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In 1949, after decades of revolution, invasion and civil war, Mao Zedong finally takes control of China.
Chairman Mao proclaims it a 'People's Republic', but democracy is not on the agenda. Instead, he wields absolute power in an authoritarian government determined to rebuild China in line with his communist ideals.
In the years that follow, his regime will oversee the expansion of China's influence and its transformation into a major player on the international stage. But in his attempts to revolutionise Chinese society, Mao will also unleash catastrophic violence and sow the seeds of humanitarian disaster.
Chairman Mao proclaims it a 'People's Republic', but democracy is not on the agenda. Instead, he wields absolute power in an authoritarian government determined to rebuild China in line with his communist ideals.
In the years that follow, his regime will oversee the expansion of China's influence and its transformation into a major player on the international stage. But in his attempts to revolutionise Chinese society, Mao will also unleash catastrophic violence and sow the seeds of humanitarian disaster.
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00:00China, 1949
00:23From Peking's Tiananmen Square, Communist leader Mao Zedong has proclaimed the establishment
00:29of the People's Republic of China.
00:36A new age for China, for the Chinese Communist Party, and for Chairman Mao.
00:45He has devoted his life to revolution, and to his dream of transforming China.
00:53Now is his moment.
00:56Mao's government calls itself a People's Democratic dictatorship, but democracy is
01:04not on the agenda.
01:06Instead, the heart of government is the central committee of around 100 senior party members.
01:15Above that, the 12-strong Politburo.
01:20And within that…
01:23The Politburo's standing committee, where true power lies.
01:28There are five members, including Liu Shaoqi, a veteran labour organiser who studied in Moscow.
01:38He is now vice-chairman of the Communist Party.
01:42Zhou Enlai, a hero of the revolution, once Mao's superior within the party, but who has now
01:50publicly and privately committed to Mao's leadership.
01:55Charming and polite, he has shown a great talent for diplomacy, and will serve as Communist China's
02:02first state premier and foreign minister.
02:06And Mao himself, chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, and paramount leader.
02:17Aged 55, Mao now wields unchallenged personal authority.
02:23The result of his inspiring leadership in the struggle against the Japanese and nationalists.
02:31Though never a natural orator, Mao is a charismatic figure, capable of deep intellectual thought,
02:38shrewd political tactics, and stirring writing.
02:43Since 1938, he has been married to his fourth wife, the famous actress Jiang Qing.
02:53She is a powerful personality in her own right, ferociously loyal to Mao, and scathing of his
03:01rivals, real or imagined.
03:07After years of revolution, invasion and civil war, China is impoverished, and in desperate
03:14need of reform and rebuilding.
03:18The Communist Party gets to work immediately, to impose a vision on the country that is heavily
03:23inspired by Soviet thinking.
03:28To this end, around 10,000 Soviet advisors arrive in China to assist in reconstruction.
03:36The country remains an overwhelmingly agrarian society.
03:41In 1949, by rough estimate, every fifth person on earth is a Chinese peasant.
03:51They have long provided the base for communist success in China, wooed by the promise of land
03:57redistribution, which has been enforced in communist-controlled areas since the early 1930s.
04:06Now it is to be rolled out on a national scale.
04:12Rural landowners, who have dominated the Chinese countryside for centuries, are vilified for
04:19abusing their power over peasants.
04:22They are publicly humiliated by the communists, put on trial, and executed in huge numbers.
04:33More than a million are killed.
04:37Their land is seized and redistributed.
04:42Over the next three years, about 300 million peasants receive land for the first time.
04:52Early reforms are intended to fundamentally reshape Chinese society.
04:59New laws improve the rights of women, and protect their role in the workforce.
05:06To improve literacy rates of just 20%, the government promotes the use of simplified Chinese characters.
05:15Huge propaganda drives in theatres, public storytelling and posters aim to both educate and indoctrinate
05:23in communist revolutionary values.
05:30Suspected counter-revolutionaries, such as nationalist sympathisers, corrupt officials and capitalists,
05:37are to be reported and eliminated.
