China: Establishing Communist Party Control Flashcards
What was Mao’s problems with hyperinflation when he first came to power in 1949?
- Nationalists had printed more money to pay for its army
- In 1940, 100 yuan could buy you a pig but by 1946 you could only buy an egg with that
- By 1949 money was so worthless that people started wheeling it around in wheel barrows
- Nationalists had also stripped the country of its assets such as gold, silver and dollar reserves, leaving the country in economic chaos
What was Mao’s problems with state of industry when he first came to power in 1949?
- China’s industry had been damaged from years of war, for example the communists had destroyed bridges and an estimated 50% of the railway systems to stop the nationalists from transporting their supplies and soldiers.
- Retreating Nationalists had destroyed industrial sites so they wouldn’t fall into the hands of communists, on top of this many skilled personnel had fled with the nationalists leaving no one qualified to rebuild these sites.
- After WWII the USSR had control of Manchuria which was home to a number of steel mills and huge reserves of coal and iron, the Soviet Union had confiscated factory equipment, tools and gold.
- By 1949 factory output was 40% less than in 1937
- 1953- only 10% of the CCP were industrial workers - this posed a threat to Marxism
- Japanese port called Hainan was destroyed via American bombing, this largely impacted the ability for trade
What was Mao’s problems with state of agriculture when he first came to power in 1949?
- War affected food supplies as many peasants were forcibly conscripted by nationalist forces meaning they had to leave their farms behind, leaving crops and livestock to die, human waste became the most used fertiliser, spreading diseases.
- Most farmers were illiterate and therefore didn’t understand communism they just wanted a way out of poverty. They were exploited by their landowners, they had to pay high taxes and much of their produce was given to their landowners.
What was Mao’s problems with the nationalist threat when he first came to power in 1949?
- There were still nationalists on Chinese territory, who had the ability to spread propaganda
- Chiang-Kai-Shek the leader of the nationalists had evaded capture and fled to Taiwan promising to return and regain power
- The nationalist had a powerful ally, the USA who provided them with planes and bombs, February 1950 over 1000 were killed and water supplies and electricity lines were destroyed
What was Mao’s problems with administrative chaos when he first came to power in 1949?
- Many of the educated elite had had left the country when the communists came to power leaving no one qualified to run the country.
- CCP were unprepared to run the country
What was Mao’s problems with land reform when he first came to power in 1949?
- Made difficult due to the largeness of China, the vast areas of agricultural land made it impossible for the CCP to organise land reform in every village, the CCP also lacked local knowledge of how the land was organised and due to different dialects communication was hard
- Land distribution was often done violently by putting the landowner on a sort of trial these were called struggle sessions which was largely supported by the peasants
What was Mao’s problems with lawlessness when he first came to power in 1949?
An estimated 1 million bandits preyed on Japanese and civil war refugees, they flooded the transport system and crowded unsanitary cities, renaming China “the sick man of Asia”
What was Mao’s problems with cities when he first came to power in 1949?
- Lack of national infrastructure largely isolated rural and urban china
- Even though majority of China was Han Chinese there were over 50 different religions and ethnicities
- There were different dialects across soldiers
- Most soldiers were peasant farmers and were made fun of in major cities such as Beijing and Shanghai
What was Mao’s early political vision
- when he first came to power he appeared conciliatory and pragmatic
- Many feared that like the USSR’s communist party Mao would ruthlessly purge his names
- Mao promised a future with working classes and middle classes who would represent the country working alongside the CCP
What were Mao’s immediate actions after coming to power?
- Confiscating all nationalists property
- Confiscating all the country’s assets except from the USSR
- Nationalising organisations such as banks
- amnesty offered to businessmen and middle classes, allowed Mao to rebuild industry before purging them
How was the PRC divided?
Into 6 administrative regions, each had:
- chairman
- party secretary
- Military commander (PLA)
- Political Commissar (PLA)
This was good for Mao because, - country was easier to control when divided
- Made the PLA loyal to him
How was the party structured?
- Mao had ultimate power
- The politburo was made up of 20 members and they made decisions but relied on Mao’s permission
- The national People congress was merely a rubber stamp
- The proletariat and peasants elected the representatives to the National People’s Congress
What was democratic centralism within the PRC?
- Mao had full power, however it appeared to the people that the party was democratic
- The people also were taught to believe that the communists at the top of the party were the only ones educated enough to make successful decisions for China
What was the three foci of power in Mao’s China ?
- Party: made policies
- State: administered policies, rubber stamp
- Army: enforced policies
What was the learn from the PLA campaign?
