China theme 1

Areas in Reunification Campaigns

Tibet, Xinjiang, Guangdong

Tibet under Chinese control

May 1951

60,000 attempted to resist

soldiers positioned in Lhasa- reps of Dalai Lama had no choice but to sign terms for merging of Tibet and PRC

migration of Han chinese into Tibet

Mao nov 1952- announced desire to raise population of Tibet from 3 mill to 10mill

PLA built massive highway to Tibet- twin aim of improving infrastructure and destroying trad ways of life

Role of Danwei

Allocated food, housing and clothing

What were Dangans

Dossiers containing info on anyone who came to Party's attention

Number of criminals arrested

150000

Who was 'The Tank'

Tao Zhu

Role of Tao Zhu

Clampdown on nationalists in Guangxi

Bandits killed in Guangxi

46000

Rao Shushi's proposal

Killings should be extended to within the Party

Mao accepts Rao Shushi's ideas

March 1951

how many died in terror of 1951 (Party estimate)

710000

how many died in terror of 1951 (Historian estimate)

2 million

'Three Antis Movement'

1951-2 August- July: Tackled corruption, waste and delay in Party

targeted ‘obstructionist bureaucracy’

'Five Antis Movement'

Tackled bribery, tax evasion, theft, fraud and espionage- businesses found guilty forced to pay hefty fines or sell stock to state creating joint public-private enterprise

middle classes and private businesses targeted

wives denounced husbands with red ‘Denunciation boxes’

When was the Five Antis Movement

Feb- May 1952

‘tiger beaters’- intimidated and tortured ‘capitalist tigers’

Robert Loh recalls ‘sight of people jumping out of windows became common place’

inspiration for antis campaign

Yan’an rectification campaign- ‘thought reform movement’ during civil war, party members intimidated by struggle meetings and forced to write self-criticisms, some imprisoned and executed

'Flies'

small scale embezzlement

'Tigers'

Larger corruption

of 'tigers' Bib Yibo claimed to have hunted down in Feb 1952

100000

Laogai in 1955

more than 1.3million undergoing forced labour

incl. members of Triads, and ‘political prisoners’ - 300,000 doctors, engineers and experts who had been rounded up by anti-counter revs

conditions in the Laogai

digging reservoirs or building roads, dangerous work e.g digging uranium mines

diarrhoea and dysentery common

Sichuan- inmates made to build a railroad in middle of winter, but many not issued with trousers so froze to death

Hebei- salt mines, hundred died each month

evidence state viewed laogai inmates as expendable

‘it is better for prisoners to die than to flee’- head of Public security bureau

How many died in laogai 1949 - 1972

25 million

what were laojiao

‘Reeducation through Labour Camps’- developed 1957 to hold victims of anti-rightist campaign- abandoned all pretence of judicial procedures as inmates could be held indefinitely

economic contribution of Laogai

mid 1950s- over 700mill yuan in industrial products and 350,000 tons of grain to economy

thought reform

"the physical and mental liquidation of oneself by oneself"

Who did Tao Zhu take orders from

Luo Ruiqing

foreign business assets frozen

december 1950

example of hatred of foreigners

canadian nuns who ran an orphanage accused of killing 2,000 babies - rallies held against them

rifles collected in Guangdon in 1951

500,000

scale of five antis movement

feb 1952 - 3,000 meetings held in Shanghai

how many tibetans fought the PLA

60,000

army sent into tibet

oct 1950

how many killed in shanghai as part of crackdown on crime

28,000

who did mao identify as establishing 'independent kingdoms' in 1954

rao shushi and gao gang- first major internal power struggle within CCP, prompted Mao to centralize authority

effects of gao gang and rao rashi affair (1953)

gao gang commits suicide, rao rashi loses position

how many landlords were killed in the early 1950s

one million

agrarian land reform - effect on landlords

stripped legal protection from landlords

agrarian land reform date

1950

industrial output in 1949

44% below the 1937 levels

food production in 1945

30% lower than 1937

how much of chinese land was cultivatable

15%

chinese population in 1949

541 million

chinese population in 1953

587 million

organisations like All-China federation of Democratic youth helped to indoctrinate young people and All-China federation of Women helped to mobilize women in support of regimes campaigns e.g birth control or divorce rights

