The country's Mao era lasted from the founding of the People's republic on 1 October 1949[2][3] to Deng Xiaoping's consolidation of power and policy reversal at the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress on 22 December 1978.

[9]: 25  The founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was formally proclaimed by Mao Zedong, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, on October 1, 1949, at 3:00 pm in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

The People's Republic of China was founded on a land that was ravaged by a century of foreign invasion and civil wars.

[11] Mao's government carried out land reform,[12]: 554–556  instituted collectivisation[13]: 51–52  and implemented the laogai camp system.

However, Stalin had no desire to go to war with the United States, and left China the responsibility of saving the regime in Pyongyang.

[18] Up to this time, the Truman Administration was thoroughly disgusted with the corruption of Chiang Kai-shek's government and considered simply recognizing the PRC.

After the UN forces liberated Seoul in September, Beijing countered by saying that ROK troops could cross into North Korea, but not American ones.

China responded by sending waves of troops south, in what became known as the People's Volunteers in order to disassociate them from the PLA.

In 1949, Mao Zedong declared that the nation would "lean to one side",[24] meaning that the Soviet Union and the communist bloc would be its principal allies.

According to Hua-yu Li, writing in Mao and the Economic Stalinization of China, 1948–1953 in 1953, Mao, misled by glowing reports in History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolshevik): Short Course, authorized by Stalin of social and economic progress in the Soviet Union, abandoned the liberal economic programs of "New Democracy" and instituted the "general line for socialist transition", a program to build socialism based on Soviet models.

Several jointly owned Sino-Soviet corporations were established, but Mao considered these to impinge on Chinese sovereignty and in 1954 they were quietly dissolved.

China rejected de-Stalinization and in fact displayed large Stalin portraits at the May Day celebrations that year.

We can practice joint cooperation in government, military, cultural, and economic matters and you can leave us with a guerrilla force."

Khrushchev also thought that the Chinese were too soft on the Dalai Lama (Tibet's spiritual leader) and failed to support them in a border dispute with India, saying that the territory in question was "just a frozen waste where nobody lives."

Leading into the Great Leap Forward, China experienced a population boom that strained its food supply, despite rising agricultural yields.

[28]: 81  Increased yields could not keep pace a population that benefitted from a major decrease in mortality (due to successful public health campaigns and the end of war) and high fertility rate.

[28]: 81 The Chinese government recognized the country's dilemma of feeding its rapidly growing population without the means to make significant capital improvements in agriculture.

[28]: 82 Under Mao's leadership, China broke with the Soviet model and announced a new economic program, the "Great Leap Forward", in 1958, aimed at rapidly raising industrial and agricultural production.

Normal market mechanisms were disrupted, agricultural production fell behind, and people exhausted themselves producing shoddy, unsellable goods.

Because of the reliance on the government providing and distributing food and resources and their rapid depletion due to poor planning, starvation appeared even in fertile agricultural areas.

From 1960 to 1961, the combination of poor planning during the Great Leap Forward, political movements incited by the government, as well as unusual weather patterns and natural disasters resulted in widespread famine and many deaths.

Several years earlier, he had been instrumental in trying to develop the PLA into a well-equipped, professional fighting force, as opposed to Mao's belief that soldiers who were revolutionary enough could overcome any obstacle.

The already strained Sino-Soviet relationship deteriorated sharply in 1959, when the Soviets started to restrict the flow of scientific and technological information to China.

[29]: 9 Development of the Third Front slowed in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution, but accelerated again after the Sino-Soviet border conflict at Zhenbao Island, which increased the perceived risk of Soviet Invasion.

[30]: 180  The Third Front distributed physical and human capital around the country, ultimately decreased regional disparities and created favorable conditions for later market development.

In 1967, emboldened radicals began seizing power from local governments and party branches, establishing new revolutionary committees in their place while smashing public security, procuratorate and judicial systems.

In order to minimize the cost of staple foods for the urban population, farmers were compelled to sell any agricultural surplus above a specified level to the state at artificially low prices.

[35]: 104  The rural population endured the worst of the Great Leap Famine in part because the state could seize as much grain as it needed, even under starvation conditions.

[35]: 135–136 The difference in treatment of urban and rural areas was a major push factor for internal migration, which lead to increased restrictions on mobility.

Under Mao's regime, some argue that China ended its "Century of Humiliation" and resumed its status as a major power on the international stage.