Facts and figures

Question 1

Leading figures in the Civil War

Answer 1

• Nationalists - Chiang Kai-Shek

- Communists - Mao Zedong

Question 2

General state of China in 1949

Answer 2

• 80% of the population lived in rural areas and were farmers.
• 1 million bandits (wondering people with no food, control…) began to roam the country.
• Hyper-inflation: people used carts to transfer bank notes.
• 5% of people working in industry.
• Half the railway network destroyed.

Question 3

Number of members in the - CCP, Standing Committee and Politburo

Answer 3

• CCP - 49 members
• SC - 4-5 members
• Politburo - 14 members

Question 4

Xinhua

Answer 4

Press agency

Question 5

Common Programme

Answer 5

Temporary constitution, declaring China was a new society based on the alliance between workers and peasants. It guaranteed freedoms and equality.

Question 6

Development of the Party

Answer 6

• 720,000 bureaucrats 1949.
• 8 million bureaucrats in 1959.
• 4.5 million Party members in 1949.
• 5.8 million Part members by the end of 1950.

Question 7

Three-Antis Campaign

Answer 7

• 1951
• Targeted: Corruption, waste and obstructionist bureaucracy.
• Triggered by the arrest of Zhang Zishan and Lui Qingsham.
• Bo Yibo in charge.
• End of 1952: 100,000 tigres hunted in East China.

Question 8

Defeating the CCP’s opponents

Answer 8

• Labelling
• Self-registration and midnight arrests
• Mass-participation, denouncing C-R, struggle meetings…
• Over 150,000 criminals arrested.

Question 9

Five-Antis Campaign

Answer 9

• 1952
• Targeted: Tax evasion, bribery, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts and stealing state economic information.
• Party control over private companies and the economy established.
• Denunciation boxes.
• Victims: 1% shot, 1% sent to Laogai’s, 3% jailed and the rest were fined.
• 30,000 people attended one meeting against local party bosses.

Question 10

Reunification Campaigns

Answer 10

• Tibet: 60,000 people attempted to resist, but Chinese troops entered the capital and set up a government. 17 point “Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful liberation of Tibet” was signed by the Lama. In 1952, the population rose from 3 to 10 million with the migration of the Han-Chinese.
• Xinjiang: It has the largest Muslim population, the PLA cleared all resistance by March 1950.
• Guandong - GMD heartland, about 28,000 people were executed during the “suppress the CR” campaign.
• Taiwan - ROC established, the communists couldn’t invade it because of their involvement in the Korean War.

Question 11

The Hundred Flowers campaign

Answer 11

• 1956-57

- Mao called for “a hundred flowers to bloom”.

Question 12

Anti-Rightist Campaign

Answer 12

• Speech: “poisonous weeds have grown up among the fragrant flowers”.
• Quota: 5% people in each Danwei had to be blamed for being against the CCP.
• 400,000 - 700,000 intellectuals purged and sent to Laogai’s.

Question 13

Laogai

Answer 13

• Mid-1950s: labour from Laogai’s produced 350,000 tons of grain into the economy.
• Peak - 10 million in one year.
• 25 - 27 million people died in Laogai’s.

Question 14

Korean War

Answer 14

• 400,000 lives lost.
• “Resist America, Aid Korea”.
• 800,000 CR and 135,000 executions during the first half of 1951.
• Mao proved the West to be “Paper Tigers” which stirred national sentiment.
• It cost China $10 billion.
• Anyin (Mao’s sun) killed by an attack on the PLA headquarters.

Question 15

Agrarian reform law

Answer 15

• 1950-52
• By 1951, 10 million landlords had lost their land.
• Landlords: “class enemies”.
• About 1 to 2 million landlords executed.
• 88% of households took part and 43% of the land was distributed to 60% of the population.
• Rural production increased by 15% per year.

Question 16

Steps of collectivisation

Answer 16

• 1951: Mutual aid teams, 10 houses merged together and by 1952, 40% of peasant households belonged to a MAT.
• 1952: Agricultural Producers’ Co-operatives, 30 to 50 households merged together, by 1955 only 14% of peasants joined and by 1956, 96% joined. Grain production raised by less than 2%.
• 1955: Higher Producers’ Cooperatives, 200 to 300 households merged together. By the end of 1956, 88% of peasant households were in HPC’s.

Question 17

Collectivisation

Answer 17

• Production only increased by 3.8% per year.

