THEME ONE ESTABLISHING COMMUNIST RULE

THE NEW POWER STRUCTURE

  1. The communist party
  1. The central peoples government
  1. The peoples liberation army

Although Mao was not chairman, he did hold the greatest power to dictaite policy.

Democratic centralism at the heart of the new power structre. The structre was strong and a fundamental part of success.

The common programe, Key points 'all except counter revolutionaries would enjoy freedom of thought,speech,publication,assembly and asociation'
Although it emphasised the leading role of the ccp it accepted a multi party system where 8 political parties recived legal status.
universial education and equal rights for women.

  • soviet style economy was the goal 'systematic rehabilitation on heavy industry.'

In september of 1949 the Provisional constitution was set up.

Was this new power structure democratic or not?

DEMOCRATIC - This new body, Mao promised, would “represent the will of the people”. 8 other political parties present.

  • The central peoples government had a significant role, was not just mao involved.
  • The common programe emphasised the importance of women and education. recognised the right to own private property.

'Counter revolutionaries'

What did Mao need to do at the start of 1949? and what was china like in 1949

  1. economically stabalise china
  1. physically rebuild and build more
  1. consilidate his power and rebuild PLA
  1. build international relations
  1. bring down confusionism and bring into communism.

REUNIFICATION - Political purges to remove oppisiton.

TIBET - reomve bhudism ( army invasion ) to wipe out tibetian identity. lead by rival of mao Dalai lama. although 60k tried to resist the invasion tibet was forced to sign a 17 point agreement in that the prc would take over. Traditonal religious teaching was prohibited and mandarin chiniese was enforced as the oficial langauge.

The civil war - 1946-1949

Marking the end of imperial rule, Chairman mao declared a new forward facing china. The crows of people in Tinnamen square shouted 'long live chairman mao' and after years of hummiliation china had stood up to progress with western progress.

  • Administritive chaos. Before the nationalists fled they took gold, silver and dollar reserves, they took many of the educated elite and left china weakened in this sense. People now in charge lacked sufficent knowlege to run the gov. There was an increase in lawlessness.
  • economic problems - hyperinflation, no stable currency by 1946 100 yuan was needed to buy an egg. by 1949 people were seen using a car to transport their practically worthless banknotes. in 1949 factory output was 44% below its level of 1937.

-Agrictulture exhiberated by the war the agricultural mess effected almost 80% of the population ( pesants) who were uneducated and illiterate. so had trouble understanding communism and marxist thought.

  • national infastructuire, nationalist threat was still strong and before they fled to tiwan they had said that they would come back to claim china, Increase in threat of crime, gangstas and organised crime, poor transport. china had bombed all of the transport lines in the civil war. for example hankou seccond largest port in china was subject to american strikes and had been reduced to rubble.

Xingjiang- A large muslim population and the uighurs were the largest minority group accounting for 3/4 of the population. by 1950 the pla had secured teritory and had cleared all resistamnce.

Guanddong- the campain to supress counter revolutionaries excused 28 thousund people and had traditonally been a pro nationalist reigeion so there was fear that spies remained here.

The han chinese - Mao declared in november 1952 that he wanted to increase the population of tibet from 3-10 million. However, he did this not by expanding the local population but moving the han chinese population there to cleanse the tibetian culture and spread communism.

The consilidation of Maos political power.

The campaign to supress counter revolutionaries.

  • western businessmen, foreigners, anyone forced to leave the country.

self registration the ministry of public security asked anyone who had been involved any any form of nationalist camoagin to step foward in order to 'start new' and they were also asked to confess friends and connections. After this, they were arrested and people were rounded uo in the streets for midnight arrers, people found that their family and friends had disapeared, never to be seen again.

'mass participation' - struggle meetings were a way of which counter revolutionaries were trialed and members of the public would humiliate them and get them to admit their guilt. for example by shouting 'kill kill kill'.
Robert loh - a factory manager descibed that 'everday we would see truckloads of prisoners... we would hear terrible shooting.. within the nect dew months, all the ex nationalists were wiped out. - this effort of using ordinary people to support the ruthless murder, consilidated his power sucessfully

THE THREE ANTIS CAMPAGIN - ' a big cleanup throughout the party' to remove corruption, waste, and a obstructionist beaucracy government.
controlled the paty and gave mao greater authroity. directly effected a small number of people ( party members) and had a wider impact at consilidating maos power.

