Asia 210 - Modern China

Sunday, November 21, 2021

China Since the 1949 Revolution

Introductory Remarks

Since the communists took power China may be divided into two main phases:
a)a revolutionary phase, which lasted until the death f Mao Zedong in 1976.
b) a pragmatic phase, which extended to the death of Deng Xiaoping in 1997.
In the first phase Mao Zedong attempted to put the revolutionary commitment into practice.
This led to a sequences of policies referred to as
a) the Soviet period 1952-8.
b) Great Leap Forward & its aftermath - 1958-65
c) the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to Mao's death decade later.
These divisions obscure major continuities throughout the period
But they do not provide a convenient framework within which to examine developments.

The Period of Consolidation

Until 1952 the main effort of the new government was expended on consolidating its control.
No resistance remained in China Proper after the Guomindang's departure from the mainland.
There was a real danger of subversion and to guard against this.
In September 1949 the country was divided into
a) 6 military region much remained
b) a joint military and administrative commissions.
The CCP referred to the border regions as the "old liberated areas" and
The rest of China was called the "new liberated areas."
In toehold liberated areas the Communist leadership was already established
In the new areas much remained to be done.
Guangzhou was not occupied until 2 weeks after the establishment of the PRC.
In the new liberated areas most senior Guomindang
The first task was to find people with skill and political reliability to take over their posts.
The task was also to keep essential services functioning.
In this the student body played an important role.
Four tasks needed to be addressed immediately.
1) the first was to define the political characteristics of the new state.
In September 1949, a People's Political Consultative conference was convened.
An Organic Law and Common Programme were adopted.
The former established a "democratic dictatorship" led by the CCP.
The Organic Law & Common Programme guaranteed
a) basic human rights
b) equality for women.
c) the continuation of revolutionary land reform
d) the development of heavy industry
e) safeguards of the rights of minority people.

2) the second task was to gain control of the economy which meant curbing inflation.
This was achieved by increasing government revenue
They did this by creating a unified fiscal system and by selling bonds
Various strategies were employed to keep government expenditure under control.
3) the new government was intent on asserting control over all territory deemed to be part of China.
The three provinces of Manchuria were now fully integrated into China.
Tibet, autonomous since 1913 was "liberated" by the People's Liberation Army in 1950.
It later became the Xiang Autonomous Region.
Outer Mongolia had become the Mongolian People's Reut failedpublic in 1924.
It remained independent.
In Oct. 1949, a Communist force tried but failed to seize the island of Jinmen (Quemoy)
Their rebuttalff showed that an invasion of Taiwan would be a major operation.
The matter was postponed.
4) the fourth priority task concerned foreign relations.
During World War II China had treated flatteringly by the United States as a great power
In the post-war period and the civil war, China's international status had declined.
It had declined to that of a client state.
The CCP aspired to present China as an independent and unaligned power.
In 1949, in the atmosphere of the Cold War, it seemed that China must "lean to one side."
This meant seeking an alliance with the Soviet Union.
In Dec. 1949 Mao Zedong left China for the first time in his life.
He went to Moscow to negotiate with Stalin.
There was a show of cordiality between the two.
But neither man fully trusted the other.
The negotiation were difficult and prolonged.s most important
The outcome was thew Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance.
Its most important provisions were a promise of mutual support.
This would be in the advent of an attack by Japan.
The provision also included a soviet advance of $300 million in credits to China.
The implications of the alliance with the Soviet Union soon became apparent.
In June 1950, a civil war broke out between North and South Korea.
After the North Korean troops had overrun the south, the United Nations sent forces.
This was to assist South Korea.
At the same time the United States interposed its Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Straits.
This was to prevent China using the opportunity to invade the island.
By Nov. 1950, the United Nations' forces had invaded North Korea.
They were also within 50 miles of the Yalu River, the frontier with China.
At that point China intervene on a massive scale.They drove the United Nations' forces back to the 38th parallel.
This was the boundary between the North and South of Korea.
The war then stalemated and a truce was signed in June 1953.
China intervened in the war because of the collapse of the North Korean army.
Also China felt the threat of a United Nations force, in effect a United States force.
This was because it was becoming poised on its north east frontier.d
China's participation in the war was significant in a variety of ways:
a) the Chinese forces, led by Peng Dehuai, achieved remarkable success.
b) the war exposed serious military weaknesses.
c) a decision was taken to modernize the PLA and to develop the Air Force.
The war cost over 700,000 Chinese casualties, among them Mao Zedong's son and China insured very heavy debts to the Soviet Union for the purchase of arms.
China's involvement also deepened the rift with the United States.
The USA now became committed to the support of theNationalists on Taiwan
In China, the threat of war was used to whip up support for the regime.
This was done through the "ResistAmerica, Aid Korea" campaign.
It was used to justify a hard line against people suspected of not supporting the regime.
During these years the programme of revolutionary land reform wags completed.
The Agrarian Reform Land Law of 1950 extended land reform to the new liberated areas.
Its purpose was to end the feudal exploitation of the landlord class.
It was also to preserve a rich peasant economy.
This was to enable the revival of agricultural production.
Land reform had been completed by 1952 except in areas occupied by national minorities.
These were exempted.
Then about 43% of China's cultivated land had been confiscated and redistributed.
About 60% of the rural population benefitted from this.
Many poor peasants who owned littler no land had survived by selling their labour.
They now became middle peasants.
but the reform was achieved at a high cost.
The importance of this measure was to consolidate peasant support behind the regime.
The number of landlords and rural power holders who died ranged from 200,000 to 2 million.
The redistribution on average gave a poor peasant just over a quarter of an acre of land.
This did little to solve the problem of land shortage.
Between 1949 and 1952 output rose by 12.6%.
This may reflect the post war recovery.
It may reflect greater effort from peasants.
They did not have to surrender much of their crop to landlords.
The rise in output could not be sustained - it needed more measures.
During these years several other measures helped to consolidate the CCP position.
In 1950 a Marriage Law was introduced.
This replaced the feudal marriage system with the New Democratic marriage system.
a) women were allowed to freely choose their partner
b) women were given equal rights relating to divorce.
c) they were given custody of children & property.
After the law had been passed, women's associations led to a mass campaign.lize
This was to publicize the changes.
Then divorces increased dramatically.
But in rural areas many features of the traditional marriage continued.
Steps were taken immediately to increase education opportunities.
Those whose schooling had been interrupted by the war wee offered accelerated programmes,
Millions of adults attended winter study classes & spare timer schooling.
Teachers were re-educated
School texts were revised.
Political study classes were held.
Missionary educators left the country.
Their schools and universities were nationalized.
By 1952 62% of children wee in primary school
increases in high school and universities were impressive.
The new government needed to gain the confidence of businesses & industries
Economic activity in the cities were at a standstill.at the end of the civil war.
Public utilities were out of commission.
The Traditional sector of the economy wold not be reformed.
Strikes were discouraged by the government
They encouraged the negotiations of modest salary claims.
The modern economic sector was immediately affected by
a) the departure of most foreigners
b) the departure of Chinese industrialists who had close links with the Guomindang.
Their enterprises were taken over by the state,
Three major campaigns were initiated
a)against suspected counter-revolutionaries
b) against corrupt cadres
c) against capitalists in the Five Antis campaign
The campaign against counter-revolutionaries began with
a) mass rallies
b) denunciations
This was followed by arrests and executions
In the Guangzhou region alone more than 28,000 people were executed.
In the country as many as 500,000 to 800, 000 people may have been killed.
The campaig against corrupt cadres originated with a shortage of them.
This was when the CCP came to power.
Recruiting cadres who were not satisfactory in class or commitment.
10% of party cadres were weeded out.
The Five Antis campaign was attack on the wealthy capitalists.
It was claimed that they were defrauding the public through various crimes.
Capitalists who were found guilty were forced to pay heavy fines.
They were made to accept state control of their enterprises.
Mass campaigns mobilized the population.

The Soviet Period: 1953-8.

