Early Political Control and Organisation

Question 1

What was the administrative structure of the PRC?

Answer 1

• 4.5 million members of the CCP
• Overall power lay with Central People’s Government Council
  
  • group of 56 party members
  • 6 members were vice-chairmen
  • Mao was chairman (had absolute power)
• China dived into 6 regions to be ruled regionally
• Each region had a chairman, party secretary, military commander and political commissar

Question 2

How was China effectively controlled by the military?

Answer 2

Position of military commander and political commissar is each region was always a PLA officer.
- Mao felt this provided the greatest stability/ control

Question 3

How was authority in China effectively centralised?

Answer 3

• Key roles in key areas went to major CCP figures
• Leading role of Mao’s thought was written into constitution

Question 4

What was the rhetoric vs reality of CCP rule?

Answer 4

• Communism believed in Democratic Centralism, meaning the PRC should’ve been the most democratic and influential experience a civilian could have
• All policies originated from the people, were discussed by the people and agreed by the people
  
  • HOWEVER, were then modified and enacted by central authority whose power was never to be questioned
• Election of local and national party officials were to be the ‘people’s choice’
  
  • HOWEVER, there was only one party and ‘independents’ had to agree to absolute power of CCP rule

Question 5

What were the Reunification Campaigns?

Answer 5

Euphemism for forcibly bringing into the line invaded provinces
- Xinjiang 1949: Communists took over and PLA surrounded capital of Xinjiang, expelling remaining Nationalists and liberating it into CCP rule
- Tibet 1950: Tibet expelled nationalists in July 1949, but in Oct 1950, 40,000 Communist troops entered Tibet and wiped their government

Question 6

What were the three registration groups?

Answer 6

• Hukou
• Danwei
• Dang’an

Question 7

What was the Hukou?

Answer 7

• A household registration with an aim to ‘maintain social order, protect rights and interest of citizens and to be of service to the establishment of socialism’
• Begun in 1945 and continued by CCP, formalised in 1958
• Linked to food ration cards
• Hukous were different for different regions
• Very tricky to move one’s hukou

Question 8

What was the problems with the Hukou?

Answer 8

• There was a different hukou for urban and rural residents
  
  • Urban residents got more benefits
• Linked to social inequality
• In rural areas, hukou didn’t necessarily provide access to food so forced rural citizens to produce their own food and for the rest of the country

Question 9

What were the reasons for implementing the hukou system?

Answer 9

• Keep a viable agricultural population
• Control residents in the urban areas who were more prone to revolt
• Control residents in rural areas to maintain base of agriculture to support the country

Question 10

What was the Danwei system?

Answer 10

• Can be translated to ‘work unit’
• Provided employment, food, housing, education and retirement benefits
  
  • If someone did not have a danwei, they didn’t have any of these things
  • Good thing in principle
• Helped organise migration of people from country to city post 1949
• However, was a means of control and key way of implementing party policy
  
  • Involved in every part of a person’s life (inc. marriage and birth control)

Question 11

What was the Dang’an?

Answer 11

A permanent record of each individual, starting with school to monitor their activities and ‘attitudes’.