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Flashcards in Establishing Communist Rule | Mao's dominant position within government Deck (71)
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1
Q

When did Mao become Party leader?

A

He became Party leader in 1943

2
Q

How did Mao become leader?

A

Through the Rectification Campaign

3
Q

What was the Rectification Campaign?

A

Rectification was a campaign to identify, marginalise, intimidate and remove party members opposed to Mao’s leadership and policies.

4
Q

How did the Rectification Campaign favour Mao?

A

Mao was able to establish himself as the undisputed leader and figurehead of the CCP, demonstrating his ability to impose his will on others

5
Q

When did Mao become head of State?

A

He became head of state in October 1949 by his appointment as chair of the Central People’s Government

6
Q

What was Mao’s main ideas?

A

Nationalism
Continuing revolution
Listening to the people
Mass mobilisation

7
Q

What was Mao’s ideas about nationalism?

A

Mao wanted to free China from the foreign exploitation that had undermined its stability since the 19th century

If China’s nationalist interest clashed with Mao’s ideology, Mao put nationalism first.

8
Q

What was Mao’s ideas about continuing revolution?

A

1949 was only the start of the Chinese revolution. Mao was anxious that stability should not lead to complacency and stagnation.

Each generation should actively participate in the revolution so as to not loose the energy

9
Q

What did Mao believe it was everyone’s duty to do?

A

It was everyone’s duty to be on the lookout for those who might be trying to betray the revolution and to examine their own behaviour and confess to any errors they might have accidentally made.

10
Q

What are struggle sessions?

A

a form of public humiliation and torture that was used by the CCP to frighten people into conforming.

11
Q

How did struggle sessions work?

A

Victims who had been denounced by their colleagues or neighbours had to make full confessions and were beaten

12
Q

What did Mao believe about listening to the people?

A

Mao believed the Russian Communists had gone wrong by failing to respond to people’s concerns, losing touch with them.

He claimed he wanted to get people involved in discussing policy, so the CCP could take people’s views into account.

13
Q

What did Mao believe about mass mobilisation?

A

Mao argued that mass campaigns directed at achieving specific targets were the way forward. Revolutionary enthusiasm mattered.

14
Q

What is democratic centralism?

A

Democratic centralism is a practice in which political decisions reached by voting processes are binding upon all members of the political party.

15
Q

When was democratic centralism reaffirmed?

A

1954 Constitution

16
Q

What was the “centralism” aspect of Democratic centralism?

A

Political decisions made at the top level by senior officials were imposed through the various levels of the system without further discussion.

17
Q

What was the justification for democratic centralism?

A

Politicians claimed to be taking into account the best interests of the people and were sufficiently educated in the science of revolution to understand what course of action would best serve the workers.

18
Q

Why were there so many internal purges and “anti” campaigns?

A

As Mao became increasingly more powerful, he feared losing his power and that enemies from within were plotting against him.

19
Q

What were peasants and workers told?

A

Peasants were told that land would be redistributed and workers were promised higher living standards

20
Q

How did the CPPCC give the impression of being democratic?

A

Conference included members of the Democratic League, a similar group to the GMD, to give impression that politics would be inclusive in the following years.

21
Q

When were the reunification campaigns and what were they for?

A

1949-1950

Mao wanted to reunite China so that the CCP could have total control

22
Q

Where were the 3 main places that the reunification campaigns occurred?

A

Guangdong
Xinjiang
Tibet

23
Q

What happened in Guangdong? Why did the CCP invade Guangdong?

A
  • It was a GMD heartland where there were lots of nationalist supporters
  • the GMD didn’t bother to defend it and so the CCP invaded
  • surrendered in 1949 after the PRC was announced in Beijing
24
Q

What happened in Xinjiang? Why? How did they invade?

