Politics and Public Policy in China

Commune mess hall and the tragedy of the commons

Ate in communal dining halls instead (Communist bureaucrats loved this because it reminded them of a war campaign - this was the language they understood)

CCP's 7th National Congress and Mao's Speech on Coalition Government

1945 CCP convened 7th National Party Congress in Yan'an • Mao: "On coalition Government" o Communist troops must be incorporated into national army. Interim stage, not fully socialist, wants it to be representative of all Chinese society. All to defeat Japanese. GMD decides to give it a try... New constitution (ROC Constitution 1946) provides for national elections in late 1946. • Basis for contemporary constitution in Taiwan. • Mao decided that CCP would not participate and communists boycotted national elections o Pretext for Chang to recommence efforts to achieve national unification by force.

Zhu De

A Chinese general, politician, revolutionary, and one of the pioneers of the Chinese Communist Party. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, in 1955 Zhu became one of the Ten Marshals of the People's Liberation Army, of which he is regarded as the founder. Zhu's close affiliation with Mao Zedong began in 1928 when under the assistance of Chen Yi and Lin Biao, Zhu defected from Fan Shisheng's protection and marched his army of 10,000 men to the Jinggang Mountains. Here Mao had formed a soviet in 1927, and Zhu began building up his army into the Red Army, consolidating and expanding the Soviet areas of control. Zhu's leadership made him a figure of immense prestige. Locals credited him with supernatural abilities. During this time Mao and Zhu became so closely connected that to the local peasant farmers they were known collectively as "Zhu Mao" After 1949 Zhu was named Commander-in-Chief of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). He was also the Vice-Chairman of the Communist Party (1956-1966) and Vice-Chairman of the People's Republic of China (1954-1959). In 1950 Zhu oversaw the PLA during the Korean War. In 1955, he was made a marshal. In 1959, he tried to protect Peng Dehuai in Lushan Conference. He just gave some mild critics to Peng. Mao Zedong wasn't satisfied with Zhu De's behavior. After the conference, Zhu De was dismissed from vice chairmen of Central Military Commission. In April 1969, during the summit of the Cultural Revolution, Zhu was dismissed from his position on the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the activity of the National People's Congress was halted. However, due to the support of Zhou Enlai, he was not harmed or imprisoned.

Li Dazhao

A Chinese intellectual who co-founded the Communist Party of China with Chen Duxiu in 1921, By many accounts, a nationalist and believed that the peasantry in China were to play an important role in China's revolution. As with many intellectuals of his time, the roots of his revolutionary thinking were actually mostly in Kropotkin's communist anarchism, but after the events of the May Fourth Movement and the failures of the anarchistic experiments of many intellectuals, like his compatriots, he turned more towards Marxism. Of course, the success of the Bolshevik Revolution was a major factor in the changing of his views. In later years, Li combined both his original nationalist and newly acquired Marxist views in order to contribute a strong political view to China.

Chen Duxiu

A Chinese revolutionary socialist, educator, philosopher, and author, who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (with Li Dazhao) in 1921, serving from 1921 to 1927 as its first General Secretary. Chen was a leading figure in the anti-imperialist Xinhai Revolution and the May Fourth Movement for Science and Democracy. Politically, he advocated the Trotskyist theory of Marxism.

Liu Shaoqi

A Chinese revolutionary, statesman, and theorist. He was Chairman of the People's Republic of China, China's head of state, from 27 April 1959 to 31 October 1968, during which he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China. He fell out of favour in the later 1960s during the Cultural Revolution because of his perceived 'right-wing' viewpoints and because Mao viewed Liu as a threat to his power. He disappeared from public life in 1968 and was labelled China's premier 'Capitalist-roader' and a traitor. He died under harsh treatment in late 1969, but he was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping's government in 1980 and given a state funeral.

Hong Xiuquan

A Hakka Chinese who led the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing Dynasty, establishing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the "Heavenly King" and self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ

The Chinese Civil War

A civil war in China fought between forces loyal to the government of the Republic of China led by the Kuomintang (KMT) and forces of the Communist Party of China (CPC). 1927-1950. The Kuomintang defeat is attributed to several factors: Corruption - Chiang wrote in his diary on June 1948 that the KMT had failed, not because of external enemies but because of rot from within.[8] Strong initial support from the U.S. diminished, and then, stopped. (Partly because of KMT corruption and anti-democratic[9] regime, and partly because of the uncertain U.S. foreign policy towards Communism between 1945 and 1950); Communist land reform policy promised poor peasants farmland from their landlords. This ensured PLA popular support. After the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II, Soviet forces turned over their captured Japanese weapons to the CPC and allowed the CPC to take control of territory in Manchuria.

Taiping Rebellion

A massive civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty. It was led by Hong Xiuquan, who announced that he had received visions in which he learned that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. About 20 million people died, mainly civilians, in one of the deadliest military conflicts in history. The rebel agenda included social reforms such as shared "property in common," equality for women, and the replacement of Confucianism, Buddhism and Chinese folk religion with their form of Christianity. In the 20th century, Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Chinese Nationalist Party, looked on the rebellion as an inspiration, and Chinese leader Mao Zedong glorified the Taiping rebels as early heroic revolutionaries against a corrupt feudal system.

Zunyi Conference and Mao

A meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in January 1935 during the Long March. This meeting involved a power struggle between the leadership of Bo Gu and Otto Braun and the opposition led by Mao Zedong. The result was that Mao left the meeting in position to take over military command and become the leader of the Communist Party. The conference was completely unacknowledged until the 1950s and still no detailed descriptions were available until the fiftieth anniversary in 1985. Mao insisted that Bo Gu and Otto Braun had made fundamental military mistakes by using tactics of pure defense rather than initiating a more mobile war. Mao's supporters gained momentum during the meeting and Zhou Enlai eventually moved to back Mao. Bo and Braun were demoted while Zhou maintained his position now sharing military command with Zhu De. Zhang Wentian took Bo's previous position while Mao once again joined the Central Committee.

Northern Expedition

A military campaign led by the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1926 to 1928. Its main objective was to unify China under the Kuomintang banner by ending the rule of local warlords. It led to the demise of the Beiyang government and to the Chinese reunification of 1928, is viewed positively in China today because it ended a period of disorder and started the formation of an effective central government.

