1) Establishing Communist Rule, 1949-57

What were the problems in China 1949?

• 80% of the population were peasants.

• Confucianism (550Bc)

• 1949, factory output was 44% below 1937.

• 5% worked in industry.

• Guomindang controlled Taiwan for over 50 years.

• The Chinese Communist Party members only made up 1% of the population.

What was mao’s saying to which explained his strategy?

‘Win over the majority, oppose the minority and crush all enemies separatly’

How was the new provisional constitution made?

In September 1949, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference was held.

Here, 662 delegates (most non-CCP) drew up the Common Programme

Common Programme = provisional constitution until 1954.

The CPPCC & Common Programme gave a facade of democracy to the Chinese Communist Party.

How long was the Common Programme for and what did it do?

1949 -54

All except ‘political reactionaries’ would enjoy freedom of ‘thought, speech, publication, assembly, etc.’

Although it emphasised the leading role of the CCP, it accepted a multiparty system, within which 8 parties received legal status.

Soviet-style central economic planning was a goal

Mao was named as Head of State.

What was the National People’s Congress? (NPC)

The National People’s Congress was established in September 1954 and meets yearly.

The new constitution (1954) stated that power came from the people. - Democratic Centralism

In reality, the NPC could not deviate from central decisions. - ‘rubber stamp’

This was ensured via Liu Shaoqi = Chair of the NPC Standing Committee.

What was the role of the Chinese Communist Party? (CCP)

Real power lay with the CCP under Chairman Mao Zedong.

Central Committee (49); Politburo (25); Standing Committee (5).

Mao = Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Party.

1949 = fewer than 4.5 million members.

1950 = 5.8m party members

What was the role of the State Council

The equivalent of the Sovnarkom/Council of Ministers.

Council headed by Zhou Enlai

Zhou was in charge of 24 ministries, inc heavy industry

Zhou & Liu = members of the Standing Committee of the CCP.

What was the role of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

PLA had more political power than the Red Army.

‘All political power lies in the barrel of a gun’ = Mao

The Party controlled the PLA via the Military Affairs Commission, led by Mao

PLA helped to restore order by suppressing 100,000 ‘bandits’

What was the overall Political Structure of 1954 Constitution?

Central Committee = 49 members (Lowest power)

Politburo = 25 members

Standing Committee of the CCP Politburo = 5 members

= Liu Shaoqi headed the NPC - The ‘People’

= Zhou Enlai headed the State Council - 24 ministries

Then Mao was Chairman of the Standing Committee of the CCP Politburo and in charge of the PLA by being the head of Military Affairs Commission (Most Power )

What were the roles of the PLA in the early government of China after 1949?

Led the Reunification Campaigns of the early 1950s.

Built China’s prestige during the Korean War, 1950-3.

Killed over 100,000 enemies of the CCP, or ‘bandits’

Increasingly professional military academics at Beijing and Nanjing.

Work teams from the PLA contributed a week’s free labour a year.

Served as role models of Communist Zeal - ‘Learn from the PLA’ propaganda posters.

Increased literacy among recruits - 800,000 conscripts per year from 1955.

China was divided into 6 regional bureaux, and two of the four major posts were military.

• Army Commander

• Army Political Comissar

What was the campaign to suppress counter-revolutionaries (1949-52)

Launched March 1950; PLA helped to arrest c.100,000 ‘bandits’

Intensified following the Chinese entry into the Korean War (Oct,1950) produced a pretext to increase terror.

= Killing quota was 1 per 1,000 with 800,000 executed in the first half of 1951 alone

Main targets were those who had worked for the Guomindang

Feb. 1951 ‘Regulations regarding the punishments of CRs’

= they wanted to seal their power in China via a pact of blood with the Chinese people.

Why was Self-registration and Thought reform used?

Mao aimed to expand the Yan’an Rectification Campaign (established in 1942 - thought reform) nationwide.

The Ministry of Public Security (led by Luo Ruiqing) called on former Nationalists to register and were instructed to submit brief autobiographies and list their friends.

Many were arrested at midnight and sent to the Laogai.

How were denunciation/struggle meetings used against CRs?

Apr.1951. Ministry of Public Security (MPS) manual = ‘How to hold an accusation meeting’.

Ordinary people are encouraged to hold rallies denouncing the Counter-Revolutionaries (CRs)

Victims forced to admit guilt at struggle meetings, many executed.

People’s Daily (main newspaper) published executions; 800,000 killed in the first half of 1951.

When was the Three Antis Campaign?

August 1951 - July 1952

What was the Three Antis Campaign, August 1951- July 1952?

Aug.1951. Mao calls for ‘a big clean-up throughout the Party’, launching the campaign. (At first, this was quite popular)

Targets (Anti) = corruption, waste and obstructionist bureaucracy.

Used as a cover to remove pre-1949 civil servants.

By 1951, the CCP felt they had enough trained cadres to do this.

When was the Five Antis Campaign?

February - May 1952

What was the Five Antis Campaign, February-May 1952

Targets (Anti): bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on gov contracts, stealing state economic information.

Businessmen were told to confess & give names of guilty colleagues.

Red ‘Denunciation Boxes’ set up on street corners.

99% of Shanghai businessmen (Inc., Robert Loh) are found guilty of 1 or more anti.

Yet to avoid jail some would pay a fine to sell a large part of their company to the government.

