PRC Flashcards
Hundred Flowers Campaign
“Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.”
In 1956-57, the CCP allowed Chinese citizens to openly express their opinions of the communist regime. It was stopped due to overwhelmingly critical feedback. Mao sought out and persecuted those most critical.
Great Leap Forward
1953-1962
Central idea = rapid development of China’s agricultural and industrial sectors should take place in parallel
It aimed to industrialise by making use of the massive supply of cheap labour and avoid having to import heavy machinery
Results = ultimately failed –> ineffective industry and slump in agriculture, establishment of communes
Cultural Revolution
1966-1976
Central idea = Essentially was a political campaign to reinvigorate communist revolution by strengthening ideology & weeding out opponents
Results = mass violence, limited/denied education, political instability, short-term economic consequences
Gang of Four
The most powerful members of a radical political elite convicted for implementing harsh policies directed by CCP, Mao during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76)
Members:
Jiang Qing(Mao’s last wife)
Wang Hongwen
Zhang Chunqiao
Yao Wenyuan
Results = arrested and removed from influence during Zhou Enlai’s rule
Four Modernizations
The Four Modernizations were a plan to modernize China in multiple aspects of its economy thus that it could become a superpower on the global stage. It was met with some resistance, such as the fight for a Fifth Modernization, which, in this scenario, would be the shift to a democratic government.
First Five-Year Plan
China’s First Five-Year Plan was an economic program running from 1953-1957. It set ambitious goals for industries and areas of production deemed priorities by the CCP.
Outcome: The largest increases in output were in steel, coal and petrochemicals, with coal production increasing 98% between 1952 and 1957.
Second Five-Year Plan
The second five-year plan laid emphasis on industry, particularly heavy industry. Distinct from the First five-year plan that was primarily focused on agriculture, the domestic production of industrial products was supported in the 2nd plan, chiefly in the development of public sector.
Outcome: The second five year plan, based on socialistic pattern, had targeted increase of 25% in National Income by Rapid industrialization, however, achieved target was only 20%. The income per capita grew by only 8%.
Sino-Soviet Relations
Even though Mao and Stalin were ostensibly on the same side (communism), there was a ‘clash of personalities’ between the two leaders and the relations between the two countries - China and the USSR - weren’t too great:
= Mao perceived Marxism as more than just a political movement; regeneration of China as a great nation. Mao interpreted Marxism in his own terms -> Sino-centric view of Marxism – having Chinese interests at the centre of things with all other considerations secondary; believed the revolution should be peasant-based
Such thought clashed with Stalin’s take on communism, who perceived the USSR as the true interpreter of the communist faith; believed revolution should be urban-based, and rejected Mao’s employment of Marxism as not a genuine revolution.
Women’s rights under Mao
Mao ‘progressed’ the Chinese society from the one that emphasised the traditional role of women to that took upon a progressive approach.
“Women hold up half the sky”
= From a Confucianist society where women were to obey their husbands, Mao continually promoted his feminist values, although it is difficult to confidently claim if his feminist ideals were genuine. Mao’s Communist ideology emphasised an egalitarian society; women = men
1950 Marriage Reform Law:
Banned: concubinage, arranged marriages, paying dowries, foot binding
Allowed: marriage registration, women-initiated divorce
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)
PRC = one-party state under the rule of the CCP when it was the only party authorized to exist in 1952.
Chairman: Mao
Politburo (political bureau): ~20 inner members.
Adopted policy of “Democratic Centralism”: the practice of reaching political decisions by voting processes that are binding upon all members of the political party
Objective: Land reform.
Mao Zedong
A Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People’s Republic of China
Agrarian Reform Law
1950 Feudal China took on the 3.5 million landlords, killing and humiliating them in Speak Bitterness campaigns and redistributing their land. Collectivization and classicide led to peasants forming mutual aid groups, which eventually led to cooperatives, household registration and eventually communes.
Collectivization
state ownership in 5 steps
- CLASSISIDE: Landlords wiped out
- Peasants in “mutual aid” teams
- Peasants in cooperatives
- Household registration - peasant movement limited
- Peasants into communes; up to 20,000 households
