Theme 1 - China and the Korean War Flashcards
How could Mao use the war as an excuse purge more of his opponents?
He was able to use the war as justification to purge his enemies, accusing them of being spies or traitors. Collective spirt was forged in mass meetings that inspired a deep burning hatred for the USA. Heavy propaganda campaigns like “Resist America, Aid Korea” and “bandits, murderers and savages” targeted Chinese people to further build this hatred, depicting MacArthur and Truman as vampire like ghouls. Mass meetings also announced the fate of Mao’s opponents, building a culture of fear and suspicion. The People’s daily published figures of execution with 135,000 official executions in the first half of 1951.
China was a vast and diverse nation; this made it difficult to govern, how could a successful war amend this problem?
A war would unite the people under one banner from all corners of China, the war offered a chance to promote national unity by building a deep-rooted hatred for the USA and a collective endeavour in times of fighting a common enemy, this promoted the idea of the PLA hero.
The communists had just come to power a year before the start of the war, why were Mao’s communist advisors against the idea of this war?
Only 12 months after the civil war, China was still very much recovering from the damage the conflict had caused, and many of Mao’s advisors (including several members of the politburo and PLA general Lin Bao), believed more fighting was a bad idea. Many Chinese infrastructure networks we’re not ready for conflict in terms of supplies and munitions transportation coinciding with the fact the industry could not produce enough equipment meaning they would have to borrow, which is of course expensive. Moreover, there was also the human side effect with many people just supporting Mao as he promised to bring an end to the 50 years of conflict, another war would feel like a betrayal bringing more suffering for no real reason.
China had previously been humiliated by foreign powers; how could the war help develop his own personal personality?
A Chinese intervention greatly surprised the Americans, with the belief that they were too crippled to fight after 4 long years of civil war was incorrect. It showed the Chinese people that Mao was willing to stand up against western behaviour’s that were not favourable to the regime- which of course improved Mao’s popularity in some respect. It demonstrated Mao’s ability to stand up to the paper tigers of the west and assisted his efforts in forming a cohesive national sentiment. However, it angered the Americans and the death of yank troops on Korean soil to the hands of the PLA cemented China as an ally of Stalin and an enemy of democracy.
China was in desperate need of arms and equipment from the USSR, how might the war help Mao convince Mao the soviets to lend said items?
Stalin may be much more considerate towards China now they have a common enemy and we’re much more likely to provide arms. This ended up being the case, however Stalin charged China 10 billion so it would benefit Russia as a whole.
When did China enter the Korean War?
October 1950
