Authoritarian States Rise and Maintenance of Power: Mao's China

Guomindang (GMD)

Guomindang (GMD)

Nationalist political party founded in China in 1912; it governed China from 1928 to 1949

Double 10 Revolution

Fall of the Qing Dynasty due to long term inequality, failures to industrialize, imperialism, losing wars to European powers then Japan

warlords

These were generals who commanded bands of soldiers who terrorised peasants into giving them food and paying taxes

Sun Yat Sen

Founder of a revolutionary league in 1905, which was instrumental in the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty in a revolution in 1911. In January 1912, he became president of the new Chinese republic but he resigned in March 1912 to avoid civil war

Jiang Jieshi (also known as Chiang Kai Shek)

Became leader of the GMD in 1925, hated Communists, betrayed them ending First United Front. After the GMD's defeat by the communists, he fled to Taiwan in 1949

Shanghai Massacre

Just as the First United Front (GMD+CCP) was about to finish the Northern Expedition and defeat the warlords, Jiang and the GMD betrayed the Communists, purging hundreds in Shanghai in 1927.

Chinese Civil War- Phase 1

1927-1936- GMD vs CCP- GMD largely controlled the country, CCP stayed alive using guerrilla tactics and hiding up in the mountains

Mao Zedong

Became leader of the Chinese Communist Party in 1935, Chairman of the People's Republic of China 1949-1959

The Long March

From 1934-35, Mao escaped the GMD encirclement and led his men on 10,000 km walk, stayed alive, later important in propaganda.

Second United Front

1936-1945- CCP and GMD stopped fighting each other to fight against Japan in Second Sino-Japanese War (WWII)

Second Sino-Japanese War

Aka WW2- 1937-1945- Japan, which already had Manchuria, invaded the rest of China in 1937. The GMD led the fight against Japan, with Mao and the Communists hiding up north and using guerrilla tactics.

People's Republic of China

Name of Communist China, which Mao declared in 1949 in Beijing

collectivisation

The creation of a socialist economy by removing private ownership and making peasants work together or 'co-operatively' in order to cultivate the land.

nationalisation

State ownership of industry with control over supply and production

Lin Biao

a military commander for the CCP. In 1949 he was ranked as second to Mao in the governing hierarchy, helped lead Mao's comeback in the Cultural Revolution

Zhou Enlai

From 1949 he served Mao as Prime Minister and third in the hierarchy after Lin Biao. He was regarded as a moderate, particularly in foreign affairs.

Maoism

The identification of Chinese communism with Mao personally, celebrating peasants, not just proletariat.

PLA

People’s Liberation Army (formerly the Red Army)

Politburo

An inner core of around twenty leading members of the Communist Party

‘Reunification’ Campaigns

the euphemism used by the Chinese government, forcibly bring in provinces into line in 1950

Anti movements

Movement targeting those accused of crimes such as tax evasion, corruption and waste. Important for Mao’s rise to power in 1950s China

United Nations Security Council

Top 5 members of the UN who have veto power. When Jiang fled to Taiwan he kept China's vote and veto until 1973.

Purges

A system of terror used by Lenin and Stalin in the USSR and Mao in China for removing anyone regarded as a threat to their authority.

Rightists

Those who argued for a slower, less violent development of revolution

Revisionism

Departure from true communism, a blanket term applied to any idea of which Mao disapproved

Red Guards

Units of young people, specially trained by Kang Sheng, the head of Mao's secret police, to act as terror squads during the Cultural Revolution

Struggle sessions

A method for breaking victims' resistance by forcing them to engage in intense self-criticism until they confessed their guilt

Corrective labour

A euphemism for enforced work in harsh conditions to oblige the victim to acknowledge his former mistakes

Gang of Four

A group of extreme hardliners drawn from the Chinese Communist Party's Shanghai faction and led by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, leaders of Cultural Revolution

Laogai

The term, which means 're-education through labour,' came to be used to describe the extensive prison-camp system which operated under Mao, like a gulag

Communes

Extreme collectivization of agriculture, living, schools, child care, and others, peasants were forced into these starting in the mid 1950's.

Command economy

An economic system in which the means of production are publicly owned and economic activity is controlled by a central authority.

Backyard furnaces

Way to make iron during Great Leap Forward, farmers were encouraged to melt down all metal (including important tools) to produce more, over 90% of the iron/steel produced was useless.

Collectivization

Originally adopted by the Soviet government in the 1920s and 1930s, this policy forced the peasantry to give up their individual farms to join large, state-owned collective farms

Five Year Plans

A programme for development based on a set of production quotas.

footbinding

Practice of binding women's feet to make them very small. First banned by GMD, enforced better by CCP

Sino-Soviet Split

Break between the USSR and China especially after Khruschev's Secret Speech

Great Leap Forward

Mao's ambitious plan in 1958 to catch up with the West with backyard furnaces, higher quotas, and mass collectivization, a massive failure which caused 20-35 million deaths

Swimming the Yangtze

Propaganda swim of China's famous river by Mao in 1966 to show he was still strong, led to his comeback

Little Red Book

Small book of Maoist thought (propaganda) used to make military, then students loyal to Mao, important during Cultural Revolution

Great Proletariat Cultural Revolution

1966-1976- Mao's comeback, when using the military and Red Guard support he returned to control of China, going after enemies and arguing for 'constant revolution'