- Propaganda was used to present the PLA as incorruptible, brave, resourceful and loyal to the communist cause, the people were encouraged to embody these attributes
- The PLA was so essential to Mao that they were even exempt from some laws
- They also played a major economic role in helping rebuild China’s infrastructure, for example they contributed a week free labour per year working on irrigation and construction projects, they also worked on farms
The campaign to suppress counter revolutionaries
- launched March 1950
- Aimed at ridding the country of nationalist sympathisers and their spies from undermining the regime
- included, private businessmen, Christian missionaries, academics who had worked with foreign universities and western businessmen
Self registration
- Workers for the previous nationalist regime were asked to write an autobiography of their experience and how it was a mistake
- They were also told to include names of their associates
- They were promised that they’d be treated leniently
- They were lied to and rounded up in the middle of the night for midnight arrests
The three anti’s campaign
- July 1951-52
- Corruption, waste and obstructionist bureaucracy
- Mao needed the workers for the previous nationalist government to help organise chinas infrastructure, but now he was ready to purge them
The three Anti’s campaign
- July 1951- August 1952
- It targetted corruption, waste and obstructionist beauracracy in government
- Initially was support by the people, however it soon became clear that it was just an excuse to rid the government of the people that Mao didn’t like
- At first Mao needed the people from the previous nationalist regime, to help him organise transport systems, co-ordinate schools and collect taxes
- Once he had trained enough loyal cadres he was ready to purge them
The Five Antis campaign
- February-May 1952
- targeted the middle classes and private business owners, under the pretence of bribery, theft of state property, tax evasion etc.
- People who were caught were encouraged to implicate others on the pretence that they’d be treated leniently, workers were encouraged to turn in their bosses, wives and children would be told that their husbands/dads, had been caught and the only way to protect them from punishment was to confess
Mass participation
- The CCP organised rallies where victims of the campaigns would be placed on trial, where they were forced into a confession, many of the times it ended in execution
- Ordinary people were encouraged to go and chant “kill kill kill”, they went out of self preservation
- These trials were held in public spaces such as universities
Reunification campaigns: Tibet
- Tibet was led by the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist leader, which Mao saw as a threat to the communist ideology
- In 1950 he announced the invasion of Tibet
- The PLA faced 600,000 Tibetans protecting Tibet, however they were still able to move into the capital quite quickly forcing the representatives of the Dalai Lama to sign the 17 point agreement in 1951, this agreement suggested that they’d still have their freedom but just now be part of China,( they didn’t really)
- Invading PLA were accompanied by propaganda to convince the Tibetans that they were being saved from oppressive rule under the Dalai Lama
- Mao announced that he wanted to grow the population of Tibet from 3 to 10 million, his plan was to move the Han Chinese into Tibet, to repress their nationalism to Tibet and the Dalia Lama
Reunification campaigns Xinjiang
- Large Muslim population, threatened Mao’s communist ideology
- Run by a coalition government with the nationalists, threat to communist rule
- in 1949 Mao invited representatives coalition government to the political consultative conference however their plane mysteriously crashed killing them all, their replacements agreed to submit to Chinese rule with them all gaining senior roles in government
Reunification campaigns Xinjiang
- Large Muslim population, threatened Mao’s communist ideology
- Run by a coalition government with the nationalists, threat to communist rule
- in 1949 Mao invited representatives coalition government to the political consultative conference however their plane mysteriously crashed killing them all, their replacements agreed to submit to Chinese rule with them all gaining senior roles in government
Reunification campaigns Guangdong
- The nationalist had had is strong hold on the people of Guangdong, therefore Mao feared that nationalist spies were residing there
- 28,000 people were executed in Guangdong under Mao’s command
- Guangdong home to a valuable trading port
Reunification campaign: Taiwan
- The nationalist had Fled here, setting up the Republic of China
- China was unable to invade as they feared war with the US
The Laogai
- Labour camps set up to imprison the communist’s enemies, initially were only the country’s most inhospitable areas but soon spreaded across the country
- By 1955, 1.3 million were imprisoned, either petty or political criminals
- Over 27 million died in labour camps during Mao’s rule
- The laogai contributed over 700 million yuan and 350,000 tonnes of grain to the economy
- After the Anti rightist campaign Mao set up the laojai, this was different as prisoners could be held indefinitely
Reasons for the hundred flowers campaign
Increase his control
- Trap Mao’s enemies who would try to undermine his power International relations
