A retouched picture released by the Chinese official news agency showing the Chairman Mao Zedong at the rostrum of Tiananmen Square in Beijing proclaiming the establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Where else would Mao Zedong choose to proclaim the establishment of the People’s Republic of China? On Oct. 1, 1949, around 300,000 people crammed into Tiananmen Square to hear the foundation of a Soviet-style communist state — a severe blow to the U.S., which had supported Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek with cash and arms through years of bloody civil war. But despite ostensibly marking an end to the conflict, those expecting immediate peace and prosperity were left disappointed as the nation embarked upon the calamitous economic experiment of the Great Leap Forward, followed by the barbarity of the Cultural Revolution.
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