A

-Had been invaded by the Qing dynasty in 1800s & had lots of different ethnicities, 80% Muslims called the Uyghurs

  • the CCP negotiated with the Uyghurs leaders and said they could have a position in the regional council
  • Peng also used his power of the PLA to overtake the capital
25
Q

Why did Mao invade Tibet?

A
  • Tibet was an independent country since 1913 and expressed a resistance to communist rule
  • However Mao needed Tibet to be a buffer zone for China and so no amount of international criticism would have stopped him from invading Tibet
26
Q

When did the PLA invade Tibet?

A
  • PLA invaded Tibet in October 1950 & in May Tibet came under Chinese sovereignty
  • The CCP wanted to get rid off all Tibetian identity and so got Han Chinese people to live there so that Chinese culture would be implemented
27
Q

What caused a huge uprising in Tibet in 1959?

A

The American CIA was working with local resistance because the US wanted Buddhists friends & this caused a huge uprising in 1959 where the Dalai Lama had to flee to India in case he was removed

28
Q

Who was the Dalai Lama?

A

The Tibetan leader

29
Q
For what 4 reasons could the PRC invade Tibet?
Russia
America
Britain
UN
A
  • Britain had lost India and so was no longer interested in protecting Tibet
  • the UN was sorting out Korea
  • Russians had said to CCP that they could do what they wanted with Tibet as long as they got the same offer with Outer Mongolia
  • USA’s influence wasn’t strong enough to help Tibet
30
Q

When was Mao’s power challenged? 3 times

A

1956- party congress removed Mao Zedong thought as the main ideology when Mao was ill

  • took ages for the rest of the party to get behind the Hundred Flowers Campaign in 1956 & 57
  • disputes over the appropriate pace of agricultural change
31
Q

What was labelling?

A

When the police went out to find nationalist sympathisers

32
Q

How was labelling made easier for the police?

A

The government expanded the household registration policy the GMD had introduced

33
Q

What was the household registration policy?

A

Every worker was part of a danwei (work unit) and there was a cadre who was in charge of the danwei and they had the food rations and tokens.

If somebody did not conform or did something wrong then they would be denied of their food rations-> enforced conformity

34
Q

Who were the good classes?

A
  • revolutionary cadres/soldiers/martyrs
  • industrial workers
  • poor or lower middle peasants
35
Q

Who were the middle classes?

A

Petty bourgeoisie
Middle peasants
Intellectuals and professionals

36
Q

Who were the bad classes?

A

capitalists
rich peasants
landlords
nationalists/nationalist sympathisers

37
Q

What was every individual given?

A

Every individual was given a class label that specified their family background, status and occupation.

There were 60 labels divided into three categories: “good”, “middle” and “bad”.

38
Q

What were the class categories based on?

A

Presumed loyalty towards the revolution

39
Q

What did the bad classes do in order to ensure they would have a higher chance of surviving & why was it ultimately a bit pointless?

A

-Wrote lengthy confessions or forced to recant in public

Everything that happened to them was written in a DANGAN which affected their chances of getting a job, house & pension

40
Q

What did the middle class people do particularly the professionals to ensure that they would have a chance of being accepted?

A

Took advantage of the re-education classes in the cities to try and adopt the behaviour of conformists

41
Q

Who did the police crackdown on in the short term and where were they sent?

A

Petty crimes
Prostitutes
Beggars
They were sent to the countryside, however many drifted back, quickly filling re-education classes

42
Q

Which group was the police crackdown particularly popular amongst and why?

A

Urban residents who longed to see order restored after so many years of war and chaos

43
Q

What else contributed to the fact the re-education classes were full?

A

the PLA soldiers were being demobilized because of their defeat against the GMD

44
Q

What was the PLA clean-up of crime an opportunity for?

A

To tackle the serious problem of criminal gangs and triads that influenced underworld crime

45
Q

How many criminals were arrested and executed?

A

Over 150,000 criminals were arrested, over half of which were executed

46
Q

Why was the Great Terror launched?

