The Political Development of the PRC 1952-62

Question 1

What were the 3 main areas of economic debate within the CCP in 1952?

Answer 1

1) The amount of tax that wealthier peasants and private capitalists should pay.
2) How resources should be allocated within the economic plan.
3) The pace that economic change should occur.

Question 2

What did the PRC announce in 1953 in regards to its development?

Answer 2

That the PRC was entering a phase of industrialisation and agricultural development in order to become a socialist society.

Question 3

What was the ‘general line’ of the 1950s?

Answer 3

The PRC would develop industrially and agriculturally across 15 years, whilst moving further towards collective land and industry ownership.

Question 4

How would the ‘general line’ of the 1950s be achieved (2)?

Answer 4

1) Through central state planning, following the example of the USSR by using Five Year Plans.
2) The United Front with the national bourgeoise would not be abandoned.

Question 5

Who was Liu Shaoqi (2)?

Answer 5

1) He became Vice-Chairman of the CCP in 1956, and Chairman of the PRC in 1959.
2) After the GLF he became more pragmatic in terms of economic planning, and was purged during the Cultural Revolution. He died in 1969 in prison from pneumonia.

Question 6

Who was Rao Shushi?

Answer 6

The governor of the East China region, becoming minister of the Party’s organisation department in 1953.

Question 7

What positions did Gao Gang hold in the CCP by 1952 (2)?

Answer 7

1) The leading CCP official in Manchuria in 1949, holding all senior posts in the region ( in the CCP, the PLA and the State Bureaucracy).
2) He became head of the Central Planning Commission in charge of directing the First Five Year Plan.

Question 8

How did Gao Gang try to gain further power?

Answer 8

In the debate over the pace of economic change, Gao sided with Mao, criticising Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi for their cautious approach. With the support of Rao Shushi and the belief of having Mao’s support, Gao attempted to usurp the position of Zhou Enlai.

Question 9

How did Mao purge Gao Gang and Rao Shushi?

Answer 9

Alerted to Gao’s intrigues by Deng Xiaoping, Mao used the December 1953 Politburo meeting to accuse Gao and Rao of ‘underground activities’ and attempting to build ‘independent kingdoms’.

Question 10

What were the 4 main consequences of the purge of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi?

Answer 10

1) Gao committed suicide in 1954, rather than face further humiliation and disgrace.
2) Rao was arrested and died in prison around 20 years later.
3) CCP officials realised there were limits to the scope of debate.
4) Mao’s position was strengthened, with leading CCP officials realising that they were expendable.

Question 11

When was the purge of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi?

Answer 11

1953.

Question 12

Why were the CCP suspicious of intellectuals (2)?

Answer 12

1) Higher education prior to 1949 was expensive, so most intellectuals were from wealthier landlord or bourgeoise families.
2) Most Chinese with university degrees had been educated either in foreign universities or in Chinese universities run by Western foundations.

Question 13

Why did the CCP need intellectuals?

Answer 13

If China were to achieve the economic growth that they were planning, the CCP would need intellectuals to fill the professional roles (such as scientists, engineers, statisticians, geologists, etc.) essential to a planned, industrial economies.

Question 14

Why did intellectuals struggle to adapt to the CCP regime?

Answer 14

Most intellectuals had been educated in academic freedom, so they struggled to adapt to the PRC where such values were regarded as counter-revolutionary thought.

Question 15

Who was Hu Feng?

Answer 15

A Chinese literary critic, who followed a Marxist line, but refused to follow the CCP line in regards to literature. He was regarded as a dangerous free-thinker.

Question 16

What was the anti-Hu Feng campaign (2)?

Answer 16

1) In 1955, Hu Feng wrote that the CCP control over culture had stifled creativity and art. He was charged with being a GMD agent, expelled from the writers union, and imprisoned until 1979.
2) The Party then conducted a campaign to irradicate ‘Hu Feng elements’ from intellectual life.

Question 17

When was the anti-Hu Feng campaign?

Answer 17

1955.

Question 18

What were the consequences of the anti-Hu Feng campaign (3)?

Answer 18

1) By 1956, intellectuals learned that openly expressing their views was too dangerous.
2) Around 2,000 Hu Feng supporters were criticised by the media.
3) Around 100 Hu Feng supporters were arrested or forced to make self-criticisms.

Question 19

What was the Hundred Flowers campaign?

Answer 19

Mao openly encouraged intellectuals to voice their criticisms of CCP leadership and policies.

Question 20

What was the slogan for the Hundred Flowers campaign?

Answer 20

‘Let a hundred flowers blossom, let a hundred schools of thought contend’.

