Part 3: Transition to Socialism

When did the CCP announce they were transitioning to socialism, and how would they do it?

1953, CCP announced that they were entering a new phase towards socialism.

Involved industrialisation, agricultural development, and more collective ownership of land and industry.

Estimated 15 years

What was the ‘general line’ and how would this affect socialist developments?

The ‘general line’ was political, leadership, and organisational methodology, which Mao followed.

The general line stated that the United Front was NOT abandoned, the bourgeoisie would still have key roles, and transition would be slow…reassuring.

Detail the structure of leadership, and how this affected socialist development

Leadership supported general line.

→ “democratic centralism”= allowed to debate to an extent

→ Politburo makes decision. All party members must follow.

→ After the policy is set, people can still debate about implementation

Who was Gao Gang?

Gao Gang was a leading CCP official in Manchuria in 1949, who supported Mao in criticising Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi.

Detail the purge against Gao Gang and Rao Shushi

1953, this was Mao’s first major purge since CCP leadership.

Shushi and Gang believed they had Mao’s backing, so tried to usurp Enlai from his position. BUT, Mao then used the Dec 1935 meeting to accuse them of ‘building independent kingdoms’

What was the aftermath of the 1953 purge against Gao Gang?

Gao Gang killed himself, and Shushi died in prison.

It is a SIGN. event: it showed that democracy is not really established at all, and no debating was encouraged. The CCP members were expendable and Mao had the upperhand always.

Why did CCP not like intellectuals?

Access to higher education was expensive, so usually came from landlords or bourgeoisie families. They were often educated in foreign universities, or Chinese unis with western foundations, so were treated with SUSPICION

But they were needed to help with economic growth

Why did intellectuals stay in Maoist China?

Intellectuals stayed in China for work, but did not expect how open criticism and free expression were seen as ‘self indulgence’ of the bourgeoisie, and even ‘counter revolutionary thought’

Who was Hu Feng?

Hu Feng was a writer in 1955, writing about how CCP stifled creativity and art.

He was dismissed from writers’ union, charged as a GMD agent, and imprisoned

What was the Anti-Hu Feng campaign?

CCP eradicated ‘Hu Feng’ elements from the intellectual world, proving that the price for debate was too high to pay. 2000 of Feng’s supporters were criticised

What was the Hundred Flowers campaign, and when was it?

The Hundred Flowers campaign (1956-7) supposedly allowed intellectuals to openly voice criticism against the CCP.

Why did Mao launch the Hundred Flowers campaign?

• Mao wanted support from public to speed up econ. changes and deter peasant resistance

• growing ‘bureaucratism’ becoming an issue→ party officials being alienated from ppl

• Following de-Stalination, Mao was under fire, so used HFC to ‘rectify’ the Party and make its own brand of socialism

What did Mao say would happen to his opponents?

Only ‘a gentle breeze and mild rain’ would be directed at them. Vs. “a desperate attempt to stir up a typhoon” from Rightists.

Why was the launching of the Hundreds Flower campaign not successful initially?

Worried that encouraging criticism from non-Party intellectuals would undermine the Party.

1956, w/o full support, couldn’t launch HFC. 1957, took a 3 week journey to convince local Party officials and finally, Politburo sanctioned the campaign.

What went wrong following the Hundred Flowers campaign?

A HUGE amount of criticism for the regime. Mao had expected criticism of the system and methodology, not HIM

What was the anti-Rightist campaign?

He shifted from ‘flowers to bloom’ to removing ‘poisonous weeds’. Defensive. Started attacking anti-Party ‘rightists’ (500k intellectuals branded rightists).

There were even quotas put into place for a set number of Rightists that had to be killed

What is the controversy over the Hundred Flowers campaign?

It is unknown whether Mao planned for this to happen, and used it to root out ‘undercover’ Rightists to further cleanse his Party, or if he in fact genuinely believed the Chinese people would have no criticism towards him and his ideals. Thus, had to cover up this mistake

‘after the anti-Rightist campaign, no one opens their mouth’

What are some reasons to why Mao launched the Great Leap Forward (his second Five Year Plan?)

• Revigorate peasant support following the first

• Wanted to continue revolutionary through mass mobilisation - get everyone involved

• Extending military discipline to every day life

What was Mao’s ideals for the Great Leap Forward?

Mao made a motto of ‘greater, faster, better, cheaper’

He wanted to grow the two legs together without practicing consumptionism, as well as defeating the west.

