Communists Take Power in China

Political Clashes and Global Impact

• China and the Soviet Union, despite sharing a long border, had political clashes due to each seeking leadership in the global Communist movement.
• Mao's revolution influenced global politics significantly from the 1950s through the 1970s.
• China provided military, advisory, and financial support to Communist leaders in Korea and Vietnam.
• Mao took interest in Communist expansion in Latin American countries like Cuba, Peru, and Bolivia.
• Latin American Communist leaders learned about political organization and guerrilla fighting from Mao in China, applying these lessons during unrest in their countries in the 1960s and 1970s.
• African revolutionaries also learned from Chinese Communist leaders.

The Cultural Revolution

• Following the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the split with the Soviet Union, Mao reduced his role in the government.
• Other leaders started to move away from Mao's strict socialist ideas, such as allowing farm families to live in their own homes and sell crops from private plots, and factory workers could compete for wage increases and promotions.
• Mao believed that China's new economic policies weakened the Communist goal of social equality, leading him to revive the revolution.
• In 1966, he urged young people to "learn revolution by making revolution," resulting in millions of high school and college students forming militia units called Red Guards.
• The Red Guards initiated the Cultural Revolution to establish a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal, with the peasant worker becoming the new hero.
• The Red Guards were mainly teenagers devoted to Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
• From 1966 to 1968, 20 to 30 million Red Guards caused widespread chaos, destroying buildings, beating, and killing Mao's alleged enemies in an effort to eliminate the old, non-Maoist way of life. Targets included professors, government officials, factory managers, and even parents.
• Eventually, Mao turned against them, exiling many to the countryside, arresting others, and executing some.
• Intellectual and artistic activity was suppressed, with colleges and schools shut down. Intellectuals were forced to "purify" themselves through hard labor, and thousands were executed or imprisoned.
• Farm production and factories were disrupted, and civil war seemed possible.
• By 1968, Mao admitted the Cultural Revolution needed to stop, and the army was ordered to put down the Red Guards.
• Zhou Enlai, a founder and premier of the Chinese Communist Party since 1949, began to restore order.
• During this period, the Cold War continued, and full-scale wars broke out in Korea and Vietnam.

Communist Victory and Division of China

• After World War II, Chinese Communists defeated Nationalist forces, leading to the emergence of two separate Chinas.
• China remains a Communist country and a major global power.
• Key Terms and People:
  • Mao Zedong
  • Jiang Jieshi
  • Commune
  • Red Guards
  • Cultural Revolution

Setting the Stage

• China fought with the victorious Allies in World War II, but the victory was undermined by the Japanese occupation.
• China's civilian death toll was estimated to be between 10 and 22 million, second only to the Soviet Union.
• Conflict persisted after Japan's defeat.

Communists vs. Nationalists

• A civil war was ongoing between the Nationalists and the Communists when Japan invaded China in 1937.
• During World War II, the political opponents united temporarily to fight the Japanese but continued to vie for power.
  • Under Mao Zedong, the Communists had a stronghold in northwestern China and mobilized peasants for guerrilla war against the Japanese.
  • The Communists efforts to promote literacy and improve food production, earning the peasants' loyalty. By 1945, they controlled much of northern China.
  • Under Jiang Jieshi, the Nationalist forces dominated southwestern China. Protected by mountain ranges, Jiang had an army of 2.5 million men.
  • From 1942 to 1945, the United States sent the Nationalists at least $1.5$ billion in aid to fight the Japanese; however, these supplies often ended up in the hands of corrupt officers. The Nationalist army saved its strength for the coming battle against Mao's Red Army.
  • After Japan surrendered, the Nationalists and Communists resumed fighting.
• The civil war lasted from 1946 to 1949. Initially, the Nationalists had the advantage with an army that outnumbered the Communist army three to one, and they received nearly $2$ billion in military aid from the United States.
• Nationalist forces failed to win popular support.
• As China's economy collapsed, Nationalist soldiers deserted to join the Communists.
• In spring 1949, China's major cities fell to the Red forces.
• Mao's troops promised land to the peasants.
• Jiang's army fled south.