In 1953 the Communist leaders began to implement its policy.
It was the policy of socialist transformation & economic development
This meant
a) the transfer of ownership from private to public hands
b) the introduction of centralized economic planning.er
In September the First Five Year Plan was introduced.
So the collectivization of agriculture began.
The influence of Soviet Russia on China was already apparent in a variety of forms.
With the adoption of state planning the Chinese debt to Russia was noticeable.
They selected a developmental model which gave priority to heavy industry.
This meant large scale, capital intensive & technically advanced plants.
This assumed the institutionalized transformation of the agricultural sector.
This was to supply much of the capital needed.
In this way china was following the path recommended by Lenin and implemented by Stalin.
China seemed to be so dependent on a foreign power.contribute
Only the Soviet Union was willing to this heavy industry.
The Chinese leadership believed that this was an essential element in its transition to socialism.
China now received soviet assistance in the form of
a) advice
b) extensive economic aid
c) the introduction of soviet method
At first 156 major industrial enterprises were supplied
This included 7 iron & steel plants, 245 power stations & 63 machinery plants.
Many were in kit form to be assembled In China.
Later another 125 projects were approved.
Then 11,000 Soviet specialists were sent to China.
They were to supervise the installation & operation of plants.
They would also provide technical assistance.
28,000 Chinese students were sent to Russia to study.
The period of the First Five Year Plan saw a number of other important initiatives.
Most of China's modern industry was concentrated in the coastal cities & the north east.
Industrial complexes were sited in the interior.
Major steel complexes were constructed at Wuhan & Inner Mongolia.
An oil refinery was built at Lanzhou in Gansu.
To service these plants a large investment was made in new railways.
This included a line constructed from Xi'an to Xinjiang oil-fields.
The Soviet model of "one-management" was introduced.
This replaced the management committee & worker representation of China.
Workers in the Yan'an period had responded to ideological incentives, now they did piecework.
Or, they were graded on salary scales.
The soviet influence was also apparent in education, especially in colleges & universities.
They were reorganized on Soviet line.
Russian academic advisers assisted in the planning of courses.
Russian textbooks were widely used.
Expenditure on higher education tripled between 1952 and 1957.
The number of students, a third of them studied engineering & it rose quickly.
Students from poor families received free tuition & maintenance grants.
in return the students had to maintain the 8:1:50 schedule.
Eight hours of sleep, 1 hour of exercise, & 50 hours of work.

The socialist transformation of society also implied the collectivization of agriculture.
The arguments of this step were both economic and political.
Revolutionary land reform led to greater fragmentation of agricultural holdings
Peasants farming small, scattered holding could not accumulate capital for investments.
They could not maintain the sustained rise in output & productivity.
This was needed to feed the growing population and release surplus labour for industry.
The Soviet Union had collectivized agriculture in the 1930s.
It was capital that came from the agricultural sector which provided investment in industry.
Since land reform poor peasant had to sell their land they had been given.
In 1955 Mao complained of the capitalist element in the rural areas.
In the Yan'an period co-operatives had been encouraged - this was mutual aid team
They had pooled their resources & from 1954 they were encouraged to amalgamate
This was to form agricultural producers' co-operatives
In these families got to retain their land; they were farmed co-operatively.
Crops were divided according to the amount of land & labour was supplied by each family
.China's rich peasants were not as numerous as the kulaks.
Nor were they as established.
Collectivization in China was better timed.
It was only a short period that had elapsed since land reform.
The capitalist tendencies in the countryside had not become firmly established.
Collectivization appealed. to the rational self-interest of peasants.
It was carried through by local cadres who had a clear grasp of the situation.
On July 31st 1955 Mao Zedong called for a sharp increase in the rate of collectivization.
In the winter of 1955-56 co-operative began to be merged into Advanced Producers' Co-operatives.
These were collective farms
This is where private ownership was abolished.
Members were renumerated on the basis of their labour.
By the end of1956 the socialist transformation of agriculture was virtually completed.
China's collectivizing agriculture was compared favourably with the Soviet Union.
But there it was opposed by rich peasants or kulaks - several million lost their lives.

The Great Leap Forward & the Sino-Soviet Split

In 1958 China embarked on a radical, Evan utopian programme.
This was to complete the building of socialism ahead of time.
It was meant to carry out the gradual transition to communism.
Behind this rapid change & direction lay a complex set of interactions within
a) the Party
b) the economy
c) industrial management
d) educational strategy.
e) international relations.
One indication of the strain imposed by change was the disillusionment of the intellectuals.
These were the educational elites.
Most of them had welcomed the Communist victory in 1949
At first the CCP had tolerated what was seen as the intellectual bourgeoisie individualism.
In 1955 a harder line was adopted.
A mass campaign was launched against the poet Hu Feng.
He had criticized the Party's insistence that culture should be proletarian.
The campaign was used to warn intellectuals not to oppose the first five Year Plan
They were also not to oppose the collectivization of agriculture.

The Hundred Flowers Movement

In 1956 Zhou Enlai commented that the Party needed the support of the intellectuals.
They were needed to promote the economy & to reform the bureaucracy.
In May, Mao Zedong was engaged in a Party debate over the pace of co-operatization.
He announced "Let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend."
After some hesitation intellectuals began to criticize the competence of cadres.
Mao heard of the Hungerian uprising of November 1956 & offered a reason for its cause.
It was the isolation of the Hungarian Communist Parry from the masses & the intellectuals.
In Feb.1957 Mao gave a speech
It was entitled "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People."
He argued that "non-antagonistic contradictions" could exist in a communist society.
He also said that their resolution by discussion would speed up progress to socialism.
He encouraged intellectuals to believe that open expression of opinions would be welcomed.
Many articles critical of the Party, of educational policies were published.
These articles even criticized Mao Zedong as well.

