The Mao era
The Mao era (1949-1976): consolidation of the PRC, the planned economy, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and their assessment.
The Founding of the PRC
On 1 October 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China from the Tiananmen rostrum, declaring that the Chinese people 'have stood up' (中国人民站起来了). The provisional constitutional framework was the Common Programme of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), adopted 29 September 1949, which served as an interim constitution until the first PRC Constitution of 20 September 1954. The 1954 Constitution established the National People's Congress (NPC) as the supreme organ of state power and codified the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Consolidation, 1949-1953
The new state moved rapidly to consolidate control. The Agrarian Reform Law of 28 June 1950 abolished landlord landownership and redistributed land to roughly 300 million peasants, accompanied by violent struggle sessions in which an estimated one to two million landlords were killed. The Marriage Law of 1 May 1950 banned arranged marriage, concubinage, and child betrothal, granting women the right to divorce. Politically, the regime launched the Three-anti (1951) campaign against corruption, waste, and bureaucracy within the party-state, and the Five-anti (1952) campaign against the urban bourgeoisie.
Externally, the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance signed with the USSR on 14 February 1950 anchored China in the Soviet bloc and yielded a $300 million loan. China's intervention in the Korean War (October 1950, the 'War to Resist America and Aid Korea') under the Chinese People's Volunteer Army cost some 180,000-400,000 Chinese lives but cemented the regime's nationalist legitimacy.
The Socialist Transformation and the First Five-Year Plan
The First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957), modelled on Soviet central planning and assisted by Soviet advisers and the '156 projects', prioritised heavy industry. Output of steel and coal rose sharply, and Soviet-designed plants such as the Anshan Iron and Steel Works expanded. Concurrently, the socialist transformation collectivised agriculture into Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives and nationalised private industry and commerce into joint state-private enterprises; by 1956 the transition to public ownership was substantially complete.
The brief liberalisation of the Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956-57), inviting intellectuals to 'let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend', produced sharp criticism of the party. Mao reversed course with the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957, in which roughly 550,000 intellectuals were branded 'rightists' and purged. This pattern—invitation to speak followed by punishment—established the volatility of intellectual life that would define the Mao era and is a recurring theme in Guokao 申论 (Shenlun) essays on the relationship between governance and expertise.