1. Problems facing the PRC (1949)
1.1. Industrial output drops as Japan seize productive areas
1.2. 1949 - critical food supply - 1945: 30% lower than pre-war levels
1.3. GMD (Nationalists) had paid for war by borrowing and printing money - 1000% inflation
1.4. Farmers hit due to Great Depression in world trade causing steep drop in food prices
1.5. Many move to cities - 541 million 1949 to 587 million 1953 - demand for food grows
1.6. Bombing had ruined economic infrastructure
1.7. Long term underinvestment and under-skilled workforce
2. 100 Flowers Campaign
2.1. “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools of thought contend”
2.2. Motives
2.2.1. Destalinisation influenced by USSR
2.2.1.1. Khrushchev had begun criticising Stalins 'Cult of Personality' He wanted to distance himself from Stalin.
2.2.2. Confidence and Popularity: Mao was confident within his position
2.2.2.1. Impressed with his achievements in the 5 Year Plans - Revolution was no longer vulnerable
2.2.3. Exposed removable opposition to his power
2.2.3.1. Deliberate ploy to bring critics into the open so he could attack them.
2.2.3.1.1. Mao himself claimed this by suggesting he had “enticed the snakes out of their caves”.
2.3. Effects
2.3.1. Removal of Opposition
2.3.1.1. Lushan Conference - 1959: Peng Dehuai denounced in front of the Central Committee after Mao received (mild) letter raising concerns about the famine
2.3.1.2. Zhou Enlai was forced to publically self-criticise despite being loyal
2.3.2. Mass fear: Nobody was above being criticised
2.4. Anti-Rightist Campaign
2.4.1. Reaction against the Hundred Flowers Campaign
2.4.2. By the end of 1957, 300,000 people had been labeled as rightists. Most of the accused were intellectuals. The penalties included informal criticism, "re-education through labour" and in some cases death.
3. The CCP
3.1. Maoism
3.1.1. Mao believed that peasants, not factory workers, should lead the communist revolution. China followed Maoism when he became leader, in 1949. This created differences with communism in the USSR and Cuba.
3.2. The Politburo (Central Committee) was the seat of power - Mao dominated this - He held ULTIMATE authority
3.2.1. Although there were no other parties by 1952 abd the CCP also oversaw all elections
3.3. The PLA
3.3.1. Led by Lin Biao
3.3.2. China was divided into 6 regions, each with its own chairman, party secretary, military commanders and political commissar.
3.4. Dictatorship was supported by the army, government and civil service with no involvement in government by the vast majority of people
4. Consolidating Control
4.1. Antis Campaigns
4.1.1. Three Antis (1951)
4.1.1.1. Targets waste, corruption and delay
4.1.1.2. Small-scale are 'flies' and large-scale are 'tigers'
4.1.1.3. Finance minister, Bo Yibo, in charge - boasted of hunting 100K tigers in E. China
4.1.1.4. Mass meetings with managers and collegues denounced
4.1.2. Five Antis (1952)
4.1.2.1. Targets bribery, tax evasion, theft of state/property, fraud and economic espionage
4.1.2.2. Top levels purged - Gao Gang and Rao Shushi accused of building an empire within the party
4.1.2.3. Denunciations encouraged - many driven to suicide from humiliation
4.2. Problems
4.2.1. CCP didn't have full control of all regions.
4.2.1.1. Solution - Create rule by fear, 3 reunification campaigns in Tibet, Xinjiang and Guangdong, 28,332 people executed.
4.2.2. Soaring inflation and GMD took China's reserves of foreign currency to Taiwan.
4.2.2.1. Solution - Regulation of the economy, public spending cut, taxes raised. New currency introduced. Money taken from GMD supporters and kept.
4.2.3. Peasants had been used in the war, agricultural production fallen, food shortages in urban areas.
4.2.3.1. Solution - Introduces land reforms, land is confiscated from landlords and given to poor peasants.
4.2.4. Industrial production declined.
4.2.4.1. Solution - banks, gas, electricity and transport industries nationalised.
4.3. Rustication Campaign
4.3.1. ‘Up to the mountains, down to the villages’.
4.3.2. Thought reform Young Chinese raised in the cities had to relocate to rural areas, to live and work with the peasantry so that they could discard their bourgeois ideas.
