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Contemporary
Period
(1949-
)
From
September 21 to 30, 1949, the First Plenum of the Chinese People??s
Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held in Beijing, with
the participation of various political parties, popular organizations,
non-Party democrats and representatives from all walks of life.
The CPPCC drew up a Common Program, which served as a provisional
constitution. It elected a Central People's Government Council,
with Mao Zedong as Chairman, and appointed Zhou Enlai Premier of
the Government Administration Council and concurrently Minister
of Foreign Affairs. On October 1, 1949, a grand ceremony inaugurating
the People??s Republic of China was witnessed by 300,000 people in
Beijing??s Tiananmen Square. On that day, Chairman Mao Zedong solemnly
proclaimed the formal establishment of the People??s Republic of
China.
The
early days of New China were a period of economic recovery. While
developing production, China gradually
established socialist public ownership of the means of production.
From 1953 to 1956, large-scale socialist transformation of the national
economy was implemented, the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) for
the development of the national economy was achieved ahead of schedule,
and China established and expanded 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
10 years from 1957 to the beginning of the ??cultural revolution??
in 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 terms of constant prices. The output of essential industrial
products increased several-fold, even over tenfold. A group of new
and developing industries were founded, and large-scale agricultural
capital construction and technological transformation unfolded on
a large scale. Both the number of tractors used in agriculture and
the volume of chemical fertilizer increased by more than 600 percent.
The 12-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological Development (1956-1967)
was completed five years ahead of schedule. Outstanding achievements
were recorded in many new fields of science and technology.
However,
during this dynamic decade, serious mistakes were also made in the
Party and government??s guidelines, harming the national economy.
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On
October 1, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong declared the founding of the
People's Republic of China on the forum of Tian'anmen Square.
In
1992, Deng Xiaoping inspected the Shen Zhen Special Economic Zone
of Guangdong Province.
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From
the evening of Dec. 31, 1999 to the morning of Jan. 1, 2000, people
from all walks of life in Beijing gathered at the newly-built Altar
of Centenary to celebrate the coming of the new century. The picture
shows President Jiang Zeming at the celebration ceremony.
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The
??cultural revolution,?? which lasted for 10 years from May 1966 to
October 1976, was initiated and led by Mao Zedong, the then chairman
of the CPC Central Committee. Taking advantage of Mao Zedong??s mistakes
in his later years, the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary
cliques, unbeknownst to Mao, engaged in activities that brought
great calamity to the country and people, causing the most serious
setbacks and most damaging losses to the country since the founding
of the People??s Republic of China. In spite of the grievous mistakes
Mao Zedong made during the ??cultural revolution,?? his lifetime record
shows that his contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweighed
his errors.
Drawing
on the support of the broad masses of the Chinese people, the CPC
smashed the Jiang Qing clique in October 1976. A new era of development
unfolded in Chinese history. In July 1977, responding to the fervent
demands of all the people, the CPC reinstated Deng Xiao-ping in
all the Party and government posts he had been dismissed from during
the ??cultural revolution.?? The Third Plenary Session of the CPC
11th Central Committee held at the end of 1978 represented a great
turning point of profound significance in the history of New China.
Since 1979, China has pursued a policy of reform and opening to
the outside world, a policy which was initiated by Deng Xiaoping.
The errors of the ??cultural revolution?? and the earlier ??Leftist??
deviations have been rectified, and the focus has been shifted to
modernization. Major efforts have been made to readjust the economic
structure, and reform the economic and political systems. China
is,
step by step, establishing a road with Chinese characteristics,
a road that will lead to socialist modernization. Great changes
have come about in China since 1979. The situation in the country
is the best ever, and the people are enjoying more material benefits
than ever before.
Jiang
Zeming, since taking office as the General Secretary of the Central
Committee of the CPC in 1989 , Chairman of the Military Committee
of the CPC and the President of the People's Republic of China,
is leading the third generation of the leading body to carry out
Deng Xiaoping's theory, persist in and continue the policies and
principles of reform and opening to the outside world advocated
by Deng Xiaoping, making the country stable, economy developed and
foreign relations promoted and winning the support from the people.
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