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On October 1, 1949
a grand ceremony was witnessed by 300,000 people in Beijing’s
Tiananmen Square, and Mao Zedong, chairman of the Central
People’s Government, solemnly proclaimed the founding
of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).
During the initial post-Liberation period,
the Chinese government successfully carried out land reform
in areas accounting for over 90 percent of the total national
agricultural population, and 300 million farmers were granted
approximately 47 million ha of land. Amazing achievements
were made during the First Five-Year Plan period, from 1953
to 1957. The average annual increase rateof the national |
On October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong declared
the founding of the People's Republic of China on the forum
of Tian'anmen Square. |
income reached over 8.9 percent. China established
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 ten years from 1957 to 1966 was the period in
which China started large-scale socialist construction. Though China
suffered from the mistakes in its policies during the period, it
also accomplished a great deal. The nation’s total industrial
fixed assets quadrupled between 1956 and 1966 and the national income
increased by 58 percent in constant prices. The output of essential
industrial products increased by several or even a dozen times.
Large-scale agricultural capital construction and technical transformation
got underway. Unfortunately, the “cultural revolution,”
which lasted for ten years (May 1966-October 1976), made the state
and its people suffer the most serious setbacks and losses since
its founding.
The Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique was smashed
in October 1976, marking the end of the “cultural revolution,”
and the beginning of a new era in Chinese history. The CPC reinstated
Deng Xiaoping, previously general secretary of the CPC, in all the
Party and governmental posts he had been dismissed from during the
“cultural revolution.” In 1979, China instituted a guiding
policy of “reform and opening to the outside world”
under Deng’s leadership, and the focus was shifted to modernization.
Major efforts were made to reform the economic and political systems.
China was step by step establishing a road with Chinese characteristics,
a road that would lead to socialist modernization. Profound changes
have come about in China since the country embarked on the policy
of reform and opening-up. The situation in the country is the best
ever, characterized by a swiftly and vigorously advancing economy
and markedly improved living standard.
Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the CPC Central
Committee and president of the state, is leading China’s third-generation
leaders to uphold and carry on the policy of reform and opening-up
initiated by Deng Xiaoping, and as a result, China enjoys a stable
political situation, burgeoning economy and active diplomacy, winning
the support of the broad masses of the people. |