Mao's Consolidation of Power (1949-1955)

Chairman Mao and People's Republic

Chairman Mao and the People’s Republic - Background

* The People’s Republic of China was declared in October 1949
* Mao and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) took measures to secure full political control of the country
* Mao and the communist promised to free the country of imperialism, get rid of class division, and further the revolution
* While people were relived of their victory, the communist still had political oppositions within the country and outside, additionally, the country was politically and economically unstable and faced many challenges
* Chiang and the nationalists were still fighting and challenging China from Taiwan
* The United Nations only recognized the government in exile in Taiwan as the legitimate government of China
* Opposition parties within China threatened the CCP
* Many former CCP fighters were only trained to be soldiers, and not government officials
* Communists feared areas of China located on the borders would try and sperate themeselves
* There were still serious rebellions in southern China that wanted to resist land forms

Moderate Beginnings

* The goal of the communist was to bring stability in China, so they asked former government servants and police to stay and help
* The Chinese middle class was also asked to stay and help and provided government workers and industrial managers
* Under this new era, only the most hardened enemies were kicked out

Structure of the PRC

* China was divided into six regions, each governed by four major officials
* Chairman
* Party Secretary
* Military commander
* Political commissioner
* Officers in the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) filled the last two groups listed above, which put China under military control
* Overall, China’s government was centered under the Central Peoples Government Council
* 55 Party members
* Six of them served under Chairman of the Council, Mao
* Mao was the undisputed leader

The Reunification Campaigns

* The CCP feared that nationalistic elements would weaken a united China
* Religion posed a threat to communist control because in many ways religion in China represented reversing back into accepting the authority of the elites who ruled before the communist came into power
* To address this, the PLA was sent to the outskirts of China to begin their reunification campaigns (invading regions in the west and south)
* October 1950, the PLA forced entered Tibet, which has a different racial, cultural and religious identity than the Chinese
* The Tibetan Buddhists identifies with the authority of their spiritual leader, the Dali Lama
* But what did this mean for the common people of Tibet? Before Mao’s plan to reunify Tibet, Tibetan society was living under the conditions of a feudal society with the Dali Lamas sitting on top of the hierarchy and the peasants were being used for their slave labor
* About 60,000 Tibetans loyal to this system fought against China, but the PLA took control within six months
* Another region the PLA went to was Xinjiang which has a larger Muslim population bordering a Soviet controlled region in Mongolia
* The CCP was afraid threat Xinjiang would fall into the hands of the Soviets, so they sent the PLA to reunify them with China

The Anti Movements

* After 3 years in power, Mao began to turn on the middle class
* In 1959, Mao announced the reform “Three anti campaign” and then extended it in 1952 “the five-anti campaign
* The targets of the “Three-anti-campaign”
* Waste
* Corruption
* Inefficiency
* The targets of the “Five-anti-campaign”
* Industrial sabotage
* Tax evasion
* Bribery
* Fraud
* Theft of government property
* As part of the these campaigns, Mao declared reactionaries (middles class capitalists and conservative thinkers) and counterrevolutionaries as enemy of the state
* English became seen as the language of foreign exploitation (no English translations tolerated)
* Streets were renamed from former French, German and English names
* Foreign names in cinema, and Jazz became not acceptable
* Thousands of books were burned because they romanticized the fedual time (the time of slavery)

Censorship and Propaganda

* By February 1949, most newspapers were out of business and those left reprinted the same news
* Journalists and editors were re-educated so they could learn how to self censor
* Communist rallies, songs and slogans were used to advertise the success of the revolution
* Many Chinese people participated in all this because they felt like they were a part of the movement of national transformation

Thought Reform

* Government officials, factories, workshops, schools, and universities were “re-educated”
* This was known as the “Thought reform”
* Learn new party doctrine and transfer themselves into “new people”
* Many were forced to write confessions and admit past mistakes often in public
* By 1952, virtually every students and teacher were loyal to the state

The Great Terror

* In early years the CCP could easily identify the “enemy” because of the household registration system
* A system that had been set in place by nationalists during the civil war. Mao simple adopted it
* Household or workplaces would be given a class label and ranked as either “good”, “middle” or “bad”
* Children of these households could inherit these labels too
* Local party officials turned China into a nation of informers
* People turned on their neighbors, hopeful for a reward
* Friends told on one another to show their allegiance
* Children reported their own parents
* Every street had “watchers”, who kept the CCP informed of anyone suspicious.
* People in vulnerable classes like beggars, pickpockets and prostitutes were seen as a drain on resources.

