Flashcards
China KQ4
Cards in this deck (21)
- 1What was 'The Hundred Flowers Movement'?- The success of the First Five Year Plan created huge problems. Food and housing were in very short supply and there was a great deal of criticism of the Five Year Plan.
- In early 1957, Mao called for public discussion. 'Let a hundred flowers bloom and a thousand schools of thought contend'.
- The Hundred Flowers was most untypical of Mao, who normally resented criticism and who disliked experts and intellectuals. - 2Why did Mao begin the Hundred Flowers campaign?- Mao had travelled widely throughout China during the early 1950s and had always been received very warmly.
- He believed that it was now possible to allow greater freedom of expression in China.
- Mao had also heard that local CCP officials had been accused of acting heavy-handedly and wanted to hear other opinions.
- On the face of it, therefore, Mao was calling for a great debate on the Five Year Plan.
- In reality, the campaign may well not have been sincere, but simply an attempt to discover any potential opponents.
- In 1954, President Liu Shaoqi had delivered a report to the Congress of the CCP in which he mentioned Mao's name 104 times.
- At the next Congress in 1956 Liu mentioned Mao only four times.
- The constitution of 1945 stated that the CCP should be guided by the Thought of Mao Tse-tung'. In the constitution of 1956 the phrase was not included. - 3What were the results of the Hundred Flowers?- Many people openly criticised the Plan, especially university lecturers, artists, writers and teachers.
- Party individuals and policies were attacked as being corrupt, inefficient and unrealistic. Even Mao himself was included.
- At this point Mao called an end to the campaign and began the anti-rightist movement.
- Most of the critics were arrested, lost their jobs and underwent periods of re-education in countryside labour camps.
- This usually involved making public apologies for their actions. Some leading figures in the CCP were purged. - 4Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution? [1/2]- By 1963 Mao was already regretting his loss of power and was becoming concerned at the changes that were taking place in China.
- In particular, he was concerned at the growing dominance of the economy by an educated elite.
- He began to build up support in the PLA (People's Liberation Army) and his supporters occupied key posts in the government and gained control of the Central Cultural Revolution Committee
- The reason Mao gave, in China, was that the revolution was becoming too remote from the people.
- He criticised the increase in the numbers of experts and specialists in the economy and the party.
- In the Chinese education system preference was given to the children of urban families and to members of the party hierarchy.
- Mao believed that this was creating a privileged middle class in China
- In fact it was really an attempt by Mao to regain his dominant position in the Party and undermine the positions of Liu and Deng. - 5Why did Mao launch the Cultural Revolution? [2/2]- He believed that they were betraying the revolution from within. Mao also believed in permanent revolution and wanted to continue the process of change.
- Since 1959 he had had much less influence in policy and the Cultural Revolution was an attempt to appeal to the mass of Chinese people over the heads of the Party leadership.
- An important influence was his wife Jiang Qing, who wanted to destroy all Chinese traditional culture and replace it with purely socialist ideas. - 6How did the Cultural Revolution begin?- In 1966, Mao set up Red Guards, who put up posters throughout the country praising the ‘thoughts of Chairman Mao’, which were published in the 'Little Red Book’.
- On 18 August more than a million Red Guards attended a mass rally in Tiananmen Square. Mao urged them to attack the four 'olds', old culture, old thoughts, old customs and old habits.
- Liu and Deng were both dismissed. Liu was arrested and died in prison in 1973.
- Deng had to face public humiliation in front of 3,000 Red Guards. His son was thrown from a window and broke his spine - 7What happened in the Cultural Revolution?- The Red Guards began to attack teachers, intellectuals, scientists, civil servants and doctors. These were often humiliated by being tied up and forced to recite from Mao’s book.
- The first confession was never accepted and the victims were forced to adopt the 'aeroplane' position with head down, arms aloft and knees bent.
- All forms of traditional Chinese culture were ridiculed, as were all foreign influences.
- New operas, poems, music, paintings were produced that glorified the revolution and the people of China.
- Temples, shrines, works of art and gardens were destroyed.
- Public transport and the radio and television networks were taken over by the Red Guards (economic change). - 8What was the impact of the Cultural Revolution?- Virtually all forms of authority were undermined. All schools and colleges were closed for two years.
- Rival groups of Red Guards began to clash with one another in efforts to prove their loyalty to Chairman Mao.
- Factories also set up groups of workers, which competed with the students to hunt out counter-revolutionaries.
- In the People's Liberation Army (PLA) all ranks were abolished.
- Mao's opponents in the Party leaderships were all accused of 'revisionism', capitalist ideas, and were arrested and dismissed from their offices.
