Politics in Mao’s Era

1
Politics in Maos Era
2
Birth of New China

• Civil War in 1949
• January, Beijing/Tianjin fell to CCP
• April, Nanking fell to CCP
• May, Shanghai fell to CCP
• Founding of the Peoples Republic
• Sept. Chinese Peoples Political Consultative
  Conference (CPPCC)
• Common Program
• Beijing capital of the new state
• Five-star flag

3
The Common Program

• PRCs proto-constitution
• PRC a peoples democracy
• People in PRC are the following
• Workers
• Peasants
• Petty bourgeoisie
• National bourgeoisie
• Enemies of state in the PRC are
• landlords

4
People vs Enemies of State

• Enemies of state in the PRC are
• Landlords
• Bureaucratic capitalists
• KMT reactionaries
• Use of class labels
• Members of society classified based on family
  wealth, own history social/political
  affiliation
• Poor and lower middle peasants
• Rich peasants
• landlords

5
People vs Enemies of State

• Use of class labels
• Workers
• Peddlers
• Shop owners
• Facts about class labels
• Class labels assigned to everyone
• Class labels assigned for life
• Class labels hereditary

6
People vs Enemies of State

• Political Use of class labels
• Class labels divide the society into two separate
  camps
• Class labels determine who to include and who to
  exclude in
• Job assignment
• Education
• Promotion
• Distribution of resources

7
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• Land Reform Land Redistribution
• 1948-1950
• Undermine the economic power of the landlords
• Disenfranchise the landlord class politically
• Resist the US and Aid Korea
• 1950 -1953
• Eliminate pro-America pro-West sentiments
• Rally nation against an external enemy
• Foster nationalism

8
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• Suppression of Counter-revolutionaries
• Eliminate secret societies
• Eliminate resistance from forces against the
  Communist regime
• Eliminate whoever who questioned the Communist
  rule
• Eliminate societal elements deemed as a hindrance
  to socialist transformation
• Drug dealers
• Pimps

9
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• Suppression of Counter-revolutionaries
• Eliminate societal elements deemed as a hindrance
  to socialist transformation
• Drug dealers
• Pimps
• Prostitutes
• Hooligans, thugs, fortune tellers
• Three-anti-five-anti campaigns
• Three-anti
• Anti-corruption

10
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• Three-anti-five-anti campaigns
• Three-anti
• Anti-corruption
• Anti-waste
• Anti-bureaucracy
• Five-anti
• Anti-bribery
• Anti tax evasion
• Anti fraud
• Anti theft of government property
• Anti theft of state economic secrets

11
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• The Hundred Flower Campaign 1957
• Discontent was rising in China
• Forced collectivization
• Nationalization
• Lack of freedom of expression
• Riots in Soviet bloc countries
• Khrushchev's de-Stalinization
• Hungarian Crisis
• Maos intention
• To ease tensions in Chinese society
• To ease popular discontent towards CCP

12
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• The Hundred Flower Campaign 1957
• Maos assumption
• Chinese people were unlike Hungarians
• Chinese people shared same interests as CCP
• Chinese people identified with CCP and CCP
  objectives
• Peoples views are non-antagonistic
• Maos two internal speeches
• One in 1956
• One in 1957

13
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• The Hundred Flower Campaign 1957
• Initial Societal Response
• Deafening silence (disbelief)
• Cautious criticism
• Larger role for CPPCC minority parties
• More foreign academic journals
• Active Response
• Beijing University, big posters
• Intellectuals joined the criticism

14
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• Active Response
• Beijing University, big posters
• Intellectuals joined the criticism
• Entire society joined the criticism
• Major Criticisms
• Communist state is simply another feudal dynasty
• CCP is estranged from the masses
• Officials are not servants of people

15
Establishing State Authority

• Political Campaigns
• Major Criticisms
• CCP members are flatterers, sycophants, and
  yes-men
• Marxism-Leninism should not be dogma
• Collectivism hinders production
• Volunteer work is a nuisance
• Life was better under KMT
• CCP should not monopoly power
• Multi-party election ensures democracy

