China Under Mao Zedong

Maoism Promoted the scientific aspect of Marxism Believed Russian model inappropriate for China; in China no proletariat & no bourgeois revolution Emphasized Chinese experience saying “seek truth from facts” Mao never liked experts or bureaucrats

Maoism Mass Line—listen to the people to recruit, mobilize & control them; the party should serve the people & inspire them to action Village Life—the ideal person was a farmer who was also a craftsman & militia soldier in a self sufficient community—each region of China should be self-sufficient instead of specializing and trading with each other (did not believe in comparative advantage)

Maoism Red—politically indoctrinated person was more valuable than a professionally trained expert; party organizers were more important than government specialists Volunteerism—the people take charge instead of the bureaucracy or ruling class National communism—emphasized decolonization

Shift to the Cities 1949 Emphasis on industrialization to get production back to pre-war levels Railroads rebuilt and expanded Industry & business became controlled by the state By 1953—86% of commerce & industry under at least partial government control State controlled major industries Peasants could privately sell surplus produce

Agrarian Land Reform Everyone divided into one of five groups Landlords… owned land, loaned out money, did no manual labor Wealthy Peasants… owned land, worked it themselves & hired others Middle Peasants… owned land did not hire others Poor Peasants… owned little land Hired Hands… owned no land, worked for someone else

Mobilizing the people Party members came to the village Identified enemies Explained benefits of land reform to poor peasants Identified people to lead the struggle Period of “class struggle” Struggle meetings… express grievances Entire community participated in violence, killing or expelling landlords, reform

Steps to the Commune Create peasant associations to carry out land reform & identify class status of all in the village Voluntary mutual aid teams Permanent year round mutual aid teams Agricultural collectives ; 50% of land redistributed to peasants; private ownership of land; worked together to improve production; by /3 of peasants had joined; saw benefits of CCP

Collectives… No private property Goal was to pay for industrialization Had to fulfill government quotas People’s income went down Farm output of all of China controlled by the government Did not increase production

Communes Were formed during the Great Leap Forward GLF replaced the 2 nd Five Year Plan

Working toward a Goal People are mobilized (volunteerism) Committees established Appearances created of popular initiative Righteous anger at what was wrong Enthusiasm for the search for truth

Campaigns Three-antis—against party members and to weed out former KMT To ensure conformity Anti-corruption; anti-waste; anti- bureaucratism

Five Antis—against bourgeoisie (merchants & manufacturers) Against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state assets, cheating in labor or materials, stealing state economic intelligence People confessed, made apologies, reform or elimination

Rectification Program… reform of wrong thinking To be sure people followed correct ideas & thinking Avoid having the party divide into “cliques” Consisted of indoctrination, though reform—realize one’s mistakes and reform

Three-self Movement Foreign missionaries denounced as spies Self-government, self-support, self- propagation of the Christian Church National churches free of missionary churches set up By 1958 Chinese churches in each local area unified

Hundred Flowers Campaign 1956 “let a hundred flowers bloom together; let a hundred schools of though content.” Mao disturbed by creation/existence of party elite Campaign for freer criticism by intellectuals of cadres & bureaucrats Government ended the campaign in 1957 when they received more criticism than they anticipated

Great Leap Forward Goal: “overtake England and catch up with America” Cultivation and harvest of crops by production brigades Everything was owned by the commune All aspects of life regimented under party control

Massive irrigation projects by man power, not machine labor Small commune factories… “backyard furnaces” 1960 communes lost some of their power Wages paid for work done Private plots reintroduced to combat famine It is believed that approx. 20 million people died of starvation or starvation related diseases

As a result of the Great Leap Forward, Mao stepped down as leader of China, but remained Chairman of the CCP Liu Shaoqi became head of China