Students from Beijing University began to put up posters.
These posters were criticizing officials on the"democracy wall"
This was a stretch of wall near the Forbidden City.
In June the CCP counter-attacked with an anti-Rightist campaign,
The most outspoken critics of the Hundred flowers Movement were singled out.
They were singled out to be punished.
Other intellectuals were forced to participate in their denunciations.
One of the most famous victims was the writer Deng Lin.
She was accused of having opposed the Party leadership inher literary work.
She refused to admit her faults.
She was sent to redeem herself through labour on a farm near the Soviet border.
There First Five Year Plan, as an economic strategy had serious shortcomings
Investment had been concentrated on heavy industry.
It had grown at the rate five times faster than that of agriculture.
The increase in agricultural output had done little more than feed the growing population.
The industrial sector had grown.
But it had not created the large numbers of jobs needed traduce unemployment in the cities.
more jobs would be created if the consumer industries were expanded.
But they were restricted by shortages of raw material.
Mao gave a speech entitled "On the Ten Great Relationships" given in 1956.
He had expounded a theory of relationships.
He defined it as "contradictions" in economic development.
The first was between industry & agriculture and between heavy industry and light industry.
He admitted that heavy industry must continue to be given priority.
his conclusion was that agriculture & light industry must also be developed.
This was a strategy which came to be called "walking on two legs."
Other dissatisfactions included a reaction against the one-man management system.
This system had been associated with Gao Gang
He was the chairman f the State Planning Commission.
In 1954, he had been accused of plotting against Liu Shaoqi and had committed suicide.
At the 8th Party Congress (Sept. 1956) the "one-man management system was criticized.
It was replaced by a system of collective leadership with the Party in command.
The extensive Russian influence on education was also challenged.
From 1956 attampts were made to speed up the expansion of education.
Relations with the Soviet Union had improved after Stalin's death in 1953.
When Khrushchev & Bulganin visited China in 1954 and thengs had appeared OK.
It seemed the two countries had achieved a relationship of equality and mutual respect
But in Feb.1956 Krushchev delivered his secret speech denouncing Stalin.
Mao Zedong resented Khrushchev's failure to give him warning of the speech.
Mao believed the speech was liable to cause dissension in the Communist world.
This was a time when unity was essential.
Disagreement on the issue exposed ideological differences.
This was true over the inevitability of war with capitalist powers.
Khrushchev denied this
The attack on Stalin's personality cult may may have also caused Mao to be concerned.
This was about his own posthumous reputation.
Despite these differences, Mao Zedong visited Moscow for the second time.
This was in Nov.1957, soon after the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik.
This event led Mao to praise the achievements of theSoviet Union.
He also declared that "The East Wind is prevailing over the Western Wind."
In late 1957, a Second Five-Year Plan was being considered.
Indications began to multiply that something was about to change.
The conservative economic strategy was about to be replaced by a radical programme.
In the countryside a massive programme of irrigation was rushed through.
It used the labour of 100 million peasants.
In November the People's Daily gave prominence to the slogan"More, better, faster, cheaper."
Mao gave speech at the Supreme State conference on January 28, 1958.
Mao declared that "it is possible to catch up with Britain in 15 years."
Shortly afterward production targets for both agriculture and industry were raised.
This was done in dramatic form.
In the same speech Mao declared "In making revolution ne must strike while the iron is hot - one revolution must follow another, the revolution must continually advance."
This was his theory of a "permanent revolution."
It was a process that embraced both the economic and the social superstructure of society.
The Great Leap Forward would soon follow.
It is connected with Mao's concept of revolutionary change.
In April 1958, 27 Advanced Producers' Co-operatives in Henan decided to amalgamate.
They formed a commune.
this was without formal direction from the centre.
Other co-operatives followed suit.
in August communes received official approval.
Before the end of the year the 700,000 Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives had been re-organized.
They were organized into 24,000 People's Communes.
Each had an average of 5000 families.
In the autumn, communes were also organized into urban areas.
The model for these was the Zhengzhou Spinning and Weaving Machine Plant commune.
This was in Henan, which was centred on the factory but which also farmed some land.
The economic benefit for this was the mobilization of labour.
This was for large scaled labour intensive projects.
To maximize the release of labour, the private plots were abolished.
Peasants had been allowed to keep these plots in the Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives.
Rural markets ceased to function.
To enable women to participate in productive labour, creates and nurseries were introduced.
Collective kitchens were also organized and a free food system was introduced.
The labour thus made available was employed on major construction projects.
One such projects was the Mng Tombs Dam near Beijing.
The labour force was also used to develop rural industry,.
There were reports of an abundant harvest.
So communes were encouraged to prospect for local sources of iron ore.
They were encouraged to construct their own "backyard steel furnaces."
During the Great Leap Forward , vastly-increased targets were set for industrial production.
The target for steel output was fixed in Feb.1958 at 6.2 million metric tons.
This was already a 19% increase on the previous year's production.
In August , Mao endorsed raising it to 10.7 million tons.
A few weeks later he even suggested the figure of 12million tons.
To achieve such targets over a range of industries hundreds of state projects were started.
Between 1957 & 1960 the number of people employed in state industries doubled.
It reached over 50 million.
This placed an immense strain on the system of food procurement from the countryside.
This vast workforce was encouraged by ideological exhortation to work excessively long hours.
There were no plants which were over-used and under-maintained.
The Gereat Leap Forward was more than a leap of economic growth.
In Sept. 1958 a "great leap" in education was announced.
This was partly a matter of rapidly expanding educational opportunity.
This was especially true in the country-side.
Primary school enrolment rose by 20 million.
There were large increases in the number of students at secondary & tertiary level.
Some 30,000 agricultural middle schools & 400 "red & expert" universities were opened.
At the same time important changes took place in the operation of the educational system.
The new schools were run on the minban or run-by-the-people principle.
Productive labour was intro the curriculum in all schools and at all levels.
Students were encouraged to voice their criticism of teachers.
Another feature of the communes was
a) the revival of the people's militia
b) the arming of the peasantry
The need for military preparedness was justified by the crisis of August 1958
This had been caused by the declaration that China intended to "liberate" Taiwan.
It was also a challenge to the professional leadership of the People's Liberation Army.
It was a reminder of the "people's war" fought in the Yan'an days.
The communes also briefly offered women an escape.
This was an escape from the double burden of domesticality & work.
This embrace in urban communes.
This is where women, who in the past had been restricted to the home, took a leading role.
Their main leadership role was organizing child-minding arrangements.
Other features of the commune was the break from the traditional family structure.
The joy of the Great Leap Forward in 1958 was followed by disillusionment and dissension.
In the next year it had become apparent that reports of a bumper harvest had been exaggerated.
They also realized the industrial targets which had been set were unrealistic.
An early response to this realization was to reorganize the communes.
The made the production brigade.
communal eating was ended.
Steps were taken to restore private plots and to reopen rural markets.
A retreat from the Great Leap Forward began.
The political conflict, which had had simmered under the surface since 1956, had come out in the open.
The Party's Central Committee meeting took place in Wuhan in Dec. 1958.
It was there that Mao agreed to step down as Chairman of the People's Republic.
Mao retained the chairmanship of the Party.
He later claimed that after the Wuhan meeting he was treated like a "dead ancestor."
In July at a conference in Lushan, Mao received a letter from Peng Dehuai.
Peng was a veteran of the Long March who was now minister of defence.
He warned Mao that the achievements of the Great Leap Forward were being exaggerated.
Maio chose to publish the letter and to attack Peng Dehuai openly at the conference.
Peng had recently returned from Moscow.
Mao accused him of having conspired with Krushchev to criticize the communes.
He also accused him of conspiring to cancel the offer of nuclear aid for China.
Subsequently Peng Dehuai was replaced at the Ministry of Defence by Lin Biao.
Lin Biao was a close supporter of Mao.
Critics of the Great Leap Forward were intimidated.
A second Great Leap began in 1960.
A feature of the Second Great Leap was the intensive introduction of urban communes.
This was an attempt to make urban areas more self-sufficient.
The sEcond Great Leap Forward was finally abandoned (by mid-1961) due to a number of factors.
a) mistaken agricultural policies.
b) bad weather
c) the withdrawal of Soviet technicians in July had, by mid-1961 forced the abandonment of the Second Great Leap.
The Great Leap Forward had a disastrous effect on China's population.
There was a decline in food production.
The breakdown in the system of distribution had set off a famine.
The cumulative increase in mortality is estimated as between 16 & 27 million deaths
The famine, which at its height in 1960 was felt more severely in rural areas.
It was more sever in certain provinces.
Anhui alone suffered about 2 million deaths.
These figures may be compared with the loss of life in the Soviet Union.
This would be at the time of the collectivization of agriculture
Here the estimates suggests 5 million deaths.
The Party's response to this tragedy was very inadequate.
This was because of a lack of accurate information.
The system of gathering statistics had collapsed.
It had been replaced by grossly exaggerated claims of increases in output.
Partly it was because many Party leaders remained silent.
The consequences played a significant role in deepening the Sino-Soviet dispute.
The origins of the dispute may be traced back to
a) several incidents in the history of the rise of the CCP
b) the negotiations of the Treaty of Alliance & Mutual Assistance in 1950.
c) the Sino-Soviet relations during the Korean War
d) Krushchev's secret speech denouncing Stalin in 1956.
e) the tensions which had emerged during Mao's visit to the Soviet Union in Nov.1957.
It was the Great Leap Forward which brought these tensions out in the open.
A number of factors threatened to deprive the Soviet Union of making ideological claims:
a) the rejection of Soviet economic methods,
b) the trumpeting of the initial achievements of the Great Leap Forward
c) the hailing of the communes as a short cut to communism.
The Soviets wanted to lay claim to the "ideological and economic leader of the socialist camp."
The tensions were heightened in 1958 & 1959.
This was caused by various international crises.
The first one started with the United States landing in Lebanon
On that day Krushchev arrived in Beijing, his response to this crisis was criticized..
It was criticized in the Red Flag, the Party's journal.
Soon after, the Chinese threat to "liberate" Taiwan was treated cooly by the Soviet Union
Two events were to pose a threat to China:
a) the Tibetan revolt in the spring of 1959.
b) the flight of the Dalai Lama
The Soviet Union did not offer firm support.
The break between both countries followed shortly after.
In June 1959 the Soviet Union rescinded the offer of nuclear assistance.
It was an offer that they made two tears previously.
At the same time, Mao heard about the reports of critical remarks made by Krushchev
These remarks were about the communes.
In April 1960 there'd Flag openly criticized theSoviet Union's policy of peaceful co-existence.
Wth this, and its rejection of China's economic policies the break between them was set.
This led the soviet Union to announce that its technicians would be withdrawn in two months.
The diplomatic estrangement was to last until 1985.

Prelude to the Cultural Revolution

The years, following the disaster of the Great Leap Forward, was dominated by two things:
a) economic reconstruction
b) educational & political adjustments.
Steps were taken to restore the agrarian economy
In 1959 the brigade had replaced the commune as the unit of accounting.
Private plots had been restored
Up to 30 million people were relocated from the cities to the countryside.
A large reduction in cereal procurement followed from that.
Under Chen Yun's direction an "agricultural first" economic strategy was developed.
He believed that the mobilization of labour alone could not solve China's problems.
This was agricultural problems.
Chen did a few things.
a) he increased state investments in agriculture,
b) he expanded the production of agriculture machinery & fertilizers.
c) he developed a" high and stable yield" area policy.
This encouraged regions to concentrate on expanding cereal production.
In the industrial sector many state enterprises were closed down.
A partial return was made to the one-man management practices of the First Five Year Plan.
As a result by 1965 agricultural output had returned to the level achieved in 1957.
In the meantime the population had risen by 80 million.

