Establishing Communist Rule | Establishment of a political system Flashcards
Why was it important for the Communists to act quickly to establish a new political system?
They could have lost their gains and China could have slipped into anarchy
Gave the regime an air of legitimacy, so people accepted it’s authority
What government control of the press continued through?
Xinhua, the government-controlled press agency
What was the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)?
A conference to which Communists invited 600 delegates of 14 other parties in a continuation of the old United Front approach
Acted as a provisional Parliament until 1954
What was the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference responsible for?
Passing essential legislation to set up the new China
When was the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference held?
September 1949
What did the CPPCC appoint as the supreme state body?
The new Central People’s Government
What was the Central People’s Government composed of?
Ministers and department heads. This acted as the government of the new China.
What did the Central People’s Government later became known as?
From 1954, it became known as the State Council
Which program did the CPPCC approve of?
The Common Program
What was the Common Program?
It was a temporary constitution determining the name and symbols of the State
It also elected leaders of the new central government, including Mao Zedong as Chairman of the Central People’s Government
What did the Common Program declare?
That China had been transformed into a new society based on an alliance between workers and peasants, whose interests would be represented by the CP
What did the Common Program guarantee?
It guaranteed a wide range of personal freedom and gender equality, making China theoretically one of the freest countries in the world
What was the brutal reality of the Common Program?
It gave the army and the police the right to suppress all counter-revolutionary activity
What speech did Mao identify the four categories of people who should be allowed rights and the five black categories?
The ‘On the People’s Democratic Dictatorship’, June 1949
Who were the four categories of people who Mao believed should be allowed rights in the new China?
The working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie
Who were the five black categories?
Counter-revolutionaries, rich farmers, landlords, rightists and bad-influencers.
What was Mao’s perception of democracy in his ‘One the People’s Democratic Dictatorship’ of June 1949?
He believed in a democratic dictatorship
What is a democratic dictatorship?
People’s democratic dictatorship is the notion that dictatorial control by the party is necessary to prevent the government from collapsing into a “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”.
What was a “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie” supposed to mean?
A liberal democracy in which politicians would act in the interest of the bourgeoisie.
What happened to existing laws created by the GMD?
They were abolished and so was the old judicial system
How did the central government and the Politburo cooperate?
The central government simply rubber-stamped proposals put in front of it by the Politburo
How many regions was China divided into?
China was divided into six regions known as the bureau
Why was China divided into regions?
So decisions taken at a national level could be imposed throughout the country
What did the creation of regional congresses do?
It gave at least each region the impression that Beijing was listening to them
What were the attempts to distribute power in bureaux and which posts existed?
Senior Communist officials were put in place over each region
Posts: military commander, army political commissar, government chairman and a Party secretary
What example is proof of how highly-concentrated power was in some regions?
In the northern-eastern Bureau of Manchuria, Gao Gang held all four available posts
Elsewhere, three party leaders all held multiple posts
What was such a level of centralisation of power in the bureaux intended for?
To prevent China from reverting to warlord years of the 1920s when powerful regional leaders fought each other and the central government was powerless
Who were the Politburo?
Key decision-making body of the CCP
How many people were in the Politburo?
14 members when it met for a plenary session, but ultimate decisions were talking by the five-man committee
Which men were part of the five-man standing committee of the Politburo?
Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yun and Zhu De
How did decisions become laws under the Politburo?
Decisions became laws when the legislature (the National People’s Congress, from 1954) approved them, which they always did
What was a political commissar?
Those responsible for monitoring people’s loyalty to the Party at a local level and enforcing control as necessary
What was the 1954 constitution?
It was a new constitution published in 1954 which officially confirmed China’s status as a Communist country
What changes did the 1954 Constitution make?
The National People’s Congress was created as the new legislature, rubber-stamped Politburo decisions
The State Council took over the functions of the Central People’s Government
What didn’t the 1954 Constitution change?
Real power remained in the highest Party bodies, where decisions were taken before being endorsed by the state bodies
How did the administrative composition of China change under the 1954 Constitution?
Six regions were now subdivided into 21 provinces, five border regions and two urban centres
How much did the number of bureaucrats needed to staff the Communist system grow?
From 720,000 state officials employed in 1949 to nearly eight million ten years later
Why was Mao worried about the increase in bureaucrats?
He feared they would become more interested in preserving the status quo to safeguard their careers than in advancing the cause of the revolution
What is the bureaucratisation of the revolution?
The idea that the dynamic nature of change would be slowed down if too much influence passed to the bureaucrats
What is a bureaucrat?
An official in a government department
What did leading CCP officials always hold?
Key posts in both the state and army
E.g. Zhou Enlai was premier of the State Council from 1949 to his death.
When did Mao stand down as head of state?
In 1958, he retained his position as Chairman of the Party because that was where real power lay
When did political leaders knew they had made it to the top?
When they were invited to join the Politburo
Who was Party membership restricted to?
Those who could prove their commitment and ideological correctness
By how much did Party membership rise from October 1949?
In October 1949, there were 4.5 million Party members.
By the end of the 1950, this figure to 5.8 million
Why was mass participation in Party groups encouraged?
So that ordinary people played a positive role and identified with the Party’s causes
What were some important Party groups?
Youth League
Women’s Federation
Who were cadres?
Trained party members who monitored civic organisations
How did cadres spy?
Part of their work involved reporting on the loyalty of their fellow Party colleagues and the general public
What did Mao say about political power in 1938?
“Political power grows out of the barrel of the gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party.”
Why did the PLA enjoy a special place in Communist mythology?
The PLA had defeated the Japanese and the GMD to enable the Communist Party to come to power
What did the PLA epitomise?
Revolutionary values of disciple and self-sacrifice
How large was the PLA?
It was the world’s largest army and consumed over 40% of the state budget.
By how much was the PLA reduced?
In 1950, it had about 5 million men, but was reduced to 2.5 million by 1957
What happened as the PLA became smaller?
It became more professional, technically advanced and less egalitarian
After 1949, what did the PLA act as a means for internally?
Indoctrination and enforcing central government control in the regions
What did the PLA’s political department do?
The PLA was loosing the favour of the peasantry, so the PLA political department drew up a new code of conduct in 1956 stressing the need to help peasants on farms
What did the PLA act as a means for externally?
Achieving Great Power status for China
What is the history of Yanan to the Communists?
Yanan remained the Communists’ base area until the Japanese surrender in 1954, when the civil war against Nationalists resumed