The Long March

A military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. The Long March began Mao Zedong's ascent to power, whose leadership during the retreat gained him the support of the members of the party. The bitter struggles of the Long March, which was completed by only about one-tenth of the force that left Jiangxi, would come to represent a significant episode in the history of the Communist Party of China, and would seal the personal prestige of Mao and his supporters as the new leaders of the party in the following decades.

Peng Dehuai

A prominent Chinese Communist military leader, and China's Defense Minister, from 1954 to 1959, Peng was one of the few senior military leaders who supported Mao's suggestions to involve China directly in the 1950-1953 Korean War, Peng resisted Mao's attempts to develop a personality cult throughout the 1950s; and, when Mao's economic policies associated with the Great Leap Forward caused a nationwide famine, Peng became critical of Mao's leadership. The rivalry between Peng and Mao culminated in an open confrontation between the two at the 1959 Lushan Conference. Mao won this confrontation, labeled Peng as a leader of an "anti-Party clique", and purged Peng from all influential positions for the rest of his life.

Causes of violence during the Cultural Revolution

A struggle session was a form of public humiliation used by the Communist Party of China in the Mao Zedong era to shape public opinion and to humiliate, persecute, and/or execute political rivals and so-called class enemies. In general, the victim of a struggle session was forced to admit to various crimes before a crowd of people who would verbally and physically abuse the victim until he or she confessed. During Mao's rule, the Chinese people were forced to attend many different types of struggle sessions, sometimes consisting of 100,000 people. During the 1950s when Mao Tse-Tung's Government began the Land Reform movement, poorer peasants seized the land from their landlords, who were given the title of exploiting class (剥削階级), and an estimated 2 million landlords were swiftly executed after being subjected to a struggle session.

"Protracted Warfare"

A work comprising a series of speeches by Mao Zedong given from May 26 to June 3, 1938, at the Yenan Association for the Study of the War of Resistance Against Japan. In it, he calls for a protracted people's war as a means for small revolutionary groups to fight the power of the state. The book calls for small assaults on Japanese supply lines instead of large confrontations on the battlefield. The book was highly criticised by the Nationalist Party - it considered the book, along with Mao's theory, an excuse for avoiding fighting against Japan. The Communist Party justified that the book did not deny the effectiveness of the big battles carried out by the Nationalists, it just provided an alternative means of resistance before the Chinese army became powerful. Once the Chinese army became powerful enough, the Communist Party explained, the guerrilla warfare aspect of the strategy should be deemphasized, and conventional forces should take over the primary prosecution of the war.

Hu Yaobang

After Deng rose to power, following the death of Mao Zedong, Deng promoted Hu to a series of high political positions. Throughout the 1980s Hu pursued a series of economic and political reforms under the direction of Deng. Hu's political and economic reforms made him the enemy of several powerful Party elders, who opposed free market reforms and attempts to make China's government more transparent. When widespread student protests occurred across China in 1987, Hu's political opponents successfully blamed Hu for the disruptions, claiming that Hu's "laxness" and "bourgeois liberalization" had either led to, or worsened, the protests. Hu was forced to resign as Party General Secretary, but was allowed to retain a seat in the Politburo. Hu's position as Party General Secretary was taken by Zhao Ziyang, who continued many of Hu's economic and political reforms. A day after Hu's death, in 1989, a small-scale demonstration commemorated him and demanded that the government reassess his legacy. A week later, the day before Hu's funeral, some 100,000 students marched on Tiananmen Square, leading to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Following the government's suppression of the 1989 protests, the Chinese government censored the details of Hu's life inside mainland China, but it officially rehabilitated his image and lifted its censorship restrictions on the 90th anniversary of Hu's birth, in 2005.

Ye Jianying

After Lin Biao was overthrown in 1971, Ye's influence grew until his appointment as Defence Minister in 1975, taking Lin Biao's post. He was also a Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China since 1973. He led the conspiracy of generals and Party elders that overthrew Jiang Qing and the Gang of Four, and during the initial discussion of the planning at his residence with Li Xiannian, both communicated by writing even though they sat right next to each other because the possible threat of bugging. Ye supported Hua Guofeng, so he was confirmed as vice-chairman at the Eleventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1977 as well as appointed Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in 1978, i.e. head of State, filling a post left unoccupied for two years since Zhu De's death. As the position of defense minister was too demanding for the octogenarian Ye to handle, he resigned from it in 1980 and retained only the mostly ceremonial job of vice-chairman. Ye retired completely from the Politburo in 1985 and died a little over a year later at the age of 88.

Land Reform

After solidifying the reunification of China through his Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries, Mao enacted sweeping land reform, overthrowing the feudal landlords before seizing their large estates and dividing the land into people's communes. He proceeded to lead a nationwide political campaign known as the Great Leap Forward from 1958 through to 1961, designed to modernize and industrialize the country, however agrarian problems worsened by his policies led to widespread famine. Thought that individual farmers working on their own land would not produce surplus that could be reinvested in heavy industry. Pushed for farming cooperatives - made it easier, organizationally, to 'interact' with the farmers. Gradual state encroachment into society, boundaries between the two began to disappear.

Xi Zhongxun

After the Cultural Revolution ended, he was fully rehabilitated at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee in December 1978.[8] From 1978 to 1981, he held leadership roles in Guangdong Province, successively as the second and then first provincial secretary, governor and political commissar of the Guangdong Military Region.[8] In Guangdong, he stabilized the provincial government and began to liberalize the economy. Xi submitted a formal proposal on the creation of special zones, later renamed special economic zones and in July 1979, the party center and State Council approved the creation of the first four special economic zones.

Warlordism

After the death of Yuan Shikai, China plunged into an era of warlordism, provinces declared their independence, multiple languages, most warlords were influenced by foreign powers, for example, the French had Yunnan

Great Leap Forward

Also known as the Second Five Year Plan, an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China (CPC), reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of rapid industrialization and collectivization. Mao Zedong led the campaign based on the Theory of Productive Forces, and intensified it after being informed of the impending disaster from grain shortages. Chief changes in the lives of rural Chinese included the introduction of a mandatory process of agricultural collectivization, which was introduced incrementally. Private farming was prohibited, and those engaged in it were labeled as counter revolutionaries and persecuted. Restrictions on rural people were enforced through public struggle sessions, and social pressure, although people also experienced forced labor. The Great Leap ended in catastrophe, resulting in tens of millions of excess deaths. The years of the Great Leap Forward in fact saw economic regression, with 1958 through 1961 being the only years between 1953 and 1983 in which China's economy saw negative growth. In subsequent conferences in 1960 and 1962, the negative effects of the Great Leap Forward were studied by the CPC, and Mao was criticized in the party conferences. Moderate Party members like Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping rose to power, and Mao was marginalized within the party, leading him to initiate the Cultural Revolution in 1966. Huge efforts on the part of peasants and other workers were made to produce steel out of scrap metal. To fuel the furnaces the local environment was denuded of trees and wood taken from the doors and furniture of peasants' houses. Pots, pans, and other metal artifacts were requisitioned to supply the "scrap" for the furnaces so that the wildly optimistic production targets could be met. Many of the male agricultural workers were diverted from the harvest to help the iron production as were the workers at many factories, schools and even hospitals. Although the output consisted of low quality lumps of pig iron which was of negligible economic worth, Mao had a deep distrust of intellectuals and faith in the power of the mass mobilization of the peasants.