HOWEVER, China was not ready to adapt to mass production

What was the issue of sparrowcide?

It was an obviously not thought out part of Mao’s Four Noes Campaign. It damaged fragile food webs, which meant sparrows’ actual prey- caterpillars- ate the harvest instead

Highlighted disproportionate relationship between Mao’s call for action and consequences

What were communes?

Collective farming communities; the developed version of APCs

What were some issues of communes?

All items were ceased and collectives, and family ties were seen as ‘bourgeois emotional attachments’

Only the Party cadres benefitted - officers of the Peoples’ Communes

How did China’s debts worsen the Great Leap Forward?

The 1959 spring harvest was disastrous. The little successfully cultivated wheat was immediately sent to the USSR to pay off debts.

Mao wanted to pay off these debts as soon as possible, even at the cost of thousands’ lives

What was the Eight Point Agricultural constitution?

A more ‘scientific’ approach to improve crop yield; terrible advice from the USSR Lysenko: i.e plant crops closer to eachother

That, and the claim for everyone to plant ONE type of wheat, was spread throughout the WHOLE country; huge disaster

What were Party cadres?

They were the leaders of the Peoples’ Communes, and were the ones responsible for planning, as professionals had been fired

They often just played to Mao’s opinions and views, and neglected reality, as they didn’t want to be rid of. INEFFECTIVE

Why did the GLF fail?

• 1959, China’s weather conditions also worsened yield.

• Anti- Hu Feng Campaign purged many valuable experts who had made the First plan succeed

• Wasted a huge amount of labour and materials resources

• Mistake of not prioritising active peasant co-operation..not as enthusiastic.

A quote from Mao in his secret meeting in 1959

Mao is fully aware of how bad the famine is, and still orders the party to procure 1/3 of all grain

“It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill”- encouraging selectivism?

Stats for GLF

• In Suzhou, only half of a bag of rice ever reached its final destination; this led to an underground black market, which often benefitted people who could already feed themselves

• 50k died from workplace accidents in 1959. Ppl not taught properly, bc they’re so urgent for econ. development. So hungry their cognitive capabilities are lacking

What was the incident of white clay?

A quarter of a million tonnes of mud were dug out and eaten by more than 10 000 people. Although it was filling, once dried, the mud acted like cement and absorbed all the moisture within the body, leading to a painful death,.

What were the cases of cannibalism within Mao’s Great Famine?

There were many cases of cannibalism, i.e a woman dug out her son and husband’s corpses from the grave and ate them

The officials had an apathetic tone, claiming it was a result of ‘livelihood issues’; disregarding their own part within the famine.

What were the backyard furnaces?

As part of a plan to beat the west’s steel production, Mao ordered peasants to make their own backyard furnaces, and melt down their own farming equipment and pots etc.

Most of this steel was unusable, and it was conclusively a waste of labour efforts

What were the issues with the quotas?

Mao made unrealistic quotas for agricultural and economic development; cadres were awarded for their success, and so many lied about reaching their absurdly high quotas.

In response, Mao would rise them, again, and so the figures collected were actually MASSIVELY inflated.

Detail Mao’s resignation from his role as Chairman of the CCP

1958, the gov claim that Mao’s “wish” was to no longer be the Chairman, but still Chairman of the Central Committee (which still pretty much bled into every aspect of the CCP)

Mao is still very much in control, BUT it still is a setback in his career

What letter did Peng Dehuai send Mao?

1959, before the Lushuan Conference, Dehuai sends Mao a private letter; “we forgot the mass line and the style of seeking the truth from the facts”

Very kind, but Mao prints it out for everyone to see

What happened in the Lushan Conference?

1959.. Following Dehuai’s letter, he is labelled as an ‘anti-Party clique’, and is then imprisoned a few years later, after the Cultural Revolution.

In private, many conference attendees agreed with Peng!

What are some key take-aways from Mao’s speech at the Lushan Conference?

• whole speech is contradictory; he likes criticism but not at him

• he is callous, and talks about the Great Famine with apathy. “too few vegetables, too few hair-grips”, isolating him from the people even more

• “Should Marx also have been killed?” associating with USSR, and also asking for endurance

• “overthrow the government. I will go and find a Red Army and organise another Liberation Army”

Describe Mao’s apology in the 7000 Cadre Conference in 1962

Essentially did acknowledge his own blame but immediately tries to diffuse it and spread it to everybody else too; it’s not just his fault.