Labor Camps

* There were many prison camps in the country used to “reform” people through labor
* Modeled the Soviets gulags
* By 1955, about 2 million people had been sent to a camp, mostly political prisoners who had been loyal to the previous government and wanted to bring it back
* Conditions in the camps were harsh, there was torture and hunger
* There was as many as 10 million people in these camps through China at any given time while Mao was in power

Mass Killings

* The most dangerous enemies were imprisoned or quietly executed - others were just watched or interrogated
* In the early 1950s, counter revolutionaries, such as spies, gang members, criminal bosses were interrogated
* The CCP trined on gangs in a violent killing campaign, about 90,000 of them were executed
* Mao issued quotas for how many gang members, spies and criminal bosses should be executed

Land reforms

* Land was taken away from landlords and given to the peasants who had worked the land
* About 2-3 million landlords who were guilty of exploiting peasants were executed
* In 1953, peasants were organized into teams who helped one another out and shared their tools and livestock
* Villages were locked into cooperatives - this made it easier for the state to take some of their grain
* This caused hunger and famine because at times they’d take too much

One-Party State

* In 1949, there had been 10 political parties, but when the political purge happened, these parties were removed and labelled as imperialists and counter-revolutionaries
* By 1952, the CCP was the only party allowed to exist
* The CCP claimed that authroity rested within the people and that the government was only there to serve them
* Party officials were held accountable at a local level and the Chinese People elected the members of the National Peoples Congress (NCP)
* Reality though, it was hard to get elected by the people if you were seen as critical of Mao
* Despite the claim of authority resting only in the hands of the people, you must understand that authority also rested in the Politburo and the NCP was only there to approve their decisions
* Mao was the Chairman of the party and the President of the PRC until 1959
* The 1954 constitution put in place the system in which China would follow:
* The NCP was appointed the judges
* Each citizen was given the right to a public trial
* Equality before the law was given to all
* Reality was - some of this was practised but it got better until AFTER Mao’s death

Power Struggle

* Mao grew increasingly paranoid and feared his position was under threat. Why?
* The impact of the Korean War 1950-53
* The First Five-Year plan to boost the economy through rapid industrialization

The Korean War 1950-1953

* From 1910 - 1945, Korea was under the occupation of Japan
* After WW2 ended, the Korean Peninsula was occupied by US forces in the south and Soviet forces in the north and divided at the 38th parallel line
* Because of the Cold War rivalry between the two superpowers, they could not reach an agreement in reuniting both sides
* Stalin wanted to support the communist regime under Kim 2-Sung, while US president Truman wanted to support the capitalist regime led by Syngman Rhee
* In 1948, the communist nation, the Democratic People’s republic was formed in North Korea, while the Republic of Korea was formed in the south
* In June 1950, North Korea invaded the south attempting to take back its territory under the communist banner
* The United States with the support of the United Nations intervened to help the south drive out the communist but by mid-September, North Korea occupied all but a small corner of South Korea.
* The US feared that a victory in the south would spread communism with the USSR’s capital, Moscow in charge
* The US Department believed that Stalin and Mao had planned the invasion of South Korea
* What we know now is that Mao did support the invasion, but he didn’t plan it
* His focus instead was to bring back the PLA units from the reunification campaigns in Tibet and in other regions
* Mao was unsure of Stalin’s motives
* Stalin boycotted the UN Security Council after they refused to recognize Mao’s government as the legitimate government of China
* He backed the invasion of the South, but he told Kim 2-Sung he didn’t intend to help
* When the UN forces pushed the North Koreans back towards the 38th parallel line, Mao realized the risk of the United States pushing even further and eventually invading China
* This triggered Mao to pursue his military commanders into action by sending Chinese troops
* One of his commanders, Lin Biao wanted to concentrate on crushing their internal issues
* By sending troops, Mao also hoped to get Soviet technology and equipment
* By 1950, a quarter million PLA troops were sent into Korea - this number would rise to 3 million