May Fourth Movement

An anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919, protesting the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially the Shandong Problem. These demonstrations sparked national protests and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization and away from cultural activities, and a move towards populist base rather than intellectual elites.

Zeng Guofan

An eminent Han Chinese official, military general, and devout Confucian scholar of the late Qing Dynasty in China, raised the Xiang Army to fight effectively against the Taiping Rebellion and restored the stability of Qing Dynasty along with other prominent figures, including Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, setting the scene for the era later known as the "Tongzhi Restoration", he was known for his strategic perception, administrative skill and noble personality on Confucianist practice, but also sometimes for his ruthlessness on the execution of his policies, also exemplified loyalty in an era of chaos, but is also regarded as a pre-cursor to the rise of warlordism.

Confucianism

An ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, The abolition of the examination system in 1905 marked the end of official Confucianism. The New Culture intellectuals of the early twentieth century blamed Confucianism for China's weaknesses. They searched for imported doctrines to replace it, such as the "Three Principles of the People" with the establishment of the Republic of China, and then Communism under the People's Republic of China. In the late twentieth century, Confucianism was credited with the rise of the East Asian economy and revived both in the People's Republic and abroad.

People's communes

An experimental commune was established at Chayashan in Henan in April 1958. Here for the first time private plots were entirely abolished and communal kitchens were introduced. At the Politburo meetings in August 1958, it was decided that these people's communes would become the new form of economic and political organization throughout rural China. By the end of the year approximately 25,000 communes had been set up, with an average of 5,000 households each. The communes were relatively self-sufficient co-operatives where wages and money were replaced by work points. Based on his fieldwork, Ralph A. Thaxton Jr. describes the people's communes as a form of "apartheid system" for Chinese farm households. The commune system was aimed at maximizing production for provisioning the cities and constructing offices, factories, schools, and social insurance systems for urban-dwelling workers, cadres and officials. Citizens in rural areas who criticized the system were labeled "dangerous." Escape was also difficult or impossible, and those who attempted were subjected to "party-orchestrated public struggle," which further jeopardized their survival.[23] Besides agriculture, communes also incorporated some light industry and construction projects.

Anhui and rural reform

Anhui was one of the regions hit hardest by the Great Leap Forward.

The role of the PLA in the Cultural Revolution

Between 1966 and 1968, China was isolated internationally, having declared its enmity towards both the Soviet Union and the United States. The friction with the Soviet Union intensified after border clashes on the Ussuri River in March 1969 as the Chinese leadership prepared for all-out war.[48] In October, senior leaders were evacuated from Beijing.[48] Amidst the tension, Lin Biao issued what appeared to be an executive order to prepare for war to the PLA's eleven Military Regions on October 18 without passing through Mao. This drew the ire of the Chairman, who saw it as evidence that his authority was prematurely usurped by his declared successor.[48] The prospect of war elevated the PLA to greater prominence in domestic politics, increasing the stature of Lin Biao at the expense of Mao.[49] There is some evidence to suggest that Mao was pushed to seek closer relations with the United States as a means to avoid PLA dominance in domestic affairs that would result from a military confrontation with the Soviet Union.

Japanese Invasion and Implications

Chiang Kai Shek, under duress (and house arrest), agrees to a Second United Front, enables Mao to keep to people on his side by painting the Nationalists as evil and out of touch, "Brothers don't fight brothers," allows Mao to carry out first major ideological movement in Yan'an, because the Nationalists were occupied with beating back the Japanese.

Chiang Kai-Shek

Chiang was an influential member of the Kuomintang (KMT), or Nationalist Party, and was a close ally of Sun Yat-sen.Chiang led China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, during which the Nationalist government's power severely weakened, but his prominence grew. Unlike Sun Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek was socially conservative, promoting traditional Chinese culture in the New Life Movement and rejecting western democracy and the nationalist democratic socialism that Sun Yat-sen and some other members of the KMT embraced in favor of a nationalist authoritarian government. Chiang's predecessor, Sun Yat-sen, was well-liked and respected by the Communists, but after Sun's death Chiang was not able to maintain good relations with the Communist Party of China (CPC). A major split between the Nationalists and Communists occurred in 1927; and, under Chiang's leadership, the Nationalists fought a nation-wide civil war against the Communists. After Japan invaded China in 1937, Chiang agreed to a temporary truce with the CPC. Despite some early cooperative military successes against Japan, by the time that the Japanese surrendered in 1945 neither the CPC nor the KMT trusted each other or were actively cooperating. After American-sponsored attempts to negotiate a coalition government failed in 1946, the Chinese Civil War resumed. The CPC defeated the Nationalists in 1949, forcing Chiang's government to retreat to Taiwan, where Chiang imposed martial law and persecuted people critical of his rule in a period known as the "White Terror". After evacuating to Taiwan, Chiang's government continued to declare its intention to retake mainland China. Chiang ruled the island securely as President of the Republic of China and General of the Kuomintang until his death in 1975. He ruled mainland China for 22 years, and Taiwan for 26 years.

The Xi'an Incident

December 1936, an important turning point in Chinese modern history, took place in the city of Xi'an during the Chinese Civil War between the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) and the insurgent Chinese Communist Party and just before the Second Sino-Japanese War. On 12 December 1936, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, the leader of the Kuomintang was arrested by Marshal Zhang Xueliang, a former warlord of Manchuria, and Commander of the North Eastern Army who had fought against the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and subsequent expansion into Inner Mongolia by the Japanese and troops of the puppet state of Manchukuo that had been created in Manchuria. The incident led to a truce between the Nationalists and the Communists so as to form a united front against the threat posed by Japan. The Xian Incident is seen as turning point for the Chinese Communist Party, as before the incident the party itself was facing a new round of assaults by Kuomintang forces. Chinese nationalism had been roused by the Japanese invasion, but potential Chinese resistance was strengthened by Xian Incident leading to the United Front of Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party. Ultimately it would benefit the Chinese Communists once the Chinese Civil War revived after the defeat of Japan in 1945.

