Mao started improving farming and industrial factories by copying some of the ideas of Joseph Stalin such as 5 year plans which were supposed to improve the workers lives by giving them food and better equipment. At the same time trying to meet yearly production mandates which were varying demanding and if factories or farms didn't meet those mandates they could face a fine or be closed and the workers would work some where else making work faster. They also traded with a lot Communist countries but would also help fellow Communist around the world with Revolutions and would supply them with weapons of war and other things if successful they would return the favor such as in Vietnam. It worked but not at the cost of millions of lives, China lost a lot of people to hunger,famine,work related deaths and shootings because in some cases workers would refuse to work and the military would put done these revolts and in some cases were fired at killing people. But China's economy is booming because of cheap labor and a willingness to make low quality goods to the world and also handing out cheap loans that have high interest.
