Mao

Question 1

“Century of Humiliation”

Answer 1

China had lost two opium wars to the “Western Devils” The power of the Qing Dynasty was growing weaker because they were failing to protect China.

Question 2

The Boxer Rebellion

Answer 2

1900-1901: A rebellion against the colonial powers within China. They were soundly defeated by an 8 nation alliance.

Question 3

China’s Industry

Answer 3

China was slow to industrialize because the colonial companies that had control over the nation did not implement more than the bare minimum to export goods from China.

Question 4

Sun Yat-Sen

Answer 4

1911: Formed a rebellion against the Qing Dynasty which was particularly weak as it was ruled by a 6-year-old. The revolution successfully deposed the monarch and by 1912 the revolution had signed a treaty with Yuan Shikai to create the Chinese republic.

Question 5

WWI

Answer 5

China was not permitted to join the war when Japan took several Chinese port cities. When in 1915 they were presented with the 21 demands they were forced to accede giving up many of their sovereign rights, and much of Manchuria.

Question 6

The Treaty of Versailles

Answer 6

China never signed the treaty of Versailles as they were outraged because it didn’t:

• Revoke the 21 Demands
• Handover Shandong back to the Chinese
• Withdraw foreign concessions China had made

Question 7

The May 4th Movement

Answer 7

1919: A movement amongst mainly young Chinese students protesting the Paris Peace Conference. Among them the two who would go on to form the Chinese Communist party in 1921.

Question 8

Yuan Shikai’s Revolution

Answer 8

Yuan Shikai in 1916 made an attempt at power, hoping to re-establish the monarchy with him at the head. It failed, leading to the warlord era as the GMD was unable to unify China.

Question 9

Sun Yat Sen’s Death

Answer 9

1925 Sun dies and Chain Kai Shek takes his place. He along with the CCP form an alliance and work together to subjugate the warlords.

Question 10

Shanghai Massacre

Answer 10

Distrust of the CCP leads to a massacre wherein hundreds of communists were killed. This sparked another civil war.

Question 11

Rise to Power - Civil War

Answer 11

By 1934 the CCP is almost entirely wiped out by the larger and more experienced GMD. They are down to their last stronghold the Jiangxi Soviet.

Question 12

Rise to Power - Futian Incident

Answer 12

1930: Mao killed 4000 dissidents to strengthen his hold on power.

Question 13

Rise to Power - The Long March

Answer 13

October 14th 1934: On October 14th 1934, 100,000 CCP soldiers and party members left Jiangxi to begin their retreat to a safer base. By January 1935, they had crossed the Xiang river with only 60,000. Resting in Zunyi to hold a conference, they elected Mao as head of the Politburo and de facto leader of the Red Army & Party.

Question 14

Rise to Power - Long March Statistics

Answer 14

9,000 kilometers 
370 days 
24 rivers
18 mountain ranges
36,000/100,000 survived

Question 15

Rise to Power - Maoism

Answer 15

Peasant-based Marxism: The Chinese peasants are the driving force behind the revolution
Land Reform: Every peasant has a right to own the land they farm (away with landlords!)
Continuing Revolution: The CCP should always learn from the peasants to adapt their policy based on the needs of the masses
Equal Rights: “Women hold up half the sky”

Question 16

Consolidation of Power - The Race for Manchuria

Answer 16

the Japanese withdrawal from China meant that their former puppet state, Manchukuo, no longer existed in Manchuria. The “Race to the North” started in 1945 when the CCP and GMD (with Allied backing) tried to be the first into the region to accept the Japanese surrender, but more importantly to occupy strategic cities. The KMT gained many cities, but the countryside fell under the CCP.

Question 17

Consolidation of Power - The US Intervention

Answer 17

In December 1945 the US attempted to negotiate peace with both the CCP and the GMD. They send General George Marshall to broker this agreement. Predictably the agreement fell apart and by June 1946 fighting resumed in the Manchuria region. The US tried to help the Guomindang, sending $4.43 billion worth of military aid. This aid helped the KMT secure most of Manchuria, except for Harbin in the far-north.

Question 18

Consolidation of Power - Guerilla Warfare

Answer 18

By October 1946 the People’s Liberation Army switched gears to guerilla warfare, in which raids on GMD-held cities from remote countryside bases would:
- Disrupt communications and supply
- Lower the morale of GMD troops
- Weaken the offensive capabilities of the GMD
- Allow the CCP to regain strength
This campaign was carried out under the leadership of Lin Biao, a highly experienced military leader and often regarded as the PLA’s “best commander”.

Question 19

Consolidation of Power - The Northern Offensives

Answer 19

Throughout 1947-1948, the CCP gradually weakened the GMD forces in Manchuria and successfully drove them out of the province by November 1948. Chiang Kai-Shek had lost 500,000 of his best troops, leaving the southern provinces poorly defended. He had made the crucial mistake of thinly spreading his forces, overconfident with the successes of the 1946 campaign.

Question 20

Consolidation of Power - The Souther Thrust

Answer 20

Biao, acting under the orders of Mao, then moved his troops 1000 kilometers south to link up with other CCP armies and conquer Beijing & Tianjin. The two cities were encircled, cut off from GMD reinforcement and stormed in January 1949. The entire campaign had stunned even Mao, who did not expect the GMD, rife with corruption, to surrender so rapidly.

Question 21

Consolidation of Power - Chiang Flees

Answer 21

By the end of 1949, mainland China had come under the CCP’s control. Chiang Kai-Shek had to flee with the remaining GMD troops to the island of Taiwan. On October 1st 1949, Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing. From leading the party to safety in 1935 to its victory in 1949, Mao Tse-Tung had become the first Chairman and Premier of his new Communist China.

