China since 1949: the communists in control, lowe notes

China since 1949: the communists in control


Summary of events

After the communist victory Mao set about rebuilding
At the first there was Russian advice and aid, in the late 1950’s relations cooled and Russian economic aid was reduced
In 58 Mao introduced the Great Leap Forward, in which communism was introduced. The emphasis was put on decentralization, agriculture, communes and contact with the masses.
Mao became critical to Russia because, in his view, the Russians went away from the Marxist Principles and he blamed them that they followed the capitalist road
During the 60’s these disagreements caused a serious drift in world communism , which were only healed after Gorbachev became a Russian leader
The cultural revolution (66-69), meant that Mao succeeded to crush all the opposition and to keep the party’s development along Marxist Leninist lines
After Mao’s death (76) there was a power of struggle from which Deng emerged as undisputed leader (81).
Dang’s policies were moderating Mao’s ideas, were less conservative and Deng looked towards Japan and the West for ideas and support.
In 87 Deng wad forced to slow down his reforms because of the big opposition of Mao’s supporters, which accused Deng of following the capitalist road.
In April 89, the Chinese were encouraged by Gorbachev’s policies, e.g. glasnost and the revolutions that took place in Eastern Europe. The Chinese started a revolution in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. They demanded democracy and end of corruption and CCP.
The Armies moved in, crushing the opposition and restored order. The communism and the economic reforms continued with some successes, but there was no political reform. Deng continued as a supreme leader until his death in 97 (age of 92)

















18.1 How successful was Mao in dealing with China’s problem?

a) What were the problems facing Mao?

· The problems facing China were complex
· The country was devastated after the civil war with Japan: railways, roads, canals, and dykes had been destroyed and there were chronic food shortages, industry was backward, agriculture was inefficient and incapable, inflation was huge
· To satisfy the supporter’s demands was crucial for Mao
· It was difficult for Mao to control and organize such a vast country
· Mao looked closely at Stalin’s methods and experimented to find out what would work in China and what would not.


b) The constitution of 1950 (officially adopted 54’)

· Every 4 years the people elected members of the National People’s Congress (the final authority of legislation)
· The State Council and the Chairman of the Republic were chosen by the Congress, whose function was to look after that the laws were carried out properly and that the countries policies went ahead
· The State Council elected the Politburo, which took all the main decisions.
· The whole system was dominated by the communist party and only party members could be elected.
· The system was important because if provided the country with a central government, the first in many years. The system is today almost unchanged.


c) Agricultural changes

· These transformed China from an inefficient country to one of large co operative like Russia.
· In the first stages land was taken from land owners and given to peasants, also sometimes with violence. It is important to know that some historians claim that the violence never occurred.
· The next step was achieved without violence. Peasants were persuaded to join collective farms (not like in Russia).
· By 1956 about 95% of all peasants were collectivized in order to increase food production

d) Industrial changes

· This begun with the government nationalizing most businesses.
· In 1953 a Five Year Plan of the heavy industry started, where the Russians helped with cash, equipment and advisers.
· Before it was complete Mao started to have doubts about the Five Year Plan, if this Plan was suited for China. Mao could claim that under his leadership China recovered from the ravages of the war, full communication has been restored, inflation was under control an the economy looked better.



e) The Hundred Flowers Campaign (57)

· This developed from the industrialization which produced a new class of technicians and engineers. These were called the party cadres.
· The cadres were groups that organized the masses politically and economically e.g. collectivization of farms.
· Mao decided first open discussion of the problems might improve relations between cadres, experts or intellectuals.
· These created only criticism and opposition
· Mao called off the campaign and clamped down on his critics
· The campaign showed that the actual opposition still existed.
· Mao was convinced that he had to consolidate the advance of socialism. He introduced the Great Leap Forward.


f) The Great Leap Forward


· This was a policy that would face the Chinese situation and was not based on Russian experience.
· You can say that The Great Leap Forward wad an extension of the Five Year Plan.
· It was mostly concentrated on agriculture that was ineffective. This would increase output
· Its most important features were:


The introduction of communes

Units larges than collective farms, containing up to 75 000 people, divided into brigades and teams with an elected council.
They ran their own collective farms and factories, carried out most of the functions of local government within the commune and undertook special projects.

