Mao's China: Establishing a Communist State (REDUX))

Outline Party Support before 1949

Mao preferred to cultivate support in the Chinese peasantry that comprised 80% of the total population

* Most peasants were illiterate and could not understand Marxism
* However, the peasants still supported the CCP to improve conditions and escape poverty
* The People’s Liberation Army was composed of peasants and became the subject of jokes in cities
* There were anecdotes about soldiers, such as when a soldier that tried to wash rice in a toilet
* In 1949, one million bandits were estimated to be in the countryside

Define the 1949 Common Programme

A temporary Constitution in 1949 that declared China to be an alliance between the peasant and worker classes represented by the Communist Party

* Although the Party was perceived as the leading vanguard Party, eight other ideologically similar political parties were established
* Established the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference from 1949-54 to provide the legal basis of the Chinese government
* Reformed China to be divided into Administrative Regions that were governed by a regional bureau

Define the 1954 Common Programme

The 1954 Common Programme was a revised version of the 1949 Constitution

* Declared that ‘all power in the People’s Republic belonged to the people’ and replaced the CPPCC with the National People’s Congress, which met annually
* Mao described the Congress as the epitome of ‘democratic centralism’ as the voice of the people which passed from local provinces to the government
* However, the National People’s Congress was effectively a rubber stamping board
* Reformed the Administrative Regions and divided China from 6 regions to 21 provinces, 5 autonomous border regions, and 2 urban centres (Beijing and Shanghai)
* According to Hua-yu Li, the 1954 Common Programme led to China officially becoming a communist state

Define the Regional Bureaux

The Regional Bureaux controlled their respective Administrative Bureau and were composed of four official posts


1. Government Chairman
2. First Party Secretary
3. Military Commander
4. Army Political Commissar

Since two official posts were controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, the regional bureaux ensured political and military domination of China

Define the Chinese Communist Party

The Chinese Communist Party coordinated political and administrative campaigns

* Party membership increased from 4.5 million in 1949 to 5.8 million in 1951
* The Party was controlled by the Central Committee with 49 members, which was subsequently controlled by the Politburo with its 25 members that was under the leadership of the Politburo Standing Committee
* By 1953, the Youth League membership increased to over 9 million, while the Women’s Federation had approximately 76 million members

Define the Central People’s Government

While power was maintained in the CPPCC and later the National People’s Congress, the government enjoyed independent power

* Political power was consolidated into the People’s Government Council, later the State Committee in 1954, which combined legislative and executive power
* Zhou Enlai became the Premier of the People’s Republic and coordinated the Council/Committee

Define the People’s Liberation Army

The Party controlled the Army through the Military Affairs Commission, which would consolidate power through terror campaigns and the Korean War

* The Army suppressed banditry in the countryside and created a source of legitimacy for the Communists
* The Army formed work teams which taught at schools and coordinated construction projects
* After Kuomintang raids, such as in February 1950, the Army coordinated relief and reconstruction
* After the Korean War, the Army was reorganised into a modern military by Peng Dehuai
* Conscription reduced from 5 million in 1950 to 3.5 million in 1953
* The Army offered new career opportunities and taught their soldiers to read and write
* A 1955 Conscription Law ensured 800,000 new recruits annually

Define Terror under the People’s Republic

Historian Lee Feigon argues Mao was ‘ruthless… but not bloodthirsty’ in his terror

* Mao used terror to consolidate support from the peasantry
* In 1946, the ‘Land to the Tiller’ Campaign encouraged class struggle, where many landlords were attacked and killed
* In 1950, Agrarian Land Reform removed the legal protection of landlords and was estimated to have resulted in the deaths of a million landlords
* Mao indirectly attacked opposition, in which he would ‘arouse the masses of the people’ into a ‘united front’
* In April 1951, “How to Hold an Accusation Meeting” was published to encourage participation
* The use of the people to create an atmosphere of terror discouraged opposition

Define the Counter-Revolutionaries Campaign

In March 1950, the Counter-Revolutionaries Campaign aimed to eliminate Kuomintang spies

* The Ministry of Public Security asked former Kuomintang to register their name, alongside former associates, to ‘start life anew’, who would then be arrested overnight
* Mao targeted the black classes, which were ‘political reactionaries’ and the landed class
* In the first-half of 1951, 800,000 were executed
* Many in struggle sessions were executed
* The Party restricted the power of opposition through political terror
* The Danwei was a permit that people required to have a job
* The Hukou was a permit that families required to own accommodation
* The Dang’an was a dossier that recorded details about an individual’s personal life which
* The Army was also mobilised to attack criminals, such as the Triad, which led to 28,000 deaths in Shanghai

Outline the Changing Support of the Middle Classes

Under the Kuomintang, the middle classes were the financial and administrative backbone of the state

* Under Mao, the middle classes were invited to retain their positions to serve the new government
* Former Kuomintang were allowed to participate in the CPPCC
* After 1950, the Counter-Revolutionaries Campaign led to the denouncement of former Kuomintang
* Missionaries and foreign businessmen were also forced to leave China during the ‘Resist America, Aid Korea’ Campaign
* Members of the bourgeois classes often accused or scapegoated others within the bourgeois and landed class to escape terror

Define the Three Antis Campaign

In August 1951, Mao called for a ‘clean up throughout the Party’ to consolidate power in the Party after the arrests of Zhang Zishan and Liu Qingshan due to embezzlement

