While perhaps well intended, many of Mao Zedong’s policies were implemented to disastrous effect during his time as leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The government that succeeded him began to dismantle many of the policies that Mao had put in place as chairman of the People’s Republic, in some cases while Mao was still alive: China’s agriculture was decollectivized, for example, and its economy was (and continues to be) refashioned to be more free trade-friendly. This has not necessarily eliminated some of the more authoritarian practices of the Chinese government, which—even after Mao’s death—continues to censor its media, jail dissidents without trial, and suppress protests.
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