A complete change of emphasis in industry

· Instead of aiming for large scale works of the type seen in Russian and the West, smaller factories were set up on the country side to provide machinery for agriculture
· Mao talked about 600 000 backyard steel furnaces organized and managed by the communes, which also undertook to build roads, canals, dams, reservoirs and irrigation channels.
· At first the Leap was a great failure, which was caused also because of the Russian aid withdrawal, lack of experience among the cadres. Mao’s prestige suffered because of the failure and he was forced to resign as Chairman
· In the long term the importance of the Great Leap forward became clear, both industrial and agricultural production increased substantially and China could manage to feed its massive population without famine
· The communes proved to be a successful innovation, even more affective then collective farms. This gave the government chance to keep in touch with the local opinion
· The crucial decision that had been taken by China is that they would remain an agricultural country with small scale industry spread around the country side
· The economy would be labor intensive, which means that it relied on massive numbers of workers instead of laborsaving machines. This give also anyone a job, it enabled China to avoid the growing unemployment problems, as I happened in the West.
· Other benefits were the spread of education and welfare services and of the women’s role in the society.

g) The Cultural Revolution (66-69)


· This was Mao’s attempt to keep the revolution and the Great Leap forward on a pure Marxist course
· In the early 1960 the successes of the Great Leap forward were not visible and opposition to Mao grew
· The right wing members of the party believed that incentives were necessary if the communes were to function efficiently. The right wingers also believed that China needed an expert managerial class to push forward the industrialization on the Russian model, instead of relying on cadres
· To the Maoists this was unacceptable, it was exactly this Mao condemned the Russians for (taking the capitalist road)
· Between 63 and 66 there was a great public debate about which course to follow
· Mao used his position as a chairman so he launched a campaign to save the revolution
· He called this as the proletarian Cultural Revolution. He appealed to the masses, which were mostly students (the Red Guard). These toured the country arguing that Mao’s policies were the best
· It was an incredible propaganda exercise in which Mao was trying to renew revolutionary fervor
· It brought chaos and something close to civil war
· The masses were dangerous because they denounced and physically attacked anybody in authority. Millions of people were disgraced and ruined
· By 67 extremists along the Red Guard were out of control
· Mao recognized in private his mistakes but in public he blamed his advisers and the Red Guard members. These were arrested and executed for committing excesses
· At the part conference in April 69 the Cultural Revolution was formally ended and Mao was declared free of all blame
· Lin Biao one of Mao’s most reliable supporters and Defense Minister was blamed by Mao of over enthusiasm of the Red Guards.
· Sources claim that Mao tried to get rid of Biao through making him the scapegoat because Biao was thought to maneuver Mao into retiring.
· He was accused of plotting to assassinate Mao and was killed in a car crash in 71, as the officials said, while trying to flee to Russia.
· The Cultural revolution caused great disruption, ruined millions of lives and probably held up China’s economy by ten years
· In spite of this there was some economic recovery during the 70’s and China did a great job since 49
· In China:
1. Grain production had at least kept pace with the rapid increase of the population
2. Industrial development had tripled steel production, laid the foundation for a significant oil industry
3. Created a machine building industry from scratch
4. Provided the base for China to become a nuclear power
5. Light industry provided a reasonable flow of consumer goods by comparison with the Soviet Union
6. the most surprising development of Mao’s policies during his last years was in foreign affairs, when Mao and Zhou Enlai decided to improve relations with the USA.



18.2 Life after Mao


a) A power of struggle followed by the death of Mao in 1976
· Hua Guofeng was named by Mao as his successor, Deng was too liberal and the Gang of Four which were more Maoists than Mao himself
· After a while of cooperation with Hua and after he resigned, Deng was undisputed leader while the Gang of Four was put on trial and accused of crimes during te Cultural Revolution

b) there was a period of dramatic policy changes

· many changes introduced during the Cultural Revolution were reversed :
1. Revolutionary committees set up to run local government were abolished and replaced by more democratically elected groups
2. property confiscated from former capitalists was returned to survivors
3. there was more religious freedom for intellectuals to express themselves in literature and the arts

