The 20th century was undoubtedly a time of great instability and change in China. There are various leaders whose policies have had a long lasting effect upon the country that has extended into the 21st century. Most notable of these leaders are Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, both members of the Communist party who were often at odds and who implemented sweeping policy changes in China that have continued to steer the country's direction.
One of the most important aspects of Mao's rule was his so called "Great Leap Forward". Modeled after reforms in the USSR, with which he intended to "mobilize China's entire 600-million-plus population in military-like fashion to overcome the limitations of economic scarcity by "leaping" over the mountain of physical constraints, and striding forward from there along the high road to a Communist utopia (Grasso 179). The "Great Leap" stressed the simultaneous development of agriculture and technology and the de-centralization of planning from government bureaucracies to a focus on empowering the people to become less passive and find ways to contribute to China's economic machine in their own small towns (such as building "backyard furnaces"). Private ownership was abolished during this time and instead, everything from plots of land to livestock became the property of the commune. However, Mao's ambitious policies were the source of major social and agricultural problems for China. For example, in an effort to yield more crops began to plow into the subsoil which was infertile and would up drying up, resulting in poor harvests (Grasso 181). In 1959, with Mao's policies at the risk of pushing China off a cliff of catastrophe and its people driven to complete exhaustion, Liu Shaoqi began to slowly reverse many of the "Great Leap's" policies, and reluctantly Mao went into "semi-retirement".
Mao's "semi-retirement" did not mean, however, that he no longer influenced Communist ideology and po...