Establishment of the People's Republic of China

• In October 1949, Mao Zedong gained control of the country and proclaimed it the People's Republic of China.
• Jiang and other Nationalist leaders went to Taiwan, called Formosa by Westerners.
• Mao Zedong's victory intensified anti-Communist feelings in the U.S.
• The Chinese and Soviets signed a treaty of friendship in 1950.
• The U.S. viewed the takeover of China as a step in a Communist campaign to conquer the world.
• Like the French Revolution (1789), Russian Revolution (1917), and Cuban Revolution (1959), the Chinese Revolution sought to break down the existing class structure and provide more economic and political opportunity for those other than the ruling class, including land ownership.
• Peasants played a key role in all of the revolutions.

Two Chinas and the Cold War

• After Jiang Jieshi fled to Taiwan, the U.S. helped him set up a Nationalist government on that small island, called the Republic of China.
• The Soviets gave financial, military, and technical aid to Communist China.
• The Chinese and the Soviets pledged to come to each other's defense if either was attacked.
• The U.S. tried to halt Soviet expansion in Asia.
• For example, when Soviet forces occupied northern Korea after World War II and set up a Communist government there, the United States supported a separate state in the south.

China Expands Under the Communists

• In the early years of Mao's reign, Chinese troops expanded into Tibet, India, and southern, or Inner, Mongolia.
• Northern, or Outer, Mongolia, which bordered the Soviet Union, remained in the Soviet sphere.
• In 1950 and 1951, China took control of Tibet, promising autonomy to Tibetans who followed the Dalai Lama.
• When China's control over Tibet tightened in the late 1950s, the Dalai Lama fled to India.
• India welcomed many Tibetan refugees after a failed revolt in Tibet in 1959.
• Resentment grew between India and China, leading to a brief clash over the countries' unclear border in 1962.

Communists Transform China

• For decades, China had been in turmoil due to civil war and fighting with Japan.
• The Communists aimed to strengthen their rule and restore China as a powerful nation.

Communists Consolidate Power

• After taking control, the Communists began to tighten their hold.
• The party had 4.5 million members (just 1 percent of the population) but they were a disciplined group.
• Like the Soviets, the Chinese Communists set up parallel organizations: the Communist Party and the national government.
• Mao headed both until 1959.

Mao's Brand of Marxist Socialism

• Mao was determined to reshape China's economy based on Marxist socialism
• 80 percent of the people lived in rural areas, but most owned no land.
• About 10 percent of the rural population controlled 70 percent of the farmland.
• Under the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950, Mao seized the holdings of these landlords.
• His forces killed more than a million landlords who resisted.
• He then divided the land among the peasants.
• Later, the government forced peasants to join collective farms, each comprised of 200 to 300 households.
• Mao's changes also transformed industry and business.
• Private companies were nationalized.
• In 1953, Mao launched a five-year plan that set high production goals for industry.
• By 1957, China's output of coal, cement, steel, and electricity had increased dramatically.

The Great Leap Forward

• To expand the success of the first Five-Year Plan, Mao proclaimed the "Great Leap Forward" in early 1958.
• This plan called for larger collective farms, or communes.
• By the end of 1958, about 26,000 communes had been created, averaging over 15,000 acres and supporting more than 25,000 people.
• Peasants worked and lived communally, owning nothing, with no incentive to work hard.
• The Great Leap Forward was a failure due to poor planning and inefficient industries.
• The program was ended in 1961 after crop failures caused a famine that killed about 20 million people.

Soviet Competition and Global Politics

• China faced external problems in the late 1950s.
• Cooperation between the Soviet Union and China faded.
• The two countries clashed in territorial disputes along their long shared border.