Industrial output recovered even more quickly.
By 1963 a period of sustained growth had begun.
This growth was aided by th development of new industries
One such industry was the petrochemical industry.
The recovery was remarkable for two reasons: it was achieved a time when
a) China was technologically isolated.
b) when the development of nuclear weapons was absorbing high technology sources - China's first nuclear test took place in October 1964.
In education the principle of "walking on two legs" was not abandoned.
But it was modified extensively.
The number of pupils in elementary schools fell from 93 million in 1960 to 69 in 1962.
Most of the agricultural middle schools were closed.
This was where students had studied theChinese language
They had studied practical subjects in the morning
They worked in the fields in the afternoon
Few of the "red & expert" universities survived
One exception was the Jiangxi Communist Labour University
It continued to serve as a model for work-study & agricultural education.
Central authority over education was reasserted
The amount of productive work required of staff and students was limited.
Significantly, "key point schools were retained
They had been introduced at the time of the Great Leap Forward.
In them, talented children were taught by selected teachers in a well-equipped environment.
In the Great Leap Forward period, political leadership was provided by
a) Liu Shaoqi, supported by Deng Xiaoping
b) the economist Chen Yuh (the general secretary of the CCP)
c) Peng Zhen, the mayor of Beijing.
Mao Zedong had largely withdrawn from the day-to-day management of affairs.
His views were represented by
a) his wife, Jiang Qing, who was active in the field of cultural affairs.
b) Lin Biao, the minister of defence.
Zhou Enlai, the premier, remained uncommitted to either side.
The nature of the contest between these two groupings had been interpreted in a few ways.
One is to regard it as a power struggle between Mao Zedong and his critics.
It was only after the disaster of the Great Leap Forward that Mao found himself excluded from political power.
Subsequent events were as follows
a) the Socialist Education movement.
b) the promotion of Mao's personality cult.
c) Lin Biao's reforms of the People's Liberation Army.
d) the Cultural Revolution.
These may all be taken as an assault on Mao's political rivals, Liu Shaoqi & Deng Xiaoping.
Mao's relationship with theCCP had altered dramatically since 1949.
At that time Mao's authority and ideological leadership had been unchallenged.
In 1956 at the Eight Party Congress, the Party's constittuion was revised.
It did this by deleting reference to Mao Zedong's thought.
his thoughts had been part of the CCP's guiding ideology.
It became easier for white-collar workers to become members of the Party.
The Politburo was enlarged and important positions were filled by technocrats.
It was recognized that the government was becoming more bureaucratic.
It was also increasingly divorced from the masses.
A campaign for Party rectification was launched.
The changes it brought about did not satisfy Mao.
Hostility towards the Party was noticed.
This was in his speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictons Among the People."
He gave this speech in Feb. 1957.
Among the contradictions he identified was one between the leadership and the masses.
At the time he described it as a non-antagonistic contradiction.
His hostility increased markedly during this period of recovery after the Great Leap Forward.
At the 7000 cadres' conference in 1962, he made an outspoken attack on Party bureaucrats.
He accused them being arrogant.By now he concluded the relationship between the Party and the masses was problematic.t
He called it an antagonistic contradiction.
For him theParty represented privileged power-holders.
Since a contradiction could not be resolved there was online answer.
The Party would have to be destroyed.
Mao had to persuade many Party leaders to support the launching of the GLF.
In 1962the disaster became apparent.
This is when Deng Xiaoping openly criticized the communes.
He also criticized socialist relations of production.
He also hinted at the abandonment of collective farming.
He spoke at a Communist youth League conference.
He said he favoured any form of production which restored & increased agricultural output.
He quoted a Sichuan proverb: "Yellow or white, a cat that catches mice is good cat."
This and other causes of dispute earned Deng Xiaoping & Liu Zhaoqi condemnation.
They were condemned as "capitalist roaders."
It led to their being accused of following the revisionist course.
This revisionist course had been set by Krushchev in the Soviet Union.

Mao Zedong's loss of confidence in the Party audits leaders let him to look elsewhere.
He looked to the next generation in his search for revolutionary successors.
The first rounds of the struggle were fought in the context of the socialist Education movement.
This was launched in 1963.
Mao shared common ground with other Party leaders in one thing.
It was in believing that apathy & corruption was widespread.
This was among Party cadres in the countryside where it was widespread.
Mao drafted a document, later known as the "Former Ten Points."
Poor and lower middle peasant associations were given a particular job.
This was of investigating cadre corruption & restoring the collective principle in farming.
This was for investigating cadre corruption and restoring the collective principle in farming.
In Sept. Deng Xiaoping himself issued a document.
I t later known as the "Later Ten Points."
He supported many pf the anxieties voiced in th previous document.
But he called for the formation of urban-based work teams to carry out the rectification.
In the winter of 1963-4 Wang Guangmei, Liu Shaqi's wife undertook a mission.
She spent 6 months incognito investigating examples of cadre abuse.
In sept. of the next year Liu Shaoqi used information gathered by his wife.
He produced a third document, the "Revised Later Ten Points."
This document painted a gloomy picture of the situation.
It proposed that
a) late work teams should visit selected communes.
b) investigate them thoroughly,
c) deal severely with cases of cadre corruption.
The dispute separating Mao and Liu Shaoqi was now becoming clear.
Liu regarded the central issue to be cadre corruption.
The appropriate action to the reimposition of Party authority
For Mao the issue was the revisionism which had appeared at all levels of the Party.
In January 1965, Mao convened conference.
He issued another document called "Twenty-three Articles."
He made it clear that the target of the campaign was not the corruption of the local cadres.
In fact, it was the actions of people holding positions of authority in the Party
They were the ones who were taking the capitalist road - they would be the target.

In the meantime other controversies had arisen.
These controversies widened the gap between Mao and his critics.
Mao had long favoured the use of revolutionary models.
In 1964 he promoted Dazhai Brigade in Shanxi as a model.
This was because its peasants had transformed the barren land & raised its yields five-fold.
This was through their self-reliance and commitment to collective farming.
The slogan coined was "in agriculture learn from Dazhai."
Other brigades were called upon to emulate their selfless commitment.
They were called to adopt their work-point system.
This work-point system rewarded political awareness as well as physical efforts.
Later that year a work team investigated Dazhai.
They concluded that the production figures had been greatly exaggerated.
Yet Mao's influence protected the reputation of their brigade.
The brigade continued to serve as a model until Mao's death.
Mao had greater success in mobilizing support in the People's Liberation Army.
Peng Dehuai had been appointed Minister of Defence after the Korean War.
He had introduced a series of reforms intended to turn the army into a professional force.
He was replaced by Lin Biao in 1959.
Lin Biao continued the modernization programme.
In October 1962 the border dispute between India & China turned into a war.
This was when the People's Liberation Army achieved a rapid & overwhelming victory.
Lin Biao had also supported the nuclear programme
This had resulted in China detonating an atomic device in Oct. 1964.
But Lin was also politically ambitious.
He was determined to make the armed forces an example of revolutionary zeal.
He promoted the case of the model soldier Lei Feng who had died in 1962 at these of 20.
The soldier died when tying to help a comrade.

In 1964 the army's political department produced a version of a compilation of words.
This was to become the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.
In return for his support Mao endorsed a campaign based on a slogan.
His slogan stated - "Learn from the People's Liberation Army."
In 1965 Lin presented an article entitled "Long live th eVictory of the People's War."
He anticipated a confrontation between the United States and national liberation movements.
He praised Mao Zedong for his leadership in the war of resistance against Japan.
He described it as a genuine "people's war" - there was a reason for this.
It was because it was a war in which the Party had relied on the masses, not on machines.
Two issues were important preceding the launch of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
These issues were to be central to the movement.
The first issue was education with particular reference to access and opportunity.
In the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward, emphasis was placed
a) one educational standards
b) on the use of examinations.
By the early 1960s the educational system was more elitist than it had been a decade earlier.
Mao gave a speech at the Tenth Plenum of the eight Central Committee in Sept. 1962.
Mao had warned "never forget the class struggle."
At the time of the Great Leap Forward it had been forgotten.
A two-track educational system had been established.
It worked to the advantage of urban children.
This was especially the children of the Party cadres.
Mao criticized these developments at the Spring Festival Forum of 1964.
He argued that
a) the current period of schooling was too long,
b) that too much reliance was placed on examinations.
c) that too much deference was paid to teachers.
d) that a stronger link should be established between education & production.
The second issue was culture.
In 1942 Mao dealt with this in his "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature & Art."
Mao adargue that the arts should serve the revolution.
The arts should do so by endorsing proletariat values.
In the early 1960s, a number of novels and plays had appeared.
These works contained implicit comments on political issues.
The most notorious example was an opera written by the historian Wu Han.
It was entitled Hai Rui Dismissed from Office.
Hai Rui, an upright 16th century Ming official, had been dismissed by the emperor.
The opera was widely recognized as a criticism of Mao's actions at the time of the Great Leap.
This was because he had protested against the confiscation of land from peasants.
In response , Mao got his wife Jiang Qing to formulate a policy statement on culture.
She teamed up with Kang Sheng, a former member of the Politburo.
Kang had specialized in issues relating to revisionism & counter-revolution.
She also found allies in the Shanghai Party chief Zhang Chunqiao.
She also found an ally in the literary critic Yao Wenyuan.
These allies were later to achieve notoriety as members of the "Gang of Four."
This political infighting set the stage for the Cultural Revolution.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

The Wars of China

The Renewal of the Communist Parry

There were a series of disasters which had overwhelmed the CCP in 1927.
These events forced a re-evaluation of the Party's strategy.
At the 6th Party Congress, (Moscow, June 1928), Li Lisan took over as secretary-general.
He took over from Qu Qiubai, who was condemned for his leftist opportunist deviation.
The Party agreed to concentrate its efforts on the countryside.
When Li Lisan returned to China he acknowledged the importance of rural bases
These rural bases had been established by Mao Zedong and others.
His commitment remained in the cities and to the industrial proletariat.
His authority was weakened by the presence of the 28 Bolsheviks.
This was a group of Moscow-trained Chinese Communists.
They considered it their task to rebuild and redirect the Party.

