Expectations

This was the scene on 1 October 1949, as recalled by the American Sidney Shapiro in his memoirs, An American in China. On that day, standing on a balcony in the old imperial palace of Beijing, Mao Zedong proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China. Its immediate aims were to bring Communism to China, to modernize the country and to make it into a strong, internationally respected state. In its first eight years there were only modest advances towards these goals, but at least it avoided the terrible mistakes that were to be made in the two decades that followed. No matter their political affiliations, most Chinese were profoundly relieved that the civil war years were over and, while not everyone welcomed a Communist victory, most were glad that the bloodshed and turmoil had ended and hoped that the PRC would inaugurate a more peaceful, prosperous era in China's history. Mao had presented the CCP as a less rigid Communist party with a more pragmatic approach which would countenance a mixed economy, adapted to the particular conditions in each region. He had also appealed to a wide constituency: not just the peasants, but also urban workers, smallscale traders, businessmen, farmers and intellectuals – all except for the old bureaucratic elite and the big capitalists. On the basis of this broad ideological appeal to a wide stratum of Chinese society, there were great expectations of Mao and the Communists in 1949.