Third Plenum of the 11th Central Committee

Deng comes back! First push to reform national economic structure.

Democracy Wall Movement

Deng supports it, fuels the movement, allows population to express their anger and sorrow about the Cultural Revolution, began to emerge in cities other than Beijing, Deng eventually puts an end to it, conducts a show trial and orders a 15-year sentence for one man who dared to say that Deng was becoming a dictator

The civil service examination

Developed in the 7th century through 10th century, essays on issues of Confucianism, 3 days long, Impression of meritocracy, Counterpoint to aristocracy, strengthened bureaucracy by diminishing cronyism, limited open system, as not many families could afford the kind of education that was needed, political, cultural and social unity among elites, gave hope to potential elites, removed incentive to form competing system

Bo Yibo

During Bo's career he served as an alternate member and then member of the Chinese Politburo, deputy prime minister, chairman of State Economic Commission, and vice-chairman of the Central Advisory Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Bo was purged in 1966 by the Mao Zedong-backed Gang of Four, but he was returned to power by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, after Mao's death. Bo was one of a select group of powerful veterans centred around Deng who were informally known as the "Eight Immortals" for their political longevity and for the vast influence they commanded during the 1980s and 1990s. After returning to power Bo supported economic, but not political, efforts to liberalize China.

Twelve Articles

Emergency letter by Zhou Enlai (instructed by Mao), by November 3, 1960, to party leaders at all levels, attacked the "communist wind," called for peasants to be given small plots of land, provincial leaders should continue mess hall system, while working to eradicate rightism, gave the blame to these lower level guys

2nd United Front

In light of the imminent threat of a japanese invasion, Mao wrote to Chiang that he advocated an end to the civil war, in order to concentrate on the common enemy. However, Chiang was convinced of the necessity of a Second United Front only after being kidnapped by his General in Manchuria. The General urged that a unified force was the only way to oust the japanese. In the incident that became known as the Xian Incident, Chiang was only released on the condition that he would support a unified stance against the japanese.

The 1st Five Year Plan and Central Planning

Following the consolidation of power, Mao launched the First Five-Year Plan (1953-58). The plan aimed to end Chinese dependence upon agriculture in order to become a world power. With the Soviet Union's assistance, new industrial plants were built and agricultural production eventually fell to a point where industry was beginning to produce enough capital that China no longer needed the USSR's support. The success of the First-Five Year Plan was to encourage Mao to instigate the Second Five-Year Plan, the Great Leap Forward, in 1958. Mao also launched a phase of rapid collectivization. The CPC introduced price controls as well as a Chinese character simplification aimed at increasing literacy. Large-scale industrialization projects were also undertaken. Soviets helped Chinese built heavy industry - iron, steel Necessitated a bureaucracy that could manage this development - Central Planning Central Planning strangles innovation! Human capital necessary • Engineers, managers (i.e. not the people who fought in a guerrilla war and received little formal education...) • Even Mao had no idea what he was talking about... Challenge for central planning was shortage of surplus to put back towards investment. • Mostly agrarian society • Mao turned to farmers because that was the only place to find surplus Most successful thing Communist leaders did was fight inflation. • Grain traders hoarded supplies, wanted to profit from inflation • Sent the army in to seize the grain, kept prices under control State established control over marketing [macro supply?] • Allowed them to exert control over prices • Continues to maintain strategic reserves of pork, grain, etc. • Once bureaucracies accumulate power, there is a tendency to seek total control and a reluctance to surrender any authority

Republic of China

Founded in 1912 and its government was located on mainland China until 1949, when it lost the Chinese Civil War and withdrew to Taiwan. As an era of mainland Chinese history, the republic was preceded by the Qing Dynasty and followed by the People's Republic of China.

The ROC Constitution and National Election in 1946

GMD decides to give it a try... New constitution (ROC Constitution 1946) provides for national elections in late 1946. • Basis for contemporary constitution in Taiwan. • Mao decided that CCP would not participate and communists boycotted national elections o Pretext for Chang to recommence efforts to achieve national unification by force. Drafted by the Kuomintang (KMT) as part of its third stage of national development (i.e., representative democracy), it established a centralized Republic with five branches of government. Though the Constitution was intended for the whole of China, it was neither extensively nor effectively implemented as the KMT was already fully embroiled in a civil war with the Communist Party of China by the time of its promulgation.

Otto Braun (Li De)

His most significant role was as a Comintern agent sent to China in 1934, to advise the Communist Party of China (CPC) on military strategy during the Chinese Civil War. After the Zunyi Conference, Other military wing leaders agreed with Mao, so Braun and Bo Gu were removed as the military commanders, with Mao taking Braun's position. After this conference, the Comintern was pushed aside, and "Native Communists" took control of the CPC. Still, Braun stayed in China until 1939 and participated in the Long March along with the CPC. No longer holding a military command, he was mainly involved in advisory work and some teaching of tactics.

1st United Front and White Terror in 1927

In the early 1920s, the greatest threat facing China, aside from internal fighting among the warlords, was Japanese aggression. In order to have the strength to rebuff a Japanese invasion, China had to be united in her desire to stem the Japanese tide. To achieve this end, two ideologically different parties - the newly founded CCP and the KuoMinTang (KMT) joined forces. They formed their First United Front with their forces making up the National Revolutionary Army (NRA). In 1926, the NRA launched the Northern Expedition to subdue the remaining warlords. The campaign was a success. Towards the end of the Northern Expedition, as Chiang's forces were poised to capture Shanghai, communist workers inside the city who had been clandestinely organized by Communist Party leaders seized the city. When Chiang's forces entered the city his desire to rid his ranks of the Communists was made abundantly clear. Thousands of communists were massacred, purging the majority of the original communist party founders.

