Lesson 1-What was the nature of the power struggle within China, 1962-6? Flashcards
Define collectivist principle.
The Marxist notion that social advance can be achieved only by the proletarian class acting together as a body and not allowing individuals to follow their own interests.
Define ideologues
CCP hardliners who believe in pushing Mao’s revolutionary politics to the extreme and suppressing all opposition.
Define pragmatists
CCP members who believed that policies should be adjusted according to circumstances rather than being slavishly followed for ideological reasons
Who were the Group of Five?
A set of moderate party officials led by Peng Zhen 1902-97, the mayor of Beijjing.
Who were the Shanghai Forum?
A group of hard line leftist radicals who believed in the hardest measures being taken against those who opposed Mao
Who were the Gang of Four?
Made up of Jiang Qing and her 2 males associates:
Zhang Chunquiao
Yao Wenyuan
Wang Honwen
Define counter-revolutionaries
Term used by hard line Maoists to describe those in the party who favoured more moderate policies
Define packing.
Controlling the membership of committees in such a way that they always contained a majority of Maoists
CCRG
Central Cultural Revolution Group
Who were the CCRG?
Subcommittee of the Politburo.
Established in May 1965.
Its 17 members included the Gang of Four
With his temporary withdrawal from government, what tasks did Mao charge Liu and Deng with?
Bringing an end to the rural crisis.
Restoring adequate food supplies
When tackling the problems caused by the GLF, whose help did Liu and Deng enlist?
Chen Yun
What did Chen Yun, Liu and Deng conclude was the only workable solution to fix the food crisis resulting from the GLF?
Allow private farming and markets to operate again
Why would allowing private farming and markets to operate again help fix the food crisis after the GLF?
Would provide peasant farmers with an incentive to produce surplus stocks
What did Chen Yun, Liu and Deng admit was a failure from the GLF?
Communes
Why did Mao become uneasy with the methods of Chen Yun, Liu and Deng?
It undermined the collective principle which he has set such score as a Communist revolutionary
In the early 1960s, in which provinces did supporters of Liu and Deng begin to take over the local government and reverse the collectivisation programme?
Gansu
Qinghai
After his temporary withdrawal from government, what did Mao never lose his fear of?
That plot were being made to overthrow him
Who were the main divisions of the party who were involved in the power struggle that followed Mao’s withdrawal from the political centre ground?
Left
Right
Centre
What did the left want after Mao’s temporary withdrawal from government?
Maintenance of stringent controls and enforcement
What did the right want after Mao’s temporary withdrawal from government?
Relaxation of controls and encouragement rather than coercion
What did the centre want after Mao’s temporary withdrawal from government?
Coercion intermixed with a lighter touch depending on particular circumstances
Even though the left division of the party knew the GLF was a failure, what did they believe must not be abandoned from it?
The harsh methods it used
Why did the left divisions of the party believe the harsh methods of the GLF should not be abandoned?
Many would argue that the control of peasants and workers in accordance with Maoist principles had to be maintained even if that meant slower economic growth
What year was the SEM?
1963
What was the SEM?
Socialist Education Movement
What did the SEM reveal?
The nature of the divide within the CCP
Despite being called the Socialist Education Movement, what was the movement more concerned with?
Politics
Goal of SEM.
To cleanse politics, economy, organization, and ideology (the four cleanups).
It was to last until 1966.
What this movement entailed was that intellectuals were sent to the countryside to be re-educated by peasants.
How did the SEM begin?
With Mao’s backing as another anti-campaign.
Presented as the 4 clean ups
How would education be passed on in the SEM?
Peasants, government officials and party cadres were despatched to the countryside tasked with exposing the reactionary elements who had prevented the GLF from being successful
What was the result of education being passed on in the SEM?
Exposing reactionary elements revealed the opposite
It was not the reactionary elements coming from lack of effort by ordinary peasants which prevented the GLF from being successful but what?