A

Invasion from America seemed feasible because they had progressed into North Korea so they needed to destroy any opponents that may pose a threat to the stability of China

47
Q

What was the Great Terror like?

A

Brutal and widespread, designed to remove opponents and deter others

48
Q

What was the aim of the Great Terror?

A

To suppress counter-revolutionaries

49
Q

Who were the 2 people that Mao put in charge of the laogai?

A

Tao Zhu- claimed responsibility for the killing of over 460,00 alleged bandits in the next 12 months due to lingering nationalist sympathisers in the Guangxi province

Luo Ruiqing- head of security in Bejing. Pressure from Luo led to an increase in killings in the Hubei province from 220 in January to 45,000 by October

50
Q

What did Mao do to show that he wasn’t involved with the terror?

A

He moderated the killings, suggesting killing 1 in every 1000 of the local population in each area

Made sure the officials did the actual murdering so he wasn’t completely linked

51
Q

Why did the Terror claim fewer lives in cities?

A

Due to fears of adverse publicity and urban professionals were stilled needed

52
Q

What happened with the terror after the urban professionals seemed safe? When?

A

A top ranking military officer was shot at a concert in March 1951

53
Q

What was a result of the murder of the military officer and when did this happen?

A

Mao demanded a quick response and so on the night of the 28th April the police entered the cities and arrested nearly 17,00 people.

Confessions, executions and suicides followed.

54
Q

How many people were thought to have been killed in the Terror?

A

The party said 710,000 but it was more than 2 million, millions were sent to labour camps

55
Q

How long did the Great Terror last?

A

1950-1951

56
Q

When was the three antis movement and when was the five antis movement?

A

three- 1951

five- January 1952

57
Q

What did the three antis campaign target?

A

Waste, delay and corruption within the party and in businesses

58
Q

Who did Mao put in charge of the 5 & 3 antis movement?

A

Bo Yibo, a former guerilla fighter

59
Q

Who were flies and who were tigers?

A

Tigers- suspects accused of large scale corruption

Flies- suspects accused of smaller scale like embezzlement

60
Q

What happened in the 3 antis movement?

A

Holding of mass meetings where managers and officials were denounced
Those who were suspects were investigated and if found guilty were forced to make huge confessions

61
Q

What was Bo Yibo boasting about by the end of Feburary 1952?

A

That he had hunted down 100,00 “tigers” in East China

62
Q

What was the public impression?

A

Some were impressed about the determination of the party to stamp out corruption at the expense of their own members

63
Q

When did the five antis movement begin & what did they target?

A

Expansion. January 1952

Economic espionage, theft of state property, bribery, tax evasion and fraud

64
Q

Who did Mao target in the 5 antis movement?

A

Targeted the bourgeoisie who had been encouraged to stay in their jobs to help with the revolution

65
Q

What did party activists do during the five antis movement?

A

They encouraged workers’ groups to accuse their employers of criminal activities, which was very vague an could include anything

66
Q

What sped up the denouncing process?

A

The denouncement boxes where people denounced others

67
Q

How were suspects closely looked out for and what did this mean they were unable to do?

A

-couldn’t commit suicide because there were nets to break people’s falls and cadres that patrolled the parks making sure you couldn’t hang yourself on a tree

68
Q

What were fines during the 5 antis movement a way of doing?

A

Destroying the old business class by removing their wealth, and also contributed to the financing of the Korean War

69
Q

What was the focus of the antis movement?

A

Corrupt practises within the management levels of the Party and businesses.

However, the top level level of the Party was also purged. e.g. Gao Gang, Rao Shushi

70
Q

What happened to Gao Gang and Rao Shushi in the late 1953?

A

Gao Gang and Rao Shushi were accused of infringing the ban on factions and building their own empire.

Gao committed suicide, Rao was arrested and died in jail over 20 years later.

71
Q

What were the results of the movements for Mao?

A

Showed people that he was head of the party and that the cadres should fear him and not start opposition