What were the gains from the campaigns against counter-revolutionaries, 1950-2?

Ideological

= Increased state crackdown on Capitalist elements

= Shanghai: 99% of businessmen found guilty of at least 1 anti.

Political

= The only way to protect oneself was by utter loyalty to the CCP.

= This facilitated the slow emergence of a cult around Mao.

Economic

= The campaigns established joint-stock companies

= Guilty businessmen had to sell stock to the state to pay their fines.

Social

= Bonds of friendship and family were undermined (atomisation of society)

= Workers and peasants were mobilised in support of the regime.

When was the Reunification Campaigns of the PLA?

1950 - 52

What were the regions affected by the Reunification campaigns?

Tibet, Xinjiang, Guangdong, Taiwan

What happened to Tibet during the Reunification Campaigns of the PLA 1950-2?

Problem = Rival belief system of Buddhism and rival leader, the Dalai Lama

PLA invaded in October 1950, 60,000 Tibetans resisted.

Tibet is now in China

= In November 1952 declared his intention to increase Tibet’s population from 3 million to 10 million, but using Han Chinese, not Tibetans.

= Traditional religious practices banned, Mandarin Chinese enforced

= Dalai Lama fleas for India in 1959.

What happened to Xinjiang during the Reunification Campaigns of the PLA, 1950-2?

Problem= Rival belief system of Islam and Xinjiang has close ties with Muslim republics of USSR/Iran

• Leaders invited to CPPCC (sept.49) but fell through.

• PLA Peng Dehuai cleared resistance by March 1950.

• Xinjiang now in China

• In-migrating of the Han Chinese to develop mining and authority.

What happened to Guangdong during the Reunification Campaigns of the PLA, 1950-2?

Problem= Former associates with the Nationalists

• Already in Peoples Republic of China but links to nationalists cut.

• estimated 28,000 executed

What happened to Taiwan during the Reunification Campaigns of the PLA, 1950-2?

Problem = controlled by the Guomindang USA ally.

• Military moves made in 1954/83 but were unsuccessful.

• Taiwan remains outside of the Peoples Republic of China's control.

What was the population of the Laogai by 1955?

1.3 million

What were the Inmates of the Laogai?

• Prisoners of war from the Civil War

• Common Criminals

• Most were ‘political prisoners’

• 5,000 doctors, engineers and experts.

What were the Arrests of the Laogai?

• Nationalists who had self-registered.

• Those arrested in the Three Antis Campaign.

• Those arrested in the Five Antis Campaign.

• Opponents in Tibet, Xinjiang and Guangdong.

What were the Roles of the Laogai?

Economic: tin mining, uranium mining, road construction.

By the mid-1950s, contributing over 700 million yuan in industrial products and 350,000 tons of grain.

Re-education and thought reform (Study lessons via Communist propaganda)

Intimidation and terrorisation of the population.

Internment of common criminals and gang members.

Laogai Death facts -

An estimated 10 million died at the height of Mao’s rule; an estimated 27 million people died overall.

Hundreds died each month at the salt mines in Hebei

Tin mines in Guangdong, 1 in 3 committed suicide.

What was the phrase for the Hundred Flowers Campaign?

‘Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend!’

What was The Hundreds Flowers Campaign?, 1956-7

Launched 2 May 1956: a call to intellectuals to speak freely.

This followed Khrushchev’s Secret Speech in February 1950.

There was a risk of Mao being seen as a Stalinesque tyrant;it could be argued that he wanted to out do Khrushchev.

Possibly hoped to rejuvenate the CCP by exposing it to criticism.

Mao tried again in Feb.’57. admitted to errors & 800,000 deaths.

Speech = not made public but played to Party officials.

What were the criticisms of Mao/CCP after the Hundred Flowers Campaign?

From Feb. 1957, intellectuals were emboldened to criticise the Party.

Comparisons made between CCP methods and Nazis at Auschwitz.

Complaints were also made about the lifestyles of Party elites.

A poster warned of peasants flushing away Mao’s portraits.

What was The Anti-Rightist Campaign,1957

Mao reacted to criticism by being depressed and lying in bed, according to his doctor Li Zhisui.

Mao’s June 1957 speech referred to the critical intellectuals as ‘poisonous weeds’ springing up.

This launched the Anti-Rightist campaign against intellectuals.

Under Deng Xiaoping, an estimated 400,000-700,000 were arrested.

Why did Mao launch the Hundred Flowers Campaign?

Look in HANDBOOK

When was the Korean War?

1950 - 3

Korean War Political Facts -

800,000 executions in the first half of 1951 - “spies and traitors”

The CCP gained prestige and support due to the PLA’s success.

Showed Mao to be a tough leader and defender of China’s interests.

Korean War Economic Facts -

Businessmen signed a ‘patriotic pact’ to pay taxes on time.

‘Our factory is our battlefield’ campaign - production up

More economic support came from the USSR.

Cost China $10 billion

Korean War Ideological Facts -

China had stood up to Western imperialism

Mao claimed that the Western Powers were ‘Paper Tigers’, and lost 400,000 men

Supported Mao’s ideas about mass mobilisation.

Korean War Social Facts -

Ordinary Chinese made donations to the PLA

National unity promoted in ‘Resist America’ meetings.

Patriotic Health Campaign was launched in 1952.