Communists Triumph in China Chapter 17, Section 2

Internal Struggles Mao Zedong and his communist hold onto north China Once again they reach out to the peasants for help The nationalists hold the south and are lead by Jiang Jieshi Corruption of the Nationalist was their downfall

Involvement of the USA The war picks up (again) after WWII The USA provided $2 billion to the Nationalist By all means they should have won But the economy collapsed and the nationalists are to blame Many of their troops deserted to the communists

People’s Republic of China Mao gains more support and slowly takes over the country Jieshi fled the country USA is mad that they wasted the $ on the losing side Plus the communist have control (containment) Plus the USSR and China sign a treaty of friendship

Two Chinas USA supports the nationalists and aid them USSR supports the People’s Republic of China giving them aid When the Soviets “crept” into Asia the USA wanted to expand their influence in the area KOREA North Korea = communist (support: USSR, China) South Korea = democracy (support: USA)

Communist China Continues to Expand Mao did not stop with just China Tibet, Mongolia, and Indian were taken over Tibet was a brutal take over The country was ruled by the Dalai Lama Tibet broke into chaos Many fled to Indian to escape China’s influence

Transformation Under Mao The communist party has control of China, now they need control of the people 4.5 million people are party members That was one percent of the population

Mao’s Marxist Socialism Mao restructured China’s economy under Marxist socialism 8% of the population lived in rural setting but owned no land 70% of farmland was controlled by landlords that lived in the cities Mao took control of those lands and gave them to the peasants He killed almost 1 million landlords that resisted

Mao’s Marxist Socialism Between 1953 and 1957 Mao forced people to join collective farms They consisted of 200-300 households Mao gave women equal rights and setup free state-sponsored child care All private companies slowly were taken over by the state Mao instituted his own “Five-year Plans” They worked

Mao’s Communes Expanding the first “Five-year Plan” China’s leaders created even larger communes By 1958 the gov. created 26,000 communes They would support up to 25,000 people each What is a commune? The intended effect was the opposite Crop failures in 1958 and 1961 killed an estimated 20 million people

New Policies and Mao’s Response China had internal and external problems in the late 1950s China and the USSR started to square off over who would lead the communist movement worldwide Territory disputes and mistrust lead the USSR to discontinue aid to China

New Policies and Mao’s Response After the failure of the “Great Leap Forward” the gov. split into two camps Soon forms of capitalism started to emerge in China This upset Mao and in 1966 he launched a new campaign to strengthen communism Mao called on the youth to create their own revolutions Many high school and college students took to the streets creating the Red Guards

The Cultural Revolution The Red Guards started the uprising “Cultural Revolution” The main goal create a society where peasants and workers are equal Intellectual and artistic activity was deemed pointless and dangerous The red Guards shut down schools and colleges to stop the threat

The Cultural Revolution They would target anyone that stood against them, even their own parents Soon chaos hit the entire country and hurt all forms of production Civil War could breakout at any moment, Mao finally stated that the Cultural Revolution needed to be stopped In 1976 they disbanded the Red Guard and Zhou Enlai started to restore order