evidence of inflation post civil war

1946- 100 yuan only enough to buy an egg

1949- carts used to transport banknotes

GMD regime printed money to bankroll its armies which led to hyperinflation

evidence of poor state of chinese industry

one observer wrote that Shenyang, largest industrial city in Manchuria had ‘been reduced from a great industrial city, into a crowded, way station’

est half of railway network in China destroyed

nationalists had fled to Taiwan with many gold and silver reserves as well as precious artefacts from Forbidden city and many of the educated elite had fled (lack of technical expertise)

NRC set up

1932

how much of industry was state owned in 1945

70%

gov controlled press agency

xinhua

slogan which garnered communist support among peasants

‘land to the tiller’- precursor to land reform

many peasants illiterate and incapable of understanding Marxist thought

first meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultive Conference (CPPCC)

september 1949

what was the CPPCC

body of 662 delegates created Common Program for China- provisional constitution to provide legal basis for a new republic 1949-54

some pluralism e.g only 16 formal CCP members, L-W guomindang members invited and ‘democratic personalities’ - but mostly for propaganda purposes and had little power

Common Program

1949-54

in theory- freedom of speech, religion, equal rights for women, universal education

Mao named head of state, soviet style central economic planning was a goal and emphasised leading role of CCP, but 8 political parties recieved legal status

1954 constitution

democratic centralism- ‘all power in the People’s republic belongs to the people’

National Peoples Congress- law making parliament, in reality acted as rubber stamp

new structure of govt- three branches

• CCP- Central committee (49) dominated by Politburo (14) ultimately controlled by ‘Standing committee’ (with Mao as chairman) (5)- CPPC obeyed politburo orders

• Central peoples govt- democratic centralism- 1954 State council (Zhou enlai)- coordinated ministries

• PLA- ‘all power lies in the barrel of a gun’

how many CCP members by 1950

5.8mill

how was china divided

into six nations

why was gao gang significant

held all 4 posts (military commander, political commissar, gov chairman, party secretary) in Manchuria

Shaun Breslin on regional bureaux

‘many of the new civilian leaders simply transferred out of the military into the new party state. They were, in effect, soldiers into civvies’

PLA roles

• Learn from the PLA campaign- ‘Peoples soldiers’- PLA recieved exemption from legal authority

• Used to round up criminal gangs and bandits- good way of increasing national support as thee groups had terrorised many

• Key role in spreading communist influence e.g reunification campaigns in Tibet and Xinjiang aswell as chasing remaining GMD out of mainland China

• economic role- rebuilding China’s national infrastructure

• Propagandic role e.g model soldiers during Korean war

PLA economic role

• economic role- officer’s dependants compelled to work in cooperative farms, work teams of PLA contributed up to a weeks free labour a year to help construction projects/teach in schools

  • 50 men commanded to jointly raise at least one pig

  • helped w/ 4 pests campaign 1958-61

democratic centralism

at a local level villages and towns elect representatives who travel to regional congresses to represent views and regional congresses elected representatives up to centre- but no choice to vote for different political party

no of bureaucrats in 1949

720,000

no of bureaucrats in 1959

8 million

zhou enlai

premier of the state council

spending on korean war

occupied half of government spending in 1951

impact of korean war

30% fall in foreign trade over a six month period

pla in 1950

5 million

reduced to 3.5million 1953 as part of effort to abandon old guerrilla tactics

PLA conscription law

1955- ensured 800,000 new recruits each year

soldiers called it the ‘big university’- taught to read and write, indoctrinated

example of how party was able to use Korean war to clampdown on political dissent

decree of Feb 1951 titled ‘Regulations regarding the Punishments of Counter-revolutionaries’ extended definition of ‘counter-rev activity’ to include all forms of dissent e.g those who studied in US or had families in Taiwan

how did party use mass participation to spread terror

April 1951 Ministry of public security produced manual ‘How to hold an Accusation meeting’- public struggle sessions + responding to ‘will of masses’ often led to death

govt recorded death of about 800,000 counter-revs in 1st half of 1951

no of prisoners in laogai by 1953

two million

economic impact of laogai

contributed 700 million yuan in industrial products a year by 1955 and 350,000 tonnes of grain

