Chinese History Weeks 6-7

Mukden Incident

1931: False flag attack staged by the Japanese on a railroad in Manchuria (mukden). This was used as a pretext by Japan to take over the whole of Manchuria and establish a puppet state there (Manchukuo). Japanese aggression against China continues, without signs of halting.

Manchukuo

japanese puppet state in Manchuria established in 1931 after the Mukden incident. It was headed by Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty. Japan able to experiment with industrialization in Manchuria, and it also provided a staging area for future invasion of China itself.

Second united front

Established in 1936 after Chiang Kai Shek was kidnapped in the Xi'an incident. Chinese warlords including Zhang Xueliang kidnapped the head of the KMT. Ask CCP if they should turn him over to them. However, under orders from the USSR (who sought to curb Japanese expansion in the far east) the CCP instead agrees to form a united front with Chiang to oppose Japanese encroachments into China. Different terms than the first united front. Zhou Enlai joined Chiang's wartime cabinet, and the CCP eighth route army and new fourth army were technically included in the wider KMT force.

Marco Polo Bridge Incident

July 11, 1937. Fire exchanged between Chinese and Japanese troops at the Marco Polo bridge near Beijing. The Japanese, looking for a pretext to invade China, latch onto the incident to justify military action. Chiang decides that no more concessions can be given; China decides to fight. This began to Second Sino-Japanese war.

Nanjing Massacre

After a fierce battle in 1937, Japanese forces take over Chiang's capital in Nanjing. In a multi-week incident, the defiant city is put to the sword in a manner more akin to 10th century warfare than the 20th. Hundreds of thousands of Chinese are killed and/or raped in a multi-week bloodletting. Public opinion turns against Japan, particularly in the Western world, as they look like bloodthirsty aggressors. Furthermore, any pretensions about a "east asian co-prosperity sphere" that included China as a constituent is de-legitimized.

East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere

Japan's concept of an east asian union that would bring it out of the clutches of European imperialism, led by a strong Japan that could these areas instead. Ostensibly sought to 'liberate' Manchuria and china from the west, but was in reality an imperialist project that did not see the other two as equal partners, but purely as subjects.

"collaborationist nationalism"

Scholars have used this term to make sense of the actions of collaborators in wartime who frame their collaboration with an enemy nation in nationalist terms. Wang Jingwei, a former KMT party member who led a collaborationist government in China during Japan's invasion, is one example. Wang framed collaboration using Sun Yat-sen's own language, arguing that Japan's tutelage would allow China to realize its dream of modernization and self-sufficiency better than it was able to doing on its own and under Chiang Kai-shek.

People's Democratic Dictatorship

This concept arose from Mao's 1949 speech and outlined his understanding of China's situation after the Civil War. In this text, Mao calls for a united front between peasants, proletarians, and national bourgeois -- a triumvirate that, for the time being, would form "the people" of China. Mao excludes the KMT bourgeoisie from this definition, and notes that class divisions still existed in China. Mao also stated in this speech that Western forms of democracy and capitalism have become "bankrupt in the eyes of the Chinese people."

Korean War

1950-1953, War between south and north Korea with UN Intervention. China intervenes as UN forces pour into NK -- Peng Dehuai leads a secret crossing of the Yalu river and brings the war back to a stalemate. China's international prestige rises and it understands the US as its main enemy. Wartime situation increases surveillance and political suppressions.

land reform

CCP sought to break up concentrated private property and redistribute land. Sends work teams to the countryside to assess land and class status. After this rough classification, a mass meeting was held where people could "speak bitterness" against the landlords, leading to beatings. After this, land was redistributed, and then collectivized in stages. First encouraged to join productive cooperatives. In 1954-1956, this process hastens towards full collectivization. State taxes production, collective keeps a ration, and then sells rest to state. Taxes are payed in kind.

"leaning to one side"

This refers to the early CCP policy of taking the lead from the USSR, following Stalin's model of 5-year plans and industrialization (focus on heavy industry). Ensured that China had a natural ally and also gained some economic support/expertise from the Soviet Union who had undergone collectivization and industrialization in the past.

Five Year Plan

This refers to the Soviet practice of longitudinal economy planning that sets certain development and production goals every five years and how these plans are to be met. Agricultural surplus in the countryside was directed toward urban areas to allow for industrial growth. The Stalinist model often focused on heavy manufacturing industries -- peasants bear the brunt of this in China, as many migrate to the cities to aid industrialization and agriculture is taxed to facilitate this shift.