- Industrial production was at a standstill, schools and universities were closed (economic change)
- Local organisations of the CCP were destroyed
- Within two years the country was in complete chaos and even Mao was forced to order the Red Guards to stop their attacks in 1969.
- In 1969, the PLA was called in to restore order, but in fact continued the attacks, often with even more brutality.
- The Cultural Revolution lasted until 1971, but art and culture remained under the control of his wife until 1976, when Mao died. - 9How far was Mao a great leader of China? [1/5]- Mao and the CCP promised an end to corruption and there was already evidence that they would carry out their promises.
- The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was also much better behaved than the GMD forces and was generally welcomed throughout China; most Chinese expected a better life after October 1949.
- Mao’s word became law in the new China and criticism of him was virtually impossible.
- One of his main aides, Gao Gang, was forced to commit suicide in 1954 because he spoke out against Mao’s plans to improve Chinese industry.
- Mao’s first action in China was to eliminate any remaining support for the GMD after Chiang Kaishek had left for Formosa (now Taiwan); probably as many as 500,000 people were killed in cold blood.
- His second aim was to introduce Land Reform. Land was confiscated from landlords and was carefully measured out and divided up between peasants. - 10How far was Mao a great leader of China? [2/5]- Land Reform did not last very long. By 1956, only six or seven years after Land Reform was carried out, Mao had taken land away from the peasants and it was being run by the state.
- On the other hand, the First Five Year Plan was very successful. Mao was able to make use of experts sent by Stalin and later by Khrushchev to help in the development of Chinese industry.
- After the successes of the First Five Year Plan, development was not nearly so effective.
- Mao fell out with the Soviet Union and the experts were sent home. The reason for this was a fundamental disagreement over the way that China should develop.
- Mao wanted to base Communism in China on the peasants because the great majority of the Chinese population was made up of peasants
- The difficulty was that peasants were not used to working in factories; they were often uneducated and could not understand how machinery worked - 11How far was Mao a great leader of China? [3/5]- Production of food began to fall as peasants began to move into towns and cities, attracted by the higher wages in industrial factories.
- Mao wanted to use peasants because he distrusted experts. In fact, he probably distrusted almost everybody.
- In the Great Leap Forward from 1957, peasants were attracted away from their villages to try to produce backyard steel, with pathetic results. Almost all of it was completely useless.
- At the same time, food was allowed to rot and production fell, which resulted in a major famine. As many as 30 million people may have died.
- Mao was given false figures about agricultural production that made it appear as if the Great Leap Forward had been a success.
- This is a good example of Mao’s reluctance to accept criticism and his refusal to take advice.
- Another example of Mao’s refusal to accept criticism is the Hundred Flowers campaign in the 1950s.
- By inviting criticism, he appeared to suggest that he was prepared to listen, but in fact what he was really doing was searching out his enemies and then dealing with them. - 12How far was Mao a great leader of China? [4/5]- About 500,000 people were arrested after the campaign and many were sent for re-education or were dismissed from their jobs.
- An even worse example of Mao’s deception was the Cultural Revolution. He appealed to the ordinary people of China, to whom he was still a hero, and used the masses to help him get rid of Deng and Liu.
- For two years, China was in chaos and it did not completely recover until several years after Mao’s death in 1976.
- Industry was almost completely at a standstill and education was virtually destroyed. Much of the good work that had taken place in the 1950s and 1960s was ruined.
- Mao Tse-tung had good points; he was determined and had a clear idea of the China that he wanted to create.
- He wanted to introduce reforms to improve the lives of the Chinese people. There is no doubt that the lives of women improved dramatically in the 1950s and 1960s.
- For many Chinese, life under Mao had more purpose than life under the GMD. - 13How far was Mao a great leader of China? [5/5]- China was changed immeasurably by Mao.
- What had been a backward agrarian state where the majority of people were illiterate in 1949 had become a modern industrial state with a high standard of literacy by 1976.
- The devastating consequences of some of Mao’s policies were made worse by Mao’s refusal to accept that he made mistakes.
- The famine caused by the Great Leap Forward was made much worse because Mao delayed making any changes until it was too late and then blamed officials, rather than accepting the blame himself.
- By the 1960s, it was clear that Mao was less interested in the reform than he was in maintaining his own power and enforcing his vision of China upon the Chinese people.
- After ruling China for more than a dozen years, Mao bitterly regretted allowing Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping to take control in the early 1960s.
- His reforming zeal of the early 1950s had been replaced by a determination to hang onto power for as long as possible and at all costs. - 14What power struggles were there after the death of Mao? (Lin Bao vs Mao)- This struggle took place towards the end of Mao’s life
- Lin Bao was initially chosen to be Mao’s successor after he died. However, he gradually became more powerful and Mao gradually grew more suspicious of him.
