All china essay plans
Theme 1
Consolidation of power (THEMES)
Popular policies
Agrarian reform 1950
Marriage law 1950
Common program- freedom of speech/religion
Structure of govt
CPPCC- organise country into 6 regions- 4 people in charge of each - 2 PLA roles
formalised in 1954 constitution- based on democratic centralism
PLA
Problems in 1949
Reunification- Tibet (invaded 1959), Xinjiang (Han repopulation), Nationalists (Guangdong)
Civil war- economic issues
Use of teror
Great terror 1950-2 (Tao Zhu- the tank)
3 Antis, 5 Antis (targeted bureaucracy, businesspeople)
Labelling campaign (60 labels to 2- red and black)
Hundred flowers 1956—> anti-rightist campaign 1957
PLA rounding up criminals
Reunification campaigns
Korean war
International prestige
Financial implications
Resist America, Aid Korea- excuse to target foreigners and increase repression
How far do you agree that the consolidation of communist rule in China, 1949-56, can be explained more by support for the CCP than the use of intimidation
How far do you agree that the most significant consequence for China of its intervention in the Korean war was the enhancement of China’s international prestige?
international prestige
control of CCP
economic/social
‘The popularity of Mao’s land reform policies in the years 1949-57 was mainly responsible for the successful establishment of communist rule in China’
Popularity of land reform policies
Terror
Korean war
To what extent did the methods of consolidation utilized by the CCP change between 1949-57?
How far do you agree that in the years 1949-56, the CCP was able to defeat overwhelmingly its opponents
To what extent was Mao’s personal power challenged by other leading members of the CCP in the years 1957-76?
Peng Dehuai and GLF 1959
Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi
Gang of four and Lin Biao
Theme 2
How far were Mao’s policies responsible for the Great Famine 1958-62?
1962- Liu Shaoqi (President) attributed famine to 30% natural disaster and 70% manmade error
Mao’s policies
Responsible
Chang and Halliday- blame Mao for bringing ‘utter misery’, ordering grain requisitioning when ‘he knew perfectly well that the peasants had no food to hide’
Angry rejection of Peng Dehuai- hubris stopped those suffering in famine to receive help, Lushan conference, July 1959 (Jiangxi)
Peng wrote private letter to Mao raising issue of exaggerated reporting (375mill tons?), believing status in party would protect him
Mao circulated to other parties, accused Peng of forming ‘rightist-opportunist clique’, and accusing of passing negative reports to communes leading to K to publicly ridicule anyone who advocated communes as ‘having a poor understanding of what communism is and how it is to be built’
Denounced Peng for going ‘behind the back of our fatherland to collude with a foreign country - Peng stripped from post and banned from politburo
THEREFORE- Grave warning- if criticism continued Mao threatened to ‘go to the countryside to lead the peasants to overthrow the govt’, Mao’s power further consolidated when appointed subservient Lin Biao as defence minister
Mao’s vision- unrealistic?
‘We must start a technological revolution so that we may overtake Britain in 15 years or more’
Shocked Russian hosts in 1957 by saying death of half the Chinese population in event of victory in nuclear war would be a worthy sacrifice
Took some responsibility himself due to gravity of situation- ‘the chaos caused was on a grand scale and i take responsibility’
GLF policies
Backyard furnaces
peasants using time and energy on useless steel- crops left to rot in fields, Mao himself admitted furnaces had been a ‘great catastrophe’
By october 1958- 49% of China’s steel produced in backyard furnaces- Maos unwavering belief in mass mobilisation
Lysenkoism
‘deep plowing’ and ‘close planting’ led to severely lowered yields
1958, Mao drafted ‘8-point charter’ of agriculture, essentially rendering pseudoscientific Lysenkoism official policy
‘In company, grain grows fast, seeds are happiest when planted together’
Four pests campaign
sparrowcide- destroyed ecosystem, caterpillars ate crops
Grain procurement
Less responsible
Jin Xiaoding (2005) blames exaggerated info given to Mao by local party leaders causing him to believe harvests made high grain requisitioning possible, Jin admits may have been poor judgement , but ‘bad judgement is not the same as starving people to death’
BUT- Mao’s own policies created political atmosphere in which there was incentive to inflate figures, he was still architect of GLF whose vision of a rapidly modernising, autarkic China sought cadres to inflate figures
Natural disasters (probably do sino-soviet relations in this paragraph)
Responsible
Typhoons caused flooding in South China
Drought reduced flow of yellow river by 2/3rds
8/12 main rivers in Shandong dried up
More than 60% of cultivated land was affected by flood or drought
2mill died through drowning or by starvation when crops destroyed
system- lack of internal mobility- strict household registration system and structure of communes preventing peasants from fleeing
Less responsible
Terrible weather conditions exacerbated shortages instead of created them
Party/local cadres and sino-soviet relations
Responsible
1960 Khrushchev decided to recall Soviet economic and scientific advisors
1960- 1400 Soviet scientists and industrial specialists, Sep- all had returned home
Soviet chemist in China- by ‘the beginning of September, not a single Soviet citizen remained in China, apart from diplomats and a few trade officials’
sudden demand for loan repayments- led to increased grain requisitioning
Intellectuals unwilling/unable to provide advice after anti-Rightist campaign- reliance on ideologically committed but economically illiterate rural local cadres only increased- local officials concealed true plight of peasantry and aid which could have been sent to famine stricken areas not sent
Henan- local party boss built 7 luxurious villas for high-ranking guests as peasants starved
Sichuan- population fell by 6mill 1957-61
Local party secretary dismissed this by saying ‘Which dynasty has not witnessed death by starvation?’