' the peoples daily' published lists of political criminals vs their grousome punishments. it is estimated that 800k people were killed during the first half of 1951 ( counter revolutionary deaths)

THE FIVE ANTIS CAMPAGIN. - Targeting middle class businessmen , in order to remove middle class politcal oponents. removed political opponents. and effected a small amount of china and only had direct impacts on them. - bright red denounciation boxes. in shanghai 99% of business men were seen to be guilty of one of the 5 antis ( 5 poisons)

Genuine support for the ideaology and communism - 80% pesantry wanted communism as they were worsley benifited from the capitalist economy. however most were illiterate and uneducated and so therefore couldnt comprehend complex marxism idealogy. -

Terror and the lougai- forced work, using fear tactics. poor conditoned work. by 1955 1.3 million people were unergoing forced labour.

'reform through labour'

in the lougai were mostly politcial prisoners, inculuding 300k doctors enginers, and experts who had been rounded up in the ocunter revolutionary campaigns, some of which were in for listening to forign radio, or not meeting work quotas,

juan chang and jon halliday estinate that 27 million people died in labour camps during maos rule. ' it is better for prisoners to die than to flee' - said the head of public secuiry beauru.

mao declared that ' an untrained horse can not be ridden'

  • Land reform by 1952 upwards of a million landlords and their families had been killed - philip short

THE KOREAN WAR 1950-1953

GAINS -

LOSSES,

The PLA suffered in horrific conditions, -30 degrees.2/3 of soldiers died from trench foot. there was starvation.

Low morale for the soldiers in the pla in contrast to the high morale in china.

  • presented mao in a positive light and gained him genuine support. by october 1951 -9.3 million yuan had been collected. there was a sense of patriotsim.

the resist america aid korea propaganda campaign that got people dontating money,and increased a sense of chinese nationalism. and strengthened national pride.

uncovered a new era for china, no longer held back china looked strong in comparison to the west.

around 400k deaths. had a personal impact as maos son was killed, lost international relations and meant that china rellied heavily on the ussr.

lost around ten billion. was very expensive.

zhou enlai was an elequent spokesperson for the 'hate america' campaign. Mao dunn said that ' americans are vertrectable devils and canibals'

south china dails expresses utter contempt for america.

THE HUNDRED FLOWERS CAMPAGIN. 1957

Targeted at the interlectuals, mao used this campaign to supress critism and opisition.

' let 100 flowers bloom in the arts and let 100 schools of thought contend in the sciences.'

by 1956 he felt that china was stifled with conformity and that he needed new ideas or that china would risk not progressing. he also belives that he party is beccoming a 'self serving elite'

The anti rightist campaign of 1957. A U TURN ON HIS CRITISM. - purged about one million sent to the lougai, struggle sessions, coreccting thinking and encourging thinking like a collective.

WHY DID MAO DO THIS?

  • it was genuine change of mind. china was socially and economically damaged by conformity and mao recognised this. as china was at peace in 1957 mao could now turn his intentions to progression. it can also be seen than mao changed his mind where in 8th of june 1957 mao wrote in the peoples daily that certain people were using the campaign to overthrow the ccp and the working class and to topple the great cause of communism.
  • it was a well thought out purge to remove opisiton. in may 1957 mao notes opistionists to be 'ox devils and snake demons' He also was self councious of his power as at the 8th ccp party congress in september 1956 mao saw a real loss of infulence and there was real suspection in that he should retire.

by 1957 520k interlectuals were undegoing labour reform in the lougai.

conclusion : defeating the ccps opponents

After a promising and pragmatic start declaring that fair treatment to former enemies in the form of 'starting life anew' and 'admiting politcial mistakes' china quickly became in control of the country and by perusing anyone who was of an idealogical threat to punishment, mao held unchallenged power.

A combination of active and enthusiasim for repression from mass suport in the from of public humiliation and excecutions and the use of terror and the lougai, mao created a china that lived in fear.

by 1957 maos power was in absolute control and he was free to rule in accordance to his idealogical whims. the consesquence of this for the chinese people would be catastrophic.