April 12, 1927 would be the year that the GuoMinDang (GMD) set out to try to exterminate the competition, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and establish out of a brutal civil war that would last more than a decade. However, in the flames of war arose a revolutionary man whose ideals would spark the ideals behind China's many policies, and that man was none other than the CPC's first chairman, Mao Zedong. Having fled the massacre in Shanghai on that fateful day, Mao would lead China to superpower status, or at least lay the foundation for it. As previously mentioned, Mao had managed to escape the White Terror which had virtually destroyed whatever relationship remained between the GMD and the CCP and “marked the end of the First United Front” (Story Alpha). This led to anti-communist movements across the country and resulted in the deaths of over 300,000 communists across the country (Zhou Enlai: A Political Life). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Mao had escaped with his life and would go on to co-form the short-lived Jiangxi Soviet in 1929. Mao knew that his troops were too few to actually face the GMD in front-line combat and chose instead to adopt the guerrilla strategy by saying: “When the enemy advances, we retreat. When the enemy rests, we harass him. When the enemy avoids a battle, we attack. When the enemy retreats, we advance." This allowed the continued existence of the Jiangxi Soviet until 1934, during the fifth encirclement campaign, in which the communist army changed its tactics to fight on the front lines. This was the move that caused the fall of the Jiangxi Soviet and also the reason why the Red Army was forced to undertake a long march to escape the clutches of the GMD. It was also during this period that Mao gained a more prominent position in the CCP and became the “de facto leader of both the Party and the Red Army” (Mao: A Reinterpretation). After the end of the Long March, Mao established a communist government in Yan'an, a precursor to the policies he would implement after winning the civil war. However, before the war ended, another Sino-Japanese War broke out, leading to the emergence of the Second United Front between the GMD and the CCP. This shaky alliance would go on to successfully defend China from the Japanese invaders and the second part of the civil war would continue until Mao's final victory in 1949. Through these continuing difficulties Mao had proven himself as a leader and had also gained confidence in him . by the people of China through guilt. One of the first things Mao had done during the early years of his presidency was to establish the Marriage Law and land reforms. First, the marriage laws. This change brought men and women to a more “equal” status in society. Allowing this did not give complete equality to women, it succeeded in giving more rights to women and was very accepted by young women who were not yet looking to settle into a family. The Marriage Law also prevented bigamy and infanticide of female children. All of this was good for China to become more modern, but it also contributed to a better economy as women would spend more time working instead of staying at home taking care of their children. Land reform was the promise of free land for all. of the peasants was realized when Mao asked the CCP to take land from rich landowners and distribute it to them. The aim was to achieve the communist ideal ofequal outcomes and reduce the gap between rich and poor in China. It was also a way to redirect the blame for the civil war which had caused many victims and which therefore should have been placed on the landowners who would have wanted to support their own interests by keeping the GMD in power. The CCP even encouraged this attitude demonstrated by bitterness campaigns that encouraged mistreated farmers to lash out at their landowners, even beating them. The new laws and reforms had helped China in its infancy, but at the expense of a small group of people. Having addressed the most pressing issues in China at the time, Mao decided to turn his attention to educating people about the ideals of Marxism. -Leninism and Maoism. He would be able to brainwash his population to work harder not for themselves but for the party, later integrating the 1951 thought reform into the Three Antis Campaign and the Five Antis Campaign, the latter aimed at preventing corruption in the party itself while the former would avoid the emergence of individualistic needs. These were highly successful campaigns that would lead people to spy on others to reveal such corruption. Even though some people would have been innocent, the rest of the arrests would have ensured that they set an example for those who might try to imitate their actions. Simply put, these propaganda campaigns would essentially get people to spy for the party and would also change the way Chinese people think. Although many of the social and political problems had been addressed, Mao still needed to find a way to repair the country's economy. After GMD stole all of China's gold reserves and took them to Taiwan, the Chinese economy was in dire straits. They also had extremely poor infrastructure due to the civil war and these problems needed to be addressed. But Mao's goal was not simply limited to fixing the economy, but he had greater aspirations to make China completely independent and I quote: "only with the industrialization of the state will we be able to guarantee our economic independence and non-dependence on imperialism ”. (Alpha History) To achieve this goal, he received help from the Soviets in the form of some monetary loans, but mostly in the form of talented manpower such as scientists and engineers who doubled industrial production and heavy industry benefited enormously by seeing large increases in the production of various raw materials such as steel and coal. This had also brought China closer to the Soviet Union as they signed the Treaty of Alliance of Friendship and Mutual Assistance. This also led to a better quality of life for the urban population as the number of people living in urban areas increased from 57 million to 100 million people (AlphaHistory) In 1956, Mao gave the famous speech of making a hundred flowers bloom , asking the people of China to express their criticisms of the party. There are two different opinions on the matter, the first is that he did it to identify his political opposition and shut it down and the second is that he wanted to improve the party and its leadership, but the huge amount of criticism he received caused it to be agitated, especially since he witnessed Khrushchev's speech denouncing Joseph Stalin's actions after the Soviet leader's death, fearing that the same fate would await him too. Whatever his original intentions, he stopped the campaign in 1957 and began cracking down on prominent people who had publicly criticized him. This put him in a position of higher political power since he would have no one left who would.