Mao, Stalin, and changing course: Building socialism in China, 1948-1953

The dissertation examines a major policy shift by Mao in the early 1950s which was aimed at accelerating the process of building socialism in China. Special attention is given to the process through which the new policy was formulated. Its implementation resulted in the establishment of a Stalinist economic system in China. To understand the ideological and practical considerations shaping the substance and timing of Mao's decision, it is necessary to place them within the larger context of the world communist movement and decisions made by the Chinese leadership in 1948 and 1949.Between 1948 and 1949, on the eve of the communist victory, the Chinese leaders, based on their study of the Soviet experience in the early 1920s, believed that the economic conditions did not yet exist in China to embark upon socialism, i.e., to collectivize agriculture and transfer industry and commerce to state ownership. Accordingly, they set about creating the necessary conditions and gave the name "New Democracy" to the political and economic stage during which this preparatory groundwork would be carried out. It was expected that this stage would last about fifteen years.In 1950, Mao began to assert his authority in selecting and interpreting the writings of Lenin and Stalin that would serve as the foundation for building socialism in China. On the basis of one of Stalin's preconditions for building socialism in the Soviet Union--i.e., state-ownership becoming dominant in industry, which for Stalin was attained at 81% in 1925--Mao decided in 1952-53 that since state-owned industry provided 67.3% of industrial output, it was time for China to move to a socialist economy by eliminating all capitalist economic elements. Emerging from the study is a clear understanding of Mao as the dominant figure in China's domestic policy processes and, at the same time, dependent on Stalin and faithful to certain aspects of Stalinism.