Unit 1: How effectively did the Communists deal with opposition? Flashcards
How did Mao gain power?
To gain power, Mao promised disaffected groups such as peasants were told that land would be redistributed, and intellectuals were told that they were allowed freedom. Once his power was more secure, he broke those promises.
What was the Great Terror, 1950?
To destroy lingering remnants of nationalist opposition and remove elements who might emerge as future opponents therefore, the population was forced to embrace the new ideology.
It began in rural areas and spread to urban areas in April 1951. It accounted for 2 million lives.
What were the reunification campaigns, 1949-50?
Guangdong was a coastal province in southern China which had been the GMD heartland, the province surrendered to the PLA only two weeks after the PRC had been declared.
Xinjiang was a westernmost province of China which had been conquered by the Qing in the 1880s. It became a security buffer zone for the PRC.
Tibet had been an independent entity since 1913 and planned to resist communist conquest. The PLA invaded it in October 1950 established a prolonged campaign to destroy Tibetan identity by bringing in large numbers of han settlers and promoting a Chinese lifestyle.
What was the household registration system?
introduced in 1945 by the GMD was continued. Every employed worker was assigned to danwei, in which housing food and clothing was allocated.
A class label specified a person’s family background, social status, and occupation.
What was a dangan?
A dangan was a dossier containing detailed personal information on people. Access to employment, housing or pensions depended on the contents of this.
How was crime dealt with?
To crack down crime, petty criminals were relocated to the countryside and was subjected to re-education camps which quickly filled.
Workers were encouraged to accuse their employers of criminal activities. Using things like denunciation boxes where written accusations could be dropped.
How were counter revolutionaries delt with?
To suppress counter revolutionaries, Mao suggested killing one in every thousand of the local population in every area. This figure could also be adjusted according to local circumstances, therefore officials below him could be implicated in the terror and be blamed for its excessiveness.
What were flies and tigers?
The flies were those accused of small scale embezzlement.
The tigers were those accused of large scale corruption.
What was the three antis movement?
October 1951
Targeted corruption, waste and delay in the government and party. Those accused were investigated by party committees and, if found guilty, forced to issue humiliating confessions.
sacked government servants.
What was the five antis movement?
January 1952
Targeted bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, fraud and economic espionage.
attacked the business community .
What were laogai camps?
The laogai camps were for those who failed to grasp the benefits of Communism as the Chinese prison system could not cope with the extra number of inmates produced by the Great Terror.
By 1953 there were two million prisoners in the camps but they served significant economic value as they contributed 700 million yuan in industrial products.
Thought reform was a form of mental torture where prisoners had to demonstrate that they had totally changed their way of thinking.
Guanzhi - Public supervision was also a response to prison congestion.
What were the causes of the Hundred flowers campaign?
Most of the party were uneducated peasants and China needed innovate ideas to catch up with the West and improve economic production especially in agriculture.
Khrushchev’s de-Stalination policies which called for collective leadership, made Mao nervous as he was growing his cult of personality.
Mao feared the party was becoming too bureaucratic. He wanted intellectuals to point out the mistakes of party members, forcing for more conservative communists.
How was the 100 flowers campaign use to deal with opposition?
The 100 Flowers campaign 1957 targeted the intellectuals, it was an open debate about the results of the First Five Year Plan.
Mao didn’t trust intellectuals, but that he knew that they had a valuable contribution to make to the economy of China so allowed them to give some constructive criticisms.
This led to a flood of criticisms. Mao stopped the campaign and branded those critics as “rightists” whose intention was to destroy the revolution.
An anti rightist campaign was launched to eradicate them.
