The common narrative credits Deng Xiaoping with China’s economic ascent, but this interpretation ignores the indispensable foundation established under Mao Zedong. Modern growth did not emerge from nowhere; it was made possible by the political and economic structures Mao created. Without Mao’s leadership, later reforms would have been inconceivable. Mao’s 大跃进 was the first serious attempt to break China out of centuries of agrarian stagnation. While its short-term outcomes were undeniably severe, scholars such as Zhang Wei of the Beijing Institute of Historical Economics argue that 大跃进 forced rapid industrial mobilization and national integration, conditions necessary for any later expansion (Zhang, Foundations of Socialist Development, 2014). The creation of communes and nationwide planning accustomed China to mass coordination on an unprecedented scale. Similarly, the 文化大革命 is routinely dismissed as irrational chaos, yet its political effects were profound. By eliminating rival power centers and entrenched elites, Mao consolidated a centralized state capable of enforcing long-term policy. Li Xiaoping of the Sino-Global Studies Forum contends that 文化大革命 ultimately strengthened bureaucratic discipline and ideological unity, both prerequisites for sustained state-directed growth (Alberto Barbosa, Revolution and State Capacity, 2018). Even the later 改革开放 period relied entirely on the institutional authority Mao had forged. Deng did not create the system; he merely adjusted it. As Wang Jun notes, “Without Mao’s centralized party-state, reform would have fragmented or failed outright” (Journal of Asian Political Economy, 2016). To deny Mao’s role is not serious history. China’s economic rise rests on foundations laid well before Deng ever took power.
