Reforming China

Question 1

What was article 5 of the prgrame drawn up by the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee september 1949?

Answer 1

guaranteed to all except poltical reactionaries

rights of freedom

1. of thought
2. speech
3. publication
4. assembly
5. association
6. correspondance
7. domicile
8. movment
9. religious belief
10. freedom to hold processions and demonstration

Question 2

What were the economic promises of the programme drawn up by the Chinese People’s poltical consulatative committee 1949?

Answer 2

economic change through land reform and heavy industry

Question 3

What were the social promises made in the programme drawn up by the Chinese People’s poltical consulatative committee 1949?

Answer 3

two clauses ‘the promises of equal rights for women and an end to their lives of bondage and an emphasis on the need for universal free education

Question 4

How did land reform progress in 1949 from that of 1946-9?

Answer 4

no longer did mao veer between rent reductions and land confiscation; once the communists were in power land reform was just the confiscation and redistribution of land to poorer peasants and landless labourers

Question 5

Who was targeted by the land reforms?

Answer 5

mao was careful to ensure it was only land belonging to the rich landlords that was confiscated; the holdings of better off peasants were left untouched because Mao recognised that the food produced by the wealthier peasants was essential to the nation

Question 6

What was the significance of the land reform?

Answer 6

in rural china the possession of land gave life

among a population of hundred million, 90% were peasants thus land redistribution was the primary vehicle carrying the revolution forward

Question 7

How was the revolution carried to rural China through land reform?

Answer 7

• key point villages
• teams of 30-40 CPC cadres worked with local peasants associations across the countryside to carry the revolution to the more remote areas
• local peasants were encouraged to identify their landlords who were subjected to humiliation and violence
• the CPC involved peasants in this process and deliberately stoked up class conflict between peasants and the landlords to cement the relationship between the peasants and the communists revolution
• many landlords and their relatives were sentenced to death

Question 8

How successful was the land reform in overthrowing the landlord class?

Answer 8

land confiscation broke the power of the landlowrd class in the chinese countryside

so many landlords being killed and their surviving relatives cowed into submission the landlord class ceased to exist

Question 9

To what extent was terror used in the wave of land seizures in the early 50s?

Answer 9

• official chinese estimates put the figure at around 700,000 execution
• Chang and Halliday estimate the figure as nearer 3 million
• Mao wanted the executions to have maximum impact by involving peasants in the killing and having the execution carried out in public

Question 10

What place did collectivisation have in Maoist thought?

Answer 10

best way to introduce modern methods of farming to increase production

pre-requisite if china were too become more industrialised with a greater populaiton living in cities

collective ownership of the means of production was a basic tenet of marxist theory

Question 11

What were Mutual Aid teams?

Answer 11

• early 50s cautious move towards collectivisation. early stage of deveopment of communist revolution in the countryside
• CPC encouraged to set up mutual aid teams (groupings of 10 families) that pooled labou and equipment
• not compulsory but became apparent to peasants they couldnt obtain tools without joining
• *

Question 12

What early social reforms did Communists make for women?

Answer 12

• 1930s in the jianzi province arranged marriageswere outlawed and it became illegal to purchase wives
• divorce was made easier
• women given the right to vote
• mao stipulated that at least 1/4 of those elected to erprestnative bodies had to be women

Question 13

What social reforms did the Communist make for women once in power?

Answer 13

• 1950 The New Marriage Law which outlawed arranged mariages and the payment of dowries
• concubinage was banned
• unmarried, dovirced and widowed women were given the same rights to own property as men
• divorce was made available to men and women on equal terms
• the right to vote

Question 14

What Social reforms did Communist make in education?

Question 15

What was the traditional education system?

Answer 15

• education traditionally valued as the means to gain entry to the imperial civil service
• entry to schools was restricted by high fees
• demmands of academic curriculum
• low pass rate in imperial examinations - 5% of students passed a year
• imperial bureaucracy staffed by those who passed the exams
• the curiculum on which imperial exams were based ensured the civil servants learned to conform

Question 16

What was the former education system and how equal was it?

Answer 16

• Western involvement in china in 19th and 20th century led to the creation of schools and universities offering western style education
• a growing number number of young chinese people left to study in western universities
• by the time of communist takeover 1949 there were 31 schools and universities run by british or AMerican foundations
• 32 run by christian missionary organisations
• these educational opportunities lead to the development of an educated professional class in china- for vast majority these opportunities werent existent
  *

Question 17

How many chinese adults were literate before 1949?

Answer 17

30%

Question 18

How many chinese children attended primary school before 1949?

Answer 18

20%

Question 19

What was Mao’s view on education?

Answer 19

• rejected traditional chinese form of education for its eltism, old fashined curriculum and teaching methods and its reliance on leanring from books
• learning should come from experience
• opposed wetern influence in chinese schools- cultural imperialism
• education played a vital role in building of socialist society
• prerequisite to economic development because of need for skilled specialists

Question 20

To what extent was there educational reform under communist rule?

Answer 20

• early years focuse on development of primary education- slow progress
• education did not entirely break away from the traditional chinese model of education
• higher education was expanded and universities were remodelled to focus more on technical skills reflecting the country’s need for more trained specialists
• large numbers of student sent to study in universities in soviet union until late 50s
• isolation from the west removed opportunity to study there

Question 21

What evidence is there of the extent of educational reform under communist rule?

Answer 21

• by 1956 less than half of children aged 7-16 were in full time education
• 20 years later the proprtion of primary-age children enrolled in schools had reached 96%
• communist government didnt make spending on education high priority e.g. 1952 the investment by the state in education and culture combined amounted to a mere 6.4% of total budget
• prevalence of ‘key schools’ in each district to which the best teachers were assigned and which had entrance exams. heavy emphasis on testing . selection was supposed to be based on merit in practise children of high ranking party officials occupied most of these schools

Question 22

How was public health before the communist regime?

Answer 22

• complete lack of sanitation
• fly-and water-borne diseases e.g. typhoid, cholera, dysentry
• starvation- lowered resistance to diseases so many epidemics
• 19th century western medecine brought by missionaries resulting in the building of hopitals and medical schools
• under the GMD regime 1920s-30s increased trained doctors = improvement in the cities but countryside was not addressed =endemic diseases and high infant mortality rate

Question 23

To whate extent was there public health reform under the communist regime?

Answer 23

• health reform in the form of mass campaigns
• street and neigbourhood committees to mobilise the people
• communist party started campaigns such as the Patriotic Health campaign to improve sanitation and hygeine and reduce endemic diseases- death rates gradually declined
• emphasis on improving quality of water and treatment of human waste
• awareness - lectures films shows posters radio talks

Question 24

To what extent was Public Health still undeveloped under the communist regime?

Answer 24

• emphasis on preventative rather than curative approach
• this was done to compensate for lack of hospitals and trained doctor
• in rural areas there were there was three tier system of health care
• workers employed in indutrial entrprises had access to urban hospitals reserved for them but in the rural areas a three-tier system
• some time before rural areas saw much improvement

Question 25

Explain the three tier health system in the rural areas?

Answer 25

• at village level, paramedics in village health centres
• each township had a health centre providing out-patient care aswell as a limited number of beds for in-patient care for less serious cases
• serious cases referred to country hospitals staffed by fully trained doctors
• such facilities were expensive

Question 26

what percentage of the total budget was invested in health care in 1952?

Answer 26

1.3%