Flashcards
KQ2 - China
Cards in this deck (17)
- 1What problems did the communists face in the late 1940s?Civil War:
- Had brought millions of peasants away from the fields and had destroyed a lot of dams, irrigation systems and roads. This meant that less food was able to be produced quickly and sold.
- Had brought chaos to transport, telecommunication, and energy systems.
- The population was growing at a rate of 15 million a year, this meant that there were more mouths to feed.
- Inflation had made the currency worthless.
- There were high levels of unemployment.
- Government officials had grown corrupt after Chiang's rule, this made them slow and inefficient. Many GMD leaders were attempting to make themselves as influential as possible. - 2What political changes did the CCP face in the early stages of it's rule?- From 1949, China became a one party state. All other parties were suppressed in a series of purges from 1950 to 1952.
- Anyone who showed any opposition to communism was labelled a counter-revolutionary or a reactionary. To avoid accusations, Chinese increasingly tried to prove their loyalty by accusing others.
- Mao was determined to gain control of the cities, where the GMD had been at it's strongest. 65,000 people were killed in Guangzhou and 28,000 in Shanghai. All organisations were closed down, including churches and all religions were attacked.
- Maoist slogans began to appear on walls all over China for the first time.
- Possible rivals to Mao were dismissed from office. One, Gao Gang, committed suicide. - 3What economic developments occurred during the early stages under the CCP?- Major banks, railway networks and a third of the heavy industry was seized and made into state property.
- The profits of these enterprises were paid directly into the state.
- The people’s bank was opened in 1951, to deal with the inflation, it was able to reduce inflation greatly as it had control over all financial transactions. - 4What are 'speak bitterness' campaigns and what happened in the land reform?- In 1950, Mao began the elimination of landlords. He believed that 'landlordism’ was so deeply ingrained in Chinese society that landlords had to be destroyed.
- From 1950, landlords were forced to give up their property which was then redistributed among the peasants.
- Many landlords were then tried by village courts and forced to attend 'speak bitterness' meetings where the peasants denounced their landlords which often resulted in the execution of the landlords; as many as 1,000,000 may have died. - 5What were the downsides to land reform?- After receiving their land, peasants were often disappointed to find that they did not receive any equipment to cultivate it with.
- As many peasants were extremely poor, the land given to them may of often proven useless. - 6What were that changes in women’s rights?- Before 1950, women had few rights and were considered to be second class citizens.
- Peasants wanted sons, so daughters were often sold as slaves or forced to marry. Men could be polygamous and women could be concubines.
- Some progress under the GMD had been made, but only in the cities.
- From 1950, equality of the sexes in education, employment and pay was made law. Women were given the right to own property.
- In 1950, the Marriage Law banned arranged marriages, polygamy, child betrothal and concubinage, although some practices continued. Divorce was allowed in China for the first time.
- Maternity benefits were introduced in 1951, including feeding time and nurseries in government run businesses.
- By the 1970s, almost 50% of China's doctors were women and 30% of engineers and scientists, but there were only two female ministers, out of 29 and only one of the twelve vice-premiers was female. - 7What was thought reform?- In 1951, the party introduced a movement for thought reform which included the close study of Mao's written texts and public criticisms at Party meetings.
- It was used as a means to teach people of the ways of Mao so that they could prove loyalty to him. - 8Why did Mao begin the First Five Plan in 1952?- By 1952, the Chinese economy had been brought under control. Inflation was down from 1000% to 15%, a new currency, the yuan, had been introduced, public expenditure had been reduced and taxes on city dwellers had been increased.
- The GMD had already set up a National Resources Committee and 200,000 of it's workers had stayed in China.
- The population of China's cities was growing rapidly, from 1949 to 1957 it increased from 57 million to 100 million. - 9What was the first Five Year Plan?- The main areas of concentration were coal, steel and petro-chemicals.
- Most targets were achieved, with the notable exceptions of oil and merchant ships.
- National expenditure rose from 6,810 million yuan in 1952 to 29,020 million yuan in 1957.
- Economic growth ran at 9% per annum during the first Plan.
- The Plan was aided by the presence of 10,000 advisers from Soviet Russia. - 101- Why was Collectivisation introduced?- The population of China's cities had grown, but food supplies had not matched this increase.
- Mao decided that peasants must be brought under central control. He ordered the creation of 25,000 Communes.
