Mao period Flashcards
(28 cards)
First Five Year Plan dates
1952-57
How was life expectancy affected by the First 5-Year Plan?
1949-57 life expectancy rose from 36 to 57 years
How were urban incomes affected by the First 5-Year Plan?
1949-57 urban incomes rose by 40%
What positive impacts did the first 5-year plan have?
1949-57 life expectancy rose from 36 to 57 years
1949-57 urban incomes rose by 40%
City housing standards increased
Negatives of the First 5-Year Plan
Agricultural production was unable to keep up with industrial production, resulting in a huge imbalance between rural and urban populations
Farmers had to work even harder during this period to keep up.
Intro
After CCP took over (1949), the years immediately following (1950-55) China was believed to be relatively peaceful.
Peace could be seen to be achieved within the people, within the party, and with other countries and regions.
However, when looked at more closely, it is clear that there was a great deal of unrest within these areas due to Mao’s attacks on the people, his purging of party members, and the Korean War, to name a few.
Despite China appearing to be more peaceful than other periods of Chinese history during the early 1950s, that does not make it ‘truly at peace’.
Para 1 topic
Peace within the people (social)
Para 1:
Peace within the people
At Peace:
The CCP claimed that all the power rested with the people and that the party officials and the government acted as servants to the nation
First 5-Year Plan:
o Economic development with focus on industry
o China had an economic growth rate of nearly 9% between 1953 and 1957
o Life expectancy rose from 36 to 57 years, city housing standards improved, and urban incomes increased by 40% between 1949-57
Para 1:
Peace within the people
Not at Peace topics
First 5-year Plan
Mass Terror
Mass Conformity
Attack on the middle class
Para 1:
Peace within the people
Not at Peace - First 5-year plan
2
Agricultural production was unable to keep up with industrial production, resulting in a huge imbalance between rural and urban populations
Farmers had to work even harder during this period to keep up.
Para 1:
Peace within the people
Not at Peace - Mass terror
3
A concerted attack was launched against the ‘anti-socials, counter-revolutionaries, and imperialists’ - catch-all terms that could be used to condemn anyone
Encouraged the Chinese people to spy on their friends, neighbours, and co-workers and turn them in if they believed they were against ‘New China’
In Shanghai and Guangzhou in the early 1950s, the CCP turned on the gangsters that they had previously used to gain control of the city and rounded up 130,000 of them (over half of these were executed).
Para 1:
Peace within the people
Not at Peace - Mass Conformity
No tolerance of independent thinking
Religion was attacked - Mao compared Christian missionaries in China to the Nazis in Europe
Conformity was maintained by exploiting the traditional fear Chinese people have for being publicly exposed/humiliated, resulting in widespread fear and anxiety
Para 1:
Peace within the people
Not at Peace - Attack on Middle Class
After using them to help the PRC through its initial troubles, Mao set to destroy them.
Mao insisted that the proletarian revolution could only be achieved through violence – he believed they would never conform or give up power willingly, so the party showed no mercy in annihilating the bourgeoisie.
In 1955 Mao said to the party leaders on Agricultural cooperation, it will “isolate the bourgeoisie”, “facilitate the final elimination of capitalism” and that in this area they are “quite heartless” and will be “cruel and have little mercy.”
Para 2 topic
Peace within the party (political)
Para 2
Peace within the party
At peace
They practiced Democratic Centralism.
This is the idea that although there is one leader (Chairman Mao) and a smaller governing body (the Politburo), the government still held elections for party officials and administrators in the villages, localities, and regions.
This meant that the National People’s Congress was elected as the people’s choice, resulting in a small amount of peace being achieved within the party as the party members were supposedly representing the will of the population
Para 2
Peace within the party
Not at peace topics
Democratic centralism
1951 and 1952 Anti-movements
Party Purges
Para 2
Peace within the party
Not at peace - democratic centralism
The Politburo and Mao were still in control of the elections so it was unlikely that anyone would be successful if they showed any opposition to Mao and his policies.
Para 2
Peace within the party
Not at peace - 1951 and 1952 ‘Antis’ Movements
1951 - Mao launched the Three ‘Antis’ Movement with the targets being on waste, corruption and inefficiency.
1952 - Five ‘Antis’ Movement, targeting industrial sabotage, tax evasion, bribery, fraud, theft of government property.
By doing this, he was able to draw out class enemies and anti-revolutionaries or people with any opposition to him.
Caused party members to turn on each other just like the rest of the population and claim that people were going against the revolution when they most likely were not.
Para 2
Peace within the party
Not at peace - Party Purges
After launching these movements, Mao began his party purges, in which Members of the CCP who did not slavishly follow official CCP policy were liable to be condemned as ‘Rightists’ and could be sent to labour camps
Para 3 topic
Peace with other countries and regions (militarily)
Para 3
Peace with other countries and regions
At peace
Sino-Soviet Treaty (1950)
o Although China was heavily exploited in this treaty, it did prevent a direct war between the two countries
o Mao could also claim that the PRC paid for all Soviet equipment in the Korean War – increasing the people’s faith in his power and retaining peace between the party and the people
Para 3
Peace with other countries and regions
Not at peace - topics
Reunification campaigns
Taiwan
Korean War
Para 3
Peace with other countries and regions
Not at peace - Reunification campaigns
Tibet (1950-51), the PLA invaded Tibet in early 1950 and it took 6 months of long fighting for the CCP to establish control.
When Tibet was under complete CCP control, they began a campaign to destroy Tibetan identity by bringing in Han Chinese settlers and promoting Chinese traditions – led to a series of uprisings.
Xinjiang (1950), within a year of the PLA’s arrival in Xinjiang, strict controls were imposed on religious worship in an attempt to undermine the sense of local identity.
Para 3
Peace with other countries and regions
Not at peace - Taiwan
In 1949, the GMD had fled to Taiwan
Mao wished to invade Taiwan and reclaim it but this was prevented by the Cold War and the USA’s large support of Taiwan (Mao couldn’t risk an invasion)
