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Consolidation of Power - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The People's Liberation Army
        
        The PLA was created to give control to the communist party.
      - The Communist Party
        
        The communist party was coordinated the government and as such held great power.
        
        The party was led by a central committee of 49 in 1949 which was dominated by politburo of 25 which was controlled by the Standing Committee of 5 which was dominated by Mao as chairman
      - The Central people's Government
        
        Organised based on the idea of Democratic centralism
        
        The power of the government was concentrated in the People's Government Council which would become the State Council which enacted laws and announced decrees and executed them
        Headed by Zhou Enlai that controlled 24 ministries
  - - - This was created by the Chinese People's Political Consultative conference in 1949
        
        This was made up of different representative from across the political spectrum in China such as left wing members of the KMT
      - It was a provisional constitution between 1949 and 1954.
      - One important thing was it gave everyone except 'political reactionaries' freedom of thought, speech, religion and all the others
      - Named Mao head of state
      - The plan was to create a centrally planned economy very similar to the USSR's
    - - The national's people's congress would represent the people and would meet once a year to make laws or change the constitution
      - Democratic Centralism was the idea that the people would be represented through democratic elections to the National People's congress
      - There were also democratic elections for local congresses who would then report up the centre to Beijing.
      - In reality it meant that once a policy was decided by the central government no deviation would be allowed
  - - - The PLA help to serve as a big piece of propaganda for the CCP.
      - Soldiers were taught to read and write in the army and therefore were indoctrinated into the regime to create ideological commitment
    - - China was divided into six regional bureaus to help manage the large territory
      - Each bureau had 4 officials
        
        Government Chairman
        
        First Party Secretary
        
        Military Commander
        
        Army Political Commissar
      - Two of the four were army so therefore the PLA had great control and as they were dedicated to the CCP the CCP had great control
    - - The PLA were shown to have the correct attributes like discipline, bravery, resourcefulness, incorruptibility and commitment to Communism
    - - The PLA helped to rebuild infrastructure with work teams of the soldiers instructed to contribute a week's free labour a year to rebuild the country
- - - - This left few experienced administrators and economists to help rebuild the country
      - Many of the educated leaders had fled the country with the advance of the Communists
      - While the communists were experienced military force they had very little knowledge of how to run the government
      - This was worsened with the speed of collapse of the Nationalist government, lunging the country into chaos
      - The Communists were mostly from the countryside and so were inexperienced with the cities and not prepared to run them
    - - The transport system had been destroyed by the war which meant the government was forced to very quickly rebuild to be able to control the rest of the country
      - Warlords were still in control of some parts of China
      - There was no central government and a lack of cohesion in China with many dialects and very little national identity
  - - - There was no unified currency and massive hyperinflation caused by the GMD printing money in an attempt to prop up their government and armies
      - People were forced to cart around their money to pay for small things
    - - Industry had been devasted by WW2 and Civil war
      - The nationalists had sabotaged industrial sites as well as power stations as they fled leaving the places starved electricity
      - The USSR had occupied Manchuria after WW2 but took apart machinery and confiscated tools and gold and materials which meant Manchuria which had been the industrial heart of China dismantled and empty
      - Skilled personal who could rebuild the economy had fled with the nationalists
      - Raw materials were scarce and left factories not enough to produce
    - - There was a lack of farming equipment and livestock
      - Peasants had been conscripted into the nationalist army leaving their fields to die
      - This created a famine
      - Peasants were also uninterested in the politics of communism and were only concerned about the area they lived in.
  - - - The nationalist posed a serious threat as they had survived and fled to Taiwan
      - Chiang Kai-Shek and the nationalists has the support of the USA who were afraid of a communist China as a threat to their power
- - - - Nationalist Sympathisers
      - Anyone who had worked for the previous regime
      - Western businessmen
      - Christian Missionaries
      - Later expanded to anyone the Party identified as undesirable
    - - People were encouraged to register if they had worked for the previous regime under the guarantee that they would be treated leniently
      - They were also encouraged to register the any associates
      - They would then be arrested along with their associated
    - - 'Counter revolutionaries' were subjected to struggle meeting that was encouraged for all Chinese citizens to be apart of
      - They were forced to admit their crimes in front of the crowds of people and were then often executed there and then
      - 800,000 counter revolutionaries killed in the first half of 1951
  - - - The three antis were
        
        Corruption
        
        Waste
        
        Obstructionist buereaucracy
      - Many people were in support of this as they believed that it would remove anyone from the CCP who had abused their position
      - In reality it was an excuse to remove any in the civil service that the CCP disliked for example the one who had worked under the nationalists as they had been needed for setting up the regime but now the party was prepared to takeover
    - - The five antis were
        
        bribery
        
        tax evasion
        
        theft of state property
        
        Cheating on government contracts
        
        Staling state economic information
      - The targets were businessmen and middle class people
      - They were put under pressure to confess to crime and some would turn against other people in an attempt to gain leniency from the cadres
      - Workers were also encouraged to denounce their managers and bosses and tiger beaters that were employees that hunted for evidence and then the managers were subjected to struggle meeting
      - The real aim of the plan was to seize economic assets and remove anyone opposed to the regime
    - - The party gained control of many businesses and cadres were put into management positions
      - people were afraid to speak out against the regime out of fear and so were very loyal to the CCP to avoid being punished
  - - - The invasion of Tibet 1950
        
        Why?
        
