Establishing Communist Rule - Defeating the CCP’s Opponents

Question 1

The campaign to suppress ‘counter-revolutionaries’

Answer 1

• launched 1950
• anyone who had potential to cause problems for regime at risk - most vulnerable those who worked for previous nationalist regime
• western businessmen forced to leave the country
• many Christian’s missionaries arrested and charged on suspicion of espionage
• expanded by Korean War giving Mao more justification to seek out spies

Question 2

Self registration

Answer 2

• organised by ministry of public security
• targeted those who previously worked for the nationalist regime
• asked to submit autobiographies listing friends and associates with the promise if they confessed they would be treated leniently
• all were arrested and often disappeared never to be seen again

Question 3

Mass participation

Answer 3

• party encouraged ordinary citizens to become involved in political activities such as denouncing counter-revolutionaries
• chanted during public struggle meetings “Kill! Kill! Kill!”
• government recorded 800,000 counter revolutionary deaths during first half of 1951

Question 4

The three antis campaign

Answer 4

• 1951, Mao called for a ‘big clean up throughout the party’
• directed against corruption, waste and obstructionist bureaucracy in government
• regime used campaign support to remove anyone within civil service they didn’t like
• CCP no longer had use for the civil service employees as the regime was established
• enough loyal party cadres had been trained to replace them
• former employees were imprisoned or executed

Question 5

The five antis campaign

Answer 5

• 1952, five antis campaign
• dedicated to ending: bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts and stealing state economic information
• targeted middle class and private business owners
• those who confessed encouraged to believe they would be treated leniently
• many victims chose suicide
• those who survived sent to laogai

Question 6

Overview of the antis campaigns

Answer 6

• both very successful
• campaigns helped establish the party’s control over private companies
• party sent cadres into companies to take leading management roles enhancing their roles
• changed social system in China - people forced to denounce others to save themselves
• only way to protect oneself was utter loyalty to CCP

Question 7

The reunification campaigns

Answer 7

• Mao aimed to establish control of the peripheral regions of China
• Tibet and Xinjiang were boarder regions far from Beijing and vulnerable to foreign influence
• Xinjiang had a large Muslims population - more in common with Muslim areas of Soviet Union
• Tibet led by Buddhist Dalai Lama a rival leader to
Mao

Question 8

Invasion of Tibet

Answer 8

• launched October 1950
• sent PLA to invade and ‘liberate it from imperialist oppression’
• PLA met with resistance of 60,000 but ultimately overcame them
• representatives had no choice but to sign a 17-point agreement which set out terms of merging Tibet into the PRC
• CCP imposed policies removing all Tibetan identity - Mandarin Chinese enforced as official language

Question 9

Invasion of Tibet - migration of Han Chinese

Answer 9

• Mao declared desire to raise population of Tibet from 3 million to 10 million
• promoted migration of dominant Han Chinese into Tibet
• hoped Han Chinese would marginalise indigenous population and replace their traditional culture
• PLA built a massive highway to move migrants and military forces into Tibet

Question 10

Invasion of Tibet - propaganda and exile

Answer 10

• PLA propaganda units spread idea that Tibetans needed liberation from their traditional ‘feudal’ society
• newspapers and magazines distributed that presented benefits of communism
• Tibetan refugees went to India telling tales of persecution and torture
• when the Tibetans rebelled in 1959 they were brutally suppressed by PLA - the Dalai Lama fled to India

Question 11

Xinjiang

Answer 11

• large Muslim population - close ethnic ties with Muslims in the Soviet Union
• mosques were commonplace
• Arabic was the language used in religious services
• Chinese regime feared the growth of Russian influence

Question 12

Xinjiang - the uighurs

Answer 12

• largest minority group in Xinjiang - 3/4 population of 3 million
• nationalist leaders were invited to the political consultative conference in 1949 - plane crash killing all on board
• replacements agreed to submit to Chinese rule
• PLA, led by Peng Dehuai, cleared all resistance and secured territory for migration of Han Chinese

Question 13

Guangdong

Answer 13

• Traditionally a pro nationalist stronghold
• Regime feared enemy spies and saboteurs remained
• Estimated 28,000 people executed in Guangdong during the ‘supreme the counter revolutionaries campaign’

Question 14

Taiwan

Answer 14

• Chang kai-shek’s new nation claimed to be the ‘official’ China
• sent spies and agents to attack and sabotage the new regime

Question 15

The laogai

Answer 15

• ‘laogai’ meaning ‘reform through labour’
• camps first built in the most inhospitable border regions such as Manchuria’s mosquito infested swamps
• by the start of 1955 there were more than 1.3 million people undergoing forced labour
• most were ‘political prisoners’ - 300,000 doctors, engineers and experts

Question 16

The laogai - conditions for inmates

Answer 16

• conditions in camps were appalling and diarrhoea and dysentery were common
• in the tin mines in Guangdong 1/3 prisoners committed suicide or died of disease within a year of incarceration
• estimates claim 27 million died in labour camps during Mao’s rule

Question 17

The laogai - benefits to the regime

Answer 17

• by mid 1950s laogai contributing 700 million yuan in industrial products and 350,000 tons of grain to economy
• laogai intimidated and terrorised population
• a way of converting former opponents through communist propaganda

Question 18

The hundred flowers campaign - asking the intellectuals for help

Answer 18

• by 1956, Mao’s power was well established - his ideas about role of intellectuals changed
• economic production had stalled - Mao believed he needed support of educated intellectuals

Question 19

Reasons for launching the hundred flowers campaign - rectification of the party

Answer 19

Mao feared…
• party was becoming less revolutionary
• party was too bureaucratic
• party cadres were no longer revolutionaries but a new privileged class of managers
• party members not radical enough in introducing communist policies

Mao hoped…
• intellectuals would point out these mistakes
• intellectuals would criticise more conservative communists

Question 20

Reasons for launching the hundred flowers campaign - international concerns

Answer 20

• Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s cult of personality as well as use of secret police and terror during the secret speech
• Mao sought for a way to prove he was not a dictator and evade criticism

Question 21

Reasons for launching the hundred flowers campaign - was Mao over-confident?

Answer 21

• Mao potentially acted out of optimism
• early years of the PRC had been a huge success
• areas far from Beijing such as Xinjiang and Tibet had been brought under control by PLA
• first five year plan had stimulated industrial recovery
• victory in Korea
• Mao expected intellectuals to provide policies that would give him greater influence

Question 22

Let a hundred flowers bloom

Answer 22

• May 1956 Mao declared, ‘let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred schools contend’
• most intellectuals unwilling to suggest new policies out of fear due to previous treatment
• many party leaders felt they would be subject to criticism so also didn’t support the campaign
• Mao admitted CCP had made mistakes and wrongly identified intellectuals as enemies of the regime - the speech was not published but played to party officials who were tasked with getting intellectuals to speak up

Question 23

Hundred flowers campaign - criticisms of the party

Answer 23

• intellectuals began to criticise the party
• big posters denounced party’s failure to provide democratic rights
• compared to Nazis at Auschwitz
• complained about economic inequalities - criticised privileged lifestyle of party elites

Question 24

The hundred flowers campaign - anti rightist campaign

Answer 24

• Mao enraged by personal criticisms
• Mao declared the “poisonous weeds” had grown up among the “fragrant flowers”
• the ‘right wingers’ had abused their freedoms and demand a class struggle against them
• “poisonous weeds” defined very broadly so party could get ride of who they wanted
• cadres given a quota of 5% per work unit ‘rightist’ - led to many false accusations