3.

1 Mao’s Rise to Power

Rise of dissatisfaction
 Poverty of the masses under Qing dynasty (peasants made up most of population, poor, gave
up most of income as rent for their land) + bitterness against foreign subjugation
 Spread of revolutionary ideas
 1911-1916 Republic of China under Yuan Shikai
o Qing dynasty overthrown  army general Yuan Shikai president (ruled like emperor
& submitted to foreign aggression), 1916 death
 Weak and divided China.
 1916-1927 Warlord period (no effective government)
o Regional warlords had power  wars with each other impacted peasants (high taxes,
land seized & pillaged, torture)
 WWI: China fought with Allies to regain lost territory (Shandong), but it was given to Japan
 protests against Japanese expansionism & western betrayal

Emergence of CCP
 1924 First United Front (aim: defeat the warlords)
o CCP (Chinese Communist Party) incl. Mao Zedong (had support of Comintern;
Russian org. to spread communism) & GMD (Chinese nationalists led by Chiang
Kaishek)
o Communist activism among peasants  Chiang feared strikes would decrease his
middle-class support  turned on CCP
 1927 White Terror: Chiang united with warlords & criminals to “purge” communists &
established a nationalist government (GMD).
 1927-1934 Jiangxi Period
o CCP (incl. Mao) fled to “Jiangxi Soviet” province, trained guerrilla force to resist
purge & began redistributing land
o Mao for peasant revolution, Comintern for urban revolution
o Futian Incident: 4000 troops killed (suspected opposition)  Mao’s authoritarian
methods
 1934-1935 Long March
o GMD forces besieged the Jiangxi Soviet  communist defeat
o Long March: CCP troops fled to Yanan  showed CCP recovery against all odds
(legendary)

Mao imposing his authority

 1935-1945 Yanan  Mao became leader of CCP
 Rebuilding the CCP support base
o Mass line: CCP members lived among the people
o Land redistribution, rent controls, end of corruption & improved literacy
o Strong ideology (only worked if all took part)
o Curbing opposition through rectification campaigns: people told to speak up &
tortured to get “confessions”

1931-1945 Japanese occupation & 2nd United Front

 1937 Second United Front (against Japanese invasion)
 Chiang lost support (became dictatorial)
o GMD army in south turned against CCP army
 o Bad treatment of GMD soldiers
o Secret police oppressed civilians
o Bad economy (hyperinflation)  lost middle-class support
 Many (incl. soldiers) turned to communists
 CCP used Japanese advances on GMD as an opportunity to occupy land in northern China 
Japan saved CCP
 1945: End of occupation after atomic bombs

1945-1949 Chinese Civil War

 CCP took over Manchuria & cities  no longer outnumbered
o Reasons: disciplined troops (guerrilla training), weapons from Russians in Manchuria,
popular support (despite atrocities against opposition)
o 1949: CCP won, Chiang & nationalists fled to Taiwan
 Reasons for GMD loss:
o Chiang’s bad strategy
o GMD was corrupt & too dictatorial; many switched sides

