Unit 1: How successful were the Communists in creating a political system that would give them control of power within the PRC? Flashcards
How did the government ensure they received positive publicity?
The government controlled the press through Xinhua ensured that mass circulation of daily newspapers reported favourably on government policies.
What was the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference?
A provisional parliament until 1954 and was responsible for passing essential legislation to set up the new China.
What was the Central People’s Government?
The Central People’s Government was appointed by the CPPCC to be the new government of China until 1954, it became known as the State Council.
What was the Common Program?
A temporary constitution to decide various state symbols that would represent China, such as the flag and the national anthem.
It declared that China would represent the interests of workers and peasants and provide personal freedoms such as gender equality.
It also gave the army and the police the right to suppress all counter revolutionary activity.
What was the Politburo?
The Politburo was the key decision-making body of the CCP.
How were decisions taken on a national level imposed throughout the country?
China was divided into 6 bureaux but in 1954, the six regions were now subdivided into 21 provinces, 5 autonomous border regions and two urban centres.
What was the National People’s Congress?
The new legislator in 1954.
What was the bureaucratisation of the revolution?
The bureaucratisation of the revolution was Mao’s fear that if too much influence was passed down to civil servants who ran the government behind the scenes would lead to a slowdown in the dynamic nature of change.
What did the cadres do?
Cadres monitored the running of the civil service, legal systems, schools and army at a local level to ensure that Mao’s policies were being adhered to.
How did the PLA change?
The PLA was successful in achieving great power status for China. It consisted of five million men in 1950. But it was reduced to 2.5 million by 1957 to deploy manpower elsewhere in the economy. This was successful as the PLA became more professional, technically advanced, and less egalitarian.
What was the rectification campaign, 1941-44?
A purge of Mao’s enemies inside the party to help cement his position as leader. Top officials had to produce self-criticisms and confess to their mistakes. These accusations would then spiral down to lower ranks of the party as members denounced each other, often on the flimsiest of grounds.
Descibe Mao’s influence in the politburo.
Key decisions came out of debates in the politburo and Mao was expected to win these debates as he set the pace and direction of policy. For example, the decision to intervene in the Korean War in 1950. However, sometimes there was resistance to Mao’s policy as it took him months to get the party behind the 100 Flowers campaign in 1956 to 1957. Yet, he became increasingly difficult to challenge.
What were Mao’s main ideas?
nationalism: to free China from foreign exploitation that undermined its stability since the 19th century.
Continuing the revolution: Each generation must actively participate in the revolution so the revolutionary zeal would not fade.
Listening to the People: As Mao believed that the USSR failed because they failed to respond to people’s concerns, Mao claimed that he wanted to get people involved in discussing policy and would take people’s views into account.
Mass mobilisation: To achieve specific targets, Mao wanted to use the population to develop the economy.
Democratic centralism was a term to describe how delegates from lower bodies were sent to represent people higher up in the government, but the entire process was controlled by the CCP. decisions were then made at the top level by senior officials.