The Korean War, 1950-1953 - Campaigns

* While the troops were in Korea, in China you had the campaign launched “Resist America, aid Korea preserve our homes, define the Nations” and “Hate America
* In 1952, the United States was accused by China of waging germ warfare (using bacteria and viruses to get the enemy sick)
* Since the US General MacArthur had openly considered using atomic bombs on Korea, the thought of him using biological weapons seemed like a possibility
* The international commission confirmed that one diseased vole had been found in Manchuria - this led China to pushing out more Anti-US propaganda
* This caught the attention of the international world, and news of this swept the nation of China
* People were urged to kill “five pests” such as rats, mosquitos, fleas etc, since these pests were seen as the source of the spread
* Till this day, these allegations against the US have split scholars on if the US did this or not

The Impact of the Korean War

* Truce was called in 1953, Mao claimed this as a huge victory - this helped boost his image at home and oversees
* He was credited with the success his troops had overseas in pushing the UN troops back to the 38th parallel, and for taking strong leadership actions
* It was calculated that about a million Chinese citizen died during this war, including Mao’s oldest son, Anying
* While China would claim victory in keeping the US out of the communist region, the US announced they would defend Taiwan in keeping their label as the true government of China and therefore deserved a seat in the UN
* This ruled out China’s option of invading Taiwan
* Chinas economy had been hit hard by the war
* By 1951, about 55% of the government spending went to the military
* Devoted party workers would take portions of the peasant’s grain
* Peasants at time would hide grain because of fear of starvation
* The urban economy suffered - it would take a decade to make up for losses in production
* The pressure to repay Staling for the Soviet supplies also worsened to conditions in China

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Party Purges

* Mao was still concerned about party rivals
* Mao accused two CCP leader, Gao Gang in Manchuria and Rao Shushi in Shadong
* Mao claimed these two individuals abused their positions of power and were running their regions as their own “kingdoms”
* “Gao Gang Affair” - Gao’s attempt to overthrow two government leaders so he could grow his power, Rao Shushi threw his support behind Gao and became an ally
* The Central Council expelled both individuals from their positions and were labeled after party traitors
* Gao committed suicide after his failed attempt, and Rao was put into prison
* Eventually this spread and other leaders were accused of treason and sent to prisons
* While Mao’s motives behind these actions were complex, it served a reminder to party members to stay in line

The Registration System

* Throughout 1955, the power of the CCP and Mao had grown
* The state took more control over the countryside, more grain was being taken and more peasants were placed into cooperatives
* Peasants normally owned their own plot of land, but many were put into cooperatives with over villages
* Many peasants left the countryside for urban cities to make up their income and escape the famine (20 million moved)
* To prevent this from happening, the government extended the household registration system to the countryside in June 1955
* This tied million of rural citizens to the countryside
* Ration cards had to be shown at local grain stores where peasants were registered
* This was used as a form of political and social control over the Chinese people

The Impact of De-Stalinization

* Stalin died , and three years later the Soviet Union gained a new leader in 1956 Nikita Khrushchev who denounced Stalin’s “cult of personality” and held him responsible for his brutal purges, mass deportations, and torture of loyal party members
* He also criticized his agricultural reforms and reckless pace of collectivism
* Khrushchev’s speech was heard across Soviet satellites, in Soviet countries, and in China
* When Chinese citizens heard this, there were strikes and protests in urban and rural areas
* Mao interpreted this speech as an attack on his “cult of personality” and his agricultural reforms
* In September 1956, Mao’s thoughts were removed from the CCP charter
* His cult of personality were denounced and there was a shift toward collective leadership
* All of this was an attempt to steer criticism away from his style of leadership and early failures

The “Hundred Flowers” Campaign

* In 1957, the slogan “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of through content” was spread, and Mao encouraged open criticism of the party and the country
* At first, the cities were small, but eventually leading party members and Mao were under attack
* Mao feared this had gone too far and so he halted this campaign and launched a new one in response called the “anti-rightist movement” to force his biggest critics to take their criticisms
* More than half a million people were given the label of “rightist” in response some committed suicide, some were executed, others were sent for re-education in the countryside
* Zhou Enlai, one of Mao’s most loyal supporters was forced to confess he had slowed down reforms
* The only way to escape being punished was to do what Mao said
* A few historians offer their interpretations on this event
* Jung Chang believed this was a trick by Mao to expose his critics and then take them out
* Lei Feignon believes this was done to encourage criticism against other government workers he felt were growing their influence too much
* Johnathon Spence argued that this campaign was a result of confusion within the party over the pace of industrial and agricultural reform
* No matter what his reasonings for this were, Mao’s power grew

