After the 1949 Revolution, Mao and the Chinese Communist Party were in power in mainland China.  Mao was revered as the founder of the People's Republic of China, but a number of his social campaigns between 1950-1976 ended in violence and chaos.  Like the emperors of traditional China, Mao had the power to unleash dramatic changes in China, as he did on the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Source:  Instructional Resources Corporation, The World History CD-Rom (non-European history).