Wu Han

In November 1965, at the start of the Cultural Revolution, he came under severe attack for his play about an upright Ming dynasty official. He committed suicide in prison in 1969. Wu wrote a series of articles and a play originally published in 1951 and revised many times, on the life of Hai Rui, a Ming dynasty official. In 1960 Wu's Beijing opera, Hai Rui Dismissed from Office became a great success. In November 1965 Yao Wenyuan, later one of the Gang of Four, fired one of the opening shots of the Cultural Revolution when he attacked Wu and his play on the grounds that Hai Rui was metaphorically equated with Peng Dehuai, and therefore Mao himself with the un-approachable Ming emperor. Wu admitted ideological mistakes but denied that his motives were counter-revolutionary. Over the next months the controversy grew, and Wu was finally jailed. Although there were reports that Wu Han committed suicide while in prison in 1969, fellow prisoners later reported that he was beaten in prison about a year before he died. It is also thought his tuberculosis may have recurred so it cannot be established how he died.

The May 15 Circular

In early 1966, the Politburo issued six Central Documents regarding the dismissal of Peng, Luo, Lu and Yang in which they declared that the "Great Cultural Revolution" had been launched. One of these documents, released on May 16, was prepared with Mao's personal supervision and was particularly accusing:[19] Those representatives of the bourgeoisie who have sneaked into the Party, the government, the army, and various spheres of culture are a bunch of counter-revolutionary revisionists. Once conditions are ripe, they will seize political power and turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. Some of them we have already seen through; others we have not. Some are still trusted by us and are being trained as our successors, persons like Khruschev for example, who are still nestling beside us. Party committees at all levels must pay full attention to this matter.[20] This text, known as the "May 16 Notification," summarized Mao's ideological justification for the Cultural Revolution.[21] Effectively it implied that there are enemies of the Communist cause within the Party itself: class enemies who "wave the red flag to oppose the red flag."[22] The only way to identify these people was through "the telescope and microscope of Mao Zedong Thought."[22] The party leadership was relatively united in approving the general direction of Mao's agenda, but the charges against esteemed party leaders like Peng Zhen rang alarm bells in China's intellectual community and among the eight non-Communist parties.

Daqing and Dazhai Models

In industry, learn from Daqing. In agriculture, learn from Dazhai. Daqing model: discovery of oil around 1959 • Necessitated more openness because it takes technology to extract oil from the ground Dazhai model: as a national agricultural model for all the farmers across the country. A socialist agricultural production achieved through the application of Mao Zedong Thought. They not only worked during the day, but at night as well, not only in the warm season, but in the depth of winter as well - a dramatic deviation from their age-old practice. In many places, the farmers literally - and blindly - moved hills (sometimes proclaimed as "mountains"), built reservoirs, tunnels, canals, and so on. As mental motivation, loud speakers were installed at work sites to broadcast music and songs and films were shown at night on the scene while the farmers took a break. Unfortunately, many of these large-scale projects were proved utterly useless later.

Members of the 8th CC Political Bureau Standing Committee (1956)

Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping, Lin Bao

Self-reliance

Mao emphasizing "superstructure," wanted to transform Chinese society into a socialist society. After the Great Leap, central government left provinces, counties, cities to fend for themselves (self-reliance). Pragmatic necessity: China refused to go abroad for help, still exporting grain to the Soviet Union. Tried to keep people out of the cities, and once they were in the countryside they were on their own.

The Korean War and Implications

Mao reluctant to send troops into Korea. War started really badly. Not comfortable with American forces so close to China (good idea in retrospect). Oldest son died. One of the greatest what-if's of modern history? The United States placed a trade embargo on the People's Republic as a result of its involvement in the Korean War, lasting until Richard Nixon decided that developing relations with the PRC would be useful in dealing with the Soviet Union. Diverted attention from Taiwan. Chilling in Taiwan.

The Needham Puzzle

Success in Civil Service Exam often led to Country Magistrate position o Revenue for system came from land o Needed support of gentry o Often failed exams but well-regarded in locality Elvin - China had particular pattern of social arrangements of social inheritances that were not conducive to technological change. o In Europe, the sons that didn't inherit the estate went into business, fueled investments into the South Seas o In China: wealth divided equally among children , continuous division of family property, leads to less surplus for significant investments into new technologies and new ventures

Jinggang Mountains

Known as the birthplace of the Chinese Red Army, predecessor of the People's Liberation Army) and the "cradle of the Chinese revolution". After the Kuomintang (KMT) turned against the Communist Party during the April 12 Incident, the Communists either went underground or fled to the countryside. Following the unsuccessful Autumn Harvest Uprising in Changsha, Mao Zedong led his 1,000 remaining men here, setting up his first peasant soviet.

Li Lisan and Wang Ming

Li (an early leader of the Chinese communists, and the top leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1928 to 1930, member of the Politburo, and later a member of the Central Committee). Wang (Replaced Li, ordered by the Comintern).

Deng Zihui

Member of the 9th CPC, Central Committee from 1969-1973, Vice-Chairman of the 4th CPPCC, National Committee from 1964-1978, Member of the 8th CPC, Central Committee from 1956-1969

Empress Dowager

Of the Manchu Yehenara clan, was a powerful and charismatic woman who unofficially but effectively controlled the Manchu Qing Dynasty in China for 47 years, from 1861 to her death in 1908. Historians both in China and abroad have generally portrayed her as a despot and villain responsible for the fall of the Dynasty, while others have suggested that her opponents among the reformers succeeded in making her a scapegoat for problems beyond her control, that she stepped in to prevent disorder, that she was no more ruthless than other rulers, and that she was even an effective if reluctant reformer in the last years of her life.

Arrest of the Gang of Four

One month after Mao's death, orchestrated by Wang Dongxing, all got life imprisonment.

The system of agricultural collectives

People's communes, production brigade and production team

Special Economic Zones

Shenzhen, for example. During the 1980s, the PRC passed several stages, ranging from the establishment of special economic zones and open coastal cities and areas, and designating open inland and coastal economic and technology development zones.

Yan'an

Site of Mao's first major ideological movement, the Rectification Campaign of 1941-1944.

Four Cardinal Principles

Spring 1979 Four Cardinal Principles: 1. China hs to follow socialist road 2. China has to adhere to dictatorship of the proletariat and 3. Leadership of the Communist party - Key 4. Also have to follow Marxism, Leninism and Mao Zedong's thought

Bandwagon polity v. Balance of power polity

States choose to balance for two reasons. First, they place their survival at risk if they fail to curb a potential hegemon before it becomes too strong; to ally with the dominant power means placing one's trust in its continued benevolence. Secondly, joining the weaker side increases the likelihood that the new member will be influential within the alliance. States choose to bandwagon because it may be a form of appeasement as the bandwagoner may hope to avoid an attack by diverting it elsewhere—a defensive reason—or because it may align with the dominant side in wartime to share the spoils of victory—an offensive reason. Basically, join them or fight them.

