Authoritarian states: Mao's China

Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) was an authoritarian dictator who ruled China from 1949 until his death in 1976. Mao’s legacy is mixed: he was a brutal ruler who was responsible for the death of millions of people, but he also introduced many aspects of the China we know today.

The Qing Dynasty, 1644-1912

• China’s last imperial dynasty, overthrown in the ‘Double Tenth Revolution’ of 1911

• The Qing were Manchu (as opposed to Han Chinese) from the far north (an area called Manchuria)

• The Qing kept many Chinese social structures but also introduced some of their own

• After a period of stability, in the late 1790s the Qing Emperor Qianlong began to make erratic decisions which sparked peasant revolts- this became an ongoing issue and was a major factor in destabilising the Qing

“mandate to heaven”

Permitted the emperor in the Qing Dynasty to put down any opposition/ threats to power

What was the impact of the presence of foreign imperialists in the 19th Century?

Increasing presence of foreign imperialists in China provoked resentment against Qing (Manchu) Dynasty.

• Led to large-scale rebellions which imperial rulers struggled to contain

• Most Serious rebellions were;

  • The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

  • The Boxer Rebellion (1898-1900) (Boxers murdered missionaries + Christian converts but were eventually crushed by a 50000 international relief force from foreign powers)

    • Imposed a $330 million fine on China → Fueled bitterness

The Opium Wars - Introduction

Britain attempted to balance this control by introducing Indian Cotton as a commodity which it hoped would be in high demand from Chinese - but this was not successful.

British merchants then hatched another plan in the late 1700s, and began to smuggle opium - a highly addictive drug - into China, which became in high demand soon enough. The opium was sold through Chinese gangs and merchants who got a share of the profit.

The opium trade was now benefiting Britain, making large profits. About 10 million Chinese people became addicted to opium, spending their days in opium dens.

The Opium Wars - Reaction/ Crackdown

• In 1813, the now-Emperor Daoguang (Qianlong’s grandson) banned opium but the illegal trade continued into the 1830s, only growing.

• Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu was put in charge of dealing with the problem. He ordered part of the top lip of opium addicts to be cut off to stop them using pipes! 

• Britain’s refusal to stop the trade, as well as their disregard for the social problems it had caused, resulted in the outbreak of the First Opium War.

“Critics compared the opium trade to the recently banned slave trade. The London government almost fell. In China, the Opium War gradually came to be seen as the beginning of a century of humiliations at Western hands.”

The First Opium War 1832-42

China suffered successive defeats and eventually signed the Treaty of Nanjing. This was a significant turning point as it granted the British advantages:

British were not subject to Chinese courts; Hong Kong became British; access to 5 important ports for trade and abolition of Cohong system; reparations payments; ‘Most Favoured Nation’ status (economic favour)

Australian historian Gwendda Milston: ‘...to the English it was not a war about opium, but a war to establish their right to trade under conditions they were accustomed to elsewhere.’

The First Opium war was the start of what became known as China’s ‘Century of Humiliation’, which didn’t end until the CCP’s victory in 1949.

The Second opium War 1856-60

Britain and France together defeated China again. Treaty of Tianjin was signed:

• More access to ports; France also granted ‘most favoured nation’ status; missionaries granted rights; the opium trade was legalised

• Though signing the treaty was seen as shameful act of Qing by many Chinese, the treaty had at first been refused and the British delegation arrested, but Britain responded by sending in military to force compliance

• Emperor Xiangfeng fled Beijing; he was viewed to have wasted his yang (masculine energy). British and French destroyed the capital.

The fight for China

• Between 1895-8 Britain, Germany, France, Japan and Russia all fought for ‘spheres of influence’ in China.

• In 1898 and 1899, China was on the point of partition between the imperialist powers.

• Russia forced the Japanese out of Manchuria

• Germany occupied ports in the Shandong Peninsula and the British took Weihaiwei. They also gained a 99-year lease on the Kowloon Peninsula.

The hundred days of reform

When Prince Gong died in 1898, Emperor Guangxu had a chance to implement sweeping reforms.

