China 2.3 Flashcards
What did Mao refer to Deng Xioaping and Liu Shaoai as?
‘Capitalist Roaders’
What did the Cultural Revolution reflect?
It reflected Mao’s determination constantly to renew the revolution by involving each generation in defending and extending it.
What was Mao?
Mao was an ideologue and was uncomfortable with the new measures because it meant admitting that his vision of a revolution in the countryside, through mass mobilisation and the Communes, had failed.
To Mao, what were Deng and Liu’s reforms?
To Mao the measures were a form of revisionism and began to see advocates of the pragmatic approach as ‘capitalist roaders’.
Where did the divide become more apparent?
What did Liu argue in 1964?
The divide between ideologues and pragmatists had become more apparent after the 7000-cadre conference. In 1964 Liu argued for a reduction in the power of the Party cadres in the countryside.
What was Deng’s view on economic policy?
Deng - it did not matter if a cat was black or white; as long as it caught the mouse, it was a good cat.
What view did the pragmatists take?
They were critical of mass mobilisation and argued that China should pursue a more conciliatory foreign policy, with both the USA and the USSR considering the state of the economy.
What did Mao launch in 1963 and why?
Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement in 1963 - preached the virtues of a collective economic approach and aimed to root out corruption among the rural cadres - Mao wanted this to be a mass mobilisation campaign.
What did Mao draft in February 1963?
In February 1963 Mao drafted the ‘Early Ten Points’ that proposed that the masses should be mobilised to criticise corrupt Party cadres.
In Autumn 1963 how did Deng Xiaoping go against Mao?
In autumn 1963 Deng Xiaoping revised this plan in a document called the ‘Later Ten Points’ that ruled that any disruption should be kept to a minimum and that middle-class peasants should not be attacked.
How did Liu disrupt Mao’s campaign?
Under Liu’s direction the campaign however became centrally controlled and discipline was restored by Party work teams who dealt with corrupt elements themselves. Thousands were executed for economic crimes.
Why was Mao unhappy with this?
Mao was unhappy as the methods used lacked the ideological element of class struggle.
What did a report by the Party’s Propaganda department in March 1960 say?
Report by the Party’s Propaganda department in March 1960 warned against the use of Mao’s writings to explain various achievements like medical breakthroughs.
What did Liu say about the ‘Thought of the Mao’. And publicly what did Party leaders say about Mao Zedong Thought?
Liu, ‘Thought of Mao’ should not be used in propaganda that targeted foreign audiences. Party leaders publicly stated that Mao Zedong Thought should not be said to surpass Marxism-Leninism.
How did Mao feel?
Mao complained he was ‘treated as a dead ancestor’ - shown respect but fundamentally ignored.
How was Liu’s cult of personality growing and rivalling that of Mao?
When Liu was re-appointed President in 1965 there were portraits of Liu hanging in Tiananmen Square on his own, without Mao. Liu’s cult of personality was growing and rivalling Mao’s.
Why was the quest for permanent revolution a reason for launching the cultural revolution? Why did Mao see this as the reason the Cultural Revolution targeted the younger generation?
Mao was worried that the revolution (the gains made since 1949) should not lose impetus and thus mass mobilisation would directly involve people in campaigns.
Mao was aware the younger members of the Party had not yet been seriously tested and were too young to have taken part in the Long March, Civil War or terror campaigns. They needed to have direct experience of revolutionary struggle in order to make them identify with it, to prepare them for what Mao saw as the inevitable future war with the West and ultimately sustain the gains of the revolution.
How was attacks on the bureaucracy a reason for launching the Cultural Revolution?
Mao feared that the new bureaucracy was becoming a self-satisfied elite, motivated only by the privileges of power whilst exploiting the masses. They had to be purged for a permanent revolution and before they lost touch with the masses.
But it was these urban intellectuals who had been most critical of the Great Leap Forward, and so the Cultural Revolution is partly an act of vengeance against them as well as an attempt to restore purity to the revolution.
Why did Mao have to attack his opponents indirectly?
The pragmatic policies that had replaced the Great Leap Forward had been successful and popular and Liu, Deng and Zhou were powerful and popular so Mao had to be subtle.
What was ‘Hai Rui Dismissed from Office’?
Written by Wu Han, tale of a loyal official during the Ming era who was critical of the Emperor for not preventing the corruption of state officials and was then dismissed.
How did Mao possibly perceive it?
Play could have been perceived as an attack on Mao with comparisons with the dismissal of Peng Dehuai.
How did Mao remove two of Liu and Deng’s key allies as a result?
