From September 21 to 30, 1949, the First Plenum of
the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference
(CPPCC) was held in Beijing, with the participation of
various political parties, popular organizations, non-Party
democrats and representatives from all walks of life. The
CPPCC drew up a Common Program, which served as a
provisional constitution. It elected a Central People's
Government Council, with Mao Zedong as Chairman, and
appointed Zhou Enlai Premier of the Government
Administration Council and concurrently Minister of Foreign
Affairs. On October 1, 1949, a grand ceremony inaugurating
the People’s Republic of China was witnessed by
300,000 people in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. On that
day, Chairman Mao Zedong solemnly proclaimed the formal
establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
The early days of New China were a period of
economic recovery. While developing production, China
gradually established socialist public ownership
of the means of production. From 1953 to 1956, large-scale
socialist transformation of the national economy was
implemented, the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) for the
development of the national economy was achieved ahead of
schedule, and China established and expanded basic
industries necessary for full industrialization, hitherto
non-existent domestically, producing airplanes, automobiles,
heavy machinery, precision machinery, power-generating
equipment, metallurgical and mining equipment, high-grade
alloy steels and non-ferrous metals.
The 10
years from 1957 to the beginning of the “cultural
revolution” in 1966 was the period in which China
started large-scale socialist construction. The
nation’s total industrial fixed assets quadrupled
between 1956 and 1966, and the national income increased by
58 percent in terms of constant prices. The output of
essential industrial products increased several-fold, even
over tenfold. A group of new and developing industries were
founded, and large-scale agricultural capital construction
and technological transformation unfolded on a large scale.
Both the number of tractors used in agriculture and the
volume of chemical fertilizer increased by more than 600
percent. The 12-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological
Development (1956-1967) was completed five years ahead of
schedule. Outstanding achievements were recorded in many new
fields of science and technology.
However,
during this dynamic decade, serious mistakes were also made
in the Party and government’s guidelines, harming the
national economy.
The
“cultural revolution,” which lasted for 10 years
from May 1966 to October 1976, was initiated and led by Mao
Zedong, the then chairman of the CPC Central Committee.
Taking advantage of Mao Zedong’s mistakes in his later
years, the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary
cliques, unbeknownst to Mao, engaged in activities that
brought great calamity to the country and people, causing
the most serious setbacks and most damaging losses to the
country since the founding of the People’s Republic of
China. In spite of the grievous mistakes Mao Zedong made
during the “cultural revolution,” his lifetime
record shows that his contributions to the Chinese
revolution far outweighed his errors.
Drawing
on the support of the broad masses of the Chinese people,
the CPC smashed the Jiang Qing clique in October 1976. A new
era of development unfolded in Chinese history. In July
1977, responding to the fervent demands of all the people,
the CPC reinstated Deng Xiao-ping in all the Party and
government posts he had been dismissed from during the
“cultural revolution.” The Third Plenary Session
of the CPC 11th Central Committee held at the end of 1978
represented a great turning point of profound significance
in the history of New China. Since 1979, China has pursued a
policy of reform and opening to the outside world, a policy
which was initiated by Deng Xiaoping. The errors of the
“cultural revolution” and the earlier
“Leftist” deviations have been rectified, and
the focus has been shifted to modernization. Major efforts
have been made to readjust the economic structure, and
reform the economic and political systems. China is,
step by step, establishing a road with Chinese
characteristics, a road that will lead to socialist
modernization. Great changes have come about in China since
1979. The situation in the country is the best ever, and the
people are enjoying more material benefits than ever before.
Jiang Zeming, since taking office as the
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC in
1989 , Chairman of the Military Committee of the CPC and the
President of the People's Republic of China, is leading the
third generation of the leading body to carry out Deng
Xiaoping's theory, persist in and continue the policies and
principles of reform and opening to the outside world
advocated by Deng Xiaoping, making the country stable,
economy developed and foreign relations promoted and winning
the support from the people.
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