MAO EMERGENCE

What methods of propaganda did Mao use?

• CCP University in Yanan - lectures and speeches on Marxist thought

• the Six Principles code of conduct for the Red Army

• Rectification of Thought campaign where new joiners + cadres educated on Marxist thought.

• Rectification of Conduct campaign party members self criticise - if revisionist arrested, tortured, sometimes executed. Many suicided rather than confess.

• Posters used throughout Sino-Japanese war to encourage rivalry, support for Red Army (as well as resentment for Nationalists)

• Red Army code of conduct for when seizing land - previous militaries resented for violent behaviour (could be example of Mao’s understanding of the peasantry)

How did Mao control opposition?

• ‘liberation’ of peasants by imposing Red Army, reallocation of land, non-conformists’ crops and livestock confiscated, taxes

• every peasant committee had to have CCP member to veto decisions

• 28 Bolsheviks and Li Lisan overcome by moral superiority from Long March and in depth knowledge of peasants

• rectification of conduct to rid revisionists within the party

• Chiang Kai-Shek distracted by Sino-Japanese war in 1945

• Mao’s adoption of attacking strategy against Nationalists

How did Mao use force?

Against military:

• Futian Incident 1930 - 4,000 Red Army tortured and executed

Against civilians:

• Red Army seizing control of neighbouring regions of Jiangxi by driving out/shooting landowners

• Non-conforming villages’ crops and livestock seized, ruinous taxes imposed

Against political opponents:

• Mao part of May Fourth Movement in 1919 in rejection of Paris Peace Conference

• Rectification of conduct campaign - purged revisionists within the party - imprisoned, tortured for confessions, sometimes executed. 60 suicided rather than confess.

• Mao’s attacking of Chiang and Nationalists during Sino-Japanese war in 1945 and overinflation of Communists’ role in anti-Japanese struggle

How did war impact the communist takeover?

• WW1 aftermath

  • failure of Paris Peace conference in acquiring lost territories

  • under authority of Qing, then Republic, then warlords - unstable gov.

• Japanese occupation 1931-45

  • Manchuria seized first then spread

  • Chiang slow to respond - CCP exploited this

  • Japanese diverted Chiang from CCP bases

• Chinese Civil War 1945-49

  • 1947-49 GMD failed to make major vicotries

  • PLA campaigns broke GMD’s grip on north, central, south

  • 1949 Chiang fled to Taiwan

How did social division provide the grounds for Mao to rise to power?

• widespread famines frequent when population doubled in 19th century, agriculture unable to keep up

• San Yatsen, founder of GMD, wanted ‘revolution against the world to join the world’, first step removal of Qing

• resentment at failure of Republic and May Fourth anti-government, anti-foreigner protests

• Nationalists, GMD, Chiang Kai-Shek vs communists, CCP, Mao - in Yanan cave dwelling standard practice to shelter from GMD air raids

• previous armies extremely violent with peasantry, Red Army instructed by Mao to endear the peasants to them

• warlords and factionism divided rural peasantry

• land allocation between landlords and peasants - reallocated by Red Army forcibly, landlords driven out or shot if not comply

• GMD increasingly unpopular during Sino-Japanese war

How did weak political systems enable Mao to take over?

• Qing Dynasty

  • unequal trade treaties with western nations since 1840s, heavily in debt to foreign banks, industry under foreign control

  • 1895 defeated militarily by Japan

  • not truly Chinese - Manchurian - seen as foreign government

• Qing abdicated 1911, replaced by Yuan Shikai and Republican government, 1916 onwards controlled by warlords

• 1919 failure of Paris Peace conference in regaining lost territory - May Fourth Movement

• CCP founded 1921, by 1924 allied with GMD in overcoming warlords

• 1927 alliance collapsed - CCP moved to Jiangxi

• Long March 1934 proved Mao’s military strategy and gave moral superiority within CCP

• revisionist and 28 Bolshevik sympathisers exterminated from CCP during rectification of conduct