Between June and September he issued a series of decrees covering the following:

• New schools based on Western and Chinese learning

• End of Confucian examinations for aspiring public servant

• Removal of unnecessary Imperial departments

• Adoption of modern military drill for the armed forces

• More thorough accounting for court spending

• Support for new railways and farming methods

• Investment in mining and commerce

• The right of ordinary citizens to petition the Emperor directly

• Consultation with the Japanese on methods of reform

Empress Cixi and her reaction to reform

• However, not everyone agreed with the modernisation reforms. China still had a number of influential Confucianists who opposed the Hundred Days of Reform (which they viewed as attacking traditional Chinese culture).

• Seeing this unrest as an opportunity to seize power for herself, Cixi orchestrated a coup against Guangxu. He remained under house arrest until his death in 1908.

• Cixi immediately began to stop the reforms and purged the Qing court of anyone who was pro-modernisation. However, this came with significant consequences for the Qing…

The Boxer rebellion and its implications

• Originally, they were opposed to all foreigners including the Qing 

• In 1898 they were given approval by a Viceroy in Shandong.

• In September 1899 they began to attack all things foreign: around 250 Westerners and countless Chinese lost their lives.

• From late 1899 to mid-1900 a series of Imperial edicts encouraged them 

• by June 1900 they had reached Beijing. 

• Tensions escalated and the British moved troops to Beijing but they were pushed back.

• On 21 June Cixi declared war on the foreigners.

• The Boxers, with imperial troops lay siege to the foreign legations in Beijing.

• A nine-nation force of 18 000 easily defeated the Chinese by 14th August 1900.

• Beijing was pillaged and looted and Boxers were decapitated in great numbers.

Sun Yat Sen

Leader of the 1911 revolutionary uprising and leader of young revolutionaries (mainly townspeople, students + peasants).

• His revolutionary league, founded in 1905 was built on 3 principles:

  • Nationalism

  • Democracy

  • Improving peoples livelihoods through socialism

1911 Revolution

• Revolutionary conspiracy spread in Southern army units, → Toppling of Qing rulers

• Revolutionary alliance in Nanjing appointed Sun yat sen as president, but weren’t strong enough to wrest control away from the imperial government →needed military support

• Cemented deal when Yuan Shikai, the most powerful imperial general promised to support the revolution on the condition he took over as president

  • Infant emperor Puyi abdicated forming the Republic of China

Yuan Shikai + Republic of China

• Called for parliamentary elections in 1913

• When the revolutionary alliance (now the GMD) won elections he banned them

• Shut down parliament in 1914 and ruled China as an emperor

• 1915 submitted to most of the 21 demands imposed by Japan → Included German privilege to Shandong to Japan + allowing Japan to exploit mineral resources in Southern Manchuria

• Died in 1916 leaving China Weak + divided

KMT/GMD

KuoMintang/Guomindang

CCP

Communist Party of China

The Warlord period 1916-1927

• No effective central government in China

  • Power in the hands of regional generals/ warlords

• Had high taxes and lands were looted/pillaged often

• Anarchy + division made it easy for foreign powers to interfere

• China weakened by the loss of Tibet, Xinjiang + Outer Mongolia

The May Fourth Movement 1919

• End of WW1 increase Chinese humiliation

• China provided allies with 95000 labourers to help with the war effort in 1916 and many died on European soil

  • Given with the expectation Shandong would be returned after Germany’s defeat

• Treaty of Versailles in 1919 gave Japan the German concessions in China

• Prompted nationwide demonstrations + Student protests in Beijing on May 4 1919

  • Denounced the 21 demands

• Protestors felt betrayed by Western powers + Japanese expansionism

Emergence of Mao + CCP

• CCP formed in 1921, led by Chen Duxio + Li Dazhao encouraged by Comintern

• Mao was a founding delegate and was a Marxist convert

Comintern

Communist internation → set in 1919 Moscow to spread communism worldwide

The First United Front

CCP + GMD enouraged to form alliance by GMD

• Ideological conflict but united goal to defeat warlods

• Formed the First united front in 1924

• Supported by establishment of Whampoa milotary academy → providing a military force to support GMD’s political aims