4.3.3. 1698
4.3.4. The Rustication movement was initiated out of necessity rather than ideological purification. The Cultural Revolution was in full flow yet the Red Guards had become too much of a liability, particularly with their split into rival factions - in order to prevent further violence and disorder they were dispersed across the nation. Some never returned or saw their family again <- China's 'Stolen Generation'.
4.4. Re-unification campaigns (1949-50)
4.4.1. Tibet (May 1951) - campaign from PLA to destroy Tibetan culture having
4.4.2. Guangdong - taken by PLA in civil war
4.4.3. Xinjiang - taken by conquest and negotiation and large number of Han taken for construction projects
5. Use of Terror
5.1. Labelling
5.1.1. Red (friend) and black (foe)
5.1.2. Good, middle and bad classes
5.2. Crackdown on crime
5.2.1. Re-education camps filled up
5.2.2. Relocation of petty criminals to countryside
5.3. Laogai
5.3.1. Thought reform: self-criticism, loss of identity, indoctrination meetings
5.3.2. 25 million die between 1949-76
5.3.3. 350K tonnes grain each year by 1955
5.3.4. 9/10 are political prisoners
5.3.5. Used to frighten to population into conformity
5.3.6. Brutal conditions with violence, sleep deprivation, hard labour and poor diet
6. The Civil War
6.1. 1927-1950
6.2. Nationalist Party (GMD - Guomindang) led by Chiang Kai-Shek
6.3. Refers mainly to the struggle for China between late 1945 and October 1949
6.4. Early 1949: Beijing fell to the CCP and as other major cities across China fell, the CCP declared victory by proclaiming of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949. The ‘liberation’ of China, however, resulted in millions of civilian causalities at the hands of both sides.
6.5. Chiang fled to Taiwan and set up the Republic of China, maintaining that he was the legitimate leader of mainland China. His regime was bankrolled with riches taken from the mainland. He remained president of the ROC until his death in April 1975.
7. Imperial China
7.1. The Qing Dynasty was the last imperial dynasty and fell in 1911 after The Boxer Rebellion.
7.2. The fall of the dynasty left the country into turmoil. In the ensuing power vacuum, a large number of warlords seized control of fiefdoms. In order to unify the country, the GMD sought help from foreign governments.
7.3. Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism were the dominant teachings or religions in Imperial China and most individuals combined all three in their daily lives.
8. The Korean War
8.1. 38th Parallel = Border between South and North Korea
8.2. Very 'back and forth' conflict. Initiated by North Korea's invasion of South with which UN forces intervened (July) to assist South Korea. CHINESE forces assisted the North after the UN pushed N. Korea over the 38th Parallel to the Yalu River, China.
8.2.1. Mao couldn't handle a war at this time with a struggling economy and a country which had not yet recovered from the Civil War. Mao intervened through fear of U.S. air attacks and pressure from Stalin.
8.3. 25th June 1950- 27th July 1953
8.4. Costs
8.4.1. Financial
8.4.1.1. Lots of hardware and advisors supplied by Russia but had to be paid for
8.4.1.2. USA place embargo on foreign goods causing 30% fall in foreign trade
8.4.1.3. Forced requisitioning of food for army from provinces - causes famine
8.4.1.4. 1951 - over 1/2 government budget spent on military
8.4.1.5. Vital industrial resources diverted to war leaving very little left to invest in social provisions and economic infrastructure - limits the success of the 1st FYP
8.4.2. Human
8.4.2.1. Death toll at 1 million with majority being conscripted 'volunteers'
8.4.2.2. unimportant to Mao due to the vast population
8.4.2.3. his own son was killed
8.5. Benefits
8.5.1. Mao was able to disguise everything underneath a patriotic 'banner'.
8.5.2. Raised China's international prestige in their resistance against capitalist powers.
8.5.3. Anti-US propoganda campaigns, promoting national unity - mass meetings and rallies organised by Zhou Enlai
8.5.4. PLA allowed to conscript people
8.5.5. Destroys remaining nationalist opposition
8.5.6. Forced donations and food requisitioning from countryside - taxes raised
8.5.7. N. Korea becomes a buffer zone against Japan