16
Establishing State Authority

• Hundred Flower Campaign
• Mao and CCP Response
• Initiation of Anti-Rightist campaign
• Who were Rightists?
• Some 500,000 people
• Nations best brightest intellectuals,
  scholars, professors, scientists, students
• Punishment
• Jail term
• Labor camp
• Demotion, excommunication, banishment to rural
  areas

17
Establishing State Authority

• Hundred Flower Campaign
• Punishment
• Effect of Punishment
• Family breakup
• Stigma on entire family
• Disenfranchisement of entire family
• Life as social outcasts
• Was hundred flower a conspiracy?
• Did Mao intend to lure the opponents to expose
  themselves initially?
• Or did he under-estimate public sentiments
  towards the CCP?

18
Establishing State Authority

• Hundred Flower Campaign
• Was hundred flower a conspiracy?
• Did Mao intend to lure the opponents to expose
  themselves initially?
• Or did he under-estimate public sentiments
  towards the CCP?
• What does Prof. Dreyer say?

19
Establishing State Authority

• Hundred Flower Campaign
• Was hundred flower a conspiracy?
• Did Mao intend to lure the opponents to expose
  themselves initially?
• Or did he under-estimate public sentiments
  towards the CCP?

20
Establishing State Authority

• Hundred Flower Campaign
• The Case of Harry Wu
• A college student in 1957
• Voiced criticism of Soviet invasion of Hungry
• Voiced criticism of the CCP
• Condemned as a counter-revolutionary rightist
• Sent to labor camp for 19 years
• Beaten, tortured and almost starved to death
• http//www.echofoundation.org/wu/wu_biography.htm

21
Economic Transformation

• The Great Leap Forward, 1958 - 1961
• Why Leap
• Maos impatience with slow growth
• Limitation of Soviet model
• Population an asset of growth
• Sputnik Khrushchev
• Short-term Objectives
• Iron-steel production
• Coal production
• Long-term Objectives
• Increase of productive power

22
Economic Transformation

• The Great Leap Forward, 1958 - 1961
• Approaches
• Mass mobilization
• Diversion of labor to steel production
• Creation of Peoples Communes
• Consequences
• Grain production drop
• Severe market supply of necessities
• Strict rationing system implemented
• Starvation swept across the nation
• Peasant death in large numbers

23
Economic Transformation

• The Great Leap Forward, 1958 - 1961
• Unprecedented Environmental Damages
• Forest devastation
• Desertification in animal farming regions
• Rivers running dry in lower valleys
• Assault on sparrows
• Wildlife devastation (Mongolian gazelles)

24
Intra-Party Conflicts

• Evaluating the Leap
• The Lushan Conference, 1959
• Marshal Peng Dehuai Mao
• Pengs letter
• Leap a waste of labor
• Leap counter-productive
• leap a violation of economic laws
• Maos response
• Oust Peng as defense minister
• Peng condemned as anti-Party

25
Cultural Revolution

• 1962 Expanded Party Conference
• Objective of Conference
• Evaluate Party leadership work since 1958
• Reaffirm economic consolidation policy
• Reaffirm production restoration measures
• Differences on Party Responsibility
• Liu Shaoqi
• Party leadership failure mainly responsible

26
Cultural Revolution

• 1962 Expanded Party Conference
• Differences on Party Responsibility
• Liu Shaoqi
• Lin Biao
• Economic fiascos results of failure to follow
  Maos instructions
• Mao leadership flawless.
• Socialist Education Campaign
• Mao
• Officials are becoming corrupt
• Socialist China is in danger of capitalist
  restoration

27
Cultural Revolution

• CCP Leadership in Early 1966
• Mao Tsetung Chmn of CCP Central Committee
• Liu Shaoqi President of PRC
• Zhou Enlai Prime Minister
• Lin Biao Vice Premier, Defense Minister
• Jiang Qing Maos wife
• Maos Economic Policy
• Collective economy is unshakable
• Individual production, hotbed of capitalism

