The early changes

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The New government:

Country landlords, big businessmen and prominent ex-GMD supporters did not get the vote.

The country remained split into provinces, all of which were governed by members of the communist party.

China became a single party state in 1954 with an official constitution.

Concessions to middle classes:

National and petty bourgeois were given civil rights alongside peasants and workers in order to harness their expertise.

Military control and Tibet:

Four hundred different ethnic groups divided into 50 groups by officials which were subsequently placed under military supervision and forced to accept communist rule.

The strongest resistance in Tibet took 6 months to crush. it was renamed xizang and its people were subjected to severe repression in an attempt to eradicate all traces of Tibetan language and culture.

Living Standards:

Inflation was curbed, crime and corruption were checked as drug dealers, prostitutes and criminal gangs were outlawed.

People gained job security and a stable income.

Resident committees controlled food supplies, the allocation of housing and permits for travel, marriage, jobs, military service and university. They dealt with public health, policing and the resolution of disputes.

Water supplies and sanitation were improved in cities and the countryside.

More doctors and nurses were trained.

Purging and the struggle sessions:

In the countryside, following the introduction of the land reform programme in 1950, party cadres roused peasants to denounce local landlords and remove them after 'struggle sessions'.

As part of the effort to arouse class consciousness and attach the masses to the regime, around 2 million landlords lost their lived, often beaten to death by peasants.

in early 1954 Mao began his first major purge of the CCP. Purging leading members following debates around the launch of his 5-year plan for industry.

Mass movements and the 'anti-movements':

In 1956 Mao lifted censorship and encouraged open criticism of the way the party had been working. It was called the hundred flowers campaign.

Participation was slow at first.

In February 1957 Mao told the people they could vent their criticisms as long as they were constructive.

May and June 1957 the central government received a deluge of letters. Magazine articles and posters appeared and there were rallies in the street.

Students complained of corruption, Russian influence, low living standards, censorship of foreign literature and economic corruption.

Mao claimed that such activity went against 'healthy criticism'.

In early July 1957, he called the campaign off and reimposed censorship and orthodoxy.

The intellectuals who had complained were branded as 'rightists' and subjected to persecution.

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