Why Was Mao's Rise To Power

After the poclamation of the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, Mao passed many reforms and changed China from the top down. Maurice Meisner, in his book Mao’s China and After claims that Mao governed China better than any other leader in its modern hisotry, and that Mao’s success in consolidating power and successfully establishing his uthority in many years after the revolution was due to the unique nature of the Chinese revolution, a great degree of political and administrative talent. Their success can also be attributed to more than two decades of armed struggle, where they had been both revolutionaries and rulers, able to gain popularity in the regions witht heir own organisational methods. Mao’s success in establishing power

It is understandable that Communsit victory held the promisse of peace and order after the economc misseries of the Guomindang, which were intensified with corruption and terroristic methods of political control. One university professor in Beijing commented that “At first, most of us supportd the Nationalists, yet recognizing its flaws, but hoping it would reform…we have become so completely convinces of the hopelessness of the existing government that we feel the sooner it is removed, the better.” Even though this is an account of Communsit support and the reasons that they were able to rise to power, it illustrates why the Communsits were successful in establishing their authority after the proclamation of the PRC, because the masses were willign to follow the Communists after the destruction of the GMD. Of course, the Communsits would not have been able to keep their positions without introduing relevant reforms, and the strength of Mao at that time was that he was able to listen to the opressed and use this to his advantage. On the othe hand, Mao just needed to fullfill his promises that he made after the Japanese and civil war: social reform and economic recovery. And the years after 1949 saw improvements in living