Corruption and collusion between local party bosses and the officials sent to implement the reforms of the GLF
How did Liu figure out the it was corruption and collusion between local party bosses and officials which prevented the success of the GLF?
Aided by his wife, he went to live amongst peasant to gain first-hand knowledge
Liu Shaoqi’s wife?
Wang Guangmei
How were the cadres who prevented the GLF from being successful protected?
Cadres in basic level organisations who have made mistakes are usually connected with certain cadres of higher-level organisations and are initiated, supported and protected by them
Why was Mao angry about the discoveries of the corruption of local cadres and officials?
It had confirmed Mao’s suspicions but was angered that Liu had made all these discoveries.
What did Mao use Liu’s information from the SEM to do?
Attack party bureaucracy
Summoned Liu for personal meeting and berated him for using the work of the SEM to undermine the party workers, while ignoring ‘peasant capitalists’.
What exact thing did Mao say to Liu when berating him about the results of the SEM?
‘Though you repeat day after day that there must be democracy, there is no democracy; though you ask others to be democratic, you are not democratic yourselves.’
Why did Mao criticise Deng for the SEM?
He dubbed him ‘placid’ (calm) for showing insufficient trust in the masses
4 achievements of SEM.
- PRC’s budget deficit of 8 billion yuan in 1960 had been turned into a surplus of 1 million yuan by 1962
- 1965 agricultural production had been restored to levels of 1957 before the Great Leap Forward
- Industrial growth reached 20% by 1965
- !0x increase in oil production ended PRC’s reliance on Soviet supplies
Despite the achievements of the SEM, what was the left of the party prepared to attack?
What they regarded as Liu’s and Deng’s abandonment of proletarian values
What did Mao’s publicised criticisms towards Liu and Deng help the left to and what did this lead to?
Gave left the pretext (excuse) for being more open and aggressive in their criticism of Liu’s rightism.
Led to power struggle intensifying
Summarise the Wu Han Affair.
Political struggle mounting from the publishing of a play written by Wu Han called The Dismissal of Hai Rui from office
Between what years was Wu Han’s play performed?
1961-65
What was Wu Han’s play about?
Set in Ming Dynasty.
Told story of Hai Rui, a court official, who was demoted and punished after defying the orders of a cruel emperor.
How is it possible to interpret Wu Han’s play?
As reference to Mao’s dismissal of Dehuai for opposing the GLF and stating the truth at Lushan about the famine.
In late 1965, who penned a lengthy essay condemning (criticising) Wu Han’s play as political slander?
Yao Wenyuan
[QUOTES] What did Wenyuan say about Wu Han’s play?
‘Hai Rui Dismissed is not a fragrant flower but a poisonous weed.’
‘If we do not clean it up, it will be harmful to the affairs of the people.’
What did the criticisms of Wu Han’s play give Lin Biao the pretext to do?
To move against anti-Maoist elements in the Communist Party
What was Wu Han charged with in 1965?
Blackening Mao’s good name and undermining China’s Communist revolution
What happened to Wu Han as a result of the charges against him?
Became a broken man and killed himself 2 years later
What did Jiang Qing do about the divisions in the CCP?
Denounced reactionaries and revisionists in the right of the party
Aimed to undermine the Group of Five.
What was the essential objective of the Group of Five?
To act as peacemakers in order to prevent party splits from widening
What had Mao been long concerned about?
Art and literature and the dangers they posed to his regime.
Increasingly concerned with prevailing bourgeois culture and attitudes of Communist China
What did Mao view prevailing bourgeois culture as?
Symptomatic (indicative) of fundamental problems in Chinese society which needed to be resolved
[QUOTES] What did Mao say about literature in 1962?
‘Writing novels is popular these days, isn’t it.’
‘The use of novels for anti-party activity is a great invention. Anyone wanting to overthrow a political regime must create public opinion and do some preparatory ideological work.’
What was Mao urging at a Politburo meeting in January 1965?
A ‘cultural revolution’
How did the Politburo react, in January, to Mao’s demand of urging a ‘cultural revolution’?