In 1930 Li Lisan embarked on another attempt at armed uprising.
There were reasons for this:
a) the weakness of his position.
b) he believed that it was the right time because of two distractions.
1) there was the world economic depression.
2) the Guomindang was at war with the warlords Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan.
The plan was to foment strikes and demonstrations in Changsha, Wehan, and Nanchang.
Then it would be time for the newly formed Red Army to capture those three cities.
The coup was launched in the summer of 1930.
The greatest success was achieved at Changsha which was held for ten days.
Three problems:
a) the Red Army was inadequate for the task.
b) the popular response was half-hearted.
c) the support of some rural-based leaders, notably Mao Zedong, was withheld.
The result was a disaster.
In the next year Pavel Mif, the new Comitern representative, arrived in China.
Under his direction Li Lisan. was condemned for blind opportunism.
The 28 Bolsheviks took over the leadership of the Party.
After the failure of theAutumn Harvest Uprising, Mao Zedong had retreated to the mountain.
The mountain ranges were on the borders of Hunan and Jianxi known as the Jinggangshan.
It is here that he joined up with two bandit chiefs.
In April 1928 Zhu De brought in the survivors of the attack on Nanchang.
Later Peng Dehuai, a future minister of defence, arrived with a group from Hunan.
These forces, the nucleus of the Red Army, were soon called into action.
This was to repel Guomindang attacks.
Mao had concluded the Jinggangshan area was too small and too rugged to be a suitable base.
In January 1929, he moved east to Ruijin in southern Jiangxi for his base of operations.
The Ruijin area became the most important of several Communist bases.
For Mao, possession of a rural base was an essential part of his revolutionary strategy.
At the Ruijin base, he began to put into practice three key policies:
A) to make the Red Army a disciplined and politicized force.
Already at Jinggangshan Mao had enunciated the basic principles of guerrilla warfare.
"The advances, we retreat; the army camps, we harass, the enemy tires, we attack, the enemy retreats, we pursue."
He had required every soldier to know the Three Rules:
a) to obey orders.
b) to take nothing from the peasants.
c) to pool all captured goods.
But the Red Army soldiers lacked discipline.
They didn't understand the aims of the revolution.
They didn't understand the role that the army was expected to play.
In the future, political officers were appointed to
1) help the army mobilize the masses
2) set up new regimes.
At least one in three soldiers had to be a Party member.
The army was intended to be democratic.
The soldiers wore no badges of rank.
All received the same pay and all shared in the discussion of any proposed action.
B) they had to confiscate the land from the landlords and redistribute it to the poor peasants.
This policy had only been adapted by the CCP at its fifth Congress in April 1927.
This was on the eve of the split with the Guomindang.
There was no agreed line on whether land should also be confiscated from rich peasants.
These were peasants who owned more land than they could farm with their own labour.
At Ruijin, Mao introduced a moderate policy.
This allowed rich peasants to retain their land.
Villages were encouraged to revolutionary committees.
These committees first classified the inhabitants of the village as
a) landlord,
b) rich peasant,
c) middle peasant,
d) poor peasant.
After that they would apply the agreed distribution of land.
C) to put in social reforms and to change the position of women in Chinese society.
At the time of the May Fourth Movement, Mao Zedong had criticized arranged marriages.
During his research of the peasant movement in Hunan, he had drawn conclusions.
He had approved the formation of women's associations.
This challenged the authority of the husbands.
In 1930, he carried out a study of Xunwu in south-east Jiangxi.
This was tp provide himself with recent and detailed information on a rural community.
He studied the effect of permitting freedom of marriage and divorce.
He said that male peasants opposed the emancipation of women for one reason only.
Because they were uncertain of the outcome of land reform.
Ma's position in the Jiangxi soviet was unchallenged untli 1931
This was when members of the Central Committee abandoned their undercover existence.
This was in Shanghai and they moved to Ruijin.
Later that year the Chinese Soviet Republic was established at Ruijin.
Mao Zedong was its first president.
But his authority and policies were now being challenged by the 28 Bolsheviks.
The Soviet Republic immediately passed a radical land law.
This provided for the confiscation of the land of the landlords and also the land for rich peasants.
It also approved a marriage law.
This law defined marriage as a "free institution between a man and a woman."
Both men and women could apply for a divorce.
divorced women were given some economic protection.
What followed was a spate of divorce petitions.
The survival of the rural soviets was threatened by developments for within & without.
In Dec. 1930, the Nationalist Army made its first determined attack on the Communist bases.
This was on the on in southern Jiangxi but they were forced to withdraw.
.The attack coincided with the Futian Incident.
This involved the alleged infiltration of the Jiangxi action committee.
It was allegedly infiltrated by the pro-Guomingdang Anti-Bolsheviks League.
what followed was
a) a mutiny in a Red Army unit
b) a purge by Mao Zedong of his suspected opponents.
in July 1931 Jiang Jieshi took personal command of the Nationalist forces
he moved in on the Communist bases, which now numbered 300,000 men,
he was making good progress when the campaign was called off
this was because of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria
two things encouraged the 28 Bolsheviks to denounce Mao’s tactics
a) the respite from the Japanese in Manchuria
b) the idea the world depression would lead to a world revolutionary upsurge,
they said Mao’s tactics of guerrilla warfare were too cautious, not aggressive enough.
Mao lost his place on the Party's Military Council
their strategy promoted by Zhou Enlai of positional warfare and capturing cities was adopted.
in the Jiangxi central base the CCP had begun to apply its revolutionary land policy.
many landlords were dispossessed and others were killed
it became apparent that some landlords & rich peasants hid the extent of their landholdings.
in June 1933 a Land Investigation movement was launched,
it was at first launched with Mao Zedong's support
it was to identify cases of evasion
later Zhang Wentian, one of the Twenty-eight Bolsheviks, took charge
the investigation became increasingly oppressive.
in November 1933 the Guomindang Nineteenth Route Army, in Fujian province, mutinied
they did this as protest against Jiang Jieshi's failure to oppose Japanese encroachment
Zhou Enlai was in favour of assisting the rebels but Mao Zedong counselled caution
as the Communists leadership was arguing, Jiang Jieshi stepped in and crushed the mutiny
a great opportunity for the Communists was lost.
in October 1933 Jiang Jieshi commenced his fifth encirclement campaign
this comprised both a major military offensive and a comprehensive political campaign.
the Nationalist Army, now numbered over 750,000 men in the field,
it was supported by German advisers and equipped with heavy guns and aeroplanes.
there was a method to counter the Communist tactic of mobile warfare
they had ringed the Jianxi central base with 15,000 blockhouses.
on the political front the Guomindang attempted to match the CCP propaganda
it did this by requiring
a) the officers in its armies to wear the same uniform
b) eat the same food as their men.
the population of the areas near the Communist bases was required to support the blockade
this was the blockade of all essential supplies.
it was at Nanchang in 1934, that Jiang Jieshi laun
ched a the New Life Movement,
this was when he was planning his Fifth extermination campaign
this was in part a response to the threat of Communism.

the CCP's idea to leave the Jianxi base & set out on the Long March was taken in May 1934,
but the departure was delayed until October
the main reason for going was the deteriorating military situation
the application of the Land Investigation movement had lost the Party much popular support.
about 86,000 people set out from the Jiangxi base
some 20,000 sick and injured people and a force of 30,000 soldiers remained behind.
after breaking through the Guomindang blockade the Red Army marched due west’
it crossed into Hunan and then Guangxi
the first major engagement was the crossing of the Xiang river north-east of Guilin
this is where the Red Army lost about half of its strength.

in January 1935 the Communists captured Zunyi in northern Guizhou
it was there that an important conference took place
the main issue was the military failure which resulted in the abandonment of the Jiangxi base.
the policies pursued by the Politburo and by the military leadership, were criticized
the military leadership included Otto Braun, the Comitern military adviser
those advocated by Mao Zedong were endorsed.
Mao did not become Party leader at this point, but his rise to power had begun.
the marchers left Zunyi
they intended to join up with Zhang Guotao's Fourth Front Army,
The Fourth Front Army had moved from its original base in Anhui to Sichuan.
various final destinations were under discussion
Mao Zedong proposed moving north to oppose the Japanese.

first the upper waters of the Yangzi river had to be crossed
this meant they had to march far to the west to shake off the Nationalists,
they would finally have to cross the Jinsha or Golden Sands River
the marchers then turned north through areas inhabited by hostile minority groups.
then came the most celebrated incident of the march, the crossing of the Dadu river
this was by the Luding Bridge
it was an ancient chain suspension bridge guarded by the Guomindang machine-gun post.

the next obstacle was the Great Snowy Mountain
this is where hundreds of men died of exposure
in June the two main branches of the Red Army met at Mao'ergai in north Sichuan.
on the surface, the reunion between Mao Zedong and Zhang Guotao was cordial
but past differences and political rivalries soon appeared and,
Zhang Guotao chose to move west to Xizxang
Mao Zedong continued northwards through Gansu
this is where he came up to one final challenge - the vast swamp of the Great Grasslands.
in October 1935, Mao Zedong and the First Front Army reached the north Shaanxi rural base.
the Long March had extended over 5000 miles
less than 20,000 of those who had set out arrived at its final destination.
the result of the march made the Communist operations transfer from the south to the north.

