Theme 1 - Defeating the CCP's opponents Flashcards
Describe the campaign to suppress counter revolutionaries.
- Launched in March 1950 and was aimed at preventing nationalist sympathisers and their spies from troubling the regime.
- The most vulnerable people was anyone who worked for the previous regime, academics who worked with foreign universities, western business men (who had their property confiscated) and Christian missionaries. All these people were arrested on suspicion of being imperialist agents.
- The campaign was expanded by China’s involvement in the Korean war as it gave Mao a greater justification to purge his class enemies.
What did the decree of February 1951 on “Regulations regarding the punishments of counter-revolutionaries” say?
- It extended the definition of Counter-Revolutionaries to include all forms of political dissent.
- In reality, this essentially meant anyone whom the party viewed as undesirable.
What was self registration?
- The ministry of public security asked all those who held positions in the former nationalist regime to come forward to reconcile for their political mistakes and start their life anew.
- They were also asked to submit a list of their friends and associates during their time in government, these people were rounded up by police in midnight arrests and never seen again.
What was Mass participation?
- The Party also encouraged ordinary Chinese people to partake in mass rallies to denounce counter revolutionaries.
- The victims were subjected to struggle meetings where they were forced to proclaim their guilt and beg for forgiveness in-front of thousands.
- The people would chant “KILL, KILL, KILL”
- The people’s daily published long lists of criminals, 800,000 deaths were reported by the first half of 1951. The moderate polices of the early PRC were forgotten
- Crucially, this was NOT the spontaneous act of an oppressed people as In April 1951, The Public Security ministry published a manual entitled “How to hold an accusation meeting”. The process was carefully controlled by the party.
Describe the Three Anti’s Campaign.
In 1951, Mao ordered a “Big clean up throughout the party”. It targeted from August 1951 - July 1952.
- Corruption
- Waste
- Obstructionist Bureaucracy in government
- The people believed the regime was going to discipline those who had taken advantage of their new power however it quickly became apparent that the campaign was an excuse to remove anyone out of favour within the civil service.
- The old nationalists worked the same jobs they did in the old regime, but once new loyal party cadres were trained enough, the old administrators were executed or imprisoned.
Describe the Five Anti’s Campaign.
- The CCP also used mass campaigns to remove opponents and seize economic assets.
- From February-May 1952
- Bribery
- Tax evasion
- Theft of state property
- Cheating on government contracts
- stealing sate economic information.
It essentially targeted the middle classes and private business owners
Wives and Children, Workers and ordinary citizens were encouraged to condemn the “Capitalist Tigers”.
Tiger Beaters were rounded up to accuse and convict Ex-Managers and Bosses. They were tortured and dragged out to struggle meetings. Those who were spared were sent to the Laogai.
How successful were the 3 and 5 anti campaigns?
Both campaigns were very successful.
- A report details how 30,000 people attended one meeting directed against local party bosses
- In Shanghai, 99% of businessmen were found guilty of one the “Five Poisons”.
- The Campaigns helped to establish the CCPs control over private companies. Business found guilty were forced to pay fines and to fund them, had to sell stock to the state. This created joint public - private enterprise and meant cadres were sent to take managerial roles in companies.
- It altered the social systems in China. A new atmosphere of fear and repression meant that people had to denounce others to save themselves. People betrayed each other to maintain absolute loyalty to the CCP. This allowed Mao to establish his one-party state and more personal political control.
Define Obstructionist Bureaucracy
Bureaucrats such as civil servants who deliberately blocked radical polices advocated by Mao to protect their own interests.
What were the reunification campaigns?
One of Mao’s key aims was to establish control of the peripheral regions of China.
The seizure of these regions were dubbed the reunification campaigns to appear more legitimate, implying the areas had once been part of China.
Tibet and Xinjiang were border regions far from Beijing, so it was paramount they were controlled as they were subject to foreign influence.
Mao feared the Soviets would take Xinjiang as the Muslim areas had much more in common with regions within the USSR than China whilst in the same vain, Mao feared the Dalai Lama in Tibet - a Buddhist leader.
Why did Mao target religion so much during the reunification campaigns?
- Religion was fundamentally interwoven into the fabrics of both societies
- Buddhist and Muslim leaders held great influence, rival to that of Mao
- They also conflicted communist principles that were against religion, stating that God did not exists.
What happened in Tibet?
In October 1950, Mao invades Tibet to officially “liberate it from imperialist oppression”
In reality, it was to destroy the rival belief system of Buddhism and suppress the Dalai Lama
the PRC began wiping out all traces of separate Tibetan identity, ignoring the 17 point agreement that oversaw the peaceful handing over of Tibet.
by November, 1950, a superficial Tibetan government was set up which was realistically run from Beijing.
In November 1952, Mao ordered an in-migration of 7 million to further wipe out ethnic groups in Tibet. The PLA built a huge highway running into Tibet.
Propaganda units spread communist ideas.
What was the Lagoi System?
- A series of labour camps were conditions were appalling
- modelled from Stalin’s Gulags, the idea was “reform through labour”.
- by 1955 there were 1.3 million •undergoing forced labour
- 27 million people died in Mao’s camps •during his rule
- 1/3 took their lives
- they were subjected to back breaking hard work
- contributed 700 million yaun to the economy and 350,000 tonnes of grain to storage.
