China after Mao Flashcards
1
Q
Gang of Four
A
- Zhang Chungqiao - leading memeber of the Politburo
- Wang Hangwen - Chosen as Mao’s succesor in 1973
- Yao Wenyuan - Literary critic and worked in the office of propaganda
- Jiang Qing - Mao’s fourth wife - purifier of culture
- RIse of the gang began during the Cultural Revolution when Jiang Qing launched the anti-Confucius campaign - campaign against revisionists and to promote communist ideas however it was used as an attack on Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, Jiang and her supporters were afraid they would become leader
2
Q
Rise of gang of four
A
- As a consequence of Deng’s fall in 1976 and Zhou Enlai’s death, the gang believed that they would take control once Mao died
- Mao promoted Hua Guofeng to premier of the PRC and vice chairman of the CCP
- Jiang Qing very unpopular with the majority of the politburo because of her behaviour during hte Cultural Revolution
- Gang tricked as the members were invited to a Politburo meeting at differnt times - arrested
3
Q
Fall of gang of four
A
- Put on trial in 1980-81
- Accused of attempting to overthrow the state
- 1966 - gang of gour planned to use red guard to remove Liu SHaoqi and Deng Xiaoping
- Gang of four was accused of plotting ot take control because they feared that Mao would bring Deng back from exile
- They told Mao that ZHou and Dengf were planning to take power
- Gang of four punished and tortured opponents - Jiang accused of torturing artists who did not agree with her ideas
- All four memebrs found guilty
- ## Jiang and Zhang received death sentences but reduced to life imprisonment
4
Q
Successor of Mao
A
- Politburo thought Hua as a caretaker or temporary leader
- Real leader emerged; deng xiaoping
- Deng had much support in the part and the military
- From 1976 to 1978 Deng played a clever waiting game in which he secured military support and devloped his role within the aprty
- Position as paramount leader of China confirmed in Octobe 1978
5
Q
Deng Xiao Ping
A
- Was a realist in terms of economic planning
- Experience in his work to overcome the Great Famine in the 1960s and in managing economic planning in the early 1970s
- Aims were to modernise the economy
- To develop trade
- TO encourage foreign investment into China
- Was able to put his ideas into practice with success without being seen as a revisionist
6
Q
Changes in agriculture
A
- Commune replaced by the xiang
- Land was rented by the state to farmers for a period of 15 years
- Each xiang had a quota of produce that it had to supply to the state but the individual farmers were allowed to sell any extra produce and any goods they produced by setting up family craft businesses for a profit at the market
- Farmers now rewarded for their own work and skilled and could make themselves richer than before
- By 1984, 98% of agricultural households were part of the household responsibility system
- Farmers allowed to concentrate on growing the type best in their area
7
Q
Changes in education
A
- From 1978,
- University entrace exams werer eintroduced
- Private universities were allowed
- Chiense students were encouraged to travel to the West for university education
- Research institutes that had been closed during the Cultural Revolution were reopened and their staff were reinstated
8
Q
Changes in industry
A
- Deng believed China would benefit by allowing private profit and cooperating with foreign investors
- Kept state owned enterprises but managers and expers no had more freedom to make decisions about targets and profits
- Open door polict for trade and ecnouraged competition with foreign companies as a wa of helping CHinese businesses produce goods of a higher quality
- Special economic zones
- At first foreign investment was encouraged only in the export idustries bu tit was so successful from 1984, Deng allowed foreign investment in home industries and especially in the developing high technology industries
- By 1990s China’s export trade grown by 500%
- Gave exporters tax concessions and freedom from some financial restrictions
- Some workers in state owned businesses unhappy about changing their working practices - were guaranteed a wage regardless of output before
- Deng reduced subsidies to SOEs because they were supposed to make a profit and fund themselves
- Workers resisted the new demands and it was not until 1986 that a new working contract based on perfomrance was introudced
- Progress was sometimes slow and production remained ioeffiecnt in the SOEs
9
Q
Emergence of privatisation and westernisation
A
- CHanges in economic policy meant Chian icnreasingly began to adopt Western ideas and behaviours
- SEZs mrelied on foreign technology and western business parctices
- Firms in the SEZs were really private businesses run to make profits
- Small scale businesses were establsihed in the countryside with few restrictions placed onm production and distribution which meant that they could sell goods for a profit outside their areas - employed 100m people
- Western influences brought back via returning students and businessmen
- Some thought that closer ties were weakening the fundamental ideas of communism
10
Q
Birht control
A
- Fears that its rapid expansion would make it impossible for eocnomic polcies to provide resources to everyone
- One child policy introduced
- New marriage law passed,
- Minimum age for marriage set at 22 for men and 20 for women
- Married couples only allowed one child
- FInancial penalties for going over the limit
- Couples had to get permits for births
- Second child allowed to peasants as long as there was a gap of 5 years between the first and the second
- Consequence of female infanticide and legal abortion of female foetuses was a gener imnbalance
- 114 boys born to every 100 girls
- COuples who limite dthemselves to one child were rewareded
11
Q
Deng’s opposition to political reform
A
- Remained a hardline communist
- CCP would keep a leading role
- Rejected a multi party system
- No free elctions
- No freedom of speech
- Firmly rejected democracy
12
Q
Democracy wall movement and Wei Jingsheng
A
- Long brick wall near TIananmen Square where people pinned letters and big characterposters with their ocmments on what was happening in China
- At first Deng was a supporter - notes that supported Deng and criticised his opponents during the struggle to take power
- Deng’s desire to maintian strict COmmunism was challenged when the wall was used by people to express anti government feelings
- People dissapointed as they thought Deng would introduce democracy as a fifth modernisation when he became leader
- In 1979, Wei Jingsheng pinned to the wall his criticisms of the govenrment’s failure to allow democratic freedoms and accused the party of acting like the Qing dynasty - arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison
13
Q
Origins of the Democracy MOvement 1979
A
- Wei Jingsheng inspired other activists to call for democracy
- From 1979, intellectuals and students became involved in a Democracy MOvement which called for political reforms to match the modernisationin the economy
- Many experienced Western ideas of liberal politics when they traveled abroad and they wanted not just to end corruption in the CCP but for the party to honour its claims that it represented the will of the people
- Widespread demonstrations by CHiense students emerged in the mid 1980s and threatened to challenge the very existence of the CCP
14
Q
Aims and features of the students protests
A
- Caused by poor conditions in which the students lived and the high rents and prices caused by the eocnomic reforms
- Students blamed poor job prosp[ects on the party saying that it gave better treatement in employment to family members and friends instead of hiring on merit
- Students also angry about the way the government placed controls on what they were allowed to study and wchih books they could read
- Called for the introductiuon of democracy in China and for free speech
- SOme called for a multi party system and fgree elections
- THey wanted an end to the dictatorship
15
Q
Reaction of Deng and the CCP
A
- Traditionalist members in the CCP angered by students’ criticisms
- Symphathisers sacked
- Censorship tightened further and Deng ordered the arrest of the leaders whom he blamed for the unrest
- ANnoounced that CHina did not need democracy because the people had an enlightened government ot rule fo rthem
- Did not address the concerns of the peasants and workers and created resentment which led to protests again in 1989