Set up a ‘Five-Man Group’
What was the purpose of the ‘Five-Man Group’?
To review anti-socialist attitudes in fields like history, philosophy, literature, law and dramatics.
Who was the Five-Man Group led by?
Peng Zhen
Who was Peng Zhen?
Fifth most senior member of the Politburo
Mayor of Beijing
How did Peng Zhen interpret Mao’s concerns?
As an academic debate, not a political issue.
Saw no need for state intervention in fields like literature or the arts, nor did he believe culture must follow party lines
Why was Mao infuriated by the inaction of the Five-Man Group and what did he do about it?
Mao was insistent that anti-socialist cultural expressions be identified and criticised.
By second half of 1965, he decided to take action himself
How did Mao take action after the inaction of the Five-Man Group?
In November, ordered that state newpapers publish Yao Wenyuan’s essay about Wu Han’s play in it entirety
Why was Peng Zhen displeased with the publishing of Yao’s essay in newpapers?
Five-Man Group had to be consulted before attacks on senior figures like Wu Han were made.
Peng was not prepared to allow the academic criticism of Wu Han’s play to develop into a political debate
What happened when Peng Zhen moved to block the distribution of Yao’s politically motivated article?
Was overruled by Zhou Enlai
What did Mao’s supporters begin doing as a result of Yao publishing his essay in newpapers?
Began producing a wave of similar essays and articles, each critical of anti-socialist ideas in cultural pieces
How did Peng’s Five-Man Group respond to the wave of essays being published from Mao’s supporters?
Moved to block these as well
[QUOTE] In February 1966, what did Peng attack Yao and other Maoist writers for doing?
‘Treating a purely academic question in political terms’
What did Peng Zhen’s mean when he said that Yao and other Maoist writers were ‘treating a purely academic question in political terms’?
Argued that Wu Han had no political ties with Peng Dehuai so the play should not be interpreted as political
What did Peng Zhen’s group release in early 1966?
A document called the ‘February Outline’
What did the ‘February Outline’ acknowledge?
The existence of bourgeois or reactionary sentiments in culture.
What was the solution to the existence of the bourgeois and reactionary sentiments in culture?
To “seek truth from facts”
To fight bourgeois ideas with better socialist ideas
What earlier campaign did the February Outline cause someone to remember about?
Hundred Flowers Campaign
Who did the February Outline lead to an undeclared war between?
The Five-Man Group
AND
Mao and his supporters
Who emerged victorious from The February Outline war?
Mao
What day did Mao emerge victorious from The February Outline war?
May 16th
How was Mao able to emerge victorious from The February Outline war?
CCP’s Central Committee had voted to disband the Five-Man Group and replace it with “a new Cultural Revolution Group”
What happened during the Central Committee’s May 16th circular?
Peng and 3 other members of the Five-Man Group were charged with counter-revolutionary sympathies, booted from office and purged from the CCP
Who did the Gof4 fight against in the Politburo?
Those whom they regarded as lacking a full commitment to uncompromising Maoist socialism
What did the Gof4 believe about the party’s path to Socialism?
It was too slow.
Wanted the ferocity of the assault on class enemies to be maintained.
Why were the Gof4 offended by the moderate approach of Enlai and Deng?
Scorned it as a tantamount to revisionism
When were Peng Zhen and the leading members of the Group of Five (Five-Man Group) denounced for taking the Capitalist road?
April 1966
Who was the CCRG dominated by?
Gof4
How did Liu and Deng feel about the CCRG?
In early summer 1966, they found themselves being outmanoeuvred and undermined
When did Mao, acting on info by the CCRG, issue a notification defining the enemy within?
May 1966
By early 1966, what had Mao convinced himself Soviet revisionism had infected apart from organisations like the SEM?
Whole of the party and government and the Chinese revolution
What were Mao’s words about Soviet revisionism and enemies within a key announcement of?
Cultural Revolution