The Sino-Japanese War: 1937-45

after having occupied Manchuria in 1931, Japan continued to encroach on north China]
in the following year China and Japan fought an undeclared war in Shanghai
the Chinese Soviet Republic in Jiangxi declared war on Japan
but Jiang Jieshi, recognizing the weakness of his position,
so he refused to allow China to be drawn into hostilities
he declared that the Japanese were a disease of the skin,
he then declared that the Communists were a disease of the heart.
by 1936 Hebei and Inner Mongolia had established autonomous governments
this was done under Japanese protection.

protests against Jiang Jieshi's policy came from various quarters
they were particularly loud on university campuses
the Guomindang treated student political movements with suspicion
he thought that the t student agitation must be fomented by the Communists.
the student movement of December 9th 1935 challenged this view.
it began when Beiping Police tried to suppress a student protest against the Japanese
the Japanese had plans to turn areas of north China into autonomous regions
the student protest then spread to many other cities.
pressure on Jiang Jieshi to change his mind came from the National Salvation Association,
this had been founded by the journalist Zou Taofen.
among supporters of the association was Zhang Xueliang
he was the `Young Marshal' of Manchuria
his father had been killed by the Guomindang Army in 1928.

Zhang Xueling

Zhang had moved his forces into north China
he had reluctantly taken on the task of suppressing the Communists in Shaanxi
in December 1936, Jiang Jieshi flew to Xi'an
he went there to encourage Zhang to campaign more vigorously
but the Young Marshal took him prisoner and detained him
he held him until
a) Jiang Jieshi had agreed to end the civil war against the communists
b) lead the resistance to Japan.

early in 1937 the Guomindang and the CCP negotiated a second united front.
the Communists agreed to abandon armed insurrection
they also agreed to cease confiscating the landlords' land
in return the Guomindang undertook
a) to end the attacks on Communist bases,
b) release political prisoners
c) prepare to resist Japan.
0n July 7th 1937, an incident at Lugouqiao (Marco Polo Bridge) led to the war
the first phase of the war (until October 1938) was marked by
a) a rapid Japanese invasion
b) some heroic Chinese opposition.

in North China, Japanese troops advanced along the main railway lines
there Chinese forces fell back in disorder
but in Shanghai, Chinese resistance was better organized and more determined
Chinese ground forces surrounded the Japanese settlement
in a tragic error Chinese aeroplanes bombed the International Settlement
the battle for Shanghai continued for four months
this was until Japanese troops landed on the coast to the south of the city
there they forced the Chinese forces to fall back on Nanjing
Jiang Jieshi had ordered that the capital should be defended to the last man
but his orders were ignored

on December 12th Japanese troops entered the city
they perpetrated the atrocities known as the `Rape of Nanjing.’
the Nationalist government transferred the capital to Chongqing,
Chinese troops continued to fight and in April 1938 obtained a significant victory
this was when forces ,under Li Zongren, defeated a large Japanese force at Tai’erzhuang
in June, there was an attempt to delay the Japanese advance on Wuhan
Jiang Jieshi ordered the Yellow River defences near Kaifeng to be breached.
in October, however, Wuhan fell and in the same month Guangzhou was occupied.
in December 1937 Japan offered Jiang Jieshi peace terms, but he refused them
he refused because they required recognition of Manzhouguo
this was the puppet regime which established in Manchuria under the last Chinese emperor.
as Japan could not force Jiang to surrender,
there was an alternative solution
this was to establish puppet regimes in parts of China now under Japanese control.

in December 1938, Wang Jingwei defected from the Nationalist side
he was the leader of the left-wing of the Guomindang
he offered himself as leader of a collaborationist regime with its capital at Nanjing
this regime was to last throughout the war, although Wang himself died in 1944.
it claimed o be an independent gov’t exercising authority over central and south-east China
it maintained diplomatic relations with Japan and Germany
it had its own armed forces and the trappings of a government,
its dependence on Japan was never in doubt.
the Nationalist gov’t claimed to govern an area containing nearly half the population of China,
in truth its political authority was weak
it had lost control over the lower Yangzi provinces, its main political base
now it had to rely on local power-holders, for example Long Yun in Yunnan
this weakness was not immediately apparent
at the start of the war the Guomindang & Jiang Jieshi had national and international support.
before the move to Chongqing, Jiang Jieshi was given a title
this was that of director-general of the Guomindang
he was also chairman of the Military Affairs Commission
to broaden the basis of the Guomindang's support, a People's Political Council was formed
it included representatives of minor parties and even Communists.
the Three People's Principles Youth Corps was created
this was to mobilize the nation's youth and revitalize the Guomindang
Jiang Jieshi did not understand this form of modern pluralistic politics
independent members of the People's Political Council had criticized the government,
in 1942, the Guomindang was given the majority of seats on the council
the council was really of no importance after that.

relations with intellectuals and students also soured
when Japan invaded China, universities migrated to areas outside Japanese control
staff and students, from Beijing National University, Qinghua, and Nankai University left.
Also this from Tianjin
they made their way to Kunming in Yunnan
here they formed the National South-West Associated University.
but the university's liberal values were not acceptable to the Guomindang
the Three People's Principles Youth Corps had secret groups on the campus
they spied on the staff and students
before the end of the war the political strains within the Guomindang were evident
at the Guomindang's 6th Party Congress, the gov’t was described as corrupt and inefficient
Jiang Jieshi was accused of having become increasingly dictatorial.

War Economy

as a war of resistance, the Nationalist gov’t had to establish a war economy
this was within the Free Zone, as the area under its control was called
this was a demanding task, as much of the region was economically backward
at the beginning of the war they tried to shifted industrial plant and skilled workers
they would be shifted from areas threatened by the Japanese invasion to the Free Zone
the government established a National Resources Commission
this took control of heavy and technical industry
between 1939 and 1943,
a) industrial output grew rapidly,
b) coal output doubled,
c) over 1000 miles of rail track were built,
d) electricity production increased seven-fold,

after the closing of the Burma Road in 1942 petroleum supplies were stopped
this was the amount that could be brought by air
but ingenious attempts were made to produce liquid fuels from alternative sources
the industrial growth began from a very small base
the industrial output was insufficient to satisfy demand
the rate of growth declined sharply after 1943,
this was when the Free Zone began to experience an industrial crisis.

the industrial crisis was a symptom of a deeper economic malaise
this manifested itself in inflation
during the Nanjing decade the government had been unable to balance its budget
it had borrowed heavily
with the move to Chongqing it had lost its main sources of revenue
it now incurred heavy wartime expenditure.
it tried to recover control of the land tax from the provincial authorities
in order to secure food supplies for its troops, it began to collect taxes in grain
these measures did not solve the particular problem of inadequate revenue.

between 1942 and 1945 inflation rose over 230% annually.
official salaries declined sharply and this encouraged corruption.
because of the shortage of commodities, especially petrol, a black market grew up.
the vast majority of the population of the Free Zone were peasants.
to fight a war of resistance effectively their co-operation was essential
but the policies which the Guomindang pursued alienated peasant support
inflation generally benefits primary producers
gov’t regulations required the selling at fixed prices and be transported to collecting stations
this resulted in poor peasants incurring costs which were more than double their tax burden.
the gap in incomes between rich and poor in the countryside widened
landlord-tenant conflicts reached epidemic proportions
the consequences of heavy extractions to feed the troops resulted in the Henan famine
this was in 1942-3, which left 5 million people starving, many to death
peasants also bore the main burden of conscription,
this applied to all males between 18 and 45, but fell most heavily on poor families.

after a year the main Nationalist forces withdrew to the Free Zone to regroup and retrain.
thereafter the Nationalist armies remained largely on the defensive
the fighting between Nationalists and Japanese never stopped
between 1939 and 1941, Chongqing & other cities held by the Nationalists were bombed
the only land link with the outside world available to the Nationalists was the Burma Road
it had been built at immense human cost in 1938
it was to close in 1942 after the Japanese invasion of Burma.

at the start of the war the Nationalists and the Communists had reached an agreement
this was about the zone in which the Red Army was to be allowed to operate.
adding to its forces in the north, renamed the Eight Route Army, the CCP raised a new army
this was the New Fourth Army in Jiangxi
in October 1940 Nationalists commanders ordered the new Fourth Army to move north.
its failure to comply fully led to fighting between the Nationalist and the Communist forces
this eventually ended the united front.
the Japanese invasion of China was condemned by the United States
from December 1938 American aid began to reach the Nationalist side.
after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Dec. 1941,the two countries became allies.

General Joseph Stillwell

General Joseph W. Stilwell (`Vinegar Joe’) was sent to Chongqing
he had the job of encouraging Jiang Jieshi to go on the offensive against Japan
but Jiang Jieshi refused to commit his troops to support the British in Burma
this would have kept the Burma Road open.
nor would he agree to Stilwell's suggestions
Stillwell tried to advise Jiang how to make the Nationalist army more effective
The Nationalist army had 3,800,000 men

Operation Ichigo

in April 1944, d, Japan launched Operation Ichigo.
the short-term objective was
a) to disable the best National armies
b) to deny the United States the use of Chinese airfields
the long-term strategy was to establish a land supply route across China to Hanoi
although Japan might lose the war with the USA, she could not be evicted from China
that was the main goal of establishing a land supply
the operation resulted in a major Japanese victory,
this showed the corruption and the inefficiency of the Nationalist government
it left the Nationalist forces weaker than at any other time during the war.