Futian Incident

The December 1930 purge of a battalion of the Jiangxi-Fujian Soviet's "Red Army" at Futian. The Futian battalion's leaders had mutinied against Mao Zedong's purge of the Jiangxi Action Committee, ordered on the pretext of its alleged connection to the Anti-Bolshevik League and ties to Trotskyism. In September 1956, Mao admitted that the purges during the Anti-Bolshevik League incident, as well as the Futian incident, were a mistake, in which the wrong people were killed.

Zhou Enlai

The first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou served under Mao Zedong and was instrumental in consolidating the control of the Communist Party's rise to power, forming foreign policy, and developing the Chinese economy. Largely due to his expertise, Zhou was able to survive the purges of other top officials during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guards' damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Revolution's later stages.

GMD, CCP, and Comintern Relationship

The first United Front came about because the Comintern forced the GMD into letting some CCP members into the party.

Rectification Campaign of 1941-44

The first ideological mass movement initiated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), going from 1942 to 1944. The movement took place at the communist base at Yan'an, a remote and isolated mountainous area in northern Shaanxi, after the communists' Long March. Though it was during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the CCP was experiencing a time of relative peace when they could focus on internal affairs. More than 10,000 were killed in the "rectification" process, as the Party made efforts to attack intellectuals and replace the culture of the May Fourth Movement with that of Communist culture. These included the consolidation of Mao's paramount role within the CCP, especially from 1942 to 1944, and the adoption of a party constitution that endorsed Marxist-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought as guiding ideologies. This move formalized Mao's deviation from the Moscow party line and the importance of Mao's major adaptations of communism to the conditions of China.

The 913 Incident

The fleeing and death of Lin Biao, Lin died when a plane carrying him and several members of his family crashed in Mongolia on September 13, 1971, allegedly after attempting to assassinate Mao and defect to the Soviet Union. Following Lin's death, there has been widespread skepticism in the West concerning the official Chinese explanation, but forensic evidence conducted by Russia (which recovered the bodies following the crash) has confirmed that Lin was among those who died in the crash.

New Cultural Movement

The mid 1910s and 1920s, sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic, founded in 1912 to address China's problems, began to lead a revolt against Confucianism, called for the creation of a new Chinese culture based on global and western standards, especially democracy and science. Included call for vernacular literature, an end to the patriarchal family in favor of individual freedom and women's liberation, view that China as a nation among nations, not as a uniquely Confucian culture, the re-examination of Confucian texts and ancient classics using modern textual and critical methods, known as the Doubting Antiquity School, democratic and egalitarian values, an orientation to the future rather than the past.

Mao Zedong

The founding father of the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949, he governed the country as Chairman of the Communist Party of China until his death. In this position he converted China into a single-party socialist state, with industry and business being nationalized under state ownership and socialist reforms implemented in all areas of society. Politically a Marxist-Leninist, his theoretical contribution to the ideology along with his military strategies and brand of policies are collectively known as Maoism.A deeply controversial figure, Mao is regarded as one of the most important individuals in modern world history.[1] Supporters praise him for modernizing China and building it into a world power, through promoting the status of women, improving education and health care, providing universal housing and raising life expectancy.[2][3] In addition, China's population almost doubled during the period of Mao's leadership,[4] from around 550 to over 900 million.[3] As a result, Mao is still officially held in high regard by many Chinese as a great political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Maoists furthermore promote his role as a theorist, statesman, poet, and visionary, who has inspired revolutionary movements across the globe.[5] In contrast, critics have labeled him a dictator whose administration oversaw systematic human rights abuses, and whose rule is estimated to have caused the deaths of between 40-70 million people through starvation and executions.

Motives for Cultural Revolution

The main reason Mao gave in China for the Cultural Revolution was that the government and the CCP were becoming too remote from the people. He criticised the increase in the numbers of experts and specialists in the economy and the party. He also complained that in the Chinese education system preference was given to the children of urban families and to members of the party hierarchy. Mao stated that this was creating a privileged middle class in China. It was true that the policies of Liu and Deng were encouraging the development of a body of intellectuals, such as scientists and technologists, and that these people were increasingly influential in the Chinese economy and society. However, they were also allowing China to develop much more rapidly than it had under Mao in the 1950s. Mao's real reason for his criticisms was simply that he wanted to regain his dominant position in the Party and undermine the positions of Liu and Deng. Since 1959 he had had much less influence over policy, the Cultural Revolution was, therefore, an attempt to appeal to the mass of Chinese people over the heads of the Party leadership. The most effective way of doing this was to undermine the positions and policies of Liu and Deng. Mao accused Liu and Deng of were betraying the revolution from within. He also stated his belief in permanent revolution. This meant that there had to a continuous process of change in which authority was continually challenged and no one group or class was allowed to take control. Mao was also heavily influenced by his wife Jiang Qing. She took the ideas of Mao even further than he did and wanted to destroy all Chinese traditional culture and replace it with purely socialist ideas. Consequently the Cultural Revolution took the form of attacks on anything that was 'old'. On the other hand anything that was 'new' was accepted, almost without criticism.

Qin and The First Unification of China

United in 221 BC. Adopted standardized measurements, units, and language. Introduced technologies, specifically in communication, that allowed the emperor to integrate the country. Signalled the end of the feudal age, too brutal to sustain itself.

On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People

There are at least two basic kinds of contradiction: the antagonistic contradictions which exist between communist countries and their capitalist neighbors and between the people and the enemies of the people, and the contradictions among the people themselves, people unconvinced of China's new path, which should be dealt with in a democratic and non-antagonistic fashion.

"The New Sixty Articles"

Third Plenum Documents, advocated quotas in very remote regions, signaled a departure from the agarian radicalism of Mao, wanted to go back to the policies of the early 1960s

Magistrates and gentries

Those who retired returned to their own towns, purchased land, allowed them to continue to invest in education for their relatives, allowed them to continue to be successful. Success in Civil Service Exam often led to Country Magistrate position o Revenue for system came from land o Needed support of gentry o Often failed exams but well-regarded in locality

Central Advisory Commission

True seat of power, had the clout to overthrow Chairman, seat of Deng Xiaoping, Bo Yibo, etc.

Normalization of the US-China Relations

United against USSR as a common enemy, US officially abandons ROC, Congress passes a veto-disabled resolution which says that the US is obligated to come to Taiwan's rescue if attacked, but formally acknowledges PRC.