3.2 Mao’s Consolidation of Power

 Expectations to satisfy: freedom from imperialism & social equity
o Rebuilding the economy (inflation, corruption, unemployment)
o International opposition (UN saw Taiwan as legitimate)
 Structure of the PRC
o China divided in 6 regions, each governed by 4 officials & the PLA (People’s
Liberation Army)  military control
o Central authority  Mao as Chairman, undisputed leader
 Reunification campaigns (to secure full control of Chinese borders)
= PLA invaded regions bordering China
o e.g. Tibet (Buddhists resisted  regime of terror & suppression)
o Religion = threat to centralised communist government
 Anti-movements
o Counter-revolutionaries declared enemies of state
o Banning of everything reminding of foreign subjugation (e.g. foreign languages) &
feudal past (e.g. traditions)
 Thought reform  Made everyone a loyal servant of the state
o Everyone was re-educated & forced to learn the new doctrine
o Newspapers all conformed to the party line
o Communist songs & slogans; people hyped for change
o “The Little Red Book”: Bible 2.0 but for Maoism
 The Great Terror
o Identifying opposition: household registration system in cities + good/middle/bad
labels depending on party loyalty  determined class & fate (children inherit
parent’s label)  ensure conformity
o Denunciation encouraged to show conformity to regime (children denounced
parents etc). “Watchers” in every street.
o Vulnerable classes (e.g. beggars & refugees) considered useless, drain on
 resources
o Mass killings & forced labour camps: millions of “counter-revolutionaries”
either sent to camps or directly executed
 Land reform & Great Famine
o Land redistribution, millions of landlords killed (representation of feudal China)
o Land owned by state  resistance met with violence
o High requisition of grain  peasants hid supplies, famine
o Migration to cities  household-registration system extended to countryside; now
needed migration certificate
 One-party state
o Political purges + mass campaigns against opposition  eliminate all other parties
o Claim: Power rests with people
 Elections state-supervised, only pro-Mao candidates
 True power with Politburo (leading members of CCP)
 “Democratic centralism”: Mao knew how to carry out a revolution and so
had ultimate authority
o Technically, there was a legal system & citizens had rights
 Not until Mao’s death
 Korean War
o North invades South  UN counter-offensive  Mao sent troops (feared UN
victory would incite US invasion of China)
o China claimed US were using germ warfare  propaganda
o Impact: Mao could claim victory (pushed back UN troops), but the war killed
millions and was costly
 Party purges: Mao accused some leaders of abusing their power & sent them to prison
camps (to serve as examples)
 Impact of Khrushchev’s de-Stalinisation
o Khrushchev’s attack on Stalin’s regime  gave hope to communist world, led to
strikes & protests in China
o Mao felt attacked; he also had a personality cult & implemented agricultural
reforms  denounced his own cult of personality & encouraged collective
leadership (diversion)
 Hundred Flowers Campaign
o Mao encouraged criticism to the party  prosecuted the critics; many committed
suicide or were sent to labour camps
 Peng Dehuai (Minister of Defence) spoke out about famine  no other party member
followed  charged with treason
 Tibetan uprising against Chinese occupation & starvation
o Met with suppression & mass arrests, Buddhism was targeted & Dalai Lama fled
to India
 Cultural Revolution
o Mao’s wife Jiang Qing (part of hardliner Shanghai Forum)  only tolerated
radicals & encouraged party purges
o Red Guards = young people carrying out Cultural Revolution: rallies idolising
Mao & attacks on old culture, ideas & customs. They targeted all “counter-
revolutionaries”, denouncing their parents & destroying historic sites that
 reminded of Confucianism.
o Disillusionment: Industry had declined & schools had been closed so that students
could join Red Guards  Mao sent them all to live among the peasants to appease
chaos  learned about hardships & began opposing Mao

3.3 Mao’s Policies

Foreign Policies
 Bandung Conference: after Stalin’s death, Mao was seen as the leader of the communist
world (non-aligned countries looked up to him too)
 USSR: Khrushchev’s de-Stalinisation offended Mao Sino-Soviet rift  each nation
tried to sabotage the other
 USA supported Taiwan  Mao feared attack  anti-American propaganda, especially
during Korean War. Relations improved later on (Mao wanted to threatened USSR like
this) & China got a seat on the UN Security Council.
 UN criticised Mao’s hard-line policies in Tibet
 Mao attempted to regain Taiwan, but it remained independent

Economic policies
 First Five-Year Plan (to industrialise)
o Command economy: controlled by central planning, production is publicly owned
o Big industrial workforce (bc all peasants migrated to cities)
o Lot of pressure to reach industrial targets, but successful
 Great Leap Forward a.k.a. Second Five-Year Plan
o Aim: China becoming a modern industrial power very fast
 Wanted to overtake western industrial production
o Peasants would produce surplus of food  export  profit to finance industry
(Great Famine instead…)
o Propaganda  portrayed workers as proud and happy
o State-owned enterprises (SOEs)
 Industry under government control, guaranteed wages & health benefits
(problem: lack of incentive)
o Weaknesses:
 USSR stopped assisting
 Ideology got in the way of common sense
 Mao refused to recognise that his policies were the reason for failure 
blamed peasants & weather
 Mao relied on people’s effort instead of good planning

Religious policies
 Religion to be replaced by loyalty to the party (Maoism)
o Invasion of Tibet (Buddhism) & Xinjiang (Islam)
o Churches forced to close, religious clothing forbidden
o Religion condemned in propaganda (posters, slogans)
 o Particularly attacked during Cultural Revolution as an “old”

Policies affecting women

 Historically: women repressed (e.g. footbinding & sold into marriage)
 Mao introduced Marriage Reform Laws which gave more freedom (incl. right to divorce)
 divorce rates soared (during famine; better to look for a richer husband)
 Women officially regarded as equals to men  working women!
 Families were destroyed; considered an old tradition

Cultural Policies/Cultural Revolution

 Role of artists: to serve the party (anything else was banned/burned)
o Opposition  sent to labour camps for “re-education”
Educational reforms
 Peasants illiterate  education of the masses = priority
 Reformed Mandarin, more easily written
 Cultural Revolution: people stopped attending schools (bad)  afterwards, focus was on
conforming to Party; not much progress
Health reforms
 Lack of universal healthcare  Mao wanted to make it accessible, trained many doctors &
nurses
 Cultural Revolution: damaged health reforms (doctors targeted for bourgeois lifestyle)
 Showing pain considered weak  no anaesthetics given