The Purge of Peng Dehuai

* In 1959, Mao’s position was under the threat again when in Lushan (Lushan conference), Peng Dehuai (the PRC’s Ministers of Defence) spoke out against Mao’s leadership, his policies and the famine
* During the Lushan conference Peng gave members the opportunity to speak out against Mao’s reforms, but nobody did, in fact they did the opposite and spoke about their support towards Mao’s leadership
* Peng was labeled as a troublemaker, and although he was not expelled from the party, he was stopped of his position

The Tibetan Uprising

* When the famine reached Tibet, many faced starvations
* In 1959 people in Tibet rose against the Chinese occupation and had been resisting China since 1950
* The uprising in Tibet was met with suppression and mass arrests by the Chinese military
* The Tibetan religion came under attack and was banned; the state strengthen their control over the region
* The leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama fled to northern India and from there he called for Tibets independence and a return to their old feudal (slave) system
* Tibetans were banned from mentioning the Dalai Lama in public
* The CCP encouraged Chinese people from outside of Tibet to settle in Tibet
* The Dalai Lama’s second in command the Panchen Lama later accused China of imprisoning 20% of Tibets population

The Cultural Revolution 1966-1976

* In 1962, Mao slipped into the background of the party as a result of his reputation being damaged because of the Great Famine
* President Liu Shaoqi and General Deng Xiaoping were tasked with saving the countryside and stopping the famine
* They reversed collectivism and thanks to their other actions, they began to grow in popularity
* Mao began to regret this decision as he saw his authority slipping and in 1966, he launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
* This new direction would result in murder, class war, cultural destruction and economic chaos
* It also led to further purges of disloyal people in the CCP

The Little Red Book

* In 1960, Lin Biao (Mao’s most loyal supporter) write the “Little Red Book” that had a compilation of Mao’s thoughts and sayings since the 1920s
* The Little Red Book was central to the training of the PLA soldiers and overall, it sold 750 million copies through China and became almost like a bible
* The book was used in schools and at home, and was always referenced in discussions
* The book gave the image of Mao being a cult leader

The Purge of Wu Han

* In 1965 Lin Biao launched a campaign attack on Wu Han, a playwriter who wrote “The Dismissal of Hai Rui from Office” which was focused on a court official who defied the orders of the emperor during the Song Dynasty Era (960-1279)
* Maoists interpreted the play as a criticism of Mao’s dismissal of Peng Dehuai for opposing Mao’s reforms, revealing the truth about the Great Famine and attempting to form an opposition group against him

The Power Struggles of the CCP

* Division within the CCP was growing with Maoists who were on the left were rising
* Mao’s wife Jiang Qing was a dominant figure in Shanghai Forum, overall, within the party, and was uncompromising who advocated tough measures against Mao’s opponents
* Jiang Qing was a part of the Gang of Four (a powerful group within the CCP that were seen as the most radical)
* Jiang Qing launched an attack on moderated within the party (Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping) and demanded that they along with key artists and writer be removed from their positions for this disloyalty towards Mao
* The Shanghai Forum argues that the PLA should root out those who were taking a capitalist road
* In 1966 the purge began with the Group of Five (moderates led by Peng Zhen, mayor of Beijing)
* The Central Cultural Revolution Group (CCRG) a subcommittee of the Politburo was set up on May 1966 and would participate in the purges
* The enemy was defined as “counter revolutionary revisionists”

The CCRG stated steps needed to take place or else the dictatorship led by the people would soon turn into the dictatorship led be the rich, reversing their progress

