Please enable JavaScript.

Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.

To what extent is interpretation a reliable tool in the production of…

- - - - comparison to Chiang Kei-shek
        
        Both his and Mao's rule was very structured and Chiang also used extensive police force. They both believed that extreme violence was necessary to keep their power.
        
        specifically White Terror late 1920s-1930s
      - ethics/morality
        
        ends justify the means: the violence Mao used wasn't viewed as a crime but as a necessary tool to make immediate change.
        
        Especially since the majority of the population (peasants) already felt strong opposition to the target "enemies" → aligned with who CCP marginalized, so it was easier to justify
        
        Landlords and rich peasants were viewed as the enemy → dehumanisation & made it easier for common people to commit these crimes.
        
        change at what cost? While it did have immediate change towards Mao's goals & the nation's goals, it came at the cost of many people's deaths & suffering.
        
        using these methods promised a less repressive future more quickly
        
        promises that actually came true, so not just violence "used in vain"
      - comparison to other revolutions
        
        "probably larger percentages of the population were killed in the various reigns of terror which followed in the wake of the French and Russian revolutions." (Meisner 72)
      - comparison to pre-1949
        
        famine in malnutrition that killed millions of Chinese
      - ultimately needed to evaluate different historical perspectives → to understand why they view Mao's violence in a specific way
- - - - "a state of the people's democratic dictatorship, a state under the leadership of the working class and based on the alliance of workers and peasants...the new political order was to rest on an even broader social base, for the workers and peasants were to be part of a 'national united front' which included included the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie." (Meisner 58)
        
        To Mao
        
        hes "people" included capitalist forces and classes (not tied to imperialism) that would benefit the national economy
        
        not just the working class proletariat like the Russian Communist Revolution, and that would fully alienate the bourgeoise
        
        "under the leadership of the working class and the Communist Party"
        
        Four Class Alliance: working class, peasantry, petty bourgeoisie & national bourgeoisie
        
        controversy
        
        all 4 classes supposed to be politically represented but parties like Democratic League, Revolutionary Committee of the Guomindang, who politically represented portion of the petty and national bourgeoisie → essentially had no political power (just more ceremonial)
        
        CCP claimed that they were the party of the proletariat
        
        3 more items...
        
        Ex: 11/24 ministries led by non-party heads, and 3/6 Vice Chairmen non-Communists (like Sun Yatsen) = illustrating cooperation
        
        oxymoron of "democratic dictatorship"
        
        but he wanted both: democracy → "the people", dictatorship→ the non- "people"
        
        ex. landlords, bureaucratic bourgeoisie, GMD reactionaries ≠ have democratic rights
        
        depending who you were you would interpret his rule differently
        
        who determined?
        
        Party's Central Commitee, Political Bureau (Politburo), especially 5 men of Politburo's Standing Commitee in 1949
        
        Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De & Chen Yu