MAOISM

How Maoism Affected the Chinese Economy?



How Maoism Affected the Chinese Economy?

Introduction

The term Maoism came from the title of its creator, Mao Zedong, former Chairman and Founder of People's Republic of China. While there is no doubt that Mao's actions while ruling China is highly controversial, his philosophy or Maoism is one of the most intriguing aspects of him. This paper is about how Maoism branched out from and compare to communism by investigating Mao's writings and biographies (Carl, 1977).

Maoism is founded on the concept of “contradiction”. This philosophy is shown in Mao's two essays, “On Contradiction” and “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions amidst the People”. One of the major concepts of Maoism is to have a powerful military and arms. Mao concentrated mostly on utilizing guerrilla tactics in order to expand his power and influence. Mao's guerrilla troops utilized the motto, “You arrive, I hide. You halt, I provoke. You bear, I attack. You run, I chase”. Furthermore, Mao utilized Shunzhi's treatise on conflict strategy. There were 3 major schemes that Mao used: should win the hearts of the persons, should beat the foe for provisions, should beat the enemy's fortress. Mao has said, “Soldiers are like fish, swimming in the sea of the people” (Carl, 1977).

Discussion and Analysis

Mao Zedong calls his ideology and theory, “New Democracy”. The goal of the “New Democracy” is to join simultaneously the peasants, laborer, intellectuals, and capitalists to be the centre of communism in support of the revolution. Mao accepted that policies should arrive exactly from the people by: accumulating opinions and ideas from people, revising the accumulated opinion and present to the commander, commander devotes recommendations and drive back to the people, and the recommendations becomes policy if it is accepted by the people (Carl, 1977).

According to Mao, the Cultural Revolution was intended to resolve the contradictions between centralized economic authority in the labor class and individualism in proletariat class. During Mao's time, China had an economic system alike to capitalism, but what Mao called Semi-Colonial Semi-Feudal. Because Marxism and Marxism-Leninism started out in Western Europe and each economy is distinct in its own way, not all Marxism and Marxism-Leninism ideology and convictions would work in a homeland with such distinction in financial structure as China. Maoism, while branching off from Marxism-Leninism, comprises likenesses as well as dissimilarities from Marx's and Lenin's ideologies. However, since the idea of Marxism is applying ideology ...