· In economic matters Deng wanted technical and financial help from the west in order to modernize industry, agriculture, science and technology .
Loans were accepted from foreign governments and banks, and they received new equipment
In 80 China joined the IMF and the World Bank
State paid higher prices to the communes and reduced taxes in order to stimulate efficiency and output. These actions gave success: grain output reached a record level (79) and many peasants became prosperous

c) Demands for more radical reform: the democracy Wall

· In November 78 there was a poster campaign in Beijing and other cities, often in support of Den Xiaoping.
· Soon there were massive demonstrations for more reform, so the marches had to be banned
· However, the democracy wall remained. Here, the people attacked Mao, and published the wish and need of open speech, representation of non communist parties in the National People’s Congress, the freedom to change jobs and to travel abroad and the abolition of the communes
· This infuriated Deng because the Wall was built mainly to criticize the Gang of Four, the Wall was abolished and law and order would be restored


d) Modernization and its problems

· Deng together with his protégés were determined to bring about modernization as soon as possible
· Zhao, one of Deng’s protégés, gave the peasants more advantages. The land, although officially owned by the state, was divided and allocated to individual peasants, which were allowed to keep most of the profits. This improved the living standards of many people
· Prices of surplus grain, pork, cotton and vegetables would be allowed to fluctuate on the free market
· The modernization caused a sharp fall in China’s economy and the annual rate of inflation began to rise, reaching 22% in 86.

e) The thoughts of Deng Xiaoping

· Deng explained his idea for the future. His aim was to enable his people to get richer
· By the year 2000, if all went well, the average annual income per head should have risen to near too 700£
· The party must withdraw from administrative tasks, issue fewer instructions, and allow more initiative at the lower levels
· Only capitalist investments could create the conditions in which China could become a prosperous, modernized state






18.3 Tiananmen Square, 1989, and the crisis of communism

a) the crisis of 1987

Deng had always to keep an eye on the traditional, conservative or Maoist member of the Politburo , who were still powerful and might be able to get rid of Deng if his economic reforms failed or if party control seemed to be slipping
Deng provided a great balancing act between the rights wing members and the Maoists, he encouraged the criticism of the youngsters only to a point, so he could then drop some of the oldest and most inefficient party bureaucrats
The dilemma facing the right wingers as Zhao and Deng was: was it possible to offer the people a choice in buying and selling and yet deny them any choice in other areas such as polices and political parties?
Many western powers and Gorbachev thought this alternative would be impossible, but if the economic reforms proved successful, Deng and Zhao could turn out to be right.

b) Tiananmen Square 1989

· Their economic reforms ran into problems during 88 and 89, inflation grew and wages (state associations) lagged well behind prices
· Encouraged by the visit of Gorbachev the students started a new demonstration in Tiananmen Square on April 17th 1989
· The students were demanding political reform, democracy and the end of the communist party
· The people really thought that they could perform and realize their demands, and they were sure that no government in the world could resist a popular rising of this magnitude
· It certainly looked that the government had lost control and might soon give up
· However, thousands of troops were brought in (3rd and 4th June), the army using paratroopers, tanks and infantry attacked the students. Between 1500 and 300 students were killed and Tiananmen Square was under government control again
· Demonstrations in other cities were also dispersed
· Zhao was removed from his position and replaced with Zemin (more neutral)
· Prime Minster Li Peng became the leading figure
· Many students were arrested, killed and executed
· Deng and the hardliners were sure that they took the right decision
· Simultaneously in the USSR, communism fell
· The Chinese leadership could congratulate itself on avoiding Gorbachev’s failures and preserving communism

c) China since 1899

China’s leaders were still committed to progressive open door economic polices
They hoped that this polices would turn the people prosperous and through this way, make the people forget their desire fro democracy
During the 90’s China’s economy was booming
From 91 to 96 China led the world with average GDP increases of 11.4% and living standards were rising fast
Especially Eastern China, which was successful with lots of foreign investments and plenty of consumer goods for sale. On the other hand, the west was not taking part at the same rate
A new Five Year Plan, started in March 96’, aimed to keep the economic boom on course by increasing grain production, keeping average GDP growth at 8% and spreading wealth more evenly among the regions
Deng died in 97, Peng and Zemin were the new leading figures
Internal criticism seemed to have disappeared, partially because China’s economic success and there was no mention of economic reform