Chiang Kaishek

• Leader of United Front after Sun Yat Sen’s death in 1925

• Right-leaning and suspicious of CCP

The Northern Expedition 1926-28

100000 men left Guangzhou in 1926 May to conquer Fujian, Jiangxi + Nanjing

• Made rapid advances against the warlords

• With successes of taking being poised to take over Nanjing + Shanghai tensions rose

• Chiang saw communist activism as a threat because it would undermine middle-class support

Mao’s return to Hunan 1926

• Organised peasant association to support the UNited Front campaigns

• Seen as a leader against the warlords + landlords

The White Terror 1927

• Chiang Kaishek wanted to reassert authority + GMD supremacy

• Used support of landlords, warlords, secret societies + criminal organisation to ‘purge’ communist organisations in Shanghai

• Followed by violent confrontations in Wuhan + Hunan

• United Front collapsed, Manchurian Warlord Zhang Zoulin seized control of beijing + joined forces w Chiang

• Wang Jiwei renounced GMD leadership + supported Chiang

• Chiang established nationalist government in Nanjing

The Nanjing decade

The Nanjing decade is an informal name for the decade from 1927 to 1937 in the Republic of China. It began when Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek took Nanjing from Zhili clique warlord Sun Chuanfang halfway through the Northern Expedition in 1927

“Land Law” 1928

Land taken from landlords + redistributed among pesants

• Mao Advocated moderate land reform but extreme ver in 1931 implemented where land confiscated from richer peasants

The Futian incident 1930

• 4000 Red Army troops were tortured + executed on Mao’s orders → regarded them as rebels

• Authoritarian methods against opposition

The long March 1934-35

• 1934 GMD forces encircled Jianxi soviet → Chiang hoped to starve CCP to defeat by building defensive fortifications to consolidate army positions

  • CCP faced annihilation + forced to retreat

• 100000 CCP troops fled from Jiangxi Sovet to Yanan, Shanxi (Long March) and abt 11000 km

  • Took over a year + gave CCP legend for propaganda

  • only 20% survived

Yanan 1935-45

• Surviving marchers settle in Yanan

• Mao asserts personal authority and through political & militiary skill - as well as violent repressiosn Mao overcam

  • Opposition by opponents + comintern

  • Rebuilding CCP support + military

  • Ideological conflict

How did Mao win over the peasants/ People?

Peasants:

• Land redistribution + rent control

• Campaigns to wipe corruptions + improve literacy

Other:

• industrial workers

• National bourgeoisie

• Nationalist stance against Japanese invasion won popular support

‘Rectification campaigns” in 1942 → forced confession/ removal of opposition

Mass line 1940’s

CCP policy aimed at increasing + cultivating contacts w masses + showing leadership role of part

• Close relationship w people

Mao’s Ideology

• Role of peasants instead of proletariat class

• 2 stage revolution instead of 1

  • Overthrow feudalism

  • Socialist government

• Contextualised Mao’s brutality

Japanese invasion 1931-45

• Japan invades + consolidates control by puppet ruler Puyi

• Prompted Second United front in 1937 after full scale invasion

• weakened GMD + Strengthened CCP

GMD Weakness during Japanese invasion

• Missions to try reinvigorate Second United front refused by Chiang → Widening gulf between ccp + gmd

• Corruption + poor conditions for soldiers/ peasants → led to attempted desertation

• Chiang leadership became dictatorial → police used to torture/ kill civilians

  • Intellectuals turn to communism

• Hyperinflation bc of Chiang + declining economy

• Increased government taxes

Chinese Civil War 1945-1949 - GMD strengths

• 4 to 1 outnumbered

• air force

• equipped for conventional battle

• USSR gave aid

CCP Strengths Chinese Civil War

• reputation of GMD was corruption, inflation + repression

• Party propaganda

• Chiang made strategic mistakes

• Lin Biao’s military expertise in making CCP Red Army a fighting force

• CCP win in 1949

Historiography

• Intentionalist - Role of individuals

• Structuralists / functionalists - Other factors long term

• Marxists - Economic

• Revisionist - Challenge orthodox historiography/perspectives/ views it in a new light

What period of time did Mao consolidate + Maintain power?