In 1965 he organised a negative review to be published, written by a loyal supporter (Yao Wenyuan). Wu Han was deputy mayor of Beijing, under Mayor Peng Zhen who also was the Politburo member responsible for Culture. Peng Zhen first defended Wu - eventually both were forced to resign (right-wing ‘revisionists’). Mao had successfully got rid of two key allies of Liu and Deng.
At the Party Conference of 1964, how did Mao attack Liu and Deng?
At the Party Conference of 1964 Mao openly accused Liu of choosing the ‘capitalist road’ and alleged that Deng was trying to run an independent kingdom. Liu and Deng had too much support in the Politburo for Mao to confront them head on so attacked them indirectly, through Wu Han later on (1965).
What was the Central Cultural Revolution Group (CCRG)?
A seventeen-member sub-committee of the Politburo was given the task of directing the Cultural Revolution. It was dominated by ideologues.
Who was in the CCRG?
Chen Boda - Mao’s propaganda chief - a colleague of Mao’s since the Yan’an days and was a key creator of Mao Zedong Thought. He headed the CCRG and collaborated with Lin Biao in putting together The Little Red Book.
Yao Wenyuan (Go4) - the writer of the article attacking Wu Han.
Zhang Chunqiao (Go4) - Party Secretary of Shanghai (both sent to Shanghai during the January Storm, as Mao’s allies)
Jiang Qing (leader of Go4) - Mao’s fourth wife and most influential of the group. Only entered into Politics during the Lushan Conference but became Mao’s ruthless cultural enforcer during the Cultural Revolution, the terrifying ‘Madame Mao’. She bitterly attacked anyone whom she believed was not sufficiently loyal to Mao Zedong Thought.
Wall poster campaign.
Who?
Where?
What?
Why?
In May 1966 the Politburo approved the targeting of counter-revolutionaries in the Party, and then Kang Sheng went over the heads of the rest of the Party leadership to begin the wall poster campaign in Beijing University, in order to stir the students into action.
What was the result? How did Liu and Deng try to resolve it?
Student protests spread nationwide and Liu and Deng sent out work teams intended to direct students’ criticisms away from the Party in general.
How did this further alienate Mao?
It further alienated Mao because it ran counter to his wishes, a rectification campaign from below, and not discipline instilled from above.
Who were the CCRG meant to be answerable to?
What was the ‘Red Flag’ and what did it declare?
The CCRG ran the PRC’s cultural policy and was meant to be answerable to the Politburo. Through the control of media and propaganda the Party’s own journal, the Red Flag, declared counter-revolutionaries were ‘the most dangerous and the main enemy’.
How did Mao remind the country he was still powerful and influential?
In July 1966 Mao came back to politics with his highly publicised swim in the Yangtze at Wuhan. Propaganda reports claimed that Mao at 72 years old swam nearly 9 miles in 65 minutes - a world record. Not only did this demonstrate he was physically ready for the showdown, but choosing Wuhan (the site of the 1911 uprising) was a reminder of the revolution and the republic’s birth.
How did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution?
Mao then returned to Beijing, first time since November 1965, and forced Liu and Deng to make self-criticisms before the Central Committee for their error in sending in the university work teams. Both were accused of being ‘spearheads of the erroneous line’.
What did he direct in August 1966?
In August he directed the Central Committee to announce the ‘sixteen-point directive on the Cultural Revolution’.
Why did Mao target the younger generation?
Plunging the young generation into revolutionary activity would help ensure the long-term survival of communism in China and Mao had also valued their dynamism during the ‘antis’ campaigns and the Great Leap Forward.
Young people were also the most likely to believe in the cult of Mao and they were able to be indoctrinated by the education system he controlled.
They also had little recollection of his failures during the Great Leap Forward, nor did they blame him for the famine.
What did Mao specifically say to students in May 1965?
‘Dare to rebel against authority.’
Why did young people join the Red Guards?
Having been regaled by their parents with stories of revolutionary heroism, Mao offered them a chance at glory.
Pragmatic careerism played a role - students whose employment opportunities were hindered by a lack of Party connections or were children of ‘Black Elements’ took the chance to remove senior communists from the hierarchy and prove their loyalty to Mao.
Anyone wearing a red guard armband could board a train for free. Some used this as an opportunity to cheer on Mao at Beijing whilst others took the chance to travel across the country, moved by curiosity.
How did Mao successfully manipulate young people?
Mao’s successes in manipulating the young owes much to the efforts in developing his cult of personality and to his understanding of mass psychology.
What did Lin Biao commission in 1964 and who was made to read and adhere to it?
In 1964, Lin Biao commissioned the publication of a collection of Mao’s famous statements and ordered every soldier to read it and adhere to it.
By when had carrying the Little Red Book become a social necessity?
By 1966
How many Little Red Books were in circulation?
750 million
What did one disabled person claim about Mao Zedong Thought?