Question 22

Consolidation of Power - Weaknesses of the GMD

Answer 22

• Brutal Civilian Treatment: Unlike the PLA, the GMD troops brutally tortured and massacred civilians & peasants alike who had collaborated with the CCP.
• Repressive Administration: As the war turned against them, the GMD experienced political in-fighting, with splinter groups breaking away and many purges occurring in 1948.
• Hyperinflation: The inept leadership bungled the economic situation, causing the currency to inflate 5000% in a few years.
• Army Corruption: Many officers looked down on their soldiers and as a result morale was constantly at a low. Many soldiers defected to the PLA over the war.

Question 23

Domestic Policy - The First Five Year Plan

Answer 23

1953-1957: The Five Year Plan was a remarkable success:

• Heavy industrial output trebled
• Light industrial output rose by 70%
• Overall targets exceeded by 20%
• Major public works projects had been completed
• Huge industrial cities appeared everywhere

Collectivization: Just like the Soviets, the CCP also began to implement the collectivization of agriculture during this Five Year Plan. Unlike the Soviets, however, the CCP encouraged rather than forced the peasants to form collective farms. As a result, little resistance was met and no famines occurred. By 1956, 80% of households were in co-operatives. On the next slide is a table showing how the system worked.

Soviet Aid - In order to implement these planned economic initiatives, the CCP looked to their comrades in the USSR for help. The Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty of 1950 provided the People’s Republic with $300 million, 11,000 Soviet technical experts as well as machine tools. The focus here, just like with Stalin’s plans, was on heavy industry. By 1956, all industries had been fully nationalized as well.

Question 24

Domestic Policy - The Hundred Flowers Campaign

Answer 24

By 1956, Mao had realized that his Maoist principle of ‘listening to the people’ had been neglected. Thus he and the CCP briefly lifted censors and encouraged intellectuals to voice their concerns, demands, and even criticisms of every aspect of the party and Mao himself.
“Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend”
Its End: By May 1957, the campaign was well underway. Many expressed views that the CCP had become a privileged elite, separated from the reality of the masses. In Beijing University, lecturers and students set up a “Democracy Wall”, calling for multi-party elections. The CCP leadership and Mao decided to put an end to this campaign. In the Anti-Rightist Campaign, over 500,000 intelligentsia were sent into the countryside to “learn from the peasants”. Many university teachers were removed from their posts.

Question 25

Domestic Policy - The Great Leap Forward

Answer 25

In October of 1957, Mao convinced the CCP to scrap a planned “Second Five Year Plan” due to start in 1958. He wished to abandon the Soviet model and make headway with his own Maoist plans. His ideas centered around the mobilization of the peasantry to further industrialization, rather than relying on a limited expertise. We’re going to look at his actions with the so-called “Great Leap Forward” next.
Building on the success of collectivization in the First Five Year Plan, Mao created massive peasant communities called Communes, made of about 5000 households. Not only were they responsible for farming land, but also for digging irrigation dykes and other local industrial projects. By 1958, 26,000 communes had been set up. Life was designed around the commune, as collective canteens and nurseries meant that mothers were free to work in the fields.
Initially, the communes yielded great results: 200 million tons of grain were harvested in 1958 alone. However, competition between communes and party cadres to see who could exceed their quotas meant figures were fabricated; this alongside the backyard furnaces and droughts in 1959-61 caused a massive famine: 20 million are believed to have starved as the government continued to export precious grain reserves.

Question 26

Domestic Policy - The Cultural Revolution

Answer 26

By 1966, many believe Mao was seeking to regain his control over the CCP, now under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi. He mobilized the students of China, organized into Red Guards units, to “bombard the CCP headquarters” and destroy all those who were “taking the capitalist road”. What ensued was nothing less than the greatest societal upheaval in recent Chinese history.
By 1968 the Red Guards had gotten too far out of hand. Even Mao failed to control them and the CCP was forced to dispatch the PLA to breakup these units.
About 500,000 died during the Cultural Revolution, millions more were “sent to the fields” to learn from the peasants. What was perhaps even more damaging was that many precious relics, cultural artifacts and traditions of Chinese origin were wiped from existence.

Question 27

Domestic Policy - Government Stabilization

Answer 27

To effectively administer a massive country, the CCP set up “bureaus” in six key regions, where local party leaders and the military played a key role in executing the orders of the Central Committee and Politburo in Beijing. The CCP also had to (reluctantly) recruit the help of former GMD officials since it was ‘understaffed’ (750,000 party members in 1949). By 1953, these officials were dismissed as the party now had 6.1 million “cadres” within it.

Question 28

Domestic Policy - Economic Stabilization

Answer 28

After the damage of the Civil War and Sino-Japanese War, the CCP’s immediate goal was to balance out the economy. It did so by cooperating with the “national capitalists”, businessmen with no former GMD association. Heavy industries and the banking system were nationalized whilst a new currency, the renminbi was introduced. Taxation was also far more effective and by 1952 some growth had been achieved

Question 29

Domestic Policy - Land Reform

Answer 29

In line with the Maoist ideology, the CCP initiated Land Redistribution in 1950-52, sending out local party cadres to inspire local peasants to denounce their landlords in “Speak Bitterness” sessions. It’s estimated that 2 million landlords died during this process, whilst their land was given back to the middle and lower-class peasants who now owned what they farmed.