1949-76

Concerns after the formation of the People’s republic

• Communists faced stiff opposition within the country + internationally

• Chiang Kaishek + nationalists continued fighting before fleeing to Taiwan in December → posed invasion threat

• UN accepted nationalists in Taiwan not CCP

• Opposition parties in China existed → threatened CCP control

• Party Cadres weren’t trained for governing

• Communists feared seperatists elements in China’s remote borders would undermine unity

• High expectations in a war-weary nation used to inflation, unemployment + corruption

• Rebellions (esp in the South) by villages resisting grain requisitioning + imminent land reform

Cadre

Devoted Communist Party workers who spied + reported on fellow CCP members + public

Structure of the PRC

China divided into six regions governed by a bureau of 4 major officials

• Chairman

• Party secretary

• Military commander

• Political commissar

PLA officers filled in last 2 posts → China under military control

Central Authority → with Central People’s Government Council

• Comprised of 56 leading party members

• 6 served vice-chairmen under Chairman Mao (highest authority)

People's Liberation Army (PLA)

The People's Liberation Army is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party.

Reunification campaigns

A means of CCP to secure control of China + its borders; Claims that these were areas which were historically part of China

• Invaded western/ southern regions

• Entered Tiber in 1950 → Marked beginning of regime of terror + suppression

• Acted with similar brutality in Xinjiang and secured it in 1951

The Anti-movements

• 1951 Mao announcd “three-anti campaign”

• 1952 exteended to ‘“five-anti campaign”

3 anti targets:

• Waste

• Corruption

• Inefficiency

5 anti campaign

• industrial sabotage

• tax evasion

• bribery

• fraud

• theft of government property

Reactionaries and counter-revolutionaries

Those deemed to be remants of the “bureaucratic capitalist class”

• Ie middle class bourgeosie

Mao regarded its destruction essential for revolution → only 1 class (proletariat)/ revolutionary workers would exist

Censorship + propaganda

• Censorship rampant

• Newspapers in 1949 advertised Communist propaganda

  • Communist rallies/slogans/songs advertised

• very successful → people thought this was part of national transformation

Thought reform/ Re-education

In government offices, factories, workshops, schools + unis people were ‘re-educated’ needing to learn party doctrine / confess / admit past mistakes

The Great Terror

• Household registration system → Could be family/ collective unit (factory dorm/ hospital department)

• People were given class label ‘good’ ‘middle’ ‘bad’ on basis of party loyalty

• Could be inherited → determine a persons fate and became key in ensuring conformity

Denounciation

Turning on ‘enemies’ of the revolution → high profile usually but also friends, children

• Street had appointed watchers → Kept CCP informed by anyone suspicious

• ‘bad classes’ interrogated by police

Labour camps

• Modelled after the Gulag → dated back to early days of CCP

  • “Counter'-revolutionaries” sentences to hard labour

• 1955 Camps had 2 million people (90% political prisoners

• Poor working conditions

• 25~ million people died in Mao’s camps

Mass killings

• Regime’s enemies were imprisoned/ executed/ interrogated/ kept under surveillance

• CCP turned on gangs/ triads (secret societies) in a mass killing

• Mao issued killing quotas → official figures come to light but many not recorded

Land reform

• Land confiscated from landlords + resdistributed to peasants/ former tenants

• “speak bitterness” campaigns + violence used to humiliate, punish + eliminate landlords as a class (2-3 million killed)

• Villagers locked into cooperatives → easier to monopolise over supplies

• Hunger + famine because of high state levies

1 party state

1949 - 10 seperate political parties (Left GMD, Democratic league + splinter parties)

• All eliminated in political purges

National People’s Congress (NPC)

Responsible for deicding national policy (but actually party officials oversaw election process so anyone critical of Mao couldn’t stand)

Politburo

Leading members of CCP

Democratic centralism

Only leaders were educated in revolutionary science (i.e accepting ultimate authority of Mao)

The Korean War (1950-53)

North Korea (USSR) vs South Korea invasion (United States) in a war attempting to seize each other’s territory

• Notion of Communism as a ‘monolithic’ force

• Mao supported invasion but his priority was to pull in PLA for reunification campaigns in Tibet/ Liberation → he may have had a Taiwan invasion in mind + wanted to test Stalin’s resolve