Inflation of figures- 1958 375mill tons of grain produce announced, lowered to 215mill tons when became clear figures were grossly exaggerated
‘wind of exaggeration’- local cadres refused to reveal real conditions in communes, slogans e.g ‘go all out’ ‘faster results’- higher party officials responded by demanding greater results based on inflated figures
Less responsible
Mao’s launching of Anti-Rightist campaign in 1957 responsible for lack of intellectuals for economic planning
400,000-700,000 intellectuals purged
generally- numerous campaigns to destroy intellectual classes and denounce economic experts as ‘capitalist roaders’ and ‘counter revolutionaries’- no one willing to stand up to him and alert of famine
Massive unrealistic targets of GLF set precedent for ‘wind of exaggeration’
1957- Mao announced steel production would quadruple in next 4 years
The launch of the Great leap forward was mainly motivated by a genuine desire to build upon the achievements made in agriculture and industry 1949-67 how far do you agree?
Genuine desire
Ideology
Political- reassert Mao’s power
How far do you agree that from 1949-62, communal living was more beneficial than harmful to Chinese peasants
MATs, APCs, HPCs
Communes
Women and family
How accurate is it to say that the agricultural and industrial problems created 1952-62 were solved by the reforms of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping in the years 1962-5?
Heavy industry
Agriculture
Ideology vs pragmatism
How far do you agree that the 1st 5YP and 2nd 5YP were both unsuccessful in achieving their intended outcomes?
1st 5YP 1952-6- intended outcomes incl. high growth rates in industry, autarky, investment in modern industrial plants, high level of grain procurement
Successes
annual growth rate averaged 16%, industrial output grew 15.5% per year, outstripping target of 14.7%
heavy industrial output nearly tripled e.g Manchuria- more than pre-civil war peak
railway freight volume doubled- transport resources and PLA
geological exploration e.g oil uranium and minerals in Xinjiang
industrial working class grew from 6mill to 10mill
investment focused upon enormous industrial projects e.g steel centre at Anshan attracted 35,000 new workers and 1957- producing 2/3 of Chinese steel
regime wanted plan to accelerate transformation towards socialism
1953- state began to convert private firms into joint state private ownership
by 1956- private sector industry abolished, small shops and services e.g barbers converted into coops
standard of living for industrial worker increased, particularly in Shanghai
greater job security, ‘iron rice bowl’
heightened CCP influence over population
large industrial plants could be organised on socialist lines
danwei controlled access to welfare support and provided permits for marriage
Failures
dependent on loans from USSR- high interest rates and demanding repayment schedules- farmers forced to sell grain at artificially low prices to meet these schedules
value of agricultural output grew avrg of 2.1% per year, sharp decline from 14.1% 1949-52
not enough food in cities to feed a productive workforce
1953- state planned to procure 22million tons of grain- peasants forced to live at subsistence level
low supply of consumer goods - little to buy in shops
BUT helped plan as people saved and put money in govt bonds as nothing to buy
lack of organisational and management experience, lack of coordination between central planners and local producers
little investment in healthcare or education, especially for peasants, and shortage of doctors
2nd 5YP 1958-62 transform China into great economic power
Successes
Massive irrigation terracing helped make agricultural land more fertile
construction projects e.g Tiananmen square
although many historical buildings had to be levelled to make this possible
ideological success- through peoples communes, people lived more closely to communistic model than ever before- lacking private property, pooled labour, food and parenting responsibilities
Failures
absurd targets, created atmosphere of competition, and best way for govt officials to advance their careers was to impress Mao by praising economic policies = inflated figures
Jan 1958, Ministry of Metallurgy declared would double steel prod to 20mill tonnes 1962 and reach 100mill by 1977
chemicals minister claimed could construct thousands of chemical fertiliser factories as worried dept. would look slow in comparison
Mao’s overconfidence & in ideology of mass mobilisation
when reviewing steel target to raise steel 6mill to 9mill announced ‘why dilly-dally? let’s make it 11 million tonnes’
