China- Establishing control

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  • Created by: Alex2017
  • Created on: 01-05-17 11:37

Key Developments 1911-49

  • Qing Dynasty overthrown 1911 having ruled since 1644
  • Period of rival warlord fighting to establish control
  • Ten Years of unrest until Chiang Kia-shek and GMD (nationalist party) took control
  • 1927-37 Naking decade GMD established relative political stability and tried to destroy CCP (Chinese communist party)
  • 1934 -The long march, 100,000 left, 20,000 survived. escaped to Yanan where Mao asserted his leadership
  • 1937, Japan were ready to extend control and started the Sino-Japanese war.
  • GMD and CCP created a new United front against invaders; until 1941 they were unable to prevent the invasion
  • The failed Pearl Harbor attack led to the USA helping the chinese to fight back
  • Atomic bombing of Japan led to Japanese surrender
  • CCP had grown in popularity during the war years as they had cultivated the support of the peasants
  • Open Civil war between CCP and GMD began
  • CCp graduall able to move south and take over GMD held areas
  • Chiang Kia-shek fled to Taiwan with the chinese international reserves in 1949
  • He still claimed to be the legitimate ruler of China
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Why was the CCP popular?

Was favourable to the CCP despite China being so difficult to govern:

  • Ended years of conflict 
  • Proved themselves more capable than the GMD
  • Made it clear that it would be a long-term project and therefore would accomodate the interests of the petty-bourgeoisie
  • Developed loyalty within the People's Liberation Army (PLA)
  • Was able to make all political opposition impossible
  • Returned to a centralised system to create stability and therefore consolidate his own power
  • Was able to broaden his support base to prove he could handle both rural and urban issues
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Problems the CCP faced

  • Impact of the War:
    • Chinese Industrial output dropped due to Japanese seizing most productive areas as well as GMD scorched-earth tactics (destroying resourced during a retreat) --Only 25% of pre-war level
    • Food Supplies were critical as people moved into the cities
    • In 1945 was 30% lower than pre-war
    • Hyperinflation as the GMD paid for the war by borrowing and printing money
    • long-term underinvestment and an unskilled work force
  • Longer term problems:
    • Predominantly an agricultural country
    • Methods were labour intensive
    • Farmers hit by decreasing food prices as a result of the Great Depression
    • only 15% of land was cultivatable, scope for increasing output was limited
    • Total population was growing annually
    • Hadn't experienced a industrial revolution -low labour costs made this less urgent
    • 1945- Russia took over Manchuria kept productive regions
    • Set up the National resources Committee (NRC) in 1932 to channel investment 
    • By 1945- 70% of industry was nationalised
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CCP government

  • Needed an air of legitimacy
  • Planning with other groups who opposed the GMD split the nationalist opposition and gave regime an appearance of wider popularity
  • Temporary bodies set up to run the country and a provisional government was adopted
  • CCP power would be based on a continuing partnership with the PLA
  • Government control of press was already normal and was continued through Xinhua, the government controlled press agency which ensured mass circulation daily papers reported on gov policies favourably
  • Sept 1949 CPPCC prepared a new political system to replace the GMD alternative
  • Mainly CCP sympathisers but 600 delegates included a range of minority groups- looked like a broad support base
  • Appointed the Central People's Government as supreme state body
  • Approved the Common Program, a temporary constitution which declared China had been transformed into a new society which guaranteed a wide range of personal freedoms and gender equality
  • But also gave the PLA the right to suppress all counter-revolutionary activity
  • Transtitional period of cooperation between working class and capitalist elements
  • 'On The People's Democratic Dictatorship' speech outlined the four classes of people who should be allowed to have rights (the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty Bourgeoisie and the national Bourgeoisie and the five black categories -everyone else. --Referred to this approach as 'New Democracy'
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Regional structure

  • Divided into six regions (bureaux) so that desicions at national level could be implemented
  • The creation of congresses gave each region the impression that Beijing was listening
  • Four communist officials were placed in charge of each region
    • a military commander, an army political commissar, a government chairman and (the most powerful) the party secretary
    • In Manchuria Gao Gang held all four posts
  • Central control was intended to prevent China from reverting to the war lord years
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The 1954 Constitution

