China and Communism
I. Background
A. Swing toward westernization, 1900-28
1. breakdown of Chinese traditional ways
2. desire, finally, to import western
ideas, technology, industry
3. impossibility, it seemed, of having
both Confucianism and westernization
4. China broken up under many different local warlords, continued European influence, and Japanese
B. Guomintang (Kuomintang) takeover and
rule, 1928-49
1. led by reformist and modernizer Sun Yat-Sen,
comes to power under military leader Jiang Kaishek
2. little time for real progress
industrially, philosophically
a. wanted full-tilt
westernization--welcomed western ideas wholesale and uncritically
b. hoped to create an industrial power
in the east on European models
c. tremendous suffering, lack of food,
poor economy made modernization almost impossible
3 had to fight Japanese expansion,
1937-onward
4. had to fight growing Chinese communism
a. seemed that the Guomintang had the
ability to win
b. Long March, 1934-35 which hardened the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), got local peasant support
c. CCP stayed a player against Japanese,
rose up against Guomintang after WWII
5. Guomintang falls to the CCP
a. had ear, support of USA
b. but done in by corruption, ill-treatment of its own soldiers, and loss of respect due to poor showing against Japanese
c. unable, without aid, to put down the
CCP
d. fled to Taiwan in 1949; still there
today
e. led to the USA saying that tiny
Taiwan was the real govt. of China until 1979
II. CCP--Chinese Communist Party
A. reasons for growth
1. Lenin's ideas on imperialism, party
vanguard were very attractive to Chinese intellectuals
2. Comintern helped to aid the CCP
a. this would lead to problems
b. continuing question of Soviet vs.
Chinese control and model of communism
3. tremendous suffering of Chinese
people
B. Mao Zedong (also Mao Tse Tung) became
leader of CCP
1. brilliant politician, tactician
2. would lead from before Revolution, as
early as the '20s until 1976
C. Chinese-style Communism
1. understood that China was mostly peasant,
so played down the industrial necessity of Communism
2. gained the support of peasants by
land redistribution plans that were actually carried out
3. Decentralized communism, especially
in the beginning
a. CCP had been in hiding all over China
b. impossible to trust large
organizations
c. ability to work independently
4. slow growth of CCP power, first in
North, led to governing experience before '49
a. helped to create land communes, give
land to peasants
b. helped other ways to make peasant
life better
5. creation of a large Red Army before
the Revolution
a. grown because of fight against
Japanese
b. grown because of good relations with
peasantry
6. separate, Chinese path of Communism
would be Mao's goal, would make Communism more attractive (or at least
palatable) to many Chinese, especially at first.
III. China under Mao
A.
Nationalists defeated 1949. Communists come to power
B. Imposing
the Revolution
1.
Law codes abolished 1949
2.
Replaced with mass drives against supposed political opposition
a.
tens of thousands mobilized to arrest “enemies”
b.
use of mass terror, liquidations
C. First Five
Year Plan – begins 1950
1.
Marked by disastrous drive towards collectivization
2.
Mao forced to relax collectivization in 1953 – 5 Year Plan peters out
D. The
Hundred Flowers - 1957
1.
Mao invites criticism, debate
2.
Turns into an explosion of criticism against party
3.
Shut down, many critics arrested
E. Great Leap
Forward - 1958
1.
Mao seeks rapid economic development through mass mobilization
2.
Designed to insure China’s independence in front of Moscow
3.
demonstrated Mao’s utopian mysticism
4.
massive drive to collectivization
5.
semi-militarization of labor
6.
Unrealistic production quotas put in place
7.
backyard steel mills lead to complete disaster
8.
famine
9.
Mao forced to end program, resigns from chairmanship of republic, power reduced
IV. The Cultural Revolution and the late Mao years
A. Mao
contemplates failures of Great Leap Forward and his reduced power
1.
Failure due in part to Chinese being culturally unready for true revolution
2.
Wanted to reestablish his full power, destroy opponents and rivals
3.
Sought to destroy the Party that now threatened his power
B. Turned to
youth of China, announces a Cultural Revolution (1966)
1.
Sought to tap youthful energy
2.
and to turn to generation unfamiliar with non-Communist China
3.
Creation of Red Guards
a.
shut down schools
b.
organized youth in militarized gangs to attack the “olds”
c.
tens of millions of youth join the Red Guards
d.
destruction of cultural treasures
e.
many of China’s intellectual elite humiliated, imprisoned, killed
4. Promotion of
full scale cult of personality around Mao
a.
Guards taught that they did not need school, only Mao
b.
all carried and studied the Little Red Book, full sum of education
5. Jiang Qing
(Madame Mao) took a lead role, particularly in assault on intellectuals
C. Pulling back from
radicalization
1. By 1969,
Cultural Revolution had led to chaos
a.
Most of skilled elite in jail or dead
b.
Red Guards took over factories, generally incompetent
c.
serious economic decline
2. Out of chaos,
army would take leading role
3. Party
reorganized with revolutionary committees
a. each committee 1/3 army, 1/3
rehabilitated old Communists, 1/3 Red Guards
b.
in fact, Red Guard had no power in new structure
4. Some
backtracking on radicalization
5. But 1973-76
saw Mao making new radical push
V.
The Era of Deng Xiaoping
A. Death of Mao in 1976 produced
power struggle – Gang of Four trial
B. Deng, arrested three times,
rehabilitated and rises to power (talent widely recognized and feared)
C. Pursues policy of economic
modernization
1. Less
interested in ideological purity than economic growth
2. Ended
agricultural collectivization
3. Return on
private farms
4. Began to
license large numbers of small scale entrepreneurs to meet consumer demands
5. Gradual
liberalization of market
a.
allows joint enterprises with foreign firms
b.
these leads to creation of special economic zones
c.
eventual large scale liberalization of economy throughout China
D. But Party will remain in
control - the Singapore Model
1. 1989,
Tiananmen Square
2. More
recently, Falun Gong
E. Deng dies in 1997 – policies of
economic modernization continue