Anti-rightist campaign- lack of intellectuals or experts to provide advice or rational economic planning
Backyard furnaces- October 1958 49% of China’s steel from backyard furnaces
poor quality steel- vital cooking tools and woks, wood from furniture, doors and roofs to keep furnaces hot- much of it was taken away and buried
food left to rot in fields as result
grain output 185mill tons 1957 - 143.3mill in 1960
Great Famine 1958-62
Greatest famine in human history- 30-50million dead
before famine rural death rate= 11.07 people per 1000, by 1960- 28.68
Anhui- death rate reached 68.6- 8 million starved
Henan- 7.8mill died
Sichuan- 9mill died
Tibet- 1mill died (greatest amount by prop of population- deliberately procured more grain and smaller rations to kill more Tibetans- genocide?)
Gangs of starving peasants- launched attacks on grain reserves and tortured and killed by police
resorted to scavenging for tree bark or grinding leaves to make ‘flour’
scavenged for rats but too exhausted to catch- ate frogs, toads or worms
birth rate dropped as women not able to procreate
cases of cannibalism reported- children abducted and eaten
some men sold wives for prostitution
Theme 3
‘The cultural revolution maintained its intensity from its launch in 1966 until Mao’s death in 1976’ how far do you agree?
Role of red Guards
Continuity
‘Four olds campaign’
RGs spent 4 weeks in Qufu vandalising books, paintings etc in connection with Confucius
2/3 of 7,000 places of historical importance in Beijing destroyed
terror and violence
Schools
attacks on foreigners- august 1967 physically attacked staff in British embassy
100,000 homes broken into in Beijing
aug/sep 1966- officials began to provide RGs with lists of ‘Bad classes’ led to terror and killings
e.g in Guangxi 67,000 killed 1967-76
Baboshan crematorium- 2,000 bodies disposed over 2 week period
mass rallies
Change
Rustication programme- ‘Up to the mountains and down to the villages’- 5 million red guards (1968-70) sent to rural areas in attempt to disperse to where would cause less trouble, wind down CR and ease youth unemployment
further 10-12million involved in programme 1970-76
Role of PLA
Continuity
Power reduced throughout CR
sidelined
difficult for PLA to restore order in schools due to intensity of CR- Qinghua uni- the RGs refused to lay down arms and 10 died in fighting
Change
Feb crackdown- PLA took matters into own hands, to suppress radicals in some provinces, leading politburo members also called on RGs to calm unrest
August 1967- Mao authorised PLA to crackdown on radical groups, realising PLA might be so seriously undermined it would be incapable of defending country- evidence of radical phase giving way to consolidation
Rustication programme- reinforced PLA of young as they controlled many of the farms on which they were employed
Role in sidelining RGs e.g closed down newspapers 1968
CR officially declared to be over april 1969
Role of moderates/gang of four
Continuity
Gang of four dominated political scene for most of CR
CCRG
Sep 1968- CCRG could declare whole country red as last of 29 provincial revolutionary committees set up
Violence at its peak in rural areas between 1968-71, which was after the Red Guards had left
Continuous campaigns throughout
‘One strike and three antis’- remove all attitudes preventing economic progress 1970
‘Bombard the HQ’ 1966
‘Cleansing of the class ranks’ 1968- 100,000 committees set up with task of eradicating all signs of capitalism
‘Criticise Lin Biao and Confucius’ 1972
moderates sidelined in Maos political interest
Deng Xiaoping humiliated, sent to tractor factory in Jiangxi for corrective labour until 1973
Liu Shaoqi- faced torture, deliberately undermining poor health- died in nov 1969
BOTH- officially dismissed 1966 following RG wall campaign directed at them
Huge numbers of people at all levels of CCP purged 1967-8
2/3rds of central committee that met in 1966 purged by october 1968, 70% of regional and provincial officers purged
Change
Zhou Enlai’s continous role
Prevented RGs from attacking forbidden city by bringing in PLA unit to defend it
Lin Biao affair (1971) called Mao’s judgement into question- need for moderation after 1971
Deng Xiaoping rehabilitated 1973
BUT- later purged again in april 1976 after Tiananmen incident- showcasing continued dominance of Jiang Qing and gang of four
Mao’s main motivation for launching the Cultural revolution was a genuine intent to restore the principles of communist revolution in China- how far do you agree?