Ethnic Classification Project (1954)

CCP abandons the idea of national self-determination for ethnic minorities in areas like Tibet and Xinjiang. Instead, they seek to bring them under the national umbrella. CCP sends ethnologists in the countryside in 1954 to determine ethnic makeup of the nation. In first attempt, over 400 variations were included in ethnologists findings. Ethnologists lacked categories to understand these ethnicities, and they were constructed through ethnologists/minorities interactions in the countryside.

hu kou system

household registration -- system of registration that allowed you to live in a certain area and gain access to benefits in that area. It tied people to their land and locality, allowing for central planning to organize who lived where -- important for things like organizing food distribution and industrialization/urbanization planning.

Dan Wei

Work Unit -- urban phenomenon. Physical site and institution that bound people to a particular workspace and also provides social services to its workers. Each work unit also had party organs within it. Work units had control over one's "dossier" which documented political leanings and class history. Two work units had to agree in order for a worker to be transferred to another workspace. Allowed for strict control and economic planning/organization.

Thought reform

During the 1950s, intellectuals were submitted to thought reform and had to self-criticize any views that were considered to be outside the party orthodoxy. All publications needed to conform to party line, and any intellectual considered to be heterodox was highly scrutinized and submitted to this kind of self-criticism.

Hundred Flowers Movement

Announced by Mao in 1956 in his speech on "letting 100 flowers bloom," Mao called for intellectuals to criticize the party and its failures . First people who come forward are praised for their criticisms, but the criticisms turn into a deluge, and Mao does a sudden about-face into the anti-rightist campaign in 1957-1958. About 1/2 of China's intellectual elite were accused; 3,000,000 labeled as rightists and 500,000 sent to the countryside. Rise of a new elite that was ideologically loyal but not technically experts.

Big Character posters

Associated with mass political campaigns in the Mao era, political slogans and orders of the day -- be they grassroots or top-down -- were pasted in prominent places to direct mass energies against enemies or toward new policies. Could be subversive or serve party interests. They were used extensively in the Hundred Flowers campaign, and appeared in all prominent political campaigns and protests subsequent to this one.

Great Leap Forward

1958-1961: Agricultural and industrial movement meant to propel China forward into modernization. Lack of agricultural production hampers heavy industry development, leading for Mao's call for a great leap. Mao ignores advisors, and calls for a new revolutionary consciousness to drive economic development and surpass Britain/US. Mass labor mobilizations to complete massive work projects (like dams). Attempts to create small-scale industry in the countryside. Final stage of collectivization -- creation of large agricultural communes. Mao connected production to politics --> the revolutionary needed to put all effort into this production.

Inflated production numbers increases state taxation, leaving nothing left to eat. Militarization of society around these goals.

"Three Hard Years"

1959-1962. This refers to the years of famine during the GLF that resulted in 30,000,000 deaths approx. Encouraged to inflate production numbers, local party organs would not leave enough food for their own people, leading to mass starvation. Culture of revolutionary zeal meant that acknowledging the famine was potentially harmful. People trapped in food deserts because of the Hu Kou system.

Lushan Plenum

1959: Mao removes Peng Dehuai (minister of defense) for criticizing the GLF, and insisting that politics cannot ignore economic realities. Mao labels Peng a counterrevolutionary and imprisons him. Signalled that the GLF could not be criticized in these terms.

Liu Shaoqi

Replaces Mao in 1961 as the head of state. Mao acknowledges that the GLF has failed, and resigns his post. Liu is able to mitigate some of the problems by allowing for small private plots to offset famine, and limited amounts of local marketization. He would later be a primary target of the cultural revolution.

"Red" vs. "Expert"

way of thinking about political dynamics in China and how it was going to modernize. Reds were idealogues and militant about forward progress -- someone like Mao or Lin Biao. Ideology came before all else. Experts were more managerial in outlook, and favored gradual reform and realistic goals over grand narratives and mass campaigns. A good example of this outlook was Liu Shaoqi.

Cultural Revolution

Beginning in 1966 (early period 1966-1969): political campaign launched by Mao after being pushed out of the party following the GLF. Mao sought to mobilize a mass campaign against "bourgeois" influence in China's "superstructure," moving away from typical marxist influence on the economic base. Mao holds ultimate and arbitrary power, leveraging mass mobilization to target the party. Targeted the growing bureaucratization and revisionism within the party.

Bureaucratism

Buildup of institutions to manage the new state creating a new kind of elite based purely on the state. Characterized by corruption and slow movement/lack of initiative. Separated from the masses and concrete conditions on the ground.

Revisionism

In the CR context, this was driven by USSR's repudiation of Stalin in Kruschev's 1956 "secret speech." Mao and other radicals worried that there were members of the party that would seek to push China more toward capitalism and privatization. New technocratic elite seen as abandoning the egalitarian dream of Marxist/Maoist socialism. Mao thought there was an "enemy within" the party that needed to be cleansed.

