ESTABLISHING COMMUNIST RULE, 1949-57

Question 1

What was the structure of the new government?

Answer 1

1. The Communist Party
2. The Central People’s Government.
3. The People’s Liberation Army.

Question 2

How many members did the Communist Party have in 1950?

Answer 2

5.8 million

Question 3

How was the Communist Party organised?

Answer 3

Central Committee
Politburo
Standing Committee

Question 4

Who was Liu Shaoqi?

Answer 4

Chairman of the Standing Committee of the NPC

Question 5

Who was Zhou Enali?

Answer 5

Premier of the PR & Foreign Minister

Question 6

In reality what was the NPC?

Answer 6

A rubber stamp to approve their decisions

Question 7

What was the suppression of bandits campaign a euphemism for?

Answer 7

Any opposition to the CCP

Question 8

How many new recruits every year for the PLA?

Answer 8

800,000

Question 9

Why was the PLA called the ‘big university’?

Answer 9

They were told to read and write and indoctrinated.

Question 10

What was each territory of the PRC governed by?

Answer 10

Regional Party Bureaux

Question 11

What was the ‘learn from the pla’ campaign?

Answer 11

• Instructed people to learn from the revolutionary and personal attributes the soldiers exemplified.
• Loyalty to Mao was important.
• When the divorce rate rose Mao made it difficult for PLA wives to divorce them.

Question 12

What was the PLA’s economic role?

Answer 12

• Help rebuild China’a infrastructure.
• Week free labour a year to help local construction or irrigation projects, teach primary or night schools, repair farm tools.
• PLA forced to join local peasants hunt down pests and forced to collect own poo to be supplied as fertiliser.

Question 13

How much did the army reduce after the Korean War?

Answer 13

5 to 3.5 million

Question 14

When was The Campaign to Suppress ‘Counter-Revolutionaries’ ?

Answer 14

March 1950

Question 15

The Campaign to Suppress ‘Counter-Revolutionaries’ - 1950

Answer 15

• Aimed at nationalist sympathisers and their spies from undermining the regime.
• Most at risk was anybody who had worked for the previous nationalist regime and academics who had worked with foreign universities.
• Decree of Feb 1951 extended the definition of counter-revolutionary activity to include all forms of political dissent.

Question 16

What were the victims of the CSCR’s subject to?

Answer 16

Struggle meetings

Question 17

How many CR deaths were there in 1951?

Answer 17

800,000

Question 18

When was the Three Anti’s Campaign?

Answer 18

Aug 1951 to July 1952

Question 19

What did the Three Anti’s direct against?

Answer 19

1. Corruption
2. Waste
3. Obstructionist Bureaucracy in government.

Question 20

Three Anti’s Campaign 1951-52

Answer 20

• Many supported the campaign including middle class because they believed regime was going to discipline those who has been taken advantage of their new power.
• Reality was it was an excuse to remove anyone in the civil service who they didn’t like.
• Communists needed help to establish new regime such as collecting taxes, organising schools etc.
• By late 1951, they has trained enough loyal cadres to do these jobs so former employees imprisoned or executed.

Question 21

When was the Five Anti’s Campaign?

Answer 21

February to May 1952

Question 22

What were the Five Anti’s?

Answer 22

1. Bribery
2. Tax evasion
3. Theft of state property
4. Cheating on government contracts
5. Stealing state economic information

Question 23

The Five Anti’s Campaign 1952

Answer 23

• Those who confessed made to believe they would be treated leniently if they helped identify other guilty businessmen.
• Denunciation boxes used by children and wives to avoid being implicated.
• ‘Tiger-beaters’ selected employees of a firm, organised by cadres to gather incriminating evidence intimidated the ‘capitalist tigers’.

Question 24

Invasion of Tibet 1950

Answer 24

• ‘liberate it from imperialist oppression’.
• Religious practices, Tibetan language and history were prohibited.
• Mandarin enforced as official language.
• November 1952 promoted migration of Han Chinese ethnic group.
• Dalai Lama fled to exile in India.
• 1959 ; brutally suppressed by PLA.

Question 25

Xinjiang - The Uighurs

Answer 25

• PLA led by Peng cleared all resistance and secured territory by March 1950.
• Migration of Han Chinese to populate and develop mining and industry.

Question 26

Guangdong

Answer 26

• 28,000 executed during suppress the CR’s campaign.

- Regime feared anti-communist sentiment remained strong in the area and targeted it with great ferocity.

Question 27

How much did the Laogai make in economic value?

Answer 27

700 million yuan in industrial products and 350,000 tons of grain

Question 28

How many died in the Laogai?

Answer 28

27 million

Question 29

Why was the Laogai benefitting to the regime?

Answer 29

• intimidate and terrorise population.

- converting former opponents by bombarding them with communist propaganda.

Question 30

When was the Hundred Flowers Campaign?

Answer 30

1956

Question 31

Why did Mao launch the Hundred Flowers Campaign?

Answer 31

• Rectification of the party
• International concerns.
• Over-confidence

Question 32

What was a result to the HFC?

Answer 32

Intellectuals began to criticise.

Question 33

Anti-Rightist Campaign

Answer 33

• Personal criticism was a step too far for Mao.
• Cadres given a quota of 5% of people in a danwei to be damned as rightist (innocent people accused).
• 400,000 to 700,000 intellectuals purged, sent to countryside or laogai.
• Others committed suicide.