Mao did genuinely believe in communist principles and Maoism based off of principle of permanent revolution and mass mobilisation, but CR primarily driven by personal political survival and power consolidation
Genuine attempt to restore principles of Communist revolution
Main motivation
Principle of permanent revolution
‘A proletarian party must also get rid of the stale and take in the fresh for only thus can be full of vitality
Mao had held since Yanan that revolution must be continuous
‘On contradiction’ 1937- class struggle must continue even after communist revolution, long held belief= evidence CR was manifestation of this
3rd 5 year plan 1962-5- Pragmatism had led to restoration of private farming and less strictly communist policy- genuine ideological divergence from Maoism
1963- socialist education movement -attempted to renew sense of class struggle and mass mobilisation
attacks on bureaucracy- attempt to renew principles of revolution?
Jonathan Spence: argues Mao held genuine and long-standing ideological convictions about continuous revolution in ‘Search for modern china’ 1990
Less important
Reclaim personal political power and attack internal enemies
Main motivation
7,000 cadre conference 1962- Liu’s 70% human error publicly humiliated Mao, Mao treated like a ‘dead ancestor’ as sidelined into 2nd line of leadership- CR launched precisely at time of waning power- political motivation caused timing even if ideology provided justification
CR bypassed CCP structures where Lin and Deng had power- using PLA, red guards and CCRG (May 1966)
May 16th Circular of 1966- directly targeted Liu/Deng
Role of Lin Biao/Chen Boda - head of propaganda
Little red book pub 1964- politicization of PLA and later young people (By 1966 social expectation to carry copy of little red book)
Diary of lei feng 1963- emphasised loyalty of ordinary man to Mao over bureaucratic party cadres
Crucial in strengthening cult of personality, which allowed him to bypass CCP opponents through Red Guards, PLA, CCRG
Jung Chang and Halliday- personal power over ideology
Fear of a soviet style situation (de-stalinisation) and legacy
K’s secret speech 1956- horrified Mao, feared Liu or Deng would do the same after his death?
CR- attempt to institutionalise power permanently? Lin Biao, propaganda and little red book- Maoism ideologically inseperable from Mao himself
Frank Dikotter: ‘‘The Cultural Revolution was Mao’s second attempt to become the historical pivot around which the socialist universe revolved. Lenin had carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution, setting a precedent for the proletariat of the whole world. But modern revisionists like Khrushchev had usurped the leadership of the party, leading the Soviet Union back on the road of capitalist restoration.’’
To what extent did the CCP successfully transform culture between 1966-76
How far do you agree that the most significant influence on the course of the CR 1968-76 was the political influence of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping (2022)
How far do you agree that the instability in China caused by the Cultural Rev 1966-67 was successfully overcome 1968-76
Theme 4
How far do you agree that social reforms transformed the lives of Chinese people 1949-76?
Health
Education
Women
How successful were the government’s attempts to suppress religion and religious beliefs in the years 1949-76?