Zhisui li on Mao’s view of reeducation

Observed Mao believed ‘opponents would be reformed within work units’

Mao declared ‘an untrained horse can’t be ridden’

‘Rectification of the party’

Mao- ‘the revolutionaries had become rulers’- bureaucratization of the party, hoped intellectuals would criticize the more conservative communists

Reasons for Mao launching Hundred flowers

• Economic production had stalled- Mao believe would need support of intellectuals and scientists to catch up with West?

• Rectification of party- encourage intellectuals to criticize actions of conservative party members

• Khrushchev’s 1956 secret speech- prove he was not a dictator?

• expected endorsement of policies from intellectuals that would allow him to introduce communism rapidly

when did mao first call for open debate

april 1956

2 May 1956- ‘Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools contend’

Little impact- intellectuals former harsh treatment e.g antis campaign

what did Mao shout at editor of Peoples daily for not publishing documents in support of the new campaign

‘Shit or get off the pot’

2nd attempt in hf campaign

Feb 1957 speech to Supreme State Council Conference- ‘let a hundred flowers bloom’

admitted 800,000 Chinese had been killed and implied class struggle now over

preface to the hundred flowers campaign

purge of 100 intellectuals after Hu Feng spoke against the party

how many arested in the hundred flowers campagn

500,000

democratic wall

beijing, june 1957

criticisms of party incl- compared to Nazis at Auschwitz, privileged lifestyle of party members

one poster warned ‘dissatisifed peasants could throw Chairman Mao’s portrait into the toilet’

Mao’s reaction to hf criticisms

Zhisui Li- stayed in bed depressed

anti-rightist campaign

june 1957

peoples daily- ‘handling contradictions’, personal criticism had been too far, declared ‘poisonous weeds’ had grown up among ‘fragrant flowers’

Crimes liable for punishment included ‘opposing socialist culture’

prominent politician forced to apologise in hf

zhou enlai

terror during anti-rightist campaign

Cadres given a quota of 5% of a danwei to be condemned as rightist

400,000-700,000 intellectuals purged, even party members e.g Ding Ling

evidence hf campaign was deliberate

• Han Sunyin supporter of the regime wrote 1976 it was ‘a deliberate strategy by Mao’ to remove enemies of communism

• 2005 Jung Chang and Jon Halliday- ‘devious plan’ to ‘set a trap’

evidence hf campaign was accidental

• 1990 Jonathan Spence argued Mao launched campaign out of sense of security- feeling triumphant and secure enough to be less authoritarian, wanting to ‘instil the idea of flexibility and openness into the govt

• 2002 Lee Feigon - ‘effort to change the political climate, to stimulate innovation and initiave’

germ warfare scare

feb 1952 - april 1953

annual budget for 1951

75% than 1950

killings in hubei

220 in jan 1951, 45,000 in oct

how many arrested on 28 April 1951

17,000 (after military official shot in Shangdong)

quote from mao

"all power lies in the barrel of a gun"

why was guangdong important

guangzhou - gmd capital

reunification of guangdong

capitulated 2 weeks after the prc declared in beijing

est 28,0000 killed in ‘Suppress the counter-revolutionaries’ campaign

why was xinjiang important

80% uyghur population- feared separatist element

govt sponsored in-migration of Han Chinese

catalyst for the antis movements

arrest of zhang zishan and liu qingshan for embezzling money from the party

when did mao first call for open debate in hundred flowers campaign

april 1956

date of hungarian revolution

oct 1956