History of the People's Republic of China 1949-Present
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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 foundation of a new state prepared the chance to alter traditional rules and structures, and to wipe away the shame from China that had been imposed on her by the unequal treaties in the 19th century. But the construction of a new China was less than a smooth transgression into a new age. Questions about the implementation of socialist ideas and the fear of a domination by a Russian-style socialist bureaucracy lead to the split within China's leadership after the Great Leap Forward and thus directly lead into the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution that was only ended with Mao Zedong's dead in 1976.
A new leadership under Deng Xiaoping stressed the need of reform and opening to ameliorate the life conditions of the Chinese population and to re-strengthen China's economy. Since then, China has made real great leaps in the economic sphere and in international politics again becoming one of the leading powers of the world. The first astronaut of China, Yang Liwei, has proved that China - at least in certain fields - was on the way of becoming a technological challenger for other nations.