WHY- Christianity represented loyalty to a different leader to Mao, pacifistic elements of religion did not match govt emphasis on military strength, work of Christian missionaries in China represented interference of West, Islamic provinces had strategic/economic importance (bordered USSR), Tibet- India was a western ally and Papacy was influential international foe
Islam/Buddhism (threat to unified China and political loyalty)
Successful
Reunification campaigns-
Xinjiang (80% Uyghur population)- PLA attacked and cleared all resistance by March 1950
govt attempts to destroy Islam e.g han chinese migration to break down ethnic homogeneity of Muslim communities, PLA built roads into Xinjiang
Mosque schools closed from 1949
Tibet- attempted to resist Chinese conquest during 1950 reunification but failed (Pacifist nature of Buddhism became a threat for the government)
Han migration - nov 1952 Mao announced desire to raise population of Tibet from 3 to 10million
Tibetan uprising (1959)and great famine
¼ of Tibetan population died during Great famine, government seemed to impose famine - PLA limited rations and govt forced Tibetans to abandon traditional high-altitude crops e.g Barley- forced to grow grain (Mao -make ‘grain the key link’)
Uprising- harsh response from PLA, Tibetan forces crushed and Dalai Lama forced to flee to Northern India, priests and nuns dragged from monasteries and beaten
Cultural revolution - culture of both Buddhism and Islam targeted
Xinjiang- mosques shut down and turned into barracks/stables, religious leaders e.g mullahs tortured to forced to do humiliating jobs e.g cleaning sewers
Tibet - during CR 6,000 monasteries destroyed
Unsuccessful
Reunification campaign in Tibet 1950- simply pushed Tibetan resistance underground until Tibetan uprising in 1959
Isolated nature of Xinjiang province, uncentralized from Beijing = harder to stamp out religion, faced more resistance from local communities
Confucianism/ancestor worship (deep-rooted philosophies)
Successful
Communist attempts to dissuade celebration of Qingming festival where people returned to graves of dead ancestors, renamed as communist festival ‘National memorial day’
concept of giving children ‘Hongbao’ was condemned as bourgeois, workers discouraged from carrying joss sticks, paper money back to their home villages, instead of paying respects to elders workers encouraged to pay respects to fallen soldiers in PLA
Cultural revolution - 4 olds (customs, habits, ideas, culture) directly condemned Confucianism- anything representing China’s past labelled under blanket term ‘Confucius and co’
e.g Jiang Qing launched 1973 ‘Criticize Lin Biao and Confucius’
Qufu- birthplace of Confucius- red guards spent 4 weeks destroying paintings, statues, graves etc. in connection with confucius
Land campaign 1950s- blow to Confucianism as confucianism heavily wound up in land system based on respect for hierarchy.
Unsuccessful
By 1973- criticize Lin Biao and Confucius campaign was less effective as after turmoil of CR most sick of never-ending campaigns
Ancestor worship not organized religion and more based on set of ingrained beliefs- communists never entirely successful in attempts to reduce ancestor worship
this was evident from spontaneous outpouring of public respect for Zhou Enlai when he died in 1976 (Tiananmen incident) - tributes paid to Zhou very much like ancestor worship
Li Zhisui writes account of Mao visiting ancestral home and becoming sentimental at site of ancestral worship
Christianity (seen as Western and bourgeois)
Successful
Targeted as Christianity & missionaries represented the West, papacy was an influential international foe, Mao called christianity ‘poison’ and compared missionaries to Nazis
Patriotic church movement- Christian churches closed and replaced with ‘patriotic churches’ - communist movement, schools and hospitals taken over by state and pictures of Mao hung in churches
Missionaries attacked and forced to leave- Jan 1951- 3,222 Catholic missionaries in PRC vs 364 in 1953
Anti-foreign sentiment= propaganda campaigns against Christians
Catholic church hospitals accused of using patients as ‘human guinea pigs’
Orphanage run by Canadians nuns accused of murdering Chinese children- bones dug up and put on display as evidence
Clergy harassed e.g 1958 Bishop James Edward Walsh accused of being American imperialist spy and imprisoned for 20 years without trial
+ persecution escalated during CR as religion seen as one of ‘4 olds’
Unsuccessful
Congregations at Patriotic churches very low, and clergy still organized secret services in homes of congregations
Vatican refused to accept patriotic churches as genuinely catholic and threatened to excommunicate any clergy who worked with regime
however- public Christian worship largely banned
CONCLUSION- The communist government made many attempts to stamp out religion, most effectively through a harsh clampdown on the Christian church and expulsion of Western missionaries which was consistent with the anti-foreign sentiment of the period. The Communist attempts to dilute Buddhism in Tibet were largely effective due to their violent nature, but faced large amounts of resistance. Similarly, attempts to dilute Islam in Xinjiang were effective in some ways, but faced both local and international opposition. Lastly, attempts to stamp out ancestor worship and Confucianism were less effective as these belief systems were not organised religions and therefore stayed present in Chinese society until and beyond 1976.
To what extent was there a genuine improvement in the position of women in China 1950-76?
Family
Improvement
Common Program
Marriage Law
Continuity/obstacle
Employment/politics
Improvement
Continuity/Obstacle
Education
Improvement
Continuity/Obstacle