  • Officially confirmed China as a communist country
  • Based on the 1936 Soviet Russian constitution
  • The national People's congress was created as the new legislature
  • The State council took over the functions of the Central people's government
  • CCP still retained control of the entire election process
  • The six bureaux were then divided into 21 provinces, five autonomous regions and two urban centres (Beijng and Shanghai)
  • This constitution was modified in 1975 but the basis remains the same
  • As the system became more established the number of bureaucrats needed grew enormously 
    • 720,000 in 1949 to 8 Million in 1959
  • Mao was well aware that such a growth could slow down the pace of revolution
  • This Bureaucratisation of the revolution is what he felt went wrong in the USSR
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The Role of the Communist Party

  • Leading CCP officials always held key posts in the state and army
  • When Mao stood down as head of state in 1958 he retained the position of chairman as that was where the power lay
  • The Party headquarters was located in Zhongnanhai in Tianamen Square
  • Party membership was restricted to those who could prove their commitment and ideological correctness
  • Out of a population of 500 million in 1949 there were 4.5 million members which grew to 5.8 by the end on 1950
  • Trained party members (cadres) played a key role in monitoring the running of the civil service, legal service, schools and army at a local level.
  • Unlike Russia, Mass participation in party groups was encouraged
    • Youth League -9 Million members by 1953
    • Women's federation - 76 Million members 
  • Ordinary people played a positive role and identified with the party's causes
  • every employed citizen belonged to a danwei that was led by a party Cadre- issued permits to travel, marry and change jobs
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The role of the PLA

  • PLA defeated the japanese and the GMD
  • Was the world's largest army 
  • 5 Million men in 1950
  • consumed 40% of the state budget
  • reduced to 3.5 million by 1953 as it was peacetime and 2.5 million by 1957
  • By reducing the army size mao was ensuring that the Party was holding onto power
  • This smaller size meant that they became more professional, more technically advance and less egalitarian with different pay scales between clearly defined ranks
  • The new code of conduct of 1956 was drawn up as the PLA was in danger of losing the good will of the peasantry 
  • It stressed the need to help peasants on collective farms
  • Remained of pivotal importance as it was as a means of indoctrination
  • Supervising 800,000 young conscripts who were recuited each year for a three-year term
  • Acted as a workforce in many public works projects (rebuilding infrastructure) 
  • Was a means of enforcing central government control in the regions 
    • Two out of four regional officials were high ranking PLA post-holders
  • PLA's role was to achieve Great Power status for China
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Mao's role

  • Had become Party leader in 1943 as a direct result of the rectification campaigns
  • Became head of state in october 1949
  • These posts gave him significant constitutional power but it wasn't absolute due to the collective leadership of the party being theorectically responsible for policy
  • Mao clearly expected to have the final say and it was him who set the direction of policy
  • The 1956 Party congress removed Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the party while Mao was unwell
  • Continuing revolution
  • Each generation should continue the revolution
  • Struggle sessions- examine their own behaviour and thinking and confession to any errors
  • Listening to the peopleWanted people to get involved in discussing policy, so the CCP could take people's views into account
  • Mass mobilisation
  • To use China's population=main asset to achieve a specific goal in mass campaigns
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Democratic Centralisation

  • Elections to village and town councils which contiuned up through the system
  • Entire process controlled by the CCP -no choice in party
  • Decisions were imposed through variatious levels of the system, without any futher discussion
  • Justified by the sufficient education of the Leaders in the Science of revolution to understand what course of action would be best to serve the workers
  • The more authority Mao gained the more fearful he became of losing it
  • Which explains the amount of internal purges and anti's campaigns
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Opposition

  • Mao promised disaffected groups what they wanted, then once his power was secure he broke them one at a time
  • Initial priority was to mop up the remaining areas of GMD miliatry resistance
  • By sending the PLA to defeat them
  • Once the CCP power was more secure the pace of change sped up
  • While Mao intervened in the Korean War, he also launched an internal wave of terror (April 1951)- ended up accounting for 1-2 million lives
  • Fear affected everyone, even those who overtly sympathised with the revolution felt compelled to educate themselves so they could quote the correct slogans to prove that they fully embraced the new ideology
  • The Laogai awaited those who failed to do this
  • The next target was the professionals
  • 1 Million sacked in the three anti's campaign of 1951
  • 1952 -the buisness community was attacked in the five anti's movement
  • 1955- the drive to collectivise agriculture signalled an end to the brief period of peasant land ownership
  • 1956- Private buisnesses were nationalised
  • 1957- the launch of the Hundred Flower campaign to attack intellectuals
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The Reunification campaigns 1949-50

