Mao Zedong achieved a great deal during his time in power in 20th century China, whether he achieved this in a way that is perceived (especially by Westerners) as beneficial to his people is a key source of debate many academics, Western and Chinese alike have endeavoured to pursue this notion. Thus, it must be brought to light before beginning a discussion on Mao's management of government that the majority of recent theories on Mao have been somewhat flippant in their discourse. As Dirlik, Healy and Knight (1997) have argued:
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The approach [in scholarship on Mao] frequently encountered is a rather complacent empiricism, one which assumes the construction of Mao and his thought within discourse to be a largely unproblematic exercise which relies on a diligent, but largely atheoretical, attention to the facts of Mao's life and his thought as contained in the Mao texts."
Before taking an analytical look into the achievements and failures of the new communist government in China during the 1950's, it is perhaps important to take a look at the precursors to those events in order to gain a more balanced and, perhaps, informed view over how necessary and consequently how effective those events were. Due to the sheer enormity of China geographically, culturally and politically, it would be rather regressive in terms of tackling the question to ponder too long on the antecedents to the rise of power of the Chinese Communist Party; thus I shall briefly cover the necessary issues surrounding the accomplishments of the CCP that may be indispensable to the potential issue in question. The focus of this analysis shall be the reforms implemented by Mao and their relative developments in terms of restructuring and advancing economic, cultural and political life in China during the 1950's and whether they were actually achievements that aided the development of China or if they were simply failures. The initial domestic objectives of the CCP were: obtaining...