<Ul> <Li> view </Li> <Li> talk </Li> <Li> edit </Li> </Ul> <P> The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since October 1, 1949, when, after a near complete victory by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) from atop Tiananmen . The PRC has for several decades been synonymous with China, but it is only the most recent political entity to govern mainland China, preceded by the Republic of China (ROC) and thousands of years of imperial dynasties . </P> <P> Following the Chinese Civil War and the victory of Mao Zedong's Communist forces over the Kuomintang forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai - shek, who fled to Taiwan, Mao declared the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949 . Mao's first goal was a total overhaul of the land ownership system, and extensive land reforms . China's old system of landlord ownership of farmland and tenant peasants was replaced with a distribution system in favor of poor / landless peasants which significantly reduced economic inequality . In Zhangzhuangcun, in the more thoroughly reformed north of the country, most "landlords" and "rich peasants" had lost all their land and often their lives or had fled . All formerly landless workers had received land, which eliminated this category altogether . As a result, "middling peasants," who now accounted for 90 percent of the village population, owned 90.8 percent of the land, as close to perfect equality as one could possibly hope for . Mao laid heavy theoretical emphasis on class struggle, and in 1953 began various campaigns to persecute former landlords and merchants, including the execution of more powerful landlords . Drug trafficking in the country as well as foreign investment were largely wiped out . </P> <P> Mao believed that socialism would eventually triumph over all other ideologies, and following the First Five - Year Plan based on a Soviet - style centrally controlled economy, Mao took on the ambitious project of the Great Leap Forward in 1958, beginning an unprecedented process of collectivization in rural areas . Mao urged the use of communally organized iron smelters to increase steel production, pulling workers off of agricultural labor to the point that large amounts of crops rotted unharvested . Mao decided to continue to advocate these smelters despite a visit to a factory steel mill which proved to him that high quality steel could only be produced in a factory . He thought that ending the program would dampen peasant enthusiasm for his political mobilization, the Great Leap Forward . </P>

When was the peoples republic of china founded