        Officially to liberate Tibet from imperialist oppression
        
        In reality to remove Buddhism that was seen as a threat to the CCP
        
        There was some resistance but the PLA destroyed it and a government was set up that was dominated by Beijing
        
        The Dalai Lama was forced to sign a 17 point agreement which set out terms for merging Tibet into the PRC
        
        What happened after
        
        All Tibetan identity was wiped out with religious practices being banned and the Tibetan language and history was also banned
        
        Political meeting banned
        
        Tibet was not subject to land reforms but boundaries were redrawn so they were in other provinces and so subject to land reform
        
        Mao called for the population to rise form 3 million to 10 million which encouraged the Han Chinese to migrate there and so destroy traditional ways of lives
        
        There were propaganda units amongst the PLA to convert the people to communism to convince the people that they had been oppressed by Buddhism
        
        Tibetan had no choice other to bow and thank Mao for freeing them but there were brutal tales of torture and persecution
      - Xinjiang
        
        Xinjiang had a very large Muslim population and the people were starkly different in terms of culture and language when compared with the rest of China
        
        It was also bordered by Soviet Controller outer Mongolia which which led to fears of separatist movements or increasing Russian influence
        
        The Uighurs
        
        the Largest minority group in Xinjiang accounting for 3/4 of the pop.
        
        They were historically against central government and resisted it
        
        Nationalist leaders were invited to Beijing but their plane cashed killing all of them which led to rumours of Mao killing them. Their replacements agreed to the rule of the Chinese government and were given key posts in govenment
        
        The Han Chinese were sent to migrate
      - Guangdong
        
        previouslty a nationalist stronghold
        
        Fears there would be spies and sabouteurs so the region was targeted
        
        28000 people were executed
      - These were military campaigns to assert control of border region in the PRC
  - - - torture and mistreament was common
      - many died and other committed suicide
      - Estimated 27 million died during Mao's rule
    - - The jiuye (forced Job Placement campaigns)
        
        Prisoners kept as slave labour
      - the laojiao (re education through labour camps)
        
        Prisoners kept until it was decided that they had been re-educatedd
    - - huge economic value
      - Terrorized the population and intimidated many in the country
      - A way of converting former opponents as they were constantly bombarded with communist propaganda, struggle meetings, study lessons and denounce their opponents
  - - - Winning the intellectuals over
        
        Intellectuals and experts that had not fled China and who had believed in Mao's democratic China had become disillusioned with the system and so it is possible Mao hoped to win them back to help build the economy that had slowed down
      - Revolutionary party
        
        Mao believed that the party had become too bureaucratic and not revolutionary enough. He hoped that by getting the intellectuals to criticise the officials that were abusing their power and not enacting communism properly he would be able to remove them
      - International concern
        
        He was worried about international pressure after Khrushchev's secret speech which criticised the cult of personality and terror which was very similar to Mao and so wanted to prove that he was not a dictator
      - Overconfidence
        
        He may have also been very overconfident. The policies like rounding up the bandits and land reform had been very popular and victory in the Korean war had shown the power of China and so be requesting criticism he was expecting a ringing endorsement that would swell his power and allow him to enact radical policies against the less radical member of the CCP
      - A trap laid
        
        Trying to lure potential oppositional into the open so he could identify by those who spoke against him and the party
    - - He was asking for criticism from the intellectuals but they were initially very reluctant after their brutal treatment
      - He gave a speech after no-one said anything that admitted 800,000 had been killed but said the time for revolutionary class struggle was over which was shown to cadres to encourage them to get intellectuals to speak up
      - Soon intellectuals began criticising the party with large posters put up which were incredibly critical of the party. The terror of the party was criticised and compared to the Nazis, the economic inequality between people and the party was also highlighted and some even criticised Mao
    - - The criticism was too great for Mao who then began the Anti-rightist
      - He called for a class struggle against the right wingers. The definition was very broad so anyone could be arrested and Cadres were given a target of 5% for each Danwei unit leading to many false imprisonement
      - it is thought that between 400,000 and 700,000 intellectuals were arrested and purged
- - - - 400,000 soldiers from the PLA died during the fighting
      - Mao's own son was killed in the war
      - China was dependant on loans from the USSR and had to pay a lot of moeny to repay loadns
    - - China had fought the UN and the USA to a stalemate which showed the power of the PLA and that China could no longer be bullied and exploited
      - China became an enemy of the USA and led to the Truman Doctrine. This meant that resistance to communism was much higher and Japan became to the USA an unsinkable aircraft carrier.
      - The efforts of the PLA impressed Stalin however it firmly embedded China in the Russian Side of the cold war and so China was isolated with only the USSR as an ally and was completely reliant on them for support
      - Taiwan became impossible with the Korean war when Truman sent the Seventh Fleet to patrol between Taiwan and China which was a blow to China
    - - Mao used the war as an opportunity to eliminate counter-revolutionaries and gain more control over the country
      - The war also built a national spirit which was useful as China had been extremely divided previously
      - The war inspired patriotism in the country which made people believe in communism as well as pledging to increase production in industry and agriculture
      - Mao's personal prestige was also enhanced by a great amount as well which helped to boost his popularity and solidify his cult of personality and control over the country