The Consolidation Of Power 1949-52

Question 1

What did the 1950 outbreak of the Korean War engender?

Answer 1

• heightened sense of national unity
• feeling that china’s revolution was under threat from both internal and external forces
  The atmosphere was encouraged by Mao to justify aggressive “counter-revolution measures “

Question 2

Resist America and aid Korea campaign 1950-51

Answer 2

• oct 1950: china help North Korea in the civil war and foreigners (especially Americans) became targets
• foreign institutions were targeted such as churches and businesses and universities
• foreigners were suspected of being spies
• churches were forcibly closed and nuns and religious people were persecuted
• property was seized and priests were kicked out of the country
• mass rallies were organised to grow Chinese suspicion of foreigners

Question 3

Suppression of counter revolutionary campaign 1950-51

Answer 3

• targeted revolutionaries e.g. ex-GMD members, bandits, and members of religious sects
• Shanghai: 40,000 arrested
• guomandang; 52,620 bandits arrested, 89,701 other criminals
• 28,332 executions in public for best deterrent

Question 4

Three antis campaign 1951-52

Answer 4

• targeted waster, corruption, obstructionist bureaucracy
• main victims were managers
• targets were denounced, investigated by party members and publicly humiliated
• similar to 1942 Yan’an rectification programs, party members were subject to scrutiny and were forced to rectify mistakes
• party members were reminded that independent thought was dangerous
• succeeded in rooting out many corrupt practices

Question 5

Five antis 1952

Answer 5

Jan 1952
- Campaign against the bourgeois
- main target was tax evasion, theft of state property, economic espionage, bribery, and cheating on government contracts
- executions were not common
- worker organisations were enlisted to help investigate employers
- meetings for employers to admit crimes or denounce others
- 3000 meetings in Shanghai feb 1952
- punishment was heavy fines, humiliation and some were sent to labour camps
- 2-3 million deaths due to humiliation

Question 6

Thought reform campaign 1951-52

Answer 6

• Mao was suspicious of intellectuals
• they could help modernise china; BUT he could not stand individual thought
• targets were those who had studied abroad and those who studied in Chinese schools and universities rein by western missionary societies
• intellects were forced to learn and accept Mao Zedong thought
• professors were forced to confess, attend study sessions and make self- criticisms