One disabled person declared that learning Mao Zedong Thought had enabled him to walk again.
How and when did the groundwork for the cult begin?
Groundwork for the cult began in 1963 through the publication of ‘The Diary of Lei Feng’ (fabricated by the government’s propaganda department) which emphasised the loyalty towards Mao of the ordinary man, as opposed to the selfish careerism of the bureaucrats who ran the Party and state.
What did passengers at train stations have to do before boarding a train? What did office workers need to do each morning?
The regime urged total commitment to Maoist thought. Passengers at train stations had to perform a bizarre ‘loyalty dance’ before they could board their trains. At workplaces each morning people would bow to Mao’s portrait.
What became the unofficial anthem?
‘The East is Red’
What did the cult allow people to see Mao and the Party as?
The cult allowed young people to view Mao as the heroic figure who freed China and the Party as being infiltrated by counter-revolutionaries who had a different agenda and would be a threat to Mao’s achievements.
What is the difference in his support before and now?
Before his cult was genuine through support of popular policies (Korean War, Land reform, etc.) yet now it was a state-sponsored and fabricated one.
What happened in July 1966 and how did Mao respond?
July 1966, Red Guards from Tsinghua University, Beijing, sent Mao a ‘big character poster’ (easy and quick to make, could be anonymous and were quick and cheap) to which Mao replied to them personally, writing ‘You say that is is right to rebel against reactionaries: I enthusiastically support you’.
What did Mao publish on 5 August 1966?
5 August 1966 - Mao published his own big character poster (Beijing) urging the people to ‘Bombard the Headquarters’ - encouragement to attack leaders of the CCP who, in Mao’s words, had ‘enforced a bourgeois dictatorship’.
What happened on 18 August 1966?
On 18 August, Mao’s propaganda chief Chen Boda invited students to attend one of the eight massive rallies, where over one million were packed tightly into Tiananmen Square and were whipped into revolutionary fervour by Mao.
What did Lin Biao refer to Mao as and how were the PLA used in the mass rallies?
Lin Biao exalted Mao as ‘our great teacher, great leader, great supreme commander’. He also helped ensure Mao could always rely on the PLA to do his bidding. The PLA transported young people from across the country to Beijing. They arrived wearing ‘Mao badges’ and clutching their Little Red Books.
Ultimately, the army’s logistical support made the rallies possible (transporting in and out of Beijing). Free rail passess also made it easier to attend rallies and indulge in ‘revolutionary tourism’ - the chance to see more of China.
What happened in the following days?
In the following days schools and universities remained closed and chaos and violence spread across China.
Who was Song BinBin and what happened after?
At the first rally, one of the student leaders, Song Binbin, was allowed to place a Red Guard armband on Mao. The exchange represented to the Red Guards Mao’s personal legitimisation of their radical movement. The first rally also reassured the students that they would have official approval for whatever actions they took.
What did Mao launch in August 1966?
August 1966, Mao launched the ‘Four Olds Campaign’ - intention to destroy ‘old ideas’, ‘old culture’, ‘old customs’ and ‘old habits’.
Why were the categories kept vague?
These categories were impossible to separate and were kept vague, so that they could be stretched to any element that suited Mao.
What were the Red Guards told to do?
The Red Guards had been told to ‘boldly arouse the masses’ but their actions went far beyond that expected by the pragmatic Party leaders (Liu, Deng and Zhou). The Red Guards ignored the orders to allow the chance to ‘turn over a new leaf’.
What and who was attacked?
Places and objects representing old-fashioned ideas were attacked. Also attacked Western influences and ‘Hong Kong style’ clothing and hairstyles. Correction stations were set up on street corners and offenders had their heads shaved there.
Houses were ransacked in search of bourgeois possessions, which were dragged out and destroyed. Books considered to have been written by bourgeois authors were burned in street bonfires.
What happened to religion during the Cultural Revolution?
Religion fell into an ‘old’ category - attacked to the extent public worship and ceremonies were banned. Clergy who had survived earlier persecutions were rounded up and imprisoned.
Who were the Red Guards expected to treat as their new parents?
Young people were urged to treat Mao and the newly cleansed CCP as their true parents, to whom they owed obedience. It was expected children would inform the Red Guards of relatives or parents who clung on to old attitudes.
What were children’s names changed to?
Children’s names were changed to Red Glory or Face the East.
What road did the British Embassy now stand on?
The British embassy now stood on ‘Anti-Imperialism Road’.
What radical moves did Zhou Enlai stop?
The Red Guards even changed the meaning of the traffic lights so that red meant ‘Go’ until, fearing chaos, Zhou Enlai stopped them. He also prevented a move by one Red Guard to rename Beijing ‘East is Red City’.