Guangdong:

  • A coastal province in the south of China
  • GMD didn't make a last ditch attempt to defend it
  • The war dragged on until 1950 as there were still GMD forces in the west

Xinjiang:

  • Westernmost province and was ethnically mixed- 80% were Uyghurs
  • Uyghur leaders were offered key posts in the regional council 
  • Peng used the PLA to capture Urumqi (the provincial capital) at the end of 1949
  • CCP control was established when a Long March veteran was brought in to run the local CCP and army unit 
  • Large numbers of Han chinese were brought in to work on construction projects

Tibet:

  • Operating as an independent state since 1913- resisted Communist conquest
  • British were no longer interested in helping as India had become independent
  • PLA invaded in 1950 and began to destroy Tibetan Identity
  • Local resistance backed by US CIA escalated into a serious uprising in 1959 when the Dalai Lama fled to India
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Terror

  • Danwei issued food ration cards- denial of this enforced conformity
  • Every individual was given a class label ('red' or 'balck') which children inherited.
  • Bad classes were monitored- often had to write lengthy confessions
  • Professionals took advantage of education classes to adopt the behaviour of a conformist
  • Everything about an idividual was noted in their Dangan (dossier)
  • Relocated petty criminals (beggars and prostitutes) to countryside -to clean up cities
  • Tackled more serious issue of criminal gangs and triads -over 150,000 were arrested, over half were executed
  • Terror against counter revolutionaries (CRs) launched at the same time PLA sent into Korea
  • Perfect excuse to crush any remaining opposition
  • Tao Zhu ('the tank') was ruthless in his clampdown in Guangxi province for nationalist sympathies- proudly claimed responsibility for killing over 46,000 alleged bandits
  • Ruiqing, head of security in Beijing responsible for relaying Mao's messages to provinices
  • Mao suggested that 1 per thousand should be killed, with adjustment for local circumstances
  • March 1951- Shushi suggested killings be extended to inside the party
  • Increased arrests caused bottlenecks in prisons
  • March 1951 top-ranking officer shot dead caused coordinated raid through 16 cities, arresting 17,000 people
  • Young party activists forced to watch mass executiond to immerse them in revolutionary experience
  • Encouraged isolationism in order to survive as so many people informed on friends (friends=betrayal)
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The Three and Five Antis

  • The Great Terror ended Oct 1951 which had claimed the lives of up to 2 million
  • 'Three antis' movement lauched targeting corruption, waste and delay
  • Catalysis was the arrest of Zishan and Qingshan charged with embezzling large sums from CP
  • Mao insisted on their execution and Bo Yibo was put in charge of clean up
  • Mass meetings held to denounce officials and managers -if guilty forced to confess
  • Small-scale embezzlement -'flies'. Large scale- 'tigers'
  • Tiger hunting teams trying to outdo each other -1952 Bo Yibo had caught 100,000 tigers
  • Outsiders often impressed at the parties determination to stamp out corruption
  • Accusations were often false, fear prevented people from standing up for each other
  • Purge was widened in Jan 1952 into the 'Five antis'- against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, fraud and economic espionage -it directly targeted the bourgeoisie
  • Use of denunciation boxes- problem was getting the confession believed by party officials
  • 1% of victims were shot, 1% went to laogai, 3% jailed for over ten years, 95% fined
  • Suicide rate was high but difficult due to supervision and nets were attached to high buildings, parks were patrolled to prevent people from hanging themselves
  • Fines were a way of destroying the old buisness class
  • Top level of party was purged by the attack of Gao Gang and Shushi in late 1953
  • Terror reinforced Mao's position
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Laogai System

