China under Mao Zedong

Rise covered in Chinese Civil War set

People’s Consultative Conference established as a provisional National Assembly; drafted the Organic Law which permitted 8 political parties

September 1949

There were only 750,000 CCP cadres

1949

CCP membership increased from 4 million to 6.1 million → party dispensed with non-communist government officials

By 1953

Organic Law replaced by a new constitution; People’s National Congress and Politburo established

1954

All citizens had to belong to Danwei (neighbourhood units), National Women's Association, New Democratic Youth League and Children’s Pioneer Corps established

1949

Outbreak of the Korean War triggered fear of internal enemies → 700,000 people executed within 6 months, 500,000 in labour camps

1950

The Three Anti Campaign against corruption, waste and elitism, targeted government officials

1951-1952

The Five Anti Campaign against crime and the business community

1952

About 2 million people had been sent to labour camps

By 1955

Most newspapers were out of business; then journalists went through re-education

By February 1949

Policy of National Capitalism in pursuit of economic recovery after war

1949-1952

All factories and businesses were nationalised

1955

Industrial output more than doubled

1949-1952

Grain production was 10% higher than in 1936

By 1952

4% of landowners owned 40% of China’s arable land

Before 1950

Land Reform to Destroy the landlord class; ‘Speak bitterness’ sessions for landlords

1950-1952

Sino-Soviet Friendship Treaty involved $300 million in loans for China and the Anshan steel complex which employed 35,000

1950

11,000 Soviet experts worked in China, 28,000 Chinese received training in the USSR

During the 1950s

All private enterprises had been nationalised

By February 1956

The urban population increased from 57 million to 100 million

1949 to 1957

The First Five Year Plan; light industrial output rose by 70% and heavy industrial output trebled

1953-1957

The Socialisation of Agriculture

1953-1956

40% of peasant households belonged to mutual aid teams

By 1953

CCP started to organise peasants into Agricultural Producers’ Co-operatives

1954

CCP policy toward co-operatives oscillated wildly

1953-1956

80% of rural households were in co-operatives

By 1956

90% of peasants were incorporated onto higher level Agricultural Producers’ Co-operatives

By 1957

The Great Leap Forward

1958

Mao established the key principles of the Great Leap Forward in a speech; they were fundamentally against the First Five Year Plan

May 1956

Mao persuaded the Central Committee to cancel a Second Five Plan

October 1957

Mao toured China to promote the Great Leap Forward

January to April 1958

GDP increased by 8%

1958

GDP fell by 30%

1960

600,000 steel furnaces were built; production targets met but the steel was of poor quality

1958

Famine caused 20 million deaths

1959-1961

Sino-Soviet split; soviet experts removed from China

1960

Officials claimed a record harvest, state took 28% of peasants’ grain

1959

Communes were sub-divided, reduced by two thirds

1961

25 million unemployed urban workers returned to the country, wage differentials reintroduced, grain imported from Australia and Canada

Early 1960s

Marriage Law banned arranged marriages, child marriages and polygamy

1950

1.3 million divorce petitions were filed

1953

Women were granted land in their own names; short lived due to collectivisation

Early 1950s

Percentage of working women quadrupled from 8% to 32%

1949 to 1976

Women deputies in the National People’s Congress rose from 14% to 23%

By 1976

Mao sought to replace religion with loyalty to the party

From 1949

Number of children attending primary schools increased from 24 million to 51 million

1949 to 1956

Illiteracy rates still about 80%

Mid 1950s

Cadres conducted programs to teach peasants at least 1500 characters related to their daily lives; received support from the USSR

1950s

Failure of Mao’s economic policies led him to lose control of the party so he launched the Socialist Education Movement

1962

Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping issued directives to obstruct Mao’s attempts at mobilising the masses

1962-1963

Patriotic Health Movements

From 1949

Over a million new doctors were trained, known as ‘barefoot doctors’

By 1973

The Hundred Flowers Campaign

May 1957

Anti-Right Campaign, 500,000 forced to undergo labour reform

1957

Mao stepped down as leader

1959

Mao published his ‘Twenty-Three Articles’ stating there was ideological conflict within the CCP

1965

Mao launched the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’

Early 1966

Mao swam the Yangtze River to convey his return to the political frontline

July 1966

Central Cultural Revolution Group established to carry out the Revolution

August 1966

Mao suggested that the youth ‘bombard the CCP headquarters’

May 1966

Millions of youth brought to Beijing by the PLA for mass rallies

August to November 1966

Mao publicly denounced Lin Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping

October 1966

Red Guards stopped workers in Shanghai from protesting against their violence and diminishing food supplies → high point of Red Guard violence

January 1967

Schools closed by units of the Red Guards → “lost generation”

1966-1967

More than 2,000 monuments in Beijing were destroyed

1958 to 1966

Mao ensured his face dominated the People’s Daily

From 1966

Little Red Book was handed out to everyone

By June 1966

20-30 million urban residents moved to the country

1968-1970

Some schools reopened; taught political consciousness over academics

1967

Grain output increased from 194 million tons to 284 million tons

1965 to 1975

Industrial outputs increased; steel production doubled; more than 4,100 km of railway lines were built

1967 to 1975

Lin Biao died in a suspicious plane crash

1971

New constitution defined ‘Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought’ as the official CCP line

1969

Zhou Enlai called for a return to normality; Mao signalled the Red Guards had become too extreme

1967

Mao used the PLA to stop the Red Guards’ violence

September 1967

Mao called on Red Guards to leave cities for the countryside; 12 million did so

1968

Red Guard period ended

1969

Most of the violence of the Cultural Revolution was ended at the Ninth Party Congress

April 1969

Mao died from illness

1976

Stalin agreed to withdraw from Port Arthur

1952

Mao was concerned about developments among the Warsaw Pact; perceived deliberate attempts to isolate China by the USSR

From 1956

Military clashes on the Sino-Soviet border

1962

USSR provided aid to Indian troops in the Sino-Indian War

1962

US Secretary of State Henry Kissenger secretly listed China

1971

US President Nixon visited China; US withdrew its opposition to the PRC entering the UN

1972

Sino-American diplomatic relationship restored

1979

PRC had a muted response to North Korea invading the South; condemned aggression from South Korea; Chinese public opinion turned against the US

June 1950

construction of Tiananmen square began, finished within 2 years

1957

USSR stopped providing assistance to China → closure of 150 of the 300 industrial plants that the USSR sponsored in China

1960

Government directed that the existing 750,000 collectives had to be amalgamated into a number of communes

1956-1958

Lysenkoism made an official policy, Mao drafted an 8 point agricultural ‘constitution’ based on the theories

1958

The Lushan Conference was intended to be the first step toward dealing with the famine, party members actually did nothing

1959

Lin Shaoqi (president of the PRC) feared civil war, prepared to impose martial law, crisis did not reach these levels

By 1962

Severe reunification campaign in Tibet

1950

Tibetan resistance went underground, reemerged → PLA sent to Tibet, thousands of protested imprisoned, leaders executed, became an arrestable offence to mention the Dalai Lama in public

1959

The Panchen Lama (second to the Dalai Lama) went on a secret tour of Tibet to discover the truth about the famine → made a report and sent it directly to Mao → Mao had the Panchen Lama arrested, deployed the party’s propaganda team to Tibet, described the Panchen Lama as a ‘big class enemy’

1959-1962

A new form of mandarin adopted, 80% of China’s population spoke mandarin, standardised written form created → adoption of pinyin

1955

George Marshall sent to Chongqing by the US

1945

Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship

1945

Mao launched attacks on Rao Shushi and Gao Gang which saw the first significant party purge since the 1940s

1954