- Most contained about 5-6,000 people, but some were as large as several hundred thousand.
- Peasants were ordered to live communally in dormitories, eat in mess halls and tear down their houses.
- The family would become less important and schools would take over the rearing of children. In fact this only happened on a few occasions.
- Strict controls were enforced to regulate agriculture. Peasants were ordered to farm according to instructions and not according to their own experience. - 112- Why was Collectivisation introduced?- The ideas of the Soviet scientist Trofim Lysenko were adopted. He had put forward fraudulent theories, which did great harm.
- Deep ploughing ruined the topsoil and bird-scaring allowed insects and pests to flourish.
- The result was famine and 30,000,000 Chinese died. But CCP officials dared not report this to Mao.
- Peng Dehuai, the Defence Minister attempted to reveal the truth in 1959, but he was condemned and dismissed.
- In 1958 China produced:
200 million tonnes of grain, in 1960 the total was 143.5
4.3 million tonnes of meat, in 1960 the total was 1.3
- Eventually even Mao had to admit that Collectivisation was a failure, but he reacted by accusing officials of incompetence. - 12What was the Great Leap Forward?- In 1957, Mao announced the ‘Great Leap Forward’, which was part of the Second Five Year Plan which was to run until 1963 but by 1959 Mao had announced it's failure.
- It was an attempt to turn China into an industrial superpower by using the massive manpower of the country.
- The Great Leap Forward was based upon Communes which by 1958, 90% of the population was placed into. Workers who had migrated to towns during the First Five Year Plan were sent back to their communes to work.
- All over China people were asked to set up backyard blast furnaces and produce steel.
- This was a disaster; the steel produced was often unusable as it was of very poor quality.
- To produce steel, peasants neglected their crops that went to ruin. All over China the harvest was left to rot and this made the famine brought about by Collectivisation all the worse. - 13Why did the Great Leap forward fail?- The most important reason it failed was that it was nonsensical. Major industrial development needed capital investment, technology and planning.
- Mao rejected all of these as revisionist. He was afraid that if he allowed the creation of a class of experts he would lose control of the revolution.
- During the Great Leap Forward, Communes dug the equivalent of 300 Panama Canals, national income fell by 29% and inflation rose from 0.2% to 16.2% - 14Why did Mao lose power in China in the early 1960s?- In 1958, Mao had resigned as President of the People's Republic of China, but remained Chairman of the CCP.
- In 1962, Mao handed over responsibility for the economy to President Liu Shaoqi and CCP General Secretary Deng Xiaoping and withdrew from the political scene.
- Liu and Deng were both more moderate and accepted that Mao's reforms had gone too far too quickly.
- Liu and Deng brought in Chen Yun, the leading Chinese expert in agriculture, to advise them.
- He recommended that some free markets should be allowed as the only way of combating famine. This was an implied criticism of Mao's policies.
- Peasants' individual plots of land, which had disappeared in Collectivisation, were allowed once more. Rural markets re-opened.
- Whilst Mao had little influence, however, to the great majority of the Chinese people he remained the embodiment of the Revolution. - 15What were the economic, social and political changes in China? include; the changing role of women.- Unemployment fell dramatically and insurance was introduced.
- The eight hour, six day working week was introduced. Workers received one week paid holiday a year and up to three weeks 'family visiting' holiday.
- This was intended to compensate workers for the lack of choice in where they work.
- Urban workers had no right to choose where they worked and were assigned jobs by state labour offices.
- This often had little regard for the individual's abilities and was usually for life.
- Residence permits prevented people moving and it was virtually impossible for peasants to move to the cities.
- Retirement was introduced at 50-55 for women and 55-60 for men. Pensions were 60-80% of income.
- Health services and education were free for all. Education became a right and was made compulsory. Housing, water, electricity and other services were all subsidised. - 16How did Mao's policies effect the population of China?- Mao's policy had been to increase the population as much as possible because he believed in the use of manpower.
- 17What did Liu and Deng's attempts of population control entail?- Attempts at population control began in the early 1960s under Liu and Deng, when the party became aware of the overall rate of increase.
- Young people were then required to postpone marriage and the use of birth control was encouraged by the state.
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- Year 11 History (China) Flashcards on KQ2 - China , created by max bresges on 25/11/2017.
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