9781422277676

Problems in a Poor Land Mao was the top leader—the chairman—of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After World War II, he led the Communists in a revolution that overthrew China’s ruling party, the Guomindang. On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC would be a Communist state. Governance would be the exclusive right of the CCP. No other political party would be permitted. The problems facing China’s new rulers were huge. With a population of more than 540 million, China was home to more than one-fifth of the world’s people. The vast majority lived in poverty. The country had only limited industry, and that was concentrated in a few large cities. Rural areas, where 9 in 10 Chinese resided, were barely touched by modernity. Peasants continued to cultivate the land as they had for centuries. They used hand tools instead of machines for planting and harvest- ing. They didn’t have modern fertilizers to help their crops grow. They didn’t have modern irrigation systems to water their crops. Land ownership was another big problem. Many peasants owned plots of land that were barely large enough to farm prof- itably. Usually, these peasants could grow just enough to feed their families. In a very good year, they might grow a little extra, which they could sell. But in a year when the weather wasn’t great, they faced hunger. Many other peasants had no land at all. They leased the fields they cultivated. And the rents they paid were quite high. As a result, these peasants stayed in perpetual debt.

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Communism: Control of the State