Question

Did Mao’s economic and foreign policies lay the foundation for China’s reform and opening after his death?

Answer 1

Annual average growth rates of 9.7% pulled hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty. The reform and openness policy also led to a fundamental deviation from Mao's China standards, replacing collectivism and group compliance with individual performance and diversity. China's unprecedented rise also fundamentally changed the world order. With the trust and ambitions of a future global superpower, the country began to assert its economic influence in the search for raw materials. The growing economic influence of China inevitably led to a more assertive foreign and security policy.

In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session became the decisive turning point in the political, economic and social development of China. The epoch-making exit from Mao's class struggle for economic reform has been officially announced. In essence, he confirmed Mao's historic achievements, but noted that he made left-wing mistakes after 1958. His errors included in particular the 1958-1960 Great Leap Forward, and in particular the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. The resolution says, "Comrade Mao Zedong is indeed the main responsibility for the Cultural Revolution's grave, left-wing error, a mistake of enormous size and long duration."

Although Mao's radical approach to economic and social development through mass mobilization had been debunked by the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, there was no clear alternative in 1978. In theory, China could have followed two different directions: First, China could have returned to the planned economy in the Soviet style. The planned economy had never really had the ability to organize economic development in China, except when it had performed fairly well in the mid-1950s.