  • Officially described as places of re-education rather than punishment
  • Existing system couldn't cope with extra intake from the great terror
  • 1953- 2 million prisioners, half were forced labourers
  • Camps were of significant economic value contributing 700 million Yuan in idustrial products as well as 350,000 tonnes of grain to the state each year by 1955
  • Used to get the most hazardous jobs done- mining and clearing malaria-infested swamps
  • Nine out of ten inmates were political prisoners
  • Many farmers sent without a trial, and many were wrongly accused but no means of redress
  • Conditions were brutal, constant fear of violence and frequent use of sleep deprivation and other torture methods along with hard labour and poor diet
  • Endless self-citicism in thought reform
  • 1955- further purges added 're-eductaion through labour' to accomodate extra intake
  • This bypassed judicial system entirely, many people disappeared without a trace
  • Total deaths from the Laogai may be as high as 25 million
  • Those who were released could rarely slot back into normal life as they were ostracised
  • Placing people under supervision (Guanzhi) was also a response to prison congestion
  • 740,000 under this system in 1953, local cadres took law into their own hands
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Hundred flowers campaign

  • End of first 5-year plan 1956 -Mao called for open debate about its results
  • 'Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend' -influenced by the uncertainty of de-stalinisation
  • Mao didn't want to expose himself to the same criticisms
  • Mao had never trusted the intellectuals but they were valuable to the economy
  • Repeated his hundred flowers speech in Feb 1957 and was succesful
  • Critics were slow to surface- media campaign against Hu Feng led to arrest of 100 intellectuals
  • Mao demanded news coveraged be given to the debate
  • Suggestions for improvement developed into denunciations of polices and individual leaders
  • Mao called a sudden halt to the debate and Mao branded the critics as 'Rightists'
  • An Anti-rightist campaign was launched
  • Produced 500,000 inmates
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Korean War

  • Korea had been occupied by Japan since 1910 which the Russians invaded after Japanese left in 1945 and installed Kim Il Sung as leader above the 38th Parallel, the USA held the south
  • War began June 1950, UN authorised mainly US forces to defend the south
  • Mao was manipulated into intervention by Stalin, who wanted the USA defeated 
  • Allowed him to strenthen grip on control and take more extreme measures at home
  • Mao launched the Great Terror October 1950 -and the other movements followed
  • Mao was able to destroy reminants of nationalist opposition as well as remove elements who may emerge as future opponents
  • Foreigners under pressure, had to register with their local Public Security Bureau and then were forced to leave once they had been stripped of their assets 
  • Only Russians were allowed to remain due to the Sino-Soviety treaty
  • Promotion of national unity -'Resist America, Aid Korea' and mass meetings were held
  • Rallies also helped to put pressure on people to volunteer for the PLA used to fill quotas
  • Pressure to donated money and goods, forced donations of 3 months salary or compulsory requistioning, and taxed were raised
  • Feb 1952- Germ warfare scare, exhibition for the public to inspect the evidence
  • April 1953- Russia undermined it by declaring it false
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Cost of the Korean War

  • Human cost:
    • Gov never published figure but UN suggets about 1 million lives
    • Unimportant to Mao as the population was so vast it would be quickly made up
    • Mao's eldest son died in the War- burned to death in a US incendiary raid on his headquarters- Mao took very badly
  • Economy:
    • Economy had to be entirely refocused in order to supply the military
    • Over half the annual budget in 1951 was on the War
    • The annual budget was 75% higher than that of 1950
    • Chinese had to pay for it all -as well as the Soviet military advisors
    • Food supplies only kept up by forced requistioning
    • At the expense of living standards and famine
    • Trade embargo on Chinese goods imposed by the USA caused a 30% fall in foreign trade in the first half of 1951
    • Delayed the development of China's industrial growth significantly
    • Debts caused by military spending
    • Little/no investment in education, health provision and economic infrastructure
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International Prestige

  • Significantly boosted as the PLA held the US army at bay for 3 years
  • PRC could claim to be the most powerful communist nation
  • Preservation of Communist North Korea gave China greater security from future attack

However:

  • USA was now the enemy
  • CIA began plotting to undermine Chinese control of Tibet and moved to replace French in Vietnam
  • PRC was refused admission to the united nations until relations thawed in 1972
  • Relations with the USSR also suffered as Mao resented Stalin's failure to supply air cover to the PLA
  • Sino-Soviet relations grew worse after Stalin's death as Mao had far less respect for Khrushchev
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