The Events of the Cultural Revolution

* The Purge within the party became a national movement when Lin Biao used poster campaigns in universities to ignite students and teachers to act against those who went against the revolution
* In 1966 Mao made a comeback to the front of the Chinese politics. In a staged event, the 73-year-old was photographed swimming across the Yangzi River
* This was seen as a symbolic choice because in Chinese tradition, the nations’s greatest river was seen as a life force
* The image was spread across all newspapers and newreels across the country, and it inspired them
* In August 1966, Mao called on members of the CCP to renew the class struggle and remove anyone from the party that was headed towards capitalism
* Lian Biao was promoted to second in command and Mao nominated him as his successor

Rallies

* On August 18th, 1966 there were mass demonstrations organised by Lin Biao and Chen Boda, which took place in Tiananmen Square
* Over a million people, mostly people in their teens and 20s waved their copies of the Little Red Book
* People in the crowd chanted “Mao Zedong in the red sun rising in the east” and “Chairman Mao, you may live for a thousand years!”
* More rallies took place in the following months - the claim was that Mao was remolding the souls of his people

The Red Guard’s and the Destruction of the “Four Olds”

* August 1st 1966 Mao asked students at the University of Qinghua to invade the headquarters to target enemies of the revolution
* Lin Biao identified “Four Olds” for the young to attack
* Old Ideas
* Old Culture
* Old Customs
* Old Habits
* The youth were eager to follow these orders as they felt they were defending the revolution and its leader who helped liberate China from foreign humiliation and oppression
* The youth mobilized by Mao formed themselves into a social movement known as the Red Guards
* Confucian (destroying old historic and cultural sites)
* They took control of public transportation, media, and anything that promoted the thinking of the rich
* School teachers, university staff and intellectuals who did not align themselves with the movement or promoted capitalism were labeled as rightists, and forced to confess their class crimes
* The Ministry of public Security allowed these actions to continue but also gave them more targets
* Landlords
* Rich peasants
* Reactionaries (conservatives, right-wing, capitalists)
* Bad elements
* Rightists
* The cultural movement touched all of China, even the remote areas - the cult of Mao rose to a new level

The Attacks on Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi and other Moderates

* Even those devoted to the CCP became targets of the Red Guards
* October 1966, Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi were labeled as not following the party line
* Liu and his wife were dragged out from their home and Liu was forced to confess his crimes during the “struggle session”
* He was imprisoned and due to health complications died while in prison
* Deng was also publicly humiliated and placed in solitary confinement by the Red Guards and then eventually sent to perform “corrective labor” in Jiangxi province in 1969
* Moderates were being removed form the CCP and the influence of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing increased and were appointed head of the PRC’s secret police
* Both of them would inform the Red Guards of ministers and officials they should target. More than half a million CCP officials were targeted

The Cultural Revolution Abroad

* In 1967, Mao wanted to provoke anti-imperialists unrest in the British colony of Hong Kong
* Zhao Enlai sent members to the region to destablize it and for the British to retaliate
* 5 police officers died and there were more than 160 bombs that went off- but the British did not react

The PLA and the Red Guards move to the countryside

* By 1968, it appeared that the Red Guards were getting out of hand
* Red Guards began to turn on one another and outdo each other to prove who was the most devoted to Mao
* Production was impacted, schools had been closed because students had gone off to join the Red Guards to attack “counter-revolutionaries”
* Between 1967-1972, the PLA were given orders to take over the hunt of the counterrevolutionaries while the Red Guards were sent to the mountains and villages on another campaign
* The Campaign would send 12 million young people (students etc) to move from town into the countryside so they can learn from the hardships the peasants endure. (Peasants made up 80% of the population)
* Although this showed that China’s rebellious youth was under control by the government, many students did not realize how difficult it would be to do the labor as a peasant
* They began to question their idealism and even Mao
* Mao did this to show they privileged how 80% of China’s population lived, but the campaign was also needed to restore order in the cities while the Red Guards were gone

The “Cleaning the Class Ranks” campaign, 1968-1971

* The PLA carried on where the Red Guards left off and rooted out counterrevolutionaries
* The CCRC Jiang’s Gang of Four played a big role in cleaning the ranks
* Committees were established across China to remove any form of capitalism

The Fall of Lin Biao 1971-1972

* By the 1970s, the disillusionment with the Cultural Revolution began to sit in but it was still too dangerous to oppose Mao
* Mao’s health got worse and the question of who would be in charge was up in the air
* Mao became paranoid of Lin Bia’s influence and ordered him to submit to self-criticism
* Mao might have been right to do this though as it was later revealed that Lin did have a plot to remove Mao from power
* Once the plot was revealed, Lin Biao tried to escape the USSR by the plane, but his plane crashed in Mongolia, killing everyone on board

