Chinese Revolution

Context

• Since 1937, Japan occupied Mainland
• Weak National Government
• Regional Turmoil
• USSR and American Involvement

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Main Actors

• Communist Party of China
• Lead by Mao Zedong/ Zhue De
• Radical Socialist Ideology-Maoism. Focused in Chinese Context
• Constituency
• Absolutely rejected Western Values

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Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)

• Kuomitang
• Chiang Kai-Shek, General and Political Leader
• Fought Japanese Occupation
• Unified and ruled China since 1928-1949
• Fought Japanese Occupation. But Eventually compromised with them
• Central Democratic Ideology

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CPC Path to Victory

• Appealed to Chinese Masses
• Took advantage of International developments
• Blamed KMT for Japanese Internvetion
• Secured USSR's Military Support

Updates

• Chairman Mao
• Western Propaganda will not be tolerated
• Bourgeois culture will not be tolarated

The Leader's Profile

• Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-Tung)
• Born 1893 to a peasant family, in Shaoshan
• Voracious reader

Key Aspects

• Peasantry
• Educated in Western and Chinese tradition
• Founding member of the Communist Party
• First wife executed by the KMT in 193

Chairman's Political Program

• Agricultural Reform
• Robust central government
• Steer away from the USSR's ideological hold
• People's Liberation Army (PLA)
• Pragmatism

State-building in Post-Revolutionary China

• WWII & Civil War effects
• Thousands died of starvation, floods and desease
• Consolidate a Govemernment
• Spread Chairman Mao's ideology

First Measures

• 1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty
• Marriage law introduced
• GLF design

Prior the GLF

• USSR to assist China
• Soviet Engineers and Development plans provided to China
• Khrushchev vs Chairman Mao
• Ideological and military breakdown

GLF Principles

• Agricultural Industrialization at any cost
• Self-sufficiency
• Adhering to Chinese Identity

A misreading of Stalin's Plans

• Miscalculated the costs and effects of economic centralization
• Set unrealistic production goals
• Contradiction of Revolution's goals
• Ignored consequences of collectivization

Mao's GLF

• Bring peasants into communes
• Communes as the basic economic unit of China
• Utilize any means to build tools

Plan's shortcomings

• Centralized mangament
• Little or none technological usage
• Unrealistic goals
• Ideological limitations

What the State learnt

• National Policies must be executed efficently
• Population control became security priorities
• Solving a practical social problem outweighs ideology

Direct Consequences

• Famine
• Environmental destruction
• Famine
• Economic mild success
• Politburo internal disruption

Direct Consequences

• Famine
• Environmental destruction
• Famine
• Economic mild success
• Politburo internal disruption

Impact on Government

• Mao's forced to step down as Chairman
• A first break between Party and State
• Ideology vs Policy became the major challenge
• Deng Xiaoping

WHAT IS CULTURE

CULTURAL REVOLUTION

• Zhou Enlai/ Deng Xiaoping
• Economic Policies
• Reverting GLF effects
• Moderate government

MAO'S DISCONTENT

• Criticized government
• Local officers/ decision makers
• Corruption
• Treason
• Anti-socialists

JIANG QING

• Mao's wife
• Ministry of education
• Revolutionary culture
• Promoting a socialist education

LITTLE RED BOOK

• Mao's quotes/ organized by Lin Biao
• Army's handbook
• Then widely spread
• Cult of personality

CULTURAL REVOLUTUON

• Old customs
• Habits
• Traditions
• Culture
• Thinking

DEVELOPMENTS

• Students reveled against University authorities(1966-1969)
• Villagers against local officers (1966-1967)
• Red Guard ideological terror

CONSEQUENCES

• Destabilization