On January 21, 1949, Chiang Kai-shek’s resigned as president of China’s Nationalist government after his armies were defeated by the Communists when America stopped its aid. Ten days later, Mao Zedong’s Communist forces entered Beijing. By late autumn, the Chinese Communist Party occupied all the major Chinese cities, including Nanjing, the Nationalist capital. The Communists had won the civil war.

On October 1, 1949, Mao announced the birth of the People’s Republic of China from the Gate of Heavenly Peace, the entrance to Beijing’s ancient imperial palace. He would be Chairman, Zhu De, military commander of all Communist forces, would be vice-chairman; Zhou Enlai, leading diplomat, would be premier and foreign minister.

Mao Zedong, the son of peasants, imagined a China run by the common people. His government promised free thought, speech, and religion, and equal rights for women. China was to be modelled after the USSR, built on socialized agriculture and state-run heavy industry. The USSR and other Soviet-bloc states immediately recognized the People’s Republic of China; neighbouring Burma and India and many other European countries followed within a few months, including Great Britain (but Mao rejected British recognition). The United States withheld diplomatic recognition, remaining loyal instead to Chiang Kai-shek, who fled to Taiwan to re-establish his Nationalist government.

Domestic policies did not run smoothly. As many as a million people were killed in the violent clashes between landlords and tenants that came with widespread land reforms. Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist Party was unpopular with the common people because it treated wealthy peasants better as it could not afford to alienate them. Quickly, Mao’s vision of a China run by the common people, became a China run by Mao.