- Krushchev had given a speech calling an end to dictatorships in communist countries, the hundred flowers campaign suggested Mao was acting democratic
Economy
- Mao had previously purged the intellectuals, who were now scared to speak up as an intellectual, therefore by launching the campaign mao had opportunity to convince the intellectuals that it was safe for them to offer advice to improving China’s production and economy which was looking really bad
Arrogance
- Mao was overconfident and believed that no one would have any criticism for him, therefore the campaign would be an ego boost and used to prove himself and china as a powerful country
Increasing revolutionary spirit
- Maofeared the party was become less revolutionary and therefore he hoped the campaign would criticise China’s development giving him justification to purge his government officials such as gradualists who opposed him
The events of the Hundred flowers campaign and anti rightist campaign
- Mao gave his first “ let a hundred flower’s bloom speech” in 1956, however it had little impact as the intellectuals were too scared by how mao would react if they actually criticised the party
- Mao gave another speech only to cadres in 1957, and these cadres were then sent to encourage the intellectuals to speak up
- The intellectuals were emboldened, and compared Mao’s rule to nazi Germany, they complained about the inequalities of wealth and more
- The campaign quickly turned into the anti-rightist campaign
- Anyone who spoke up against mao were sent to the Laogai or Laojai
- Cadres were given a quota of 5% of each danwei to arrest, this led to many false accusations
Work units/danwei
- Compulsory for all Chinese workers
- Controlled by cadres and used to decide food rations, housing and clothing
- This provided the Party cadres with lots of social power
Ding Ling
- A prestigious member of the CCP
- Wrote a book on communist land reform and won the Stalin prize for literature in 1951
- Was purged as a part of the Anti-rightist campaign, all her writings were banned across China
Overview of the Korean War
- Korea was divided along the 38th parallel with the north being communist and south being capitalist
- Both leaders wanted to unite Korea under the same ideology
- The north invaded first backed by the USSR, the South quickly followed backed by UN troops, they eventually pushed the North Korean troops back to the Yalu river, the Chinese border
- Triggering China’s involvement and sending 25,000 PLA troops
China’s involvement in the Korean War
- Against the advice of several key members of the politburo and General Lin, Mao ordered the PLA “ to resist the attacks of the imperialist US”
- The UN troops were surprised by China’s military after the war, leading to China achieving pushing the UN troops back past the 38th parallel, however due to the UN’s much more built up army they were able to push them back to the 38th parallel very quickly
Why did Mao join the war (4 reasons) and explained
Enhance CCP control
- there were many different dialects, ethnicities and identities across China when the CCP first came to power, the Korean War gave the people a unified aim and created a national identity
Excuse for Mao’s purges
- “resist America. Aid Korea.”
- Propaganda depicted Truman and MacArthur as vampiric ghouls, there were also rumours that the US were using biological weapons
- Mao’s purges at the time were based on the pretence that they were spies or traitors
- Although numbers vary there was an estimated 135,000 official executions in the first half of 1951
Propaganda inspiring Chinese nationalism
- “model solider hero”
- The PLA had not been defeated against the US, Mao painted this as a success despite the fact that 90% of soldiers died from frostbite
- Workers and farmers pledged to produce more for the war effort, one woman donated her weekly wages
- Workers joined patriotic movements under the slogan “ Our factory is our battlefield and our machines are our weapons”
International prestige
- Mao proved to other countries that he was a powerful leader willing to defend his people against foreign enemies
- proved the West to be paper “tigers”
- Proved China was not a country to be bullied or controlled by foreign powers
What was the impact of the Korean War on China?
Economic costs
- The USSR made sure they made a profit on what they loaned China for the war and charged them high interest rates
- The war cost China 10 million
Soldiers lost
- 400,000 out of 3 million
Relations with the US
- A strong hatred towards China in the US
- A stronger fear of communism caused the US to crack down on their policy of containment
- limited trade between the countries
The Republic of China
- Mao was forced to accept the prescence of Taiwan and its rival nation the ROC
- In June 1950, the US had sent troops to the Taiwan Strait
- The US would crush the PLA if they invaded
Relationships with USSR
- Mao had wanted to prove China’s strength to the USSR which he did, China’s foreign minister Chen Yi, reported that Stalin shed tears when hearing of China’s intervention in Korea
- Now an enemy of the US, China completed relied on the USSR for economic and military aid
Personal cost
- Mao’s son was killed in an attack on PlLA headquarters
Opposition to China’s involvement in the Korean War
- China’s economy and military was not strong enough
- After the years of civil war the Chinese people were hoping for peace and prosperity