The CCP during the Sino-Japanese War

at the end of the Long March Mao Zedong had established his headquarters at Yan’an
there, under his leadership, the CCP was to develop political, social, and economic policies
these policies were to transform the Party and gain it mass support
at Yan'an, Mao Zedong consolidated his position as Party leader
his two main rivals were Zhang Guotao, and Wang Ming, Zhang Guotao, losing much of the New Fourth Army, finally reached Shaanxi in late 1936. his disagreements with Mao were patched up.
He defected to the Nationalists in April 1938.
Wang Ming's position rested on the support he received from the Comintern
at first his political influence outweighed that of Mao Zedong.
but he held no military command
he had no experience of conducting a rural revolution
after the outbreak of war he lost his influence.

Mao ZedongMao Zedong also strengthened his position

he did this by laying claim to the ideological leadership of the Party
in 1938-40 he wrote three key works:
a) ”On the New Stage,"
b) ”The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party,"
c) ”On New Democracy."

in the first he called for the "sinification of Marxism",
he argued that if Marxism had to be imbued with Chinese peculiarities,
he said "We must put an end to writing eight-legged essays on foreign models."
in the second, he reviewed Chinese history, emphasizing the key role of peasant revolts,
he also pointed out that earlier peasant revolts had failed for one reason
because they had not been led by the proletariat and the Communist Party.
in "On New Democracy" he repeated Lenin's well-known view
this was that in colonial societies revolution would be accomplished in two stages:
the first of which would be bourgeois-democratic the second socialist.
the "New Democracy' was the term Mao Zedong used to denote the point
he identified it with the May Fourth Movement
this was when the revolution began to be led, not by the bourgeoisie alone
it was to be by a joint revolutionary-democratic dictatorship of several revolutionary classes.
after the Communist victory, there would be a place for the bourgeoisie
at least that part of it which had not allied with feudalism or imperialism, in the new state.

Rectification Campaign

during the Sino-Japanese war the CCP underwent a drastic reorganization
at the start, as refugees flocked to Yan'an, the membership of the Party had soared
it rose to 800,000.
many of the new members knew little of Marxism and did not accept Party discipline.
in Feb. 1942, after setbacks and disagreements, Mao launched a rectification campaign.
cadres (trained leaders) were required to attend a Party school,
Mao gave lectures at the “Party school
he identified the main errors that threatened the Party,
by now he included 'subjectivism', as a threat
by this he meant the claim to superiority of cadres
these were the ones that had theoretical knowledge but no down-to-earth experience.
in another lecture he argued that art and literature must serve the masses.
the rectification campaign did not amount to a purge,
but a number of intellectuals were forced to make a self-criticism
all cadres were expected to study Mao's writings
they all had to strive to improve the quality of their work.

Yan’an was the capital of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia (Shaan-Gan-Ning) Border Region
by 1944 the Communists claimed to control four `border regions.',
these stretched across much of China north of the Yellow River
there were also about a dozen other `liberated areas',
most of which were in central China
in the border regions representative governments were established.
all men and women over the age of 16 could vote and the `three-thirds' system was adopted,
this meant that the Communists restricted themselves to one-third of all elected position
the rest was shared between two groups:
a) the `progressive (petty bourgeois)
b) the middle of the road (middle bourgeois or enlightened gentry) candidates.

like the Guomindang, the CCP had to develop a self-sufficient war-time economy
Shaanxi was a very poor area which had suffered badly in the 1928-33 famine
this was when many peasants had been forced to sell their land.
the local soviet had begun to confiscate and redistribute landlords' land.
this was before the Long Marchers had arrived.
under the united front agreement, the CCP had agreed to stop confiscations
throughout the war it maintained that policy
they made an exception for the landlords who collaborated with the Japanese.
from 1942 it promoted a Rent and Interest Reduction campaign
a rent ceiling of 37.5% of the crop - - was enforced strictly.
the figure was endorsed but never applied by the Guomindang
A programme of land registration was introduced and security of tenure was improved
these measures threatened the privileged position of landlords and rich peasants.
the border region government was desperate for tax revenue
by 1941 the tax burden was heavy, although it had eased by 1943.
in that year a campaign was launched to develop a more production economy
this was organized on co-operative principles
at the same time attempts were made to increase industrial production
this was done using primitive technology and surplus labour.

at Yan'an, important experiments were made in the delivery of mass education.
many primary schools were minban schools,
these were schools paid for and run by the people, who hired the teacher
they also suggested the curriculum.
-their priority was for the pupils to become literate
but literacy was closely connected with the needs of the world of work
so the schools closed at harvest time.
in secondary schools, courses were reduced from 6 to 3 years,
the curriculum was simplified
all students did at least 20 days of productive labour a year.
in 1941 Yan'an University was founded,
here too study was combined with productive labour
emphasis was placed on political study.

while these policies were being pursued the Communists were also fighting a war.
in 1937 the Eight Route and the New Fourth armies had 92,000 men
these troops did engage the Japanese forces at the time of the invasion
but for the next two years they restricted themselves to guerrilla tactics, l
this left the Nationalist armies to take the brunt of the Japanese attack.
faced with an elusive enemy, the Japanese instituted a `cage policy',
they sealed off the Communist areas within a cage of blockhouses and trenches
in 1940 the Communist forces were now numbering 500,000 men,
it was then that launched the Hundred Regiments' campaign,
they broke out of the cage and inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese
the Japanese response was to counterattack
they were also to carry out reprisals against civilians who helped the Communists
as a consequence, the population of the areas under Communist control fell sharply
the strength of the Eight Route Army declined from 400,000 to 300,000 men.

the Communist change of tactics turned out to be a disaster
thereafter the Communist forces reverted to guerrilla activity and small-scale attacks,
their attacks were often on the forces of the puppet regimes rather than on Japanese army.
the balance of power between them shifted during the Sino-Japanese War
this was because the Japanese invasion and the Operation Ichigo had a damaging effectt
this damaged the Nationalists' military capacity.
another reason was that Jiang Jieshi's government earned a bad reputation f
it was undemocratic, corrupt, and inefficient
the Communists at Yan'an took made great efforts to project a contrasting image.
this image was manipulated by the Communists who were no democrats.
in 1942 the rectification movement at Yan'an focused on literature and art
its target was intellectual freedom.
one of the victims of the rectification movement was Ding Ling
she was China’s foremost woman writer
in a story entitled, "When I was in Xia Village" she had criticized male Communist cadres
they were criticized or having double standards on sexual morality.
for this she lost her post of literary editor of the Yan'an newspaper Liberation Daily
she was sent to work in the countryside for two years.
the consequence of the increased scepticism of the United States towards Jiang Jieshi
they could not longer see him as a reliable ally.as a reliable ally.
it may be that it was a combination of factors which gave the Communists their success.

the war saved them from extinction at the hands of the Nationalists.
at Yan'an, the Communist leaders emphasized the Party's role in leading resistance to Japan.
the Yan'an Way policies were not new,
they had been pioneered in the Jiangxi period
the Communists had learned from their mistakes
in the border regions they had the security
they also had the time to implement a modified version of these policies consistently.

Civil War & the Communist Victory

the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki by the USA brought the war to an abrupt end
it left the Nationalists and the Communists jostling for advantages.
under the Yalta agreement of Feb.1945, Japan were to surrender only to the Nationalists
the Communists also occupied territory held by the Japanese and seized Japanese weapons.
right after the bombing of Hiroshima the Soviet Union finally declared war on Japan
they then proceeded to occupy Manchuria.
by the time they arrived the Communists had already planted themselves in the country-side.

in December 1945 General George C. Marshall took up his post as ambassador to China
in January 1946 he persuaded the Nationalists and Communists to agree to a cease-fire
this is what happen after:
a) a Political Consultative Conference was convened
b) a range of political and military issues were decided
c) Jiang Jieshi announced that one-quarter of the Nationalist army would be demobilized.
but neither Nationalists nor Communists were sincere for a peaceful settlement
there were no superior power to enforce the agreement they had made.
the Soviet forces began to withdraw from Manchuria in March 1946,
they took with them industrial machinery in lieu of war reparations..
Chinese Communist troops took their place
by May the cease-fire had ended in Manchuria
General Marshall continued his peace mission until the end of the year,
both sides were using the pretence of negotiations as a cover for their preparations for war.