• China sent aid ~3 million

• Campaigns to “resist America, aid Korea, preserve our homes, Defend the nation” → “Hate America” supported by relentless propaganda

• Accused USA of germ warfare in Korea → CCP propaganda went into overdrive but 1953 concluded PRC allegations were false

Zhou Enlai 1898-1976

Premier + Foreign Minister in 1949

• Able diplomat → seen as a moderating influence during the Cultural revolution

Lin Biao 1907-1971

Communist military leader (played a key role in CCP Victory) → instrumental in creating Cult of Mao + Directing PLA during the cultural revolution

The impact of the Korean war on China

• Claimed propaganda victory → blostered prestige at home/ abroad

• China’s economy severely hit (1951, 55% of spending was millitary expenses)

• Urban economy suffered + would require a decade to recover

• Pressure to repay Stalin for Soviet Supplies

Party purges

Mao turned on 2 CCP leaders Gao Gang and Rao ShuShi → claimed they abused their positions + established ‘independent kingdoms’

Dismissed by the central councils

Witch-hunt followed as other leaders were denounced + sent to prison camps for “treachery” + splitting the party

→ reminder to tow the line

Mao’s grip on power (maintenance) 1955-1976

• Cusp of political upheval

• Mao wanted to fulfull ideals of revolution but paranoid about losing grip on China

The impact of de-Stalinisation

1956 - Nikita Khrushchev denounced Stalins ‘cult of personality’ → Speech affected soviet states and in china there was strikes + protestts in rural / urban areas

• Mao interpreted it as denouncing ‘cult of personality’

• 1956 references to Mao Zedong though removed from CCP charter

The “Hundred Flowers” Campaign

• Early 1957, slogan '“Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend” Our society cannot back down, it could only progress… criticism of the bureaucracy is pushing the government towards the better.’

• Critics attacked party + Mao of corruption + lacking realism

Mao halted the campaign and launched an anti-rightist movement → force his critics to redact their criticisms, Deng Xiaoping led the campaign

Only way to escape denunciation was conformity

Outcome:

• Mao strengthened position in party + country

Historiography regarding Hundred Flowers Campaign

• Jung Chang argues it was a deliberate trick by Mao → Wider ploy to control party + society

• Lei Feignon (US Scholar) revised it arguing he was more pragmatic. Wanted inefficiencies of bureaucracy to be identified

• Jonathan Spence → argues it was the result of confusion in the party over the pace of industrial + agricultural reform

Purge of Peng Dehuai

Peng Dehuai PRC’s Minister of Defence openly spoke of famine caused by Great Leap forward

Was denounced bc criticism was treason

Tibetan Uprising 1959

• Tibet rose against Chinese occupaion

• Chinese authorities met nation uprising with suppression + mass arrests

• Tibetan religion came under attack

• 20% of population imprisoned + half died in prison

Motives for the cultural revolution

1.) Power Struggle – After the GLF, Mao’s own political position was weakened and his economic policies rejected. He wanted to defeat his opponents and regain political supremacy. 

2.) Purify Communism – Mao hated the development of a new CCP middle class which he saw as corrupt. He also labelled the economic reforms of moderates as ‘capitalist’ or ‘Revisionist’. Chinese culture also had to change.

3.) Education & Culture – Education was attacked as it produced this ‘bureaucratic class’. It needed to be more revolutionary, less academic. Traditional Chinese culture was seen as ‘Bourgeois’.

4.) Mao’s Comeback – Mao was confident enough to launch the Cultural Revolution as from 1965 he gained the support of Lin Biao and the PLA. He created the ‘Red Guards’ and used propaganda to ensure support.

Lu Shiaoqi (1898-1969)

Revolutionary succeeding Mao as President in 1959 → purge as Mao’s successor during the Cultural Revolution in 1968 + died in 1969 from harsh conditions

Chen Boda 1904-1989

Leading communist intellectual → helped Mao carve Maoist ideology

The Cultural revolution

1962 Mao retreated politically but growing popularity of Liu Shiaoqi and Deng Xiaoping caused him to reassert his authority

• Mass political upheaval leading to genocide, class war, cultural destruction + economic chaos

