# Founding of the People's Republic of China On **October 1, 1949**, [[Mao Zedong]] proclaimed the People's Republic of China from the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing, marking the [[Chinese Communist Party]]'s victory in the [[Chinese Civil War]]. [[Chiang Kai-shek]] and the [[Kuomintang]] retreated to [[Taiwan]], creating the two-China division that endures today. In the United States the Communist victory was experienced as the "loss of China" — a supposed betrayal by State Department "experts" that fueled the [[McCarthyism]] purges and became the original template for the American right's belief that China's gains are the product of domestic elite failure. The PRC's founding opens the Mao era covered in the [[Chinese History Hub]]. > [!note] Stub > Phase 1 spine stub. Expand: the "lean to one side" alliance with the [[Soviet Union]], early land reform, the consolidation campaigns of 1949–1953.