Civil War

at the start of the conflict it appeared that the Nationalists held a clear advantage
they controlled China's major cities and the country's industrial base.
their armies numbered more than twice as many men as the Communists
they were supported by an air force and a small navy.
the United States placed an embargo on the shipment of arms to China in July 1946
this was rescinded within less than a year and the Nationalists were not short of weapons
within three years they were driven from the mainland.

the civil war may be divided into three stages:
1) the first stage lasted from July 1946 to June 1947,
it began with the Nationalists occupying the main cities of Manchuria
they recovered large areas of north China including Yan'an, captured in March 1947.
the People's Liberation Army, (Communist forces) adopted new tactics,
the tactic was surrendering territory but harassing and destroying the Nationalist forces
Lin Biao, was the commander of the Communist forces in Manchuria,
he carried out lightning attacks that halted and then reversed the Nationalist advance.
2) the second stage of the civil war began in June 1947,
at this time the People's Liberation Army overran much of Manchuria and north China
this is apart from key cities and main lines of communication.
in June, Communist forces crossed the Yellow River and cut off Xi'an,
it then began to isolate concentrations of Nationalist forces.
by March 1948, the Nationalist hold on Manchuria was reduced to three cities
from the middle of the year the power balance had begun to shift to the Communists' favour
by now the People's Liberation Army had over 1,500,000 troops
it had seized large quantities of weapons and equipment.

3) the final stage began in the autumn of 1948.
by November Lin Biao had captured Shenyang, and Manchuria had fallen to the Communists.
he then moved into north China and in January 1949 he took Tianjin
each of these victories was accompanied by the surrender of thousands of Nationalist troops
they were able to seize vast quantities of material.
between November 1948 and January 1949, the decisive battle of Huai-Hai was fought.
communist forces methodically cut off the Nationalist force
it forced the Nationalist force of 300,000 men to surrender.
after this battle Nationalist resistance north of the Yangzi came to its end.
in April 1949 Communist forces captured Nanjing and in the following month Shanghai fell
in December Jiang Jieshi and 2 million of his supporters fled to Taiwan
they took with them China's foreign reserves and art treasures.

Explanations for the Nationalist Defeat

the Nationalist defeat was a military disaster which can be explained in military terms.
the Nationalists made the strategic mistake of trying to recover Manchuria
the leadership of the Nationalist army was very poor
it contrasted sharply with the brilliance of some of the Communist military leaders.
the Nationalists had resorted to a defensive strategy which allowed them to be surrendered
the morale of the Nationalist troops, who were poorly paid & badly treated, was very low
they frequently deserted.

the civil war had its origin in a political struggle
it was success in that struggle which was to determine the outcome of the war
on the one hand the Nationalists, through errors and omissions, lost the political struggle
on the other hand the Communists profited from the Nationalists' mistakes
the Communists presented themselves differently
they showed themselves as a moderate, efficient, & patriotic alternative to the Nationalist Party.

the Guomindang had begun to lose the political struggle during the Nanjing era
this was when it had failed to live up to the expectations of a modernizing government
the Nationalists forfeited support during the Sino-Japanese War
it did this by ceasing to fight the enemy
they also did this by ignoring urgent political, social, and economic issues.

after 1945 the Guomindang government made further mistakes
it eventually destroyed its basis of support
the mistakes began as soon as the Guomiondang government returned to Nanjing.
many expected that those who had collaborate with the Japanese would be punished
only a few collaborators were executed and others were allowed to retain their jobs.
the Guomindang officials were accused of commandeering Japanese property,
the industrialists & merchants had their property seized by the Japanese
but they received no compensation.
when the Nationalists reoccupied Manchuria, they were suspicion of the local leadership
so they appointed outsiders to administrative posts
thus they presented the Communists with a grievance to exploit.
when returning to Taiwan they treated the Taiwanese more harshly than the Japanese had
Taiwan had previously been a Japanese colony for more than 50 years
The Giuomindang provoked a serious uprising.

much of the blame for the outbreak of the civil war had fallen on the Guomindang.
the most coherent criticism came from radical students,
the students believed the Guomindang should have formed a coalition government
this would be a coalition with the Communists
they regarded the close links between the Nationalists and the United States with suspicion
they especially resented the continued presence of American troops on Chinese soil.

in Dec. 1946, two United States marines were accused of raping a student
this was at at Beijing University
this provoked a series of demonstrations on campuses throughout most of the country
anti-American and anti-government sentiments were expressed.
student agitation continued throughout the civil war
some issues made them turn university communities against the government
one issue was the economic hardships of students and intellectuals
the Guomindang insisted that this hostility was fomented by Communists
there probably was an underground Communist organization supporting the protest.
but the agitation could be explained readily by
a) reference to government incompetence
b) the brutal suppression of student demonstrations.
two other issues served to alienate the Guomindang's basis of support:
a) the lack of political progress
b) economic mismanagement.

Sun Zhongshan had prescribed that a constitutional form of government would be introduced.
this was after a period of political tutelage by the Guomindang,
a constitution had been drafted in 1936
the Political Consultative Conference of January 1946 had agreed to introduce it forthwith.
but the Guomindang commitment to constitutionalism was undermined
it was undermined by the Renovationist faction
they would not accept that the Guomindang should give up its monopol
the constitution was promulgated on January 1st 1947
election for a National Assembly were held later in the year.
but the elections were condemned as a farce
the sessions of the National Assembly ended in an uproar.
- by now the Guomindang was regarded as
too corrupt,
too intolerant of minority parties,
too indifferent to the issues of civil liberties,
so it was not qualified to introduce a constitutional form of government.

monetary inflation had already set in during the war
it started to accelerate in 1946
by mid-1948 the Shanghai wholesale price index (September 1945 = 100) had risen
it had risen to 1,368,049
the economy was on the verge of collapse.
in August the government replaced the worthless fabi with the gold yuan note,
it did this without previously having attempted to balance the budget or
it did not back the new currency with reserves.

hopes of a currency stabilization loan from the United States was dashed.
when the new currency was issued, the rich were urged to turn over
a) their gold
b) foreign currency holdings
to the government in exchange for certificates
in October, the government, to reduce the budgetary deficit, raised taxes on consumer goods
this prompted a rush to stockpile goods,
this was within three months of the collapse of the currency reform.
so disastrous was the gold yuan experiment was a complete disaster
some observers at the time regarded it as the main cause of the government's fall.
the failures of the Guomindang is only half the explanation for the shift in the political balance
the other half lies in the CCP's success in winning the battle for hearts and minds of people
this was especially those in the countryside.

revolutionary land reform has been seen as the key factor in this success.
the CCP had renounced land reform as part of the second united front agreement
but on May 4th 1946, a directive was issued
this authorized the seizure of land from collaborators,
the Outline Agrarian Law, provided for the confiscation of all land belonging to the landlords
also it provided for its division among the total population.
these measures sanctioned the violence against landlords
this was already occurring in many villages in north China,
it really amounted to a rural revolution.

a revolutionary land reform only attracted peasant support under certain conditions.
when the CCP cadres returned to Manchuria in 1945 they found that it was not enough
the simple promise of land was not enough to bring the peasants over to their side.
what was needed was an `equation of revolutionary transformation,’
this meant convincing poor peasants they would receive a share of the landlords' land
also they would participate in new decision-making bodies after the revolution.
these peasants were those who supported the Communists in civil war,
they had done this by supplying them with taxation, military, and labour services and food.
this promise was only credible only on one condition
only if the peasants were confident that the revolution would not be reversed
in many parts of north China, it was not landlordism which afflicted poor peasants,
it was
a) low wages,
b) high taxes,
c) the arbitrary exercise of power by the local elite.

to obtain their support, CCP cadres had to awaken peasants to their condition of exploitation
they had to give them the confidence to act against it.
to do this they organized `struggle meetings'
at these meetings the poorest of peasants were encouraged to voice their grievances.
cadres would then encourage, a movement to seize goods
these goods were those of members of the exploiting class and to wreak vengeance on them.
the CCP also encouraged the formation of women's associations
this implied that the revolution would lead to their emancipation.
the new marriage law, & revolutionary land reform gave women a reason to support them
the new marriage laws gave women rights relating to divorce and custody of children
the revolutionary land reform gave women a share of the redistributed land,

the final act of the civil war was played out in the cities
there were a number of things that undermined the position of the Guamindang
a) student unrest,
b) the alienation of intellectuals,
c) corrupt and undemocratic government
d) chaotic economic conditions
but the Communists had lost touch with the industrial proletariat
they had little experience of dealing with urban populations.
in August 1945, the Communists captured Zhangjiakou (Kalgan)
this is 200 miles north-west of Beijing.
here they engaged in an urban experiment
this was to show that they could administer a city more effectively than the Nationalists. -

the following events took place:
a) collaborators were arrested,
b) streets were cleaned
c) beggars and prostitutes were found alternative employment
d) the workers were unionized
e) wages were raised,
f) private businesses were left untouched.

a reputation of being honest and effective administrators served the Communists well
this is when the cities of north China fell into their hands in 1949
the following events took place:
a) Beijing was occupied in January 1949 without a shot being fired.
b) the People's Liberation Army enforced strict discipline
c) no looting took place.
d) workers & students co-operated in restoring production and maintaining essential services.
e) the gold yuan notes were replaced with `people's notes' or `renminbi'
f) an attempt was made to curb inflation.
g) political groups opposed to the Guomindang were invited to participate in a coalition gov’t
f) as the Nationalists fell back in disorder, the Communist approach prevented panic
g) they ensured that the final stage of the civil war was concluded swiftly.