From Mao to Reform: China During the Cold War

The Communist Party came to power in China in 1949, after winning a 22-year civil war against the forces of the then president Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975).
Chiang Kai-shek and his co-religionists took refuge on the island of Formosa (now Taiwan), where they tried to establish a parallel government, with the support from the United States.
On October 1, 1949, Mao Tse-tung (1893-1976) proclaimed the People's Republic of China on the mainland.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), however, took over a country in ruins.
Only 0.6% of the population worked in the few Chinese industries.
In rural areas, food production was insufficient to supply the entire population of approximately 580 million inhabitants.
The hunger spread across the country.
In 1950, the Chinese government signed a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union and began to implement radical measures to transform the social and economic structure of the country.
There was a severe agrarian reform - creating, at the same time, thousands of peasant cooperatives - and the big companies were nationalized.
Inspired by the Soviet experience, in 1953 the Chinese government put into practice its first Five-Year Plan (1953-1957).
With the collectivization of the land at the end of 1956, the newly created agricultural cooperatives were now 90% of agricultural production.
At that time, banks, large industries and commerce were already nationalized.
In 1958, the Chinese government released its second Five-Year Plan, known as the Great Leap for the Front (1958-1962).