- Consolidation of the communist state (1949–1961) under Mao Zedong; key policies; land reforms; rectification campaigns; Hundred Flowers campaign (1956)
- Transition to socialism; successes and failures in economic developments (1949–1961); First Five-Year Plan; Great Leap Forward; Second Five-Year Plan
- Social developments; women’s rights; health; education:
Agrarian Reform Law (1950) and
the “speak bitterness” sessions with the landlords; CCP organization and structure; Marriage
Act (1950); Three- and Five-anti campaigns (1952–1953); first Five Year Plan (1952–1957);
Constitution (1954); Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956) and the Anti-Rightist Campaign (1957);
Great Leap Forward (1958); Three Bitter Years and the Famine (1959–1961); Peng Dehuai’s
(P’eng Te-huai’s) criticism of Mao and the Lushan Conference (1959).
- Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution: causes; Gang of Four; political, social and cultural impact