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Discuss the reasons why Mao Zedong launched the Hundred Flowers campaign…
Discuss the reasons why Mao Zedong launched the Hundred Flowers
campaign (1956). (M17)
Political
Intellectuals in Communist China
There were 5 million intellectuals (5 million but less than 3% of population)
Many did not leave China and wanted to continue to contribute to China
CONTEXT
needed safety valve because of growing domestic resentment, especially from the intellectuals
Reports of abuse by self-seeking CCP cadres
Mao's metaphor of immunisation (encourage a venting of frustrations)
Historical context of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech which condemned Stalin and sparked off resistance to communist rule in satellite states of Poland and Hungary
Political cynicism (Jung Chang's theory)
Context
8th Party Congress, there was an attempt to undermine Mao's position
Affirmed that China was led by collective leadership
All references to Mao Zedong thought were dropped from the constitution
Mao could have felt sidelined
Mao always distrusted intellectuals; in private he had declared conterrevolutionaries were poisonous weeds and had to be ruthlessly cut down
Social
Mao sought to
reform Chinese societ
y by introducing an influx of intellectualism and culture, in accordance to his other social policies.
The Hundred Flowers Campaign was essential in giving intellectuals a voice and he aimed to
improve literacy and cultural awareness to spread Maoist thoughts
and
strengthen the pervasion of his socialist ideology.
On coming to power, the CCP launched a massive drive to expand
educational provision.
Mao believed that literacy and education were crucial for the populace to understand and embrace socialist ideology.
Mao’s social policies also made strides in promoting
gender equality
and the CCP did try to improve the position of women in society. In 1950, the Marriage Law banned arranged and child marriages and polygamy. Women were also given the right to divorce and the right to own property.
The 1950 Marriage Law was revolutionary for its time,
granting women rights
that were unheard of in traditional Chinese society.
.
However,
changing men’s attitudes
, particularly in rural areas, proved very difficult and women continued to be treated as inferiors by many men, receiving lower pay and continuing to marry outside their native villages, as was the custom.
The Hundred Flowers Campaign sought to
give intellectuals a platform to preach more progessive ideals
beneficial to society
Economic
Mao's Hundred Flowers Campaign was also motivated by his desire for economic reform.
The
First Five Year Plan
ended the National Capitalist phase and saw, by February 1956, the
nationalisation
of all private industries and businesses in China. It completed the process of nationalism of industry, boosting urbanisation.
By 1956, Mao had begun his
transition into a socialist economy
Mao’s agrarian policies aimed at redistributing land to the peasantry and collectivizing agriculture. On the one hand, they eliminated the feudal landownership system and aimed to provide a
more equitable distribution of resources
.
Thus, Mao's Hundred flowers campaign was a part of the CCP adoption a
gradualist approach to introducing socialism
into the countryside, using the voice to propagate the need for collectivisation in order to transform its economy
Additionally, the CCP leadership was convinced that
collectivisation
was essential for increasing agricultural efficiency as well as for fulfilling their ideological aims.