POLI 131CR Week 10: The Four Modernizations and the Challenge of Democratization Notes
Introduction: General Themes and Preparation of the Final Paper
Clarification regarding the final paper prompt:
The "Great Man Theory of History" is not a rigorous social scientific theory and should not be used as a primary explanation for historical events.
It is a lazy explanation device often found in journalistic accounts.
Example: The notion that Mao was in search of "Revolutionary Immortality" during the Cultural Revolution is based on stereotypes and lacks rigorous evidence.
Individuals can have a significant impact on history, but their influence depends on underlying circumstances and the readiness of populations to follow them.
Example: Hitler's rise to power was based on his claims that Germany lost World War I due to enemies within, which resonated with the German people's unwillingness to accept defeat.
The "stab-in-the-back" theory helped Hitler gain power.
While individuals like Churchill and Roosevelt played critical roles during World War II, their influence was situated within broader historical contexts.
The individual's role should be situated within a broader, coherent account of revolutionary change.
Social scientific theories of revolution to consider for the final paper:
Marxist theories:
Original Marxist theory of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Updates by academics such as Barrington Moore, Charles Tilly, and Theda Skocpol.
Adaptations by activists like Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Mao Zedong.
Alternatives to Marxist theories developed in the U.S. (1930s-1960s):
Aggregate Psychological Theories, including Ted Robert Gurr’s Frustration-Aggression Theory and Davies’s J-Curve adaptation.
Structural Functionalism, as articulated in Chalmers Johnson’s book Revolutionary Change.
The Skinner and Winckler article on "Compliance Succession" as a model for explaining revolutionary change after 1949 (can only be applied to the post-1949 period).
The instructor's interpretation of cycles in CCP policies towards intellectuals from Week 8 Lecture.
Only after considering all these possibilities one should add the personality factor, such as Mao's or Liu's personality.
The Chinese revolution was always destined to be different from the Russian Revolution due to China’s Confucian heritage.
Normalization and Reform after the Cultural Revolution
To understand how the Cultural Revolution ended and China recovered, look at:
Those in the leadership.
Those among the masses.
The death of Zhou Enlai in January 1976 and Mao in September 1976 was a major factor in ending the Cultural Revolution.
The Gang of Four (Sirenbang 四人帮):
Individuals who came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution.
Arrested in October 1976 by Hua Guofeng and allies, condemned for being part of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing Counter-Revolutionary Cliques 林 彪 江 青 反 革 命 集 团.
Bearing most of the responsibility for the Cultural Revolution and its effects.
Members:
Jiang Qing 江青 (1914-1991):
Mao’s wife, former actress.
Served as Mao’s personal secretary in the 1940s, headed the Film Section of the CCP’s Propaganda Department in the 1950s.
Deputy Director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group in 1966, promoted revolutionary opera and the cult of personality surrounding Mao.
Member of the Politburo in 1969.
Initially sentenced to death, then commuted to life imprisonment in 1983.
Committed suicide in May 1991 after being released for medical treatment.
Zhang Chunqiao 张春桥 (1917-2005):
Writer, became a prominent journalist in charge of Liberation Daily (jiefang ribao 解放日报).
Helped launch the Cultural Revolution.
Member of the Politburo of the CCP in 1969, promoted to its Standing Committee in 1973, became Second Vice Premier in January 1975.
Arrested in October 1976, sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve along with Jiang Qing in 1984.
Sentence reduced to 18 years in prison in December 1997 after being commuted to life in prison.
Released in 1998 for medical treatment, died of pancreatic cancer in 2005 in Shanghai.
Yao Wenyuan 姚文元 (1931-2005):
Literary critic, son of a writer, translator, and art critic.
Author of the article attacking Wu Han’s play “Hai Rui Dismissed from Office” in Wenhuibao 文汇报 on November 10, 1965, which launched the Cultural Revolution.
Arrested in October 1976, sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1981.
Released in October 1996, became the last surviving member of the Gang of Four.
Died of complications from diabetes in December 2005.
Wang Hongwen 王洪文 (1935-1992):
Labor activist from a working-class family, spent most of his career in Shanghai.
Rose to prominence as the youngest member of the Gang of Four, eventually Second Vice-Chairman of the CCP, third in the CCP’s leadership.
Arrested and charged with “counterrevolutionary activity,” sentenced to life in prison in 1981.
Died at age 56 in Beijing in 1992.
Even after Mao lost control, the Gang of Four continued to encourage the movement in a radical direction.
The Cultural Revolution relied heavily on ordinary people, especially students, which contrasted with Stalinism in the Soviet Union.
Young people unable to attend closed educational institutions from 1966-1968 referred to as the “lost generation” by American scholars.
Many of these young people became graduate students and professors.
The mass momentum explains why Mao “lost control” and the Party sought to re-establish “normalcy” by institutionalizing the Cultural Revolution when it reopened educational institutions.
