Communist Revolution in China Notes

REVOLUTION

Setting the Stage

China fought on the side of the Allies in World War II, but the victory was hollow.
Japan's armies had occupied & devastated most of China's cities.
Civilian death toll was estimated between 10 to 22 million.
Conflict didn't end with Japan's defeat. In 1945, opposing Chinese armies faced one another: Communists vs. Nationalists.

Communists vs. Nationalists

A bitter civil war raged between Nationalists and Communists when the Japanese invaded China in 1937.
During World War II, they temporarily united to fight the Japanese but continued to compete for position.
Mao Zedong led the Communists from a stronghold in northwestern China.
They mobilized peasants for guerrilla war against the Japanese in the northeast.
The Communists won peasants’ loyalty by promoting literacy and improving food production.
By 1945, they controlled much of northern China.
Jiang Jieshi led the Nationalist forces, dominating southwestern China.
Protected by mountains, Jiang gathered an army of 2.5 million men.
From 1942 to 1945, the U.S. sent the Nationalists at least $1.5$ billion in aid to fight the Japanese.
The supplies and money often ended up in the hands of corrupt officers.
Jiang’s army fought few battles against the Japanese, saving its strength for the coming battle against Mao’s Red Army.
After Japan surrendered, the Nationalists and Communists resumed fighting.

Civil War Resumes

The renewed civil war lasted from 1946 to 1949.
Initially, the Nationalists had the advantage as their army outnumbered the Communists’ army by three to one.
The U.S. continued its support by providing nearly $2$ billion in aid.
The Nationalist forces did little to win popular support.
With China’s economy collapsing, thousands of Nationalist soldiers deserted to the Communists.
In spring 1949, China’s major cities fell to the well-trained Red forces.
Mao’s troops were enthusiastic about his promise to return land to the peasants.
In October 1949, Mao Zedong gained control of the country and proclaimed it the People’s Republic of China.
Jiang and other Nationalist leaders retreated to Taiwan, which Westerners called Formosa.
Mao Zedong’s victory fueled U.S. anti-Communist feelings.
Those feelings grew after the Chinese and Soviets signed a treaty of friendship in 1950.
Many in the U.S. viewed the takeover of China as another step in a Communist campaign to conquer the world.

The Two Chinas Affect the Cold War

China had split into two nations: Taiwan (Nationalist China) and the mainland (People’s Republic of China).
Taiwan had an area of $13,000$ square miles, while the mainland had an area of more than $3.5$ million square miles.
The existence of two Chinas and conflicting international loyalties intensified the Cold War.
After Jiang Jieshi fled to Taiwan, the U.S. helped him set up a Nationalist government, 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, the U.S. supported a separate state in the south when Soviet forces occupied the northern half of Korea after World War II and set up a Communist government.

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 a brutal assault in 1950 and 1951, China took control of Tibet.
The Chinese promised autonomy to Tibetans, who followed their religious leader, the Dalai Lama.
When China’s control over Tibet tightened in the late 1950s, the Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed revolt in 1959.
As a result, resentment between India and China grew. In 1962, they clashed briefly over their unclear border.

The Communists Transform China

For decades, China had been in turmoil, engaged in civil war or fighting with Japan.
When the Communists took power, they moved rapidly to strengthen their rule over China’s $550$ million people, and aimed to restore China as a powerful nation.

Communists Claim a New “Mandate of Heaven”

After taking control of China, the Communists began to tighten their hold.
The party’s $4.5$ million members made up just $1$ percent of the population, but they were a disciplined group.
Like the Soviets, the Chinese Communists set up two 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; $10$ percent of the rural population controlled $70$ percent of the farmland.
Under the Agrarian Reform Law of 1950, Mao seized the holdings of landlords and killed more than a million who resisted.
He then divided the land among the peasants.
Later, to further Mao’s socialist principles, the government forced peasants to join collective farms, each comprised of $200$ to $300$ households.
Mao’s changes also transformed industry and business.
Gradually, private companies were nationalized, or brought under government ownership.
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 still larger collective farms, or communes.
By the end of 1958, about $26,000$ communes had been created.
The average commune sprawled over $15,000$ acres and supported over $25,000$ people.
In the strictly controlled life of the communes, peasants worked the land together, ate in communal dining rooms, slept in communal dormitories, raised children in communal nurseries, and owned nothing.
The peasants had no incentive to work hard when only the state profited from their labor.
The Great Leap Forward was a giant step backward.
Poor planning and inefficient “backyard,” or home, industries hampered growth.
The program was ended in 1961 after crop failures caused a famine that killed about $20$ million people.

New Policies and Mao’s Response

China was facing external problems as well as internal ones in the late 1950s.
The spirit of cooperation that had bound the Soviet Union and China began to fade, as each sought to lead the worldwide Communist movement.
As they also shared the longest border in the world, they faced numerous territorial disputes.

The Cultural Revolution

After the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the split with the Soviet Union, Mao reduced his role in government.
Other leaders moved away from Mao’s strict socialist ideas. For example, farm families could live in their own homes and could sell crops they grew on small private plots; factory workers could compete for wage increases and promotions.
Mao thought China’s new economic policies weakened the Communist goal of social equality.
He was determined to revive the revolution. In 1966, he urged China’s young people to “learn revolution by making revolution.”
Millions of high school and college students responded, leaving their classrooms and forming militia units called Red Guards.
The Red Guards led a major uprising known as the Cultural Revolution, with the goal to establish a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal.
The new hero was the peasant who worked with his hands; intellectual and artistic activity was considered useless and dangerous.
The Red Guards shut down colleges and schools, and targeted anyone who resisted the regime.
Intellectuals had to “purify” themselves by doing hard labor in remote villages; thousands were executed or imprisoned.
Chaos threatened farm production and closed down factories; civil war seemed possible.
By 1968, even Mao admitted that the Cultural Revolution had to stop.
The army was ordered to put down the Red Guards.
Zhou Enlai, Chinese Communist party founder and premier since 1949, began to restore order.
While China was struggling to become stable, the Cold War continued to rage, with two full-scale wars fought—in Korea and in Vietnam.

The Red Guards

The Red Guards were students, mainly teenagers.
They pledged their devotion to Chairman Mao and the Cultural Revolution.
From 1966 to 1968, 20 to 30 million Red Guards roamed China’s cities and countryside, causing widespread chaos.
To smash the old, non-Maoist way of life, they destroyed buildings and beat and even killed Mao’s alleged enemies.
They lashed out at professors, government officials, factory managers, and even parents.
Eventually, even Mao turned on them. Most were exiled to the countryside; others were arrested, and some executed.