05:43The campaigns upend China's traditional class structure, humiliating and impoverishing bourgeois
05:50and middle-class families.
05:54The number of victims is impossible to quantify.
05:59But hundreds of thousands suffer loss of status, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.
06:07Some are even forced to take their own lives.
06:34China's new communist leaders seek to build alliances abroad.
06:39But World War II has been followed by the Cold War, and the world is now divided between a democratic,
06:46capitalist West, and the Soviet-led communist bloc.
06:52The Western powers offer no support to communist China.
06:57In fact, they continue to recognise their wartime ally, Chiang Kai-shek, as China's legitimate ruler.
07:04His authoritarian, nationalist government, officially known as the Republic of China, still holds Taiwan
07:11and small islands in the Taiwan Strait.
07:15Inevitably, it is to the Soviet Union that Mao turns.
07:21In December 1949, he travels to Moscow for three months of talks with Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin.
07:34Their relationship is not an easy one.
07:38In imposing his own brand of communism in China, Mao has often overruled his Soviet-backed rivals.
07:46Nevertheless, in February 1950, the two leaders sign a Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual
07:55Assistance, unlocking economic and military cooperation between China and the Soviet Union.
08:06By the 18th century, the Qing dynasty had added several remote Western territories to its empire – Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet.
08:20But in the tumult following the 1911 revolution, they had escaped Chinese control.
08:27Now, the communist government acts to re-impose central authority.
08:35In 1949, the People's Liberation Army is sent to re-occupy Xinjiang.
08:43In 1951, Tibet is occupied and annexed, following a short conflict the Chinese government euphemistically
08:51called the peaceful liberation of Tibet.
08:56As part of the settlement, the Dalai Lama is allowed to remain at the head of a local government.
09:04No attempt is made to regain Outer Mongolia, which is now within the Soviet sphere of influence.
09:14Iran remains a major source of contention.
09:18Both the communists and Chiang's nationalists continue to denounce the other side as bandits,
09:25and their governments as illegitimate.
09:28Elsewhere, China's borders seem settled.
09:35But in 1950, the People's Republic of China faces a major conflict on its doorstep.
09:43The Korean War.
09:46After World War II, Korea had been divided into two separate states, a communist north and
09:53democratic south.
09:56In June 1950, northern forces invade the south, advancing rapidly and capturing Seoul within
10:05a week.
10:14Korea becomes a Cold War battleground.
10:21Under US leadership, UN troops intervene in support of South Korea.
10:26By the end of the year, they have pushed the front line back to the Yalu River, close to
10:42the North Korean-Chinese border.
10:46Fearing a US-led invasion, and hoping to shore up a communist ally, Mao sends in Chinese troops
10:53to support North Korea.
10:58More than a million Chinese troops enter the battle, soon rising to 2.5 million.
11:05In the face of this onslaught, UN forces retreat south.
11:14After months of heavy fighting, the war enters a stalemate.
11:23Both sides dig in along the 38th parallel.
11:28In 1953, an armistice is agreed, and this becomes the heavily fortified border between North and
11:37South Korea, known as the DMZ, Demilitarised Zone.
11:46For China, and for Mao, the Korean War is presented as a triumph.
11:54They have championed the global socialist cause, and stood up to the US superpower.
12:01Perhaps even more importantly, communist legitimacy within China is greatly bolstered… but it comes
12:11at a huge cost.
12:15The Korean War claims an estimated 3 million lives.
12:22Chinese military casualties are more than half a million, possibly many more.
12:31They include Mao's own son, Mao An-ing, killed in a UN air strike while serving with Chinese
12:39forces.
12:45In its efforts to curb the spread of communism, the US has now imposed a total trade embargo
12:52on communist China.
12:58The war has also strengthened US support for Chiang Kai-shek's government in Taiwan, with
13:04President Truman sending the US 7th Fleet to deter a potential communist attack.
13:34In 1953, China's government introduces its first five-year plan, inspired by similar economic
13:42programmes in the Soviet Union.