Wang Dongxing

Wang Dongxing was instrumental in the coup d'état against the Gang of Four immediately after Mao's death. He was prominent under Hua Guofeng, being one of the five members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China, a committee whose membership varies between 5 and 9 and includes the top leadership of the Communist Party of China. He lost power as Deng Xiaoping rose to supreme power and was deprived of all his posts in the early 1980s. As a gesture both to his role in the coup d'etat and to signal that political foes would no longer be persecuted, Wang was elected to the very last alternate position of the CPC Central Committee at the 1982 12th National Party Congress.

Socialist Education Campaign

Was a movement launched by Mao Zedong in 1963 in the People's Republic of China. Mao sought to remove what he believed to be "reactionary" elements within the bureaucracy of the Communist Party of China, saying that "governance is also a process of socialist education." The goal of the movement was to cleanse politics, economy, organization, and ideology (the four cleanups). It was to last until 1966. What this movement entailed was that intellectuals were sent to the countryside to be re-educated by peasants. They still attended school, but also worked in factories and with peasants, led by Liu Shaoqi

Household Contracting

Was a practice in the People's Republic of China, first adopted in agriculture in 1981 and later extended to other sectors of the economy, by which local managers are held responsible for the profits and losses of an enterprise. This system partially supplanted the egalitarian distribution method, whereby the state assumed all profits and losses. In traditional Maoist organization of the rural economy and that of other collectivised programs, farmers are given by the government a quota of goods to produce. They receive compensation for meeting the quota. Going beyond the quota rarely produced a sizeable economic reward. In the early 1980s peasants were given drastically reduced quotas. What food they grew beyond the quota was sold in the free market at unregulated prices. This system became an instant success[citation needed], quickly causing one of the largest increases in standard-of-living for such a large number of people in such a short time. This system maintained quotas, and thus the element of socialist societies termed in China the " iron rice-bowl" (in which the state ensured food and employment).

Yuan Shikai

Was an important Chinese general and politician, famous for his influence during the late Qing Dynasty, his role in the events leading up to the abdication of the last Qing Emperor of China, his autocratic rule as the second President of the Republic of China (following Sun Yatsen), and his short-lived attempt to revive the Chinese monarchy, with himself as the "Great Emperor of China."

Guomindong

Was one of the dominant parties of the early Republic of China, from 1912 onwards, and remains one of the main political parties in modern Taiwan. Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, advocated by Sun Yat-sen.

Chen Yun

Was one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1980s and 90's, He was one of the Big Five in Chinese Civil War along with Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and Zhu De and considered to be one of the Eight Elders of Communist Party of China, Chen laid the basis for Deng's "reform and opening" program. A key feature of the reform was to use the market to allocate resources, within the scope of an overall plan. The reforms of the early 1980s were, in effect, the implementation, finally, of the program Chen had outlined in the mid-1950s. Chen called this the "birdcage economy". According to Chen, "the cage is the plan, and it may be large or small. But within the cage the bird [the economy] is free to fly as he wishes."

The Hunan Report

When Mao Zedong's "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" was published in 1927, Mao was relatively unknown, and peasants played no role in the revolution being planned by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Mao wrote the "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" to persuade the party leadership to redirect the revolution to the countryside or, at the very least, to give the peasantry a larger role in the revolution.

Radical and conservative factions of Red Guards

Youth from families with party-members and of revolutionary origin joined conservative factions. These factions focused on the socio-political status quo, keeping within their localities and working to challenge existing distributions of power and privilege.[19] Those from the countryside and without ties to the Chinese Communist Party often joined radical groups who sought to change and uproot local government leadership. The primary goal of the radicals was to restructure existing systems to benefit those of poorer backgrounds, as supposed capitalist roaders were corrupting the Socialist agenda. Primarily influenced by travel and a freer exchange of ideas from different regions of China, more joined the radical, rebel factions of the Red Guards by the second half of the Cultural Revolution.

Peng Zhen

a leading member of the Communist Party of China. He led the party organization in Beijing following the victory of the Communists in the Chinese Civil War in 1949, but was purged during the Cultural Revolution for opposing Mao's views on the role of literature in relation to the state. He was rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping in 1982 along with other 'wrongly accused' officials, and became the inaugural head of the CPC Central Political and Legislative Committee. Peng was a member of the CPC Central Committee starting from 1944 as well as member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. He also held the positions of First Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee, and Mayor of Beijing (1951). He was Politburo member from 1956 to 1966. Peng was appointed head of the Five Man Group in charge of preparing the cultural revolution, but he fell out of favor with Mao Zedong in the April 1966 when he attacked Mao's belief that all literature should support the state. He was accused of being an associate to Wu Han's counter-revolutionary clique and deposed at a May conference, along with Lu Dingyi, Luo Ruiqing and Yang Shangkun, at the very start of the Cultural Revolution. Peng survived to be rehabilitated under Deng Xiaoping. He subsequently became Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee (1980), a post he already held from late 1950s in the capacity of leader of a Central Politics and Law Leading Group. As Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Sixth National People's Congress (1983), he sought to increase the NPC's power. Peng retired from his leading political positions in 1988. He is considered one of the Eight Immortals of the Communist Party of China.

Lin Biao

a major Chinese Communist military leader who was pivotal in the communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeastern China. Lin abstained from taking an active role in politics after the civil war, but became instrumental in creating the foundations for Mao Zedong's cult of personality in the early 1960s. Lin was rewarded for his service to Mao by being named Mao's designated successor during the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 until his death. Lin died in September 1971 when his plane crashed in Mongolia, following what appeared to be a failed coup to oust Mao. Because little inside information is available to the public on this "Lin Biao incident", the exact events preceding Lin's death have been a source of speculation among China scholars ever since. Following Lin's death, he was officially condemned as a traitor by the Communist Party of China. He and Jiang Qing are still considered to be the two "major Counter-revolutionary cliques" blamed for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution.