Deng Xiaoping 邓小平:
Protégé of Liu Shaoqi, became the supreme leader of China from 1978-1989.
Chosen by Zhou Enlai as his successor in 1974.
Known for his role in the reform and readjustment movement for economic recovery in post-Mao China.
Of Hakka origin, educated in France.
Born in 1904 in Sichuan province to an affluent family.
Joined the Chinese Communist Youth League.
A veteran in the Long March.
Supported Mao in the Rectification Campaign of 1957, became General Secretary.
Led the country alongside Liu Shaoqi as President during the Great Leap Forward.
Sent to work in a tractor factory during the Cultural Revolution.
Convinced Mao to let Deng be named as his successor, appointed as Executive Vice-Premier.
Purged by the Gang of Four after delivering a eulogy for Zhou in January 1976.
Outmaneuvered opponents after Mao’s death and rose to power again.
The Third Plenum of the Eleventh National Party Congress in December 1978 marked the start of political, economic, social, and cultural reforms, where Deng became the de facto leader of China.
Hua Guofeng replaced by Zhao Ziyang as premier in 1980 and by Hu Yaobang as General Secretary in 1981.
Key political changes in the CCP:
Mao Zedong: Chairman of the Party, 1943-1976.
Hua Guofeng: Chairman from 1976-1981.
Hu Yaobang: Chairman 1981-1982, then General Secretary after the position of Chairman was abolished in 1982.
Influence in the CCP was not determined by position or title but was awarded in recognition of influence.
Deng Xiaoping was never Chairman or Premier but became the most powerful individual in the PRC until the 1990s.
Even after he resigned as Chairman of the Central Military Commission in November 1989, Deng still influenced the appointment of Hu Jintao as Jiang Zemin’s successor at the 14th Party Congress in 1992.
Deng died in February 1997 at age 92, given honors due to a great leader.
Premier Li Peng asked for a moment of silence, flags flown at half-mast, and a televised funeral.
Deng did not accept the notion of being party or national leader for life.
Xi Jinping has made a point of rendering himself preeminent leader of China for life.
The pattern of influence not equating to titles in office is contrary to the Soviet model.
Stalin became powerful by heading the bureaucracy as General Secretary.
In China, politics under and after Mao represented a turn against the Soviet pattern.
Hu Jintao and Jiang Zemin cementing their positions as General Secretary suggests a reversion to the Soviet Model.
Deng and the Four Modernizations
Deng known for implementing reform and readjustment policies that transformed China from one of the poorest countries to a leading economic force.
Deng's famous quote: “It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.”
Meaning: what matters is not whether one is “red” or “expert”, but whether one can do what needs to be done.
The Four Modernizations, 1979-1984
The economic reform process could not have succeeded if certain political foundations had not been established at the same time.
The trial of the Gang of Four and the resolution on Mao’s contributions.
The judgment of the Gang of Four in 1980 was an effort to put the Cultural Revolution behind the country.
It was a political trial meaning that the verdict was clear from the beginning.
Lin Biao:
Leader of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1962-1964 when Mao launched the Socialist Education Campaign.
Important military commander, jointly led the victorious PLA into Beijing in 1949.
One of the 2 Vice Premiers of the PRC beginning in 1954, became a Vice Chairman of the CCP in 1958, First Vice Premier in 1964.
Named Mao’s successor in 1966.
Died in a plane crash in Mongolia on September 13, 1971.
Official explanation: fleeing after a failed coup attempt against Mao; others claim fleeing out of fear of being purged.
Condemned as a traitor by the CCP, labeled as one of the two major “counter-revolutionary” forces involved in the Cultural Revolution.
A 35-judge special court was convened in November 1980, issuing a 20,000-word indictment against the defendants.
Crimes included the usurpation of state power and party leadership, persecution of 750,000 people (34,375 of whom died), and plotting the assassination of Mao.
Jiang Qing received a death sentence with a two-year suspension (later commuted to life imprisonment).
Zhang Chunqiao received the same sentence.
Wang Hongwen was given life in prison, and Yao Wenyuan twenty years.
Chen Boda and other alleged Lin Biao faction members were given sentences of between sixteen and eighteen years.
Points about the actors:
Only one woman among the Gang of Four (Jiang Qing), attributed greater blame due to being Mao’s wife.
Three out of the four among the Gang of Four were "intellectuals."
The coupling of the Lin Biao clique with the Gang of Four reverberates with the treatment of Bukharin and his supporters in Stalin’s Great Purges.
Guilt by association was used to discredit both groups; however, none of the defendants was summarily executed as occurred under Stalin in the Soviet Union.
Reassessment of Party History, 1982
The other major political pillar supporting the economic reforms was the official CCP Reassessment of Party History published in 1982.
The groundwork for this was laid in 1978 at the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress of the CCP.