13:45One aim is to swiftly and massively increase Chinese industrial output.
13:52Huge efforts, backed by Soviet technical expertise, produce remarkable results in transport, industry,
14:01and infrastructure.
14:06Production of coal, iron and steel all exceed their ambitious targets, while China becomes
14:16a major oil producer for the first time.
14:21The second aim of the five-year plan is to rapidly boost agricultural output.
14:28To this end, the Communist Party pushes farmers to collectivise on a massive scale, forming cooperatives
14:36that include dozens, sometimes hundreds of households.
14:44By 1956, 80% of peasant households belong to a cooperative, meaning they share the land, tools and harvest.
14:59Cooperatives also have an ideological aim… to tighten party control over the lives and thoughts
15:08of rural communities.
15:11At breakneck speed, communist reforms are overturning a rural way of life that's centuries old… and
15:20sowing the seeds of disaster.
15:27Mao is encouraged by the apparent success of the first five-year plan.
15:33Hoping to encourage further innovation, in 1956 he announces,
15:38Let a hundred flowers bloom.
15:41Let a hundred schools of thought contend.
15:45It is an invitation for others to come forward with constructive proposals for the government.
15:52In response, criticism of the party comes flooding in… from intellectuals, academics and scientists.
16:04Mao and the leadership are dismayed and angered.
16:11Rather than welcome proposals, they move to crush what they now regard as dangerous dissent.
16:17A new anti-rightist campaign punishes at least 500,000 men and women, who are considered insufficiently
16:26loyal to the party.
16:29Penalties include public humiliation, hard labour and execution.
16:41Among the leaders of this brutal campaign, a new addition to the Politburo Standing Committee
16:47the 52-year-old Deng Xiaoping.
16:52A veteran of the long march, he will become a crucial figure in the years ahead.
16:581958.
16:59The start of a second five-year plan.
17:05This time, even more ambitious.
17:06Mao calls it the Great Leap Forward.
17:12A huge programme to create a truly socialist state, and dramatically expand industrial output.
17:17To catch up with the world's leading economies.
17:22A huge public information campaign.
17:23A huge public information campaign spreads the message throughout the world.
17:28Urging every Chinese citizen to rise to the challenge.
17:29This time, even more ambitious.
17:30Mao calls it the Great Leap Forward.
17:31Mao calls it the Great Leap Forward.
17:35A huge programme to create a truly socialist state, and dramatically expand industrial output.
17:42To catch up with the world's leading economies.
17:47A huge public information campaign spreads the message throughout the country.
17:54Urging every Chinese citizen to rise to the challenge.
17:59And embrace Mao's leadership.
18:04Existing rural cooperatives are merged into vast people's communes.
18:09In which the party controls every aspect of daily life.
18:14The state now owns the land, buys harvests, and distributes rations.
18:21Private kitchens are banned as representing selfish individualism.
18:27And replaced by communal canteens.
18:30Very quickly, the Great Leap Forward's ambitions become detached from reality.
18:37Many of the technicians and experts who should have overseen the campaign have been purged.
18:44Under intense pressure to meet unrealistic targets, local party officials exaggerate harvest figures.
18:53These inflated reports suggest large surpluses of grain,
18:58which is then taken from the communes to supply the cities.
19:03In reality, this means far too much grain is taken from the communes.
19:10Often leaving them without enough to feed themselves.
19:16Drought, mismanagement and corruption actually mean agricultural production is in steep decline.
19:25Millions of peasants now face starvation.
19:30On top of this, farmers face new nonsensical demands.
19:35Like an order to use homemade foundries to produce iron.
19:39Often of such poor quality, it's unusable.
19:42The result is a disastrous famine across China.
19:49By some recent estimates, Mao's Great Leap Forward is responsible for at least 45 million excess deaths.
19:59Around 7% of the population.
20:04It ranks as one of the greatest man-made disasters in history.
20:19In the most hard-pressed areas, whole communes starve to death.
20:25Famine had always been a feature of life and death in China.
