on developing agricultural production mutual aid teams. After September 1953, it entered the stage of primarily developing agricultural producers’ cooperatives. Because after large-scale economic construction began in 1953, a contradiction emerged in which the supply of agricultural products could not meet demand, causing violent fluctuations in grain prices. After repeated deliberation, in October 1953, the CPC Central Committee made the decision to implement unified purchasing and marketing of grain, followed by unified purchasing of oil-bearing crops and unified marketing of edible oil. In 1954, unified purchasing of cotton and unified purchasing and marketing of cotton cloth were also implemented. The unified purchasing and marketing of major agricultural products accelerated the pace of agricultural socialist transformation. After July 1955, agricultural cooperativization formed a high tide.

The agricultural cooperativization movement was basically healthy in its early stages; in 1953 there was a brief occurrence of some overly hasty deviations, which were quickly corrected. The superiority and effectiveness of agricultural cooperativization were also evident: statistical materials from the time showed that more than 80% of cooperatives increased both production and income, and that in general mutual aid teams outperformed individual farming, and cooperatives outperformed mutual aid teams. Therefore, the mutual aid and cooperative movement was welcomed by the broad poor peasantry, and joining cooperatives became a mass action. By the end of 1956, agricultural cooperativization was basically complete.

The transformation of capitalist industry and commerce was realized through the path of state capitalism. Before the end of 1953, the emphasis was on developing the initial and intermediate forms of state capitalism, primarily processing orders. From 1954 onward, the focus shifted to developing ★ On January 15, 1956, at a rally of more than 200,000 people from all walks of life in the capital celebrating the victory of socialist transformation, representatives of the industrial and commercial community presented a report of good news to Mao Zedong. the three stages of cooperative groups, handicraft supply and marketing production cooperatives, and handicraft production cooperatives, proceeding according to local conditions, in forms that different handicraft workers could readily accept, from lower to higher levels, from small to large, and from simple to complex. The state consistently implemented the principle of voluntariness and mutual benefit, striving to run cooperatives in a manner beneficial to producers, the state, and consumers alike. By the end of 1956, handicraft cooperativization had been basically achieved nationwide.

the higher form of state capitalism—joint state-private ownership. Because enterprise production developed rapidly after joint state-private ownership was established, and the dividends received by private shareholders were generally greater than the profits during the period of private operation, this prompted more capitalists to request joint state-private ownership. At the end of 1954, the State Council decided to adopt the guideline of “making overall plans with all factors taken into account, arranging by category, and transforming by trade,” to resolve the contradictions between public and private interests; implementing joint operation by trade, using the method of the large leading the small and the advanced leading the backward, accelerated the pace of transforming private industry. By the end of 1956, the socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce was also basically complete.

The socialist transformation of individual handicrafts generally went through

In the course of socialist transformation, the Party created a series of forms suited to Chinese characteristics for gradually transitioning from lower to higher levels, enabling individual peasants, handicraft workers, and private industrial and commercial operators to progressively change their old modes of production. Especially for capitalist industry and commerce, the Party created the “redemption” method—whereby instead of the state paying large sums in compensation, capitalists were allowed to continue receiving a portion of dividends and interest from enterprises for a considerable period of time—which not only facilitated the capitalists’ acceptance of transformation, but also continued to give full play to the positive role of private industry and commerce in expanding production, stimulating circulation, maintaining employment, and increasing tax revenues. The Party won the cooperation of the majority of national capitalists in playing a beneficial role in socialist transformation, thereby successfully realizing the peaceful redemption of the bourgeoisie that Marx and Lenin had once envisioned. This was an original experience of the Communist Party of China, enriching and developing the scientific socialist theory of Marxism.

History has proven that the General Line for the Transition Period put forward by the Party was entirely correct. However, in the later stages of transformation, there were shortcomings such as excessive haste in demands, overly rough work, excessively rapid changes, and an overly simplistic and uniform approach to the forms of ownership of the means of production and economic composition. Despite this, socialist transformation, as an unprecedented and profound social transformation, was completed under conditions of guaranteed economic development, social stability, and popular support; its achievements and influence were great and far-reaching.

In 1956, socialist transformation was basically complete, and our country’s socialist political system and economic system had both been established. At this point, our country’s socialist system was established. Under the leadership of the Party, China—an eastern great power comprising one-quarter of the world’s population—entered socialist society, successfully achieving the most profound and greatest social transformation in Chinese history. This was a great historic victory, laying the fundamental political prerequisite and institutional foundation for all development and progress in contemporary China. From this point forward, the fundamental task facing the Party was to lead the people of all ethnic groups across the country to vigorously develop social productive forces on the basis of the newly established socialist system, and to strive for the prosperity and strength of the state and the happiness of the people.

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