The Decline of the Cultural Revolution

* Lin’s death was not reported until 1972, but once it was, he was labeled as a traitor and a spy against the country
* People did question this though since Lin was known to be very loyal to Mao
* Meanwhile, Zhou Enlai started to become popular, and he advocated for the return of Deng Xiaoping from exile
* The comeback of the moderates was met by fury by the Gang of Four

The Tiananmen Incident

* In 1976, Zhou Enlai died of lung cancer and there was a memorial dedicated to him with large scale support for his moderate policies
* The crowd was scattered after a confrontation with the police
* The Politburo blamed the incident on “rightists agitators” and dismissed Deng Xiaoping. Deng left to wait out the events
* Future preview:
* In 1976, Mao died and the Gang of Four was removed and the cultural revolution came to an end
* By 1978, Deng would emerge as a paramount leader of China

Mao’s foreign Policy - The Bandung Confernece, 1955

* Mao wanted China to be seen as a powerful independent state on the world stage
* He wanted to show the Chinese people that the communist revolution would restore national pride and keep imperialist countries out of their borders
* April 1955, representatives from 29 governments of Asia and Africa met together in Bandung Indonesia to discuss their countries’ role in the Cold War, their economic developments and decolonization
* China played a big role in the conference and appeared to be the leader of the communist world, and other countries that had not picked a side in the Cold War

The Sino-Soviet Rift, 1958-1976

* As stated before, the Korean War played a big role in consolidating Mao’s power
* 1956 Nikita Khrushchev, Stalin’s replacement, had weakened Mao’s position when Khrushchev attacked Stalin’s legacy as a leader
* Because of this, Mao was fearful of the USSR’s relationship improving with the US and other western countries
* Mao accused Khrushchev of being a lowkey capitalist and betraying the revolution
* Tensions continued to rise between both sides when they failed to come to an agreement
* Additionally, Mao was prepared to go to war with Taiwan to claim back that territory, but the US threatened to intervene
* This forced Mao to back down
* Mao blamed the soviets for not offering their support, Khrushchev labeled the CCP as reckless
* Both countries took any opportunity to humiliate one another on the world stage
* During the Moscow country Chinese members walked out (1961)
* It seems like both courtiers were trying to become the world leaders of the communist revolution
* By 1960’s, all Soviet experts within government were kickout
* China produced its first hydrogen bomb in 1964, which alarmed the USSR because of Mao’s willingness to use it, which could jeopardize US-Soviet relations
* The tensest moment between the two was when as incident on the Sino-Russion border sparked a war - which only ended when both sides threatened to use nuclear power against one another
* The tension between both sides lasted until Mao’s death in 1976. His successor, Deng was a lot more tolerant of the USSR and the West

Relations with the US

* China: Anti-American feelings grew stronger during the Korean War and the Cultural Revolution
* US: Anti-Chinese feelings began with the CCP’s victory in 1949 and again, during the Vietnam war when China sided with the US enemy
* Mao always feared that the US would launch an attack on China, so Mao had a strong defensive strategy known as the “Third Line”
* Fortifying China, above and below ground, enough to withstand heavy bombing
* In 1971 Mao invited the US table tennis team to play in China against Chinese player, this paved the way for President Richard Nixon to visit China in 1972
* Although both sides were still divided, this took the Peoples Republic of China out of isolation, and diplomatic relations began.
* Additionally this was a way for Mao to undermine the USSR as a world power
* Eventually, the United Nations had accepted China’s seat on the Security Council - China now had the power to veto and block any resolutions that went against them

Relations with Other Nations

* China’s relationship with India was initially based on mutual border agreements but tension between both nations concerning the border sparked a war in 1962
* Relations between the two got worse when China sided with Pakistan during the 1965 war with India
* The relationship between the two did not stablize until Mao’s death, 1976
* Other relations
* The west showed little respect to China
* The UN criticized Mao for his policies in Tibet
* Relations with Taiwan were still hostile - to this day, Taiwan still claims to be the rightful representative government of China