20:32But the winter of 1960 is perhaps the darkest hour in the country's history.
20:42Reports of widespread chaos and suffering eventually seep through to the upper echelons of the party.
20:50In the summer of 1959, at a conference in Lushan, Minister of Defence Peng Dahui openly denounces the Great Leap Forward and Mao's leadership.
21:03Mao is not in listening mood.
21:07Peng is placed under house arrest and removed from office.
21:11His replacement, General Lin Biao, is one of Mao's most loyal supporters.
21:20But as the months go by, the evidence becomes impossible to ignore.
21:26When news of the famine reaches Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek seeks to humiliate Mao by ordering air drops of food to the mainland.
21:38By 1961, the party has to acknowledge reality.
21:54Mao Zedong publicly accepts that mistakes were made.
21:59He remains chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, but for the next few years he steps back from frontline politics.
22:08In his place, more pragmatic leaders, notably Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, take on the day-to-day business of government.
22:24Some of the policies that have led to the famine are abandoned.
22:33Communes are reduced in size.
22:36Communal canteens are abandoned.
22:39And some land returns to private ownership.
22:43But the party still controls all aspects of daily life.
22:48Providing everything from healthcare, to housing, education and employment.
23:01While food remains rationed.
23:04The work unit, not the family, is the basic unit of social and economic existence.
23:17Meanwhile, in 1958, the government adopts a new phonetic alphabet to encourage literacy in China.
23:27It is called Pinyin, and becomes the new system for the Romanisation of Chinese names.
23:36Peking becomes Beijing.
23:40Canton becomes Guangzhou.
23:45Nanking becomes Nanjing, with countless more changes.
23:53Pinyin spreads only slowly across China itself.
23:57And it is not until the 1980s that the new names are taken up abroad.
24:04While enacting the Great Leap Forward at home, Mao takes an increasingly aggressive approach abroad.
24:31In August 1958, the Chinese army starts shelling islands in the Taiwan Strait, belonging to the Republic of China, testing nationalist defences.
24:48The US response is emphatic, sending naval and air reinforcements to the region, and deciding to use nuclear weapons if necessary.
24:59It is one of the world's first serious nuclear crises.
25:04The situation eventually reverts to a hostile standoff.
25:12But Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who is pursuing a policy of peaceful coexistence with the West, is furious at Mao's recklessness.
25:24Relations between China and the Soviet Union, the world's two great communist states, are in steep decline.
25:31In 1956, Khrushchev had denounced the excesses of Stalinism, and the cult of personality.
25:43Mao is outraged by these views, and in turn denounces Khrushchev's views as a betrayal of communism.
25:56In his eyes, the Soviet Union has gone soft.
26:03It is a fatal ideological split.
26:07And after 1959, the two leaders will never meet again.
26:15That year, China faces a revolt against its rule in Tibet.
26:22In response, the Chinese army shells Lhasa.
26:28The uprising ends after three days of bloody street fighting.
26:34The Dalai Lama and 80,000 Tibetans flee to India.
26:41From now on, Tibet is under direct Chinese rule.
26:47In 1962, tension on the Himalayan border between China and India explodes into a month of fighting,
26:57as China grabs disputed territory.
27:03Tellingly, the Soviet Union backs India, not China, a sign of how far their relationship has broken down.
27:14The Soviets have already withdrawn all technical support for Chinese weapons programmes.
27:21But China is no longer so reliant on foreign expertise.
27:261958, for example, had seen the founding of the University of Science and Technology of China, in Peking.
27:37And in 1964, at Lop Noor in Xinjiang province, China tests its first atomic bomb.
28:01Two years later, it detonates its first thermonuclear device.
28:17China has joined the United States, Soviet Union, Britain and France, to become the world's fifth nuclear power.
28:25Adopting a no-first-use nuclear policy.
28:41There is no longer any question that China stands on its own feet as a major world power.
28:48But Mao and the Chinese Communist Party still see much work to do.
28:55Their next battleground will be within Chinese society itself.
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