• Enabled Mao to be at forefront of CCP + undisputed leader of China

The Little Red Book

• Compiled by Lin Biao in 1960s

• Saying of Mao and became central to training PLA soldiers

• 750 million copies sold

• Enshrined Mao as a cult leader, was a social necessity in schools + at home + became a vital point of reference in solving disputes

Rallies

18 August 1966 mass demonstration organised by Lin Biao + Chen Boda took place in Tiananmen Square. 1 mill + people waved little red book copies + chanted slogans

The red guards

• groupings of college and secondary school students who embraced the cult of Mao and the aims of the Cultural Revolution

• supported by the PLA under Marshal Lin Biao and Mao’s wife Jiang Qing

• Mao denounced the ‘Four Olds’: old culture, ideas, customs and habits. Jiang Qing turned Mao’s slogan into a programme for eradication of traditional Chinese culture

• A ‘Pretarian Culture’ was created and Lian Biao ordered the PLA not to oppose the Red Guards who attacked anything seen as ‘capitalist’ or ‘bourgeois’.

• “If the proletariat does not occupy the positions in literature and art, the bourgeoisie certainly will.” - Lin Biao, Head of the PLA

• Aug 1966 - Mao ordered them to ‘bombard the headquarters’ and attack the CCP from the top down. They soon went on the rampage

• Children denounced their own parents as anti-Communist. Schools closed and many teachers were beaten and abused

• By 1967 law & order had broken down as Red Guards fought ‘reactionaries’ with the death of over 400,000 across China.

• “We are the critics of the old world; we are the builders of the new.”

Red guard targets

Sanctioned by Ministry of Public security + gave info on

• Landlords

• Rich peasants

• reactionaries

• bad elements

• rightists

The ‘Four Olds’

• Old ideas

• Old culture

• Old customs

• Old habits

Attacks on moderates, Deng Xiaoping, Liu Shaoqi

CCP moderates removed/ targeted by Red Guards

Deng Xiaoping + Liu Shaoqi denounced as revisionists

PLA + Red guards movement to countryside

1968 Red guards getting out of hand

• Industrial production affected

• Schools + Unis shut down

• Orders given from PLA to live among the peasants

• Many were unprepared for the hardship and began to question their idealism/ Mao’s goodwill.

Historiography of the Cultural revolution

Long-term Cultural Factors - Cultural Revolution was a playing out of tensions behind the peasant uprisings that China had experienced from Han times onwards. Not enough to blame Mao or Lin Biao alone. Deeper examination of cultural and societal forces needed

Societal Pressures since 1949

Pre-Cultural Revolution social tensions led to the Red Guard violence. Students had to fight for dwindling opportunities. Abuse and violence grew as the students tried to show their devotion to the cause. They resented the subordinate status that had originally been placed upon them. Authoritarian personality characteristics that the Red Guards learned were powerfully linked to a new system of political socialisation that was based in the schools. The decline of the family as a socialisation agent was replaced by the authority of the state, and school-learned socialisation.

Power Struggle

Cultural Revolution limited political power and played a large part in the Post-Mao reforms in China. CR was not an abrupt break from the past but a continuation of a self-limitation of political authority that existed also in China’s traditional political system. CR and Red Guards were expressions of profound crisis in integration. In the struggle for power, two political forces divided the Chinese people and refused to be integrated. The use of violence WAS controlled, achieved the desired social change with the least disruptive effects.

Indoctrination and the Cult of Personality

Examined how the political upheaval affected people’s lives, challenging Tsou’s thesis. CR as tragedy not politics. Based largely on interviews with survivors conducted in 1981-82. CR surpassed only by the Nazi Holocaust. Explained Red Guard cruelty but stating that morality was a product of education, not inherent in nature. Cult of Mao elevated Mao to god, unquestioning faith and obedience. China had never been a society where individual judgement was encouraged. Role of the leader always more important than that of the individual. Mao’s power only served to enhance traditional subservience before authority.

Nature of Regime and Societal Pressures

The nature of Chinese politics was a system that bred both fear and compliance and made it possible for the mass campaigns of terror and intimidation. Red Guards viewed the CR as the struggle of one class to overthrow another. Blamed the frustrations of the Chinese students as a cause of the violence of the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned students who were frustrated over policies that kept them from obtaining political advancement because of their family backgrounds fuelled the revolution. Millions of disgruntled urban students who had been relocated to the countryside during earlier campaigns. Mao used this to his advantage. Red Guards became the new vanguards of the revolution.

