On October 1, 1949, in a grand ceremony witnessed by crowds of
Beijing people in Tiananmen Square, 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 peasants 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 in
national income surpassed 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. 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 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, former general secretary of the CPC, to 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 economic and political systems. Step by step, China was
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. This period is the best ever since the founding of the
People's Republic of China, one characterized by rapid and vigorous
economic advance and markedly improved living standards.
Jiang Zemin became general secretary of the CPC Central
Committee in 1989 and head of state in 1993. Succeeding him, Hu
Jintao took the position of general secretary of the CPC Central
Committee in 2002 and president of the state in 2003. Today, the
CPC Central Committee, headed by Hu Jintao, continuously upholds
the policy of reform and opening-up initiated by Deng Xiaoping. As
a result, China's policies enjoyed wide popular support in a stable
political situation, burgeoning economy, and active diplomatic
engagement.