- Mao begun to eliminate party officials who he considered supporters of Lin Bao. Sensing Mao was about to remove him, Lin attempted to assassinate Mao, however the plot was discovered and he tried to escape, but died in a plane crash. - 15What power struggles were there after the death of Mao? (The Gang of four vs The Moderates)- The power struggle between the ‘left’ and ‘right’ of the party played out between the ‘gang of four’, who included senior figures from the Cultural Revolution including Mao’s wife, and the moderates in the party, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping.
- The moderates were in a strong position and their senior figures, especially Zhou, were popular and influential, however the death of Zhou in 1976 left the gang of four with a weakened opponent. The ‘left’ demoted Deng and were set to take over.
However another obscure moderate leader, Hua Guofeng, thwarted plans when politburo chose him as Mao’s successor rather than anyone from the left.
- The military was clearly opposed to the gang of four and found the style of leadership of Mao’s wife deeply distasteful. Their support led to Hua being chosen. Hua is also said to have been personally chosen by Mao on his death bed. - 16What power struggles were there after the death of Mao? (Hua vs Deng)- The defeat of the left by Hua benefited Deng Xiaoping, who had fled to the South following Zhou’s death.
- Deng was able to reemerge at this point and out manoeuver Hua and remove him from his position and become the main leader of the party by 1981. - 17What were the reasons behind Deng's reemergence?- He was supported by the military. During his power struggle with Hua, he received the backing of crucial army officials who demanded that the politburo reinstate Deng into a senior party position due to his valuable service to the party.
- Hua himself was isolated and had very few supporters. Many of those who chose him as leader did so purely as a temporary measure to prevent the gang of four from taking over instead.
In contrast Deng was highly popular and had deep roots within the party, having been highly respected for his previous service, in particular for his part in ending the great famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.
- Deng was by far the most experienced and able politician remaining in the Communist party. With the gang of four defeated, Mao, Zhou and Liu Shaoqi were all gone, there was no one to rival Deng. Hua did not have the record, allies or leadership qualities of Deng. - 18How far was China economy changed by the death of Mao?- Peasants were allowed to rent a plot of land and farm it almost like a private farm provided they made the contribution to the local quota, they could then sell off the surplus for private profit – this resulted in huge increases in food production.
- HOWEVER – this improvement was offset by the problem of peasants having less certainty about their property rights. The peasants owned the land on a 15 year lease, not permanently. Therefore they refused to invest in long-term improved production methods as they did not trust the government to not confiscate the land again when the lease ended. Therefore farming methods remained inefficient.
- Deng opened up China to trade with the world – to achieve this he setup Special Economic Zones, they were free from government control and had good tax deals from the government to allow them to trade freely with the rest of the world and concentrate on exports. This worked extremely well, exports increased by 500% and foreign investment quadrupled - 19How was China changed socially after the death of Mao?- One Child policy gave generous family allowances, single children getting into higher education easier and their parents getting housing priority and larger plots of land – the policy worked particularly well in the cities and industrial areas.
- HOWEVER, the policy did not achieve it's aims in more affluent or rural areas, where party influence was weaker and people were wealthier and had little incentive to follow policy.
- Additionally, had disastrous consequences in some parts of China where boys were valued more than girls and the policy led to many families murdering their baby daughters shortly after birth to try again for a son without going against the policy. - 20What was the effect of Mao's death in Chinese politics? [1/2]- Deng regime initially appeared to be more tolerant towards criticisms and allowed some levels of free speech. A democracy movement began to during the early 80s, taking their cue from the reforms that Deng introduced and they began to put up posters along a wall (Beijing later called the ‘Democracy Wall’) that focussed mainly on criticising Mao and parts of the regime. These were tolerated for long periods. Deng also released thousands of former political prisoners.
- HOWEVER, the government eventually clamped down and turned on the democrats when they felt criticism went too far. Dang was particularly happy to use the democrats when he placed the gang of four on trial in 1981, however, clamped down when they mistakenly believed it was permissible to criticise the party and government in post-Mao China. Deng later made it clear, that economic liberalisation, did NOT entail adoption of western style democracy. - 21What was the effect of Mao's death in Chinese politics? [2/2]- ADDITIONALLY, these issues became most critical when the death of a prominent democrat in the Communist party lead to protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The government initially tried to disperse them peacefully, however as the protests grew they sent in tanks and imposed martial law. The PLA moved in and killed thousands of students. This event was a clear reminder that certain aspects of the party had not changed.
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- Did Communism produce a cruel dictatorship?
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