Question 21

Who was Chen Yun?

Answer 21

A member of the Politburo since 1934, with a specialist knowledge in economics.

Question 22

What were the 3 influences on Mao for launching the Hundred Flowers campaign?

Answer 22

1) The targets of the First Five Year Plan were achieved a year early, however there was growing peasant resistance and problems in collectivising agriculture. Mao wanted to speed up economic change, but saw opposition in the Party. Mao looked to support from outside the party.
2) Mao feared the growing bureaucracy within the CCP, and believed that the Party was becoming alienated from the people. He thought criticism would ‘rectify’ this.
3) Khrushchev’s speech in 1956 shook the communist world and had significant impact on CCP politics.

Question 23

What were the main consequences of Khrushchev’s speech in 1956 to Mao’s leadership within the CCP (5)?

Answer 23

1) Although the speech criticised Stalin, it also indirectly criticised Mao as he followed the Stalin-style of leadership.
2) Leading officials (e.g. Enlai, Shaoqi and Xiaoping) spoke out in favour of collective leadership.
3) In September 1956 at the CCP Congress, the Party Constitution was changed, removing the reference to Mao Zedong Thought.
4) Mao withdrew from public life for 3 months.
5) There was growing resistance from students, peasants and workers to CCP policies.

Question 24

How did Mao respond to the growing threat to his power in the mid 1950s (4)?

Answer 24

1) Mao moved away from from the Soviet model of economic planning.
2) Mao argued that the growing unrest was because the Party had become divorced from the people.
3) Mao stated China had to develop their own style of socialism.
4) Mao proposed the Hundred Flowers campaign to rectify the Party.

Question 25

How did Mao attempt to gain support for the Hundred Flowers campaign in Spring 1957?

Answer 25

Mao was unable to get the campaign started in 1956, as the Politburo feared it would undermine the regime of the CCP. In February 1957, Mao called again for the Hundred Flowers campaign in a speech, and in Spring 1957, he took a 3 week train journey, eventually gaining support for the campaign, which was sanctioned in April 1957.

Question 26

When was the Hundred Flowers campaign officially launched?

Answer 26

May 1957.

Question 27

What was the public response to the Hundred Flowers campaign (2)?

Answer 27

1) It unleashed a wave of criticism against the CCP regime. Intellectuals attacked the regime through posters, the press, magazines and rallies, criticising how the CCP treated the people, becoming alienated from the people, their slavish following of the Soviet development model and their human rights abuse.
2) There were reports of student riots and attacks on CCP cadres.

Question 28

What was the anti-Rightist campaign (3)?

Answer 28

1) By July 1957, Mao launched an attack on intellectuals after he grew concerned about the constant criticism received during the Hundred Flowers campaign.
2) Mao deemed those who criticised him and the Party ‘rightists’. As many as 500,000 intellectuals were branded ‘rightists’, and were subject to ‘re-education’ in the countryside, labour camps, or execution.
3) Many committed suicide due to the mental pressure.

Question 29

What caused the anti-Rightist campaign?

Answer 29

By early June, Mao was ready to abandon the Hundred Flowers Campaign, accusing Party ‘revisionists’ of working with anti-Party ‘rightists’ to undermine the regime. Mao launched the anti-Rightist campaign, setting a quota for ‘rightists’ exposed, who would be subject to labour camps, re-education in the countryside, or public execution (around 500,000 intellectuals were branded rightists). Many committed suicide due to severe mental pressure.

Question 30

When was the anti-Rightist campaign launched?

Answer 30

July 1957.

Question 31

How were ‘rightists’ identified (3)?

Answer 31

1) Mao set a quota for each area for rightists identified and punished.
2) The criteria for identifying rightists was deliberately vague. As long as the quota was filled, officials could purge anyone they wished.
3) E.g. a 17 year old was sent to a labour camp for praising American shoe polish.

Question 32

How did the anti-Rightist campaign consolidate Mao’s power (3)?

Answer 32

1) Mao was able to remove political opponents and unsettle the Party, reinforcing his demands for unquestioning obedience.
2) It silenced criticism towards the CCP for a generation.
3) Mao ensured that his approach to economic development would be followed in the coming years.

Question 33

When did Mao step down as Chairman of the PRC?

Answer 33

April 1959.

Question 34

Who replaced Mao as Chairman of the PRC?

Answer 34

Liu Shaoqi.

Question 35

How significant was Mao’s stepping down as Chairman of the PRC in 1959?

Answer 35

The change was merely symbolic, as Mao was still the Chairman of the CCP, giving him control over the ideological direction of the PRC.