Class origin vs. Class status

Class origin describes the class of one's parents and other relatives. It is the class you are "born into" rather than the one you inhabit in your relations of production. Class status normally describes where you fit in the economic structure -- where do you fit in the existing relations of production and how does that impact your life/interests?

Bloodline theory

This was popular among the Red Guards during the Cultural Revolution, and conflated the boundary between class origin and class status. Instead of status being derived from your position in the economy, it was understood to be inherited from one's parents. This meant that people's family heritage became a political issue, and people were persecuted for this status as more classes became defined as antagonistic to the people.

Red Guards

Mao encouraged criticism of reactionary officials, academics, and exploiting classes in an effort to transform China's superstructure. Mao also believed that students needed to learn revolution in practice. Students across China took up Mao's call, and the radical descendants of revolutionary heroes formed "red guard" units that were highly exclusive based on class status.

Little Red Book

A book containing selected quotations from Chairman Mao that became a cultural revolution symbol among the Red Guards. Mao's thought and personage became the focal point of these radical students' organizations. Also used to indoctrinate PLA soldiers and ensure the army remained loyal to Mao.

attack on the "four olds"

The four olds were old ideas, customs, culture, and habits, and this reflected an impulse in the cultural revolution to completely shatter the "old China" that had existed prior to 1949. Religious symbols, elements of antiquity, and modern architecture, were all targeted.

Sent-down youth

This refers to the urban children, many of them descended from persecuted party members and bureaucrats, who were sent all over the Chinese countryside to reform their thinking and learn from the peasantry. Several million children were sent to the countryside beginning in 1968, and this was a traumatic and formative experience for many. Difficult to integrate easily into rural life, and many end up returning to urban life after the experience. Produces a wealth of "scar literature" describing in vivid detail the difficult experiences these youths faced, especially women faced with sexual violence.

Lin Biao

Lin was minister of defense beginning in 1959, and was instrumental for Mao's control over the PLA. Lin played a integral role in developing Mao's cult of personality, helping to publish the little red book in 1964. Lin advocated for Mao to promulgate a more radical, global, anti-imperialist line to bring the third world into China's camp. Lin was designated as Mao's successor in 1966 until his death in 1971. Lin and his family died in a plane crash in Mongolia, allegedly trying to flee to the USSR after a failed coup attempt against Mao. However, the specific manner of his death and reasons for the sudden flight remain shrouded in mystery. Lin's allies were purged, and factional divides among the party and mao's followers grow.

Zhou Enlai

Zhou was able to fill Lin's vacated position, and was a much more moderate figure. Zhou had advocated a policy of peaceful coexistence with the west after the Korean war, and plays an instrumental role in the thaw in Sino-US relations. Zhou was immensely popular for resisting the more radical excesses of the so-called "gang of four." Zhou's death in 1976 sparked massive public protests leading to a Tiananmen square incident. Deng Xiaoping, one of Zhou's allies, ultimately is able to gain power after his death.

Deng Xiaoping

Deng was a prominent party leader who was purged twice in the Cultural Revolution by Mao. Despite this, Deng is able to maneuver himself politically, guiding the moderate wing of the party to power over the so-called "gang of four." This allowed Deng and his faction to effect a massive change in policy in the "reform and opening up" era that saw China change rapidly toward greater marketization and trade with the outside world. (role of purged and sent down youth in the party is significant).

Nixon visit and Shanghai communique

Nixon visited China in 1972, marking an about-face in foreign policy that had hitherto favored the ROC in Taiwan. Nixon's visit was the beginning of a thaw in US-China relations that focused on reaping economic benefits and leaving political problems aside. This helped both parties gain leverage over the USSR in their respective feuds with them. Kissinger and Zhou Enlai worked behind the scenes to make this happen, and laid groundwork for the US to eventually switch its recognition from the ROC to the PRC.

The visit resulted in the Shanghai communique which stipulated both parties desire to work toward common interests on economic and foreign policy, leaving key political questions aside for the meantime.

Gang of Four

Radical Maoist faction during the cultural revolution. Composed of Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen. This faction was influential during the latter end of the Cultural Revolution, but lost out to an internal power struggle after Mao's death. Mao's successor, Hua Guofeng was able to outmaneuver them and gain the PLA's support. Each member was subsequently put on trial, with Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao given life sentences.

1981 Party Resolution

Resolution by the CCP in 1981 under Deng's supervision that put forward the Party's "official" understanding of Mao's life and legacy. The resolution understood his legacy to be mostly positive, praising his role in the civil war and war against Japan. However, the GLF and CR were understood as errors and stains on this legacy. Gave rise to the saying "70% correct and 30% incorrect" assessment of Mao's legacy. Deng played an important role in ensuring that Mao's legacy wasn't completely tarnished in the resolution.