* Mao employed Minister of Finance Bo Yibo to lead the campaign, where Bo Yibo targeted:
* Corruption
* Waste
* Bureaucracy
* Small-scale criminals were referred to as ‘flies’, while large-scale corrupt officials were referred to as ‘tigers’
* By February 1952, Bo Yibo claimed that he had hunted ‘100,000 tigers’
* Many accusations were actually false to avoid persecution

Define the Five Antis Campaign

The Three Antis were expanded to the Five Antis in January 1952 and targeted the bourgeois classes

* Mao expanded the accusations
* Bribery
* Theft
* Tax Evasion
* Cheating on Government Contracts
* Espionage of State Intelligence
* The Party streamlined the process by introducing ‘Denunciation Boxes’ to accuse the bourgeois and force struggle sessions
* 99% of Shanghai businessmen, such as Robert Loh, were accused and found guilty

Outline the Consequences of the Antis Campaigns

Increased the dominance of the Party, since fines were used to strip the bourgeois of their wealth, which was increased state funding

* The Party was seen as an incorruptible force that stamped corruption
* Struggle sessions were popular, with over 30,000 attending meetings against local Party bosses
* Fear of accusation made civilians more loyal to the Party, which established the totalitarian state
* 1% of victims were shot, 1% were jailed for life, and 3% were jailed for more than 10 years
* Suicide after the humiliation of a struggle session was common, and so police patrolled parks to prevent public hangings

Outline the Laogai System

A network of prison camps where prisoners were instructed to ‘reform through labour’, which resulted in an estimated 15 million deaths

* By 1955, 1.3 million were forced to undergo forced labour, most of which were political prisoners
* In 1955, The Laogai supplied 700 million Yuan in industrial products and 350,000 tonnes of grain
* Hundreds of Hebei salt miners died every month
* 1/3rd of Guangdong tin miners either committed suicide or died of disease within a year

Define the Hundred Flowers Campaign

On 2 May 1956, Mao declared “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend.”

* Because of the 1955 Hu Feng campaign, intellectuals were reluctant to criticise Mao
* Mao continued to press for criticisms to the National People’s Congress in November 1956 and in a February 1957 speech
* After the success of the Korean War and First Five Year Plan, Mao may have been over-confident that intellectuals would help stimulate economic output
* Mao additionally feared that the ‘revolutionaries had become rulers’ and wanted to avoid international criticisms after Khrushchev’s Secret Speech

Define the Anti-Rightist Campaign

After heavy criticisms in Springtime of 1957, Mao announced that ‘poisonous weeds’ had grown among ‘fragrant flowers’

* By 1958, 400,000-700,000 intellectuals were purged and sent to the laogai system
* Cadres were instructed to arrest 5% of a Danwei for being a Rightist
* Party members who were accused of being a Rightist such as Ding Ling were expelled
* Han Suyin suggests the Hundred Flowers Campaign aimed to ‘lure the snake out of the hole’ and eliminate the intellectuals
* With the Hundred Flowers Campaign, there was no political opposition left against the Party

Outline the Reunification Campaigns

Mao mobilised the Army to invade the peripheral border regions

* In March 1950, Peng Dehuai coordinated the Han-Chinese Migration into Xinjiang
* While the Party claimed that they were building industrial sectors in Xinjiang, the Migration has been criticised as being cultural genocide
* During the Suppress the Counter-Revolutionaries Campaign, an estimated 28,000 were executed in Guangdong

Define the Invasion of Tibet

In October 1950, Mao launched an invasion on Tibet to ‘liberate it from imperalist oppression’

* Mao perceived the Dalai Lama as a rival and wished to eliminate him
* In 1959, the Dalai Lama was forced to flee due to fears of persectuion
* The Army stormed Lhasa and forced Tibetans to sign the “Agreement on Measures for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet”, which imposed Beijing rule
* Mao intended to increase the Tibetan population to 10 million through a Han-Chinese Migration
* Mandarin Chinese became the national language and Tibetan cultural identity was attacked
* Tibetan borders were redrawn to assimilate regions into Sichuan

Define the Korean War

On 25 June 1950, Kim Il Sung launched an invasion on South Korea, whereupon the UN launched a counterattack at Inchon that advanced towards Chinese borders

* Against the Politburo and Lin Biao, Mao mobilised the Army to ‘resist the attacks of American imperialism’ and repel the UN back to the 38th Divison
* Mao had signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty which benefited Chinese interests with a $60 million loan and provided Soviet specialist workers
* Mao was reluctant to become involved but understood the threat a UN border territory had for his China
* According to Chen Yi, Stalin was moved and exclaimed, “The Chinese comrades are so good!“
* Mao used the War to create a common enemy for the Chinese and attack Western influences, which established his “Resist America, Aid Korea” Campaign
* Mao was able to consolidate power in China with the more powerful Army and pretenses for terror
* Foreign bureaucrats were ejected from China

Outline the Consequences of the Korean War

By the end of the Korean War in 1953, 400,000 Chinese soldiers were killed and $10 billion had been spent

* China received international acclaim after their resistance against the ‘paper tigers’


* By 1953, Sino-Soviet relations plummeted as the Chinese saw themselves as Soviet pawns
* However, the Chinese were forced to rely on the Soviets for economic aid because of tensions with the West
* In June 1950, Truman created friendly relations with Taiwan to prevent Chinese threats
* The Korean War justifed American military investment and Japan as an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’