Question 18

Communes

Answer 18

• 1957: Mao merged collectives into larger units.
• 5500 households.
• “walking on two legs”.
• First commune: Sputnik, in Henan.
• End of 1958: 99% of people in communes.
• Lysenkoism: official policy from 1958.
• The four pests campaign, 1958: party activists sent to chase sparrows, rats, flies and mosquitoes.

Question 19

The Great Famine

Answer 19

• 1958-62
• 30 to 50 million deaths.
• 25% of the population.
• Mao stepped down from politics, he resigned from being Chairman of the PRC and was replaced by Lui Shaoqi but he continued being Chairman of the Party.
• Tibet: 1 million people died (purposely to kill buddhist).
• A teenage girl ate her 4-year brother, reports on cannibalism.

Question 20

Lushan conference

Answer 20

• 1959
• Peng Dehuai challenged Mao’s plan at the conference, questioning the figures of grain production.
• Mao interpreted his criticism as a direct attack on his policies and he was sacked and replaced by Lin Biao.
• The GLF continued to embark on a “second leap”.

Question 21

Successes of 1962 reforms

Answer 21

• By 1965 agriculture had recovered with the help of grain exports.
• Private Plots accounted for 1/3 of peasants’ incomes.
• Light industry - 27% growth pur year.
• Heavy industry - 17% growth per year.
• Production of consumer goods doubled the 1957 level.

Question 22

The first FYP

Answer 22

• 1952-57
• 1953 - level of grain procurement, 22 million.
• Coal target - increase from 68.5 in 1952 to 113 in 1957. +
• Annual growth rate - 9%
• Heavy industrial output tripled.
• Industrial working class grew from 6 to 10 million.
• Most targets were achieved, but figures were unlikely to be reliable.
• Agricultural output only grew 2.1% per year, not enough food was being imported to the cities.
• Industrial growth rate - 16% per year.

Question 23

The second FYP

Answer 23

• 1958-62
• The GLF was launched.
• Backyard furnaces (1957-59): the target was to reach 20 million tons per year by October 1958, nearly 50% of steel production came from backyard furnaces.
• SOEs: targets, output, prices and wages set by the state, reducing incentives and thereby efficiency.
• Three Gate Gorge Damn - rebuilt.
• Methods used for water conservancy projects weren’t effective.
• Coal rose from 131 million tons in 1957 to 200 by 1964.
• Construction of Tainanmen Square in Bejin.
• 1962 - half of the amount of industry produced than in 1958.
• Economic downturn: By 1962, 40% industrial decline and food being left to rot.

Question 24

The third FYP

Answer 24

• Control centralised.
• Production targets reviewed annually.
• Experts favoured.
• Workers incentivised.

Question 25

The Cultural Destruction

Answer 25

• 1/3 of 1100 libraries were closed and 7 million books were lost, stolen or destroyed.
• Shandong: One temple attacked by 200 Red Guards and 6500 artefacts were destroyed.
• Qing Era Archway was attacked by Red Guards as they sang “smash the four olds”.
• Tibet: Monasteries and shrines attacked and people were forced to cut their hair.

Question 26

Wall poster campaign

Answer 26

• Students from Bejin encouraged to stir revolution by righting the names of “capitalist-roaders” on walls.
• Mass mobilisation.

Question 27

The Cultural Revolution - Terror

Answer 27

• Red Terror 1966: Ding Ling made to stand in “airplane position” for hours.
• The January Storm: 100,000 radical Red Guards defeated 20,000 other Red Guards.
• The PLA arrested 500 Red Guards and workers and killed 1000 protestors - “black hand”.
• “Bombard the headquarters”.
• 1.8 million arrested for being “spies”, “bad elements” or “counter-revolutionaries”.
• In 1969, the CR ended with the ninth party congress.

Question 28

The swim in the Yangtze

Answer 28

• Mao swan 9 miles in 65 minutes at the age of 72.

- Sent a message to Lui and Deng.

Question 29

Mass rallies

Answer 29

• August 18 1966 - first mass rally.

Question 30

Outcomes of the Cultural Revolution

Answer 30

• Lui: died in 1967, refused to given medical treatment.
• Deng: sent to a factory in Jiangxi to work, allowed to return and exiled again to a pig farm in the south.
• Regional level - 70-80% of cadres purged.
• 9/23 Politburo members survived.
• 2/3 of the central committee deposed.
• 3 million people sent to May Seventh Cadre Schools.

