All About China, Part 1 (Feat. Mao Zedong, Red Guards, Cultural Revolution)

All About China – Part 1

(Feat. Mao Zedong, Red Guards, Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping, Communism to Capitalism, Economy, History, Politics)

Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the United States is just around the corner. Recently, tariffs have become a pressing issue in the headlines. The U.S. government announced plans to maintain higher tariffs on certain Chinese imports to protect domestic industries.

The core issue, as always, lies in the relationship between the U.S. and China. Why did China become such a global force? Why is it struggling today? And how might Trump approach China during his next four years in office? To answer these questions, we must delve into China’s modern history.

Understanding China is crucial for crafting strategies to overcome challenges. This is the first in a four-part series called “All About China” Let’s get started!

1. In 1958, Mao Zedong, who unified China after winning the Chinese Civil War, launched the Great Leap Forward.

2. The goal was to surpass Britain in 7 years and the U.S. in 15 years.

3. Mao excelled in political power struggles but lacked any real understanding of economics.

4. He identified four pests—mosquitoes, flies, rats, and sparrows—as threats to agriculture and launched a mass extermination campaign.

5. The efforts against mosquitoes, flies, and rats were effective, but the campaign against sparrows caused problems.

6. Sparrows were more than just harmful birds eating grain—they were predators of locusts.

7. With sparrows gone, locust populations exploded, leading to widespread destruction of crops.

8. Mao famously declared, “Sparrows are bad birds!” mobilizing the entire nation to kill sparrows.

9. Over 210 million sparrows were exterminated in just one year, resulting in locust infestations that destroyed crops.

10. Mao’s push to create steel in small backyard furnaces caused further issues.

11. At the time, China didn’t have large-scale steel production facilities.

12. Villages followed Mao’s orders and built small furnaces to produce steel.

13. However, these small furnaces created two major problems:

14. Farmers didn’t know how to produce steel or understand the required processes like smelting or heat treatment.

15. Quality steel requires precise processes to remove impurities and control carbon content.

16. Local blacksmiths, who were skilled only at making simple tools, couldn’t produce usable steel.

17. This led to brittle, low-quality steel, mockingly called “junk steel.”

18. To meet quotas, local officials melted farming tools to create more “steel.”

19. To fuel the furnaces, forests were cut down, leaving hills barren.

20. This deforestation weakened soil retention, causing landslides during rains that destroyed farmland.

21. With farmland ruined, locust swarms rampant, and a shortage of farming tools, agricultural production collapsed.

22. This resulted in the Great Famine, which claimed 30 million lives—10% of China’s population.

23. Someone needed to take responsibility for this disaster.

24. In 1959, Mao stepped down as Chairman, and Liu Shaoqi took his place.

25. Despite stepping down, Mao remained widely popular, and his “Little Red Book” became a phenomenon.

26. The book included phrases like:

• “Serve the people.”
• “Put others before yourself.”
• “Overcome hardships together.”

27. However, saying good things and taking them into action are two very different matters.

28. The book didn’t provide actionable steps to solve China’s real problems.

29. In 1966, Mao began planning his return to power.

30. He used enthusiastic teenagers to form the Red Guards.

31. On May 16, 1966, students at Tsinghua University High School posted big-character posters accusing their school and principal of anti-communist behavior.

32. Mao quickly supported the students’ protests.

33. The People’s Daily ran the now-famous commentary: “Bombard the Headquarters!”

34. Empowered by Mao, the Red Guards overthrew schools and criticized teachers.

35. This marked the start of the Cultural Revolution, a movement to destroy “old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas.”

36. Students humiliated, assaulted, and even killed teachers and intellectuals in “struggle sessions.”

37. Once mob mentality takes over, it’s hard to control.

38. Millions of Red Guards, waving Mao’s Little Red Book, flooded into society.

39. They began attacking Communist Party officials who didn’t align with Mao’s ideology.

40. Party leaders and intellectuals were tortured and executed.

41. Red Guards lived freely, with food, housing, and supplies provided to them.

42. They shifted their focus to destroying cultural relics like Confucian temples and royal tombs.

43. Claiming to oppose “reactionary culture,” they smashed and burned priceless artifacts.

44. Intellectual pursuits were dismissed as bourgeois vanity, replaced by empty slogans and propaganda.

45. The cult of Mao reached its peak as the Red Guards worshiped him.

46. Once Mao had consolidated his power, the Red Guards became a liability.

47. Liu Shaoqi, Mao’s successor, was tortured to death, and other rivals were eliminated.

48. Mao disbanded the Red Guards by launching the Down to the Countryside Movement.

49. He sent them to rural areas to “learn from peasants,” preventing them from returning to cities.

50. Most Red Guards, many of whom were teenagers, died of hunger, abuse, or disease in the countryside.

51. They were pawns discarded after serving their purpose.

52. Young Red Guards were manipulated into a frenzy, but once they became useless, they were discarded.

52. Mao Zedong, who wielded power as a dictator, appointed Hua Guofeng, a native of his hometown Hunan Province, as his successor before his death.

53. Hua introduced the slogan “Two Whatevers”:

• “Whatever Mao decided is correct.”
• “Whatever Mao instructed must be followed.”

54. Hua positioned himself as Mao’s rightful successor and sought to consolidate his power.

55. At this time, Deng Xiaoping introduced a new political slogan.

56. The slogan was “Seek Truth from Facts.”

57. It meant applying Mao’s ideas flexibly, focusing only on what was practical and relevant.

58. The slogan acknowledged Mao’s authority but hinted at reforms and economic opening.

59. The public and party members, tired of Mao’s failed policies, began supporting Deng Xiaoping’s pragmatic approach.

59. On December 22, 1978, Deng Xiaoping officially took over power.

60. However, when Deng took office, China in 1978 was still deeply entrenched in Mao’s communist policies at every level of society.

61. Private ownership was considered treason, and farmers worked collectively on state-assigned farms, splitting the output equally among themselves.

62. Farmers would start work together at the sound of a morning whistle and finish together when the evening whistle blew.

63. Whether they worked hard or barely worked at all, everyone received the same share of the harvest, so people stopped putting in effort.

64. It became common for workers to walk slowly to the fields, claim they forgot their tools, go back home, and spend the rest of the day idling.

65. Naturally, farming productivity plummeted.

66. To make matters worse, a severe drought hit during this time.

67. Even during good harvests, people were already starving. The drought made the farmers’ future seem completely hopeless.

68. In the evening of November 24, 1978, 18 farmers secretly gathered at the home of Yan Lihua in Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province.

69. Desperate, they decided to take a life-or-death gamble and wrote a pact, sealing it with their fingerprints.

70. The pact was simple:

• “We will divide the farmland among ourselves.
• If the authorities arrest or execute the leaders, the rest of us will take care of their children until they turn 18.”

71. At the time, dividing farmland was considered an act of treason, as it embraced capitalist private ownership, punishable by death.

72. However, the farmers said their lives changed overnight after dividing the land.

73. Once the land became their own, they worked tirelessly from dawn until night, even collecting animal dung from the hills to use as fertilizer.

74. When autumn arrived, their harvest jumped from 15 tons of grain in 1978 to 61 tons in 1979.

75. The dramatic results couldn’t stay hidden for long, and the story eventually reached Deng Xiaoping.

76. Deng praised the farmers as heroes and used their success as an example to push forward his reforms, replacing Mao’s economic policies with his own.

77. He allowed farmers to keep the output from their land and began dismantling collective farms.

78. From the moment Deng acknowledged the role of human ambition, China began its rapid transformation.

Continued in Part 2…