The Lin Biao Affair

Appears Lin feared for his life and plotted to remove Mao. Once leaked to Zhou Enlai, he made a desperate attempt to escape to USSR by plane but crashed in Mongolia and killing all on board

The Tiananmen incident

1976 Mao Zedong died

Jiang Qing

Wife of Mao

• allowed Jiang to enter political fray in 1959 because she advocated Maoist thought

• Would be a brutal enforcer of cultural reform + led ferocious attacks against “counter-revolutionairies

Foreign policy

Wanted China to gain recognition as a powerful independent state

• Though inconsistent policies China remained independence

The Bandung Conference 1955

• April 1955, representatives from 29 government of Asian & African nations gathered in Bandung, Indonesia to discuss peace + role of countries in the Cold war, economic development + decolonisation

• China played important role

• After Stalins death Mao appeared to be leader of communist world and non-Cold War aligned countries recognised him as leader of world stage

Sino-Soviet rift 1958-1976

• Khrushchev post Stalins death wekned Mao’s position and contributed to the chaos of 100 flower’s campaign

• Mao fearful of Soviet relations w West → Chinas subsequent isolation

• Accused Khrushchev of revisionism + betraying the revolution

• Tensions increased when both sides failed to find agreement, even when Khrushchev visited B eijing in 1 9 58. In that year, Mao was braced for war with Taiwan. In response, the USA prepared to retaliate, so Mao backed down, blaming the Soviets for not offering their

  support. Khrushchev denounced the CCP as reckless. The PRC deliberately pursued policies against the USSR in Albania and

  Yugoslavia. Diplomatic relations were severed at the Moscow C onference of 1 961, when Zhou Enlai and the C hinese delegation walked out. Fierce Sino-Soviet propaganda played on the bitter recriminations between

• both countries, as each side jockeyed to humiliate the other on the world

  stage. What was really at stake was which of the two powers would be

  the leader of worldwide revolution.

  By the mid- 1960s, all S oviet experts and advisers were withdrawn from the PRC . Despite this, C hina produced its first hydrogen bomb in 1 964 and, to the alarm of the S oviets, Mao announced his willingness to use it. Relations continued to deteriorate under Khrushchev's successor, Leonid Brezhnev. The lowest point in relations was in 1 969, when a relatively minor incident sparked a war on the Sino-Russian border. Only the threat of nuclear war ended the conflict.

• The Sino-Soviet rift lasted until Mao's death in 1 976. His eventual successor, D eng Xiaoping, adopted a more tolerant approach to the USSR and the West.

Relations with the US

The CCP victory of 1 949 ushered in decades of tension with its traditional

western imperialist enemy, America. Anti-American campaigns intensified

during the Korean War and the C ultural Revolution. Tensions were

heightened by China's moral and diplomatic support of the USA's enemies

during the Vietnam War. Like Stalin, Mao always feared that the western

powers would launch an attack on China. He devised a defensive strategy

for China, known as the "Third Line". This was a plan for a vast network

of fortifications across China, both above and below ground, to withstand

heavy bombardment.

Mao steered China on a new course in 1 971, when he invited the US table tennis team to play in C hina. Zhou Enlai and Henry Kissinger steered negotiations, which became known as "ping-pong diplomacy".

By warming to the USA, Mao aimed to undermine the position of the USSR as a world power. He was also prompted to begin a Sino-American detente because the United Nations had accepted China's seat on the S ecurity Council. China now had the power of veto to block S oviet-initiated resolutions.

Mao invited President Nixon to China and greeted him in 1 972. This parting of the B amboo C urtain was a major diplomatic success for both former rival nations. Although much still divided the two countries, the PRC crept out of isolation. By 1 979 both countries had established full diplomatic relations.

Relations with other nations

Relations with the West showed little mutual respect. The UN heavily criticized Mao for his hardline policies in Tibet. Relations with Taiwan were always hostile and, despite Mao's attempts to regain Taiwan for the Chinese mainland, Taiwan has remained independent to this day.