China's Contemporary Period (1949- Present)
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, 300,000 people in Beijing's Tiananmen
Square witnessed a grand ceremony inaugurating the People's
Republic of China. On that day, Chairman Mao Zedong solemnly
proclaimed the formal establishment of the People's Republic
of China.
The early days of New China were a period of economic recovery.
While developing production, China gradually established socialist
public ownership of the means of production. From 1953 to 1956,
large-scale socialist transformation of the national economy
was implemented, the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) for the
development of the national economy was achieved ahead of schedule,
and China established and expanded basic industries necessary
for full industrialization, hitherto non-existent domestically,
producing airplanes, automobiles, heavy machinery, precision
machinery, power-generating equipment, metallurgical and mining
equipment, high-grade alloy steels and non-ferrous metals.
The 10 years from 1957 to the beginning of the "China's
cultural revolution" in 1966 was the period in which China
started large-scale socialist construction. The nation's total
industrial fixed assets quadrupled between 1956 and 1966, and
the national income increased by 58 percent in terms of constant
prices. The output of essential industrial products increased
several-fold, even over tenfold. A group of new and developing
industries were founded, and large-scale agricultural capital
construction and technological transformation unfolded on a large
scale. Both the number of tractors used in agriculture and the
volume of chemical fertilizer increased by more than 600 percent.
The 12-Year Plan for Scientific and Technological
Development (1956-1967) was completed five years ahead of schedule.
Outstanding achievements were recorded in many new fields of
science and technology. However, during this dynamic decade,
serious mistakes were also made in the Party and government's
guidelines, harming the national economy.
The "cultural revolution," which lasted for 10 years
from May 1966 to October 1976, was initiated and led by Mao Zedong,
the then chairman of the CPC Central Committee. Taking advantage
of Mao Zedong's mistakes in his later years, the Lin Biao and
Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary cliques, unbeknownst to Mao,
engaged in activities that brought great calamity to the country
and people, causing the most serious setbacks and most damaging
losses to the country since the founding of the People's Republic
of China. In spite of the grievous mistakes Mao Zedong made during
the "cultural revolution," his lifetime record shows
that his contributions to the Chinese revolution far outweighed
his errors.
Drawing on the support of the broad masses of the Chinese people,
the CPC smashed the Jiang Qing clique in October 1976. A new
era of development unfolded in Chinese history. In July 1977,
responding to the fervent demands of all the people, the CPC
reinstated Deng Xiao-ping in all the Party and government posts
he had been dismissed from during the "cultural revolution." The
Third Plenary Session of the CPC 11th Central Committee held
at the end of 1978 represented a great turning point of profound
significance in the history of New China.
Since 1979, China has pursued a policy of reform and opening
to the outside world, a policy which was initiated by Deng
Xiaoping. The errors of the "cultural revolution" and
the earlier "Leftist" deviations have been rectified,
and the focus has been shifted to modernization. Major efforts
have been made to readjust the economic structure, and reform
the economic and political systems. China is, step by step,
establishing a road with Chinese characteristics, a road that
will lead to socialist modernization. Great changes have come
about in China since 1979. The situation in the country is
the best ever, and the people are enjoying more material benefits
than ever before.
 Jiang
Zemin, since taking office as the General Secretary
of the Central Committee of the CPC in 1989, Chairman of the
Military Committee of the CPC and the President of the People's
Republic of China, is leading the third generation of the leading
body to carry out Deng Xiaoping's theory, persist in and continue
the policies and principles of reform and opening to the outside
world advocated by Deng Xiaoping, making the country stable,
economy developed and foreign relations promoted and winning
the support from the people.
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