Mao's China: 4. Did Communism produce a cruel dictatorship in China? Flashcards
Chinese Communist Party formed (with 57 members)
- led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai • allied with the Guomindang
1921
January of this year
- Mao Zedong elected leader of Communists whilst on the ‘Long March’
1935
Communists won civil war against GMD and were in control of China
- Chairman Mao Zedong and Prime Minister Zhou Enlai shared power in China (the PRC)
1949
October of this year
- Mao established as President of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) at the Gate of Heavenly Peace in Beijing
1949
Mao resigned as President of China but remained Chairman of Communist Party
1959
Mao quarrelled with USSR leader Khrushchev who withdrew USSR advisors from China
1960
Leadership rivalry between Mao and Liu Shaoqui
1960-65
‘Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom’ started
- Debate and criticism of Communist China was allowed
1956
July of this year
- End of the One Hundred Flowers experiment
- 550,000 critics silenced (imprisoned or killed)
1957
Great Leap Forward was abandoned
- Mao humiliated by Great Leap Forward’s failure
- Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shao-qi now controlled China
- Mao remained Chairman of the Communist Party
- Communes made smaller and land returned to peasants
1962
By this year, Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shao-qui controlled China
- Mao had lost power
1965
The period of Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’
1966-69
Cultural Revolution: beginnings
- Mao swam in the Yangtse River to prove his fitness
- Millions of copies of Mao’s ‘Little Red Book’ of his quotations were distributed for free
1966
Cultural Revolution-
- Red Guards quickly went out of control and widespread violence followed
- Mass rallies and demonstrations
- Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shao-qui dismissed from their jobs and lost power
1966
Cultural Revolution-
- Violence and chaos
- Different Red Guard factions fought each other in street battles
1967
Cultural Revolution-
- Lin Biao’s PLA disarmed the Red Guards
- Red Guards encouraged to move to the countryside for re-education and to understand a poor peasant life
1968
Cultural Revolution-
- End of the violent phase of the Cultural Revolution (1m had died)
- But many Chinese people had lost faith in Communism
- Liu Shao-qui expelled from the CCP
1968
- Deng Xiaoping in internal exile – forced to become a waiter
- Liu Shao-qui died
1969
- Lin Biao plotted to kill Mao
- Lin Biao died in a mysterious plane crash (probably murdered)
1971
Communist leaders were now split into factions-
- Mao’s old rivals Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai
- Mao and the ‘Gang of Four’ (Mao’s wife Jiang Quing, Zhang, Yao and Wang)
1971
Deng and Zhou’s ‘Four modernisations’
- industry
- agriculture
- science/technology
- the army
Early 1970s
Mao and Zhou died
- Gang of Four were arrested
1976
