Communist China Flashcards
A political revolution in China led by Mao Zedong. After several years of fighting the Kuomintang, the communists won control of the country in 1949.
Chinese Communist Revolution
Nationalist, revolutionary, founding father of the republic of China, “Nationalist China”
President
Co-founded the Kuomintang
Three Principles of the People: nationalism, democracy, and the peoples livelihood
Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
General and leader of Nationalist China after 1925. Although he succeeded Sun Yat-sen as head of the Guomindang, he became a military dictator whose major goal was to crush the communist movement led by Mao Zedong.
Chiang Kai-shek
Political party that ruled China from 1911 to 1949; enemy of the Communists known as Chinese nationalists.
Guomindang
Sun Yat-Sen, unified China and founded the Chinese Republic in 1912. After Sun Yat-Sen’s death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek took over the Guomindang and fought for control of China against the communists led by this man. A civil war began in China that would last 22 years
Mao Zedong
The youths who led Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Wore red arm bands and carried his book. Terrorized Chinese citizens and determined who went to forced labor camps for going against the communist party.
Red Guards
A book circulated throughout China during the reign of Mao Zedong, which contained his political philosophy for China & his own quotes on “proper communist living”. It was a required reading in all schools.
Little Red Book
Communist government of mainland China; proclaimed in 1949 following military success of Mao Zedong over forces of Chiang Kai-shek and the Guomindang.
People’s “Republic” of China
About 100 miles off China’s southeastern coast, used to be a providence of China for several hundreds years, and the followers of Chiang Kai-Shek of China fled to this country for nationalism after losing to the communists. Today social & economic rules are more relaxed here than on mainland China.
Taiwan
A military retreat led by Mao Zedong. Over 100,000 communists fled the Guomindang for 6,000 miles. Barely 20,000 survived. Finally, after years of war the Communists won in 1949
Long March
Mao won support of the huge peasant population by promising to give away land. Mao won support of women by promising more equality. Many Chinese felt the Kuomintang (Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists) were corrupt and under foreign influence
Why Communism Won in China?
Increase farm and factory output, Communes, Quotas, Program fails, Famine (2 million+ starve to death)
The Great Leap Forward
Renew Communist Loyalties, Red Guards attack professors and other officials, Economy slows, China closes to outside world, People fear arrest
The Cultural Revolution
Deng’s goals for China, in agriculture, industry, defense, and science & technology, ended communes, farm production increased, people’s incomes increased, food production increased
Four Modernizations
1976, Mao Zedong died. This man took control. His leadership brought economic freedom but little political change
Deng Xiaoping
Event where people in China protested in 1989 against the government. They were student-led demonstrations in Beijing in 1989. The protests were forcibly suppressed after the government declared martial law. Troops with assault rifles and tanks killed at least several hundred demonstrators trying to block the military’s advance. The number of civilian deaths has been estimated at anywhere between the hundreds to the thousands
Tiananmen Square Massacre
A former British colony in China, given to Britain after China lost the first Opium War. It was returned to China in 1997 with the promise the people living there would be able to retain economic & social freedoms. Recently mainland China proposed stricter rules such as people being tried for crimes on mainland China causing alarm that their freedoms may slowly be taken away.
Hong Kong
A program in China implemented in the late 1970’s early 1980’s in order to limit most Chinese families to address the growth rate of the country’s population in urban areas. The program officially ended in 2016 now families are allowed to have 2 children.
One Child Policy
Still communist, no voting system, people have no rights or freedoms, 1.3 billion people, 2nd largest global economic power, majority of people are poor
China today