Question 31

“Up to the mountains down to the villages campaign”

Answer 31

• 18 million Red Guards sent to the country-side to cool-off.
• Part of the Rustification campaign.
• “Lost generation”.

Question 32

The four modernisations

Answer 32

• Advancement in agriculture
• Advancement in defence
• Advancement in industry
• Advancement in science and technology

Question 33

Women’s traditional position

Answer 33

• Subjected to the three obediences.
• Arranged marriages, were men’s adornments.
• Foot binding - outlawed in 1911 but was still practiced.
• Seen as an economic burden.
• High status of mothers in law.
• Only 1% of women could write by the age of seven and only 2.2% had received schooling.

Question 34

The marriage law

Answer 34

• Arranged marriages and payment of dowries outlawed.
• Divorce available for those in previously arranged marriages.
• Children born out of wedlock had equal rights.
• Women could own property.
• 1946-49: 18.6% brides 16-17.
• 1958-65: 2.4% brides 16-17.
• 1.4 million petitions for divorce in 1953.

Question 35

Impact if the GLF on women

Answer 35

• Children not well treated in kindergartens: in a factory in Bejin, 90% of the children got sick.
• Received less work points.
• Pregnant woman forced to work.
• Commune: 2 cadres forced themselves onto 34 women.
• Factory in Hunan, local factory bosses forced females to work naked.
• Wife-selling for food.

Question 36

Impact of the Cultural Revolution on women

Answer 36

• Women’s association - 40,000 staff in 83 cities, membership of 76 million.

Question 37

Changes in education of women

Answer 37

• 1929-49: 38% completed primary education.

- 1959: 100% completed primary education.

Question 38

Education before reform

Answer 38

• 30% of men and 1% of women over the age of 7 could read.
• 45% of males and 2% of females received schooling.
• 1949: 90% of women were illiterate and 20% literacy rate.
• Higher education - only 11.5% of students studied engineering.
• 90% didn’t have access to education.

Question 39

Educational reform

Answer 39

• Primary schools increased from 26 to 64 million.
• Literacy rose to 64% by 1964.
• 42 million peasants attended winter schools between 1951-52.
• 1953: 63% of students in higher education were in engineering, medicine or agriculture.
• 20 new polytechnique and 26 new engineering institutes.
• Pinyin: phonetic mandarine to improve literacy rates.
• “Key point” schools - sons of cadres and party officials favoured.

Question 40

Healthcare before reform

Answer 40

• Until 1956, spending never rose above 2.6% of the state budget.
• Traditional techniques continued (herbalism).

Question 41

Healthcare under Mao

Answer 41

• 800 western type hospitals built.
• Number of trained doctors: 40,000 in 1949 to 150,000 by 1965.
• Life expectancy: 39 in 1949 to 57 in 1957 to 62 by 1970.
• Womans federation.
• Patriotic health movements .

Question 42

The barefoot doctors

Answer 42

• 1 million trainees sent to provide medical help to rural areas.
• Jung Chang sent.
• By 1976, 90% of the villages were involved.

Question 43

Jiang Qing and culture

Answer 43

• Only piano music and oil paintings allowed.
• “Make it revolutionary or ban it”.
• Only eight official performances allowed in the Chinese opera.
• Purges personal vendettas.
• Only 124 novels published.

Question 44

Confucianism

Answer 44

• Had dominated for 2,500 years.
• Gang of four - “criticise Confucius campaign”.
• Temples and shrines destroyed.

Question 45

Ancestor worship

Answer 45

• “Old fashioned” thoughts.
• Shrines replaced by pictures of Mao.
• National memorial day replaced by Ch’ing Ming Festival.

Question 46

Christianity

Answer 46

• Religious Affaires Departement - RAD.
• “Patriotic church movement”.
• Protestants: 3,000 missionaries in 1949 and less than 100 by 1952.
• Catholics: 3,222 missionaries in 1941 and 1953 by 1952. By 1954, 1500 believers jailed.

Question 47

Islam

Answer 47

• Islamic association of China - to co-operate with the regime and protect Islam.
• Xinjiang: Immams challenged communist authority so they were sent to “Thought Reform” and mass migration of the Han Chinese.
• Muslims forced to raise and eat pigs and men forced to shave their beards.

Question 48

Buddhism

Answer 48

• Monks denounced as “parasites” and ordered to work.
• Chinese Buddhist Association 1953 - as a form of control.
• Tibet was especially targeted.
• 1959: Dalai Lama fled to India.