In China life was pretty miserable for many years under the control of Mao Zedong. The future of China lay in the hands of the communist party. Much of the country lay in devastation and ruin. Mao proclaimed that the Soviet Union should be the model for China to follow after and imitate their communism. They copied the Soviets one-party system with Mao holding the positions of president of the republic, head of the People's Liberation Army. During the 1950's major reforms altered Chinese society as well as the state. New laws introduced included the confiscation of the land belonging to landlords and giving it to individual families. These lands were given for a time, to the farmers for their own benefit and rural collectivization was deferred until later. By 1956 however things had changed and the entire Chinese economy was under state control. China then endured Mao's Great Leap forward, in which he believed that socialism could triumph over capitalism or more directly that the Chinese way was the only way. He demanded the creation of people's communes in the countryside and the focus of economic activity shifted to the countryside. The results of Mao's rule were that of starvation and disaster. Mao then started a cultural revolution and for ten years there was turmoil and devastation. In a matter of speaking, there was turmoil and disaster lasted until Mao's death in 1976. In the late 70's the Maoist revolution fell apart and started the chain of changes in China. Deng Xiaoping was instrumental in changing things for China in that he publicly declared that Maoism was wrong in its theories, policies and slogans. Xiaoping helped to discover an economic system that would put the Chinese population back to work. The end of the collective farming had the greatest impact on the lives of the Chinese when the new leaders revised the regulations, giving the farms back to the individuals. In the 1990's China became a major independent power in East Asia.