28
Cultural Revolution

• Maos Economic Policy
• Maos Foreign Policy
• China should struggle with revisionist USSR
• China should struggle with the entire West
• China should support world revolution
• Maos Education Policy
• Formal education should be reformed
• Education be combined with labor
• Suspension of intl educational exchanges
• Maos Policy towards Intellectuals
• Ideological reform of intellectuals

29
Cultural Revolution

• Lius Economic Policy
• China-foreign economic relations desirable
• Mixed economy serves socialist objectives
• Lius Education Policy
• Formal informal education equally important
• Intl educational exchanges important
• Lius Policy towards Intellectuals
• Intellectual activities respected

30
Cultural Revolution

• Lius Downfall
• August, 1966 2nd to 8th in ranking
• Sept Oct, 1966 public humiliation
• Nov, 1966 disappearance from public
• Oct, 1968 excommunication from CCP
• 1969 died in house arrest
• Lius Family
• Wife accused of being an American spy life
  imprisonment (changed from death sentence)
• Eldest son suicide

31
Cultural Revolution

• Interpreting Cultural Revolution
• Factional Model
• Mao vs Liu
• Political Culture Model
• Tradition of authoritarian politics
• Palace Politics Model
• Mao
• Liu
• Lin
• Politics of succession

32
Cultural Revolution

• Aftermaths of Cultural Revolution
• Political crisis
• Political succession crisis
• Death of Lin Biao
• Maos prestige eroding
• Economic stagnation
• Rationing system permanent
• Production hardly matching population growth

33
Cultural Revolution

• Aftermaths of Cultural Revolution
• International relations
• US-China relations
• Nixons visit in 1972
• Fords visit in 1975
• China-USSR relations
• 1950 military alliance
• Soviet model Sino-Soviet friendship
• Sino-Soviet ideological differences
• Sino-Soviet military clashes 1969

34
Cultural Revolution

• Aftermaths of Cultural Revolution
• International relations
• US-China relations
• China-USSR relations
• China-Europe relations
• 1964 Beijing-Paris diplomatic relations
• 1966, burning of British mission in Beijing
• China-Asia relations
• Indonesia
• North Korea

35
Cultural Revolution

• Aftermaths of Cultural Revolution
• Education
• Disruption of formal education
• Suspension of intl educational ties
• Close of universities and colleges
• Abolition of college entrance tests

36
Major Actors in 1975 - 1976

• Mao Tsetung
• Zhou Enlai
• Deng Xiaoping
• Deputy prime minister
• A reformer
• Jiang Qing Gang of Four
• Jiang Maos wife

37
Major Actors in 1975 - 1976

• Jiang Qing Gang of Four
• Jiang Maos wife
• Gang of Four (Shanghai clique)
• Jiang Qing
• Zhang Chunqiao
• Wang Hongwen
• Yao Wenyuan
• Hua Guo-feng
• Deputy Prime Minister
• 1st Vice Chairman and Prime Minister

38
Major Actors in 1975 - 1976

• Cultural Revolution (CR) Beneficiaries
• Mao
• Jiang Qing
• Gang of Four
• Hua Guofeng
• CR Victims
• Deng Xiaoping
• Ye Jianying

39
PRC in 1976-1978

• End of Mao Era
• Sept. 9, 1976, death of Mao
• Oct. 6, 1976, arrest of Gang of 4
• Rise of Hua Guofeng
• Hua Chairman of CCP Premier
• Policy Debate
• Hua two whatevers
• Deng Seek truth from facts

40
PRC in 1976-1978

• 3rd Plenum of 11th Party Congress
• Nov-Dec 1978
• Decisions
• Rehabilitate CR victims
• Suspend Maos mass class struggles
• Initiate economic reform
• Initiate open policy
• Reorient Party work on economic modernization

41
PRC in 1976-1978

• Rise of Deng Xiaoping
• Four modernizations
• Education reform
• Formal education
• Standard tests
• Restoration of university education
• Admission based on academic performance
• Restoration of intl educational exchanges

42
PRC in 1976-1978

• Rise of Deng Xiaoping
• Four modernizations
• Education reform
• Intellectual Policy
• Socialist mental workers
• Intl Economic Relations