The Third Front

a massive Chinese development of industry in its south-western interior, where it would be strategically secure in the event of a war, Mao Zedong and his generals envisaged three line of defense (coastal, central, and western), and they decided in 1964 on a massive construction of military-industrial complexes in westen China, the third line of defense, popularly translated as the "third front" To minimize the vulnerability of the third-front industries to air attack, Lin Biao, who was Defense Minister and Mao's designated successor, instructed that these projects be located "in mountains, in dispersion, and in caves". The area of the Third Front is the hardest part of China for any invading foreign power to access. During the Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937-45, it remained unconquered. The Kuomintang (at that time in alliance with the Chinese Communists based at Yan'an) made Chongqing their capital. Some Chinese industry was also moved there from the cities. So the 'Third Front' strategy had precedents, though it was immediate politics that was the main cause

Educated youths (Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside)

a policy instituted in the People's Republic of China in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result of the anti-bourgeois thinking prevalent during the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong declared certain privileged urban youth would be sent to mountainous areas or farming villages in order to learn from the workers and farmers there. Mao's policy differed from Liu Shaoqi's early 1960s sending-down policy in its political context. Liu Shaoqi instituted the first sending-down policy to redistribute excess urban population following the Great Chinese Famine and the Great Leap Forward. Mao's use of the policy sent down the Red Guards who had risen up at his beck and call, throwing China into chaos. Mao essentially used the "up to the mountains and down to the villages" to quell unrest and remove the embarrassment of the early Cultural Revolution from sight.[citation needed] Many fresh high school graduates, who became known as the Rusticated Youth of China, were forced out of the cities and effectively exiled to remote areas of China. Some commentators consider these people, many of whom lost the opportunity to attend university, China's "lost generation."

Natural Resources Commission

a powerful organ of the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China that existed from 1932 to 1952 and was responsible for industrial development and the management of public enterprises. It was staffed entirely by technocrats who reported directly to the Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. The significance of the National Resources Commission stemmed from the leading role it played in industrial development during the two decades of Kuomintang "tutelage" over China. The National Resources Commission was secretly formed as the National Defense Planning Commission (國防設計委員會) in 1932 in Nanjing with a staff of fifty technical experts to plan industrial mobilization in preparation for the Second Sino-Japanese War. The immediate catalyst for the formation of the National Defense Planning Commission was the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Its immediate goal was to design and implement defense-related industries to make China self-sufficient in impeding war with Japan. The National Defense Planning Commission was renamed the National Resources Commission in 1935 to reflect its role beyond defense-related industries. It soon grew into a large bureaucracy that was involved in managing a large state-owned industrial sector and in coordinating foreign trade. By 1947, it had a staff of 33,000 who supervised 230,000 workers, mostly in public enterprises. Due mainly to the nationalization major industries by the Nationalist Government, the NRC would gain control of 70% of Chinese industry. At the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the staff of the NRC was split. A portion of the NRC stayed in mainland China to work under the new People's Republic of China, while the rest fled to Taiwan with the KMT. A number of former NRC engineers rose to top government posts in Taiwan, including one premier (Sun Yun-suan) and eight ministers of economic affairs. In contrast, many NRC leaders who stayed behind in mainland China later found themselves persecuted during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution for having been a part of the old order.

Great Leap Famine

between the years 1958 and 1961 characterized by widespread famine. Drought, poor weather, and the policies of the Communist Party of China contributed to the famine, although the relative weights of the contributions are disputed due to the Great Leap Forward.Until the early 1980s, the Chinese government's stance, reflected by the name "Three Years of Natural Disasters", was that the famine was largely a result of a series of natural disasters compounded by several planning errors. Some researchers outside China argue that massive institutional and policy changes which accompanied the Great Leap Forward were the key factors in the famine, or at least worsened nature-induced disasters.Since the 1980s there has been greater official Chinese recognition of the importance of policy mistakes in causing the disaster, claiming that the disaster was 30% due to natural causes and 70% by mismanagement.According to the China Statistical Yearbook (1984), crop production decreased from 200 million tons (1958) to 143.5 million tons (1960). Due to lack of food and incentive to marry at that point in time, the population was about 658,590,000 in 1961, about 13,480,000 less than the population of 1959. Birth rate decreased from 2.922% (1958) to 2.086% (1960) and death rate increased from 1.198% (1958) to 2.543% (1960), while the average numbers for 1962-1965 are about 4% and 1%, respectively.

Criticize Lin and Confucius Campaign

political propaganda campaign started by Mao Zedong and his wife, Jiang Qing, the leader of the Gang of Four. It lasted from 1973 until the end of the Cultural Revolution, in 1976. The campaign produced detailed Maoist interpretations of Chinese history, and was used as a tool by the Gang of Four to attack their enemies. The campaign continued in several phases, beginning as an academic attempt to interpret Chinese history according to Mao's political theories. In 1974 the campaign was joined with another, pre-existent campaign to attack Lin Biao, who had allegedly attempted to assassinate Mao in a failed coup before his death in 1971. In early 1975 the campaign was modified to indirectly attack China's Premier, Zhou Enlai, and other senior Chinese leaders. In Mid 1975 the Gang of Four introduced debate on The Water Margin as a tool to attack their enemies. The campaign only ended in 1976, when the Gang of Four were arrested, ending the Cultural Revolution. The first phase of the campaign began after the 1st Plenary Session of the 10th CCP Central Committee, in 1973. Following this session, Mao encouraged public discussions focused on criticizing Confucius and Confucianism, and on interpreting aspects of historical Chinese society within a Maoist theoretical perspective. These initial debates focused on interpreting the issues of slavery, feudalism, and the relationship between Confucianism and Legalism according to the social theories published by Mao and Karl Marx.[1] The second phase of the campaign began in 1974, when the attacks on Confucius merged with a pre-existent campaign to criticize Lin Biao. During this phase, Mao's image was identified with that of China's first emperor, Qin Shihuang (an anti-Confucian Legalist). Hyperbolic praise was given to Qin based on his popular association with Mao.[2] The third phase began after Zhou Enlai reorganized the State Council during the 4th National People's Congress, in January 1975. At the People's Congress, Zhou Enlai brought many cadres back to work who had been purged during the 1966-1969 phase of the Cultural Revolution. Because they had supported the purging of many career Communist Party veterans during the early Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four opposed Zhou's efforts, and began to use the campaign to subtly criticize Zhou and his policies.[3] The fourth and final phase of the campaign coincided with Zhou's illness and hospitalization, beginning in the summer of 1975. Deng Xiaoping then took many of Zhou's responsibilities, acting as premier in Zhou's absence until Deng was again purged, in 1976. During this phase, the Gang of Four introduced public debates on The Water Margin as a tool to criticize Zhou and their other enemies, notably Deng. After Mao died, the Gang of Four also directed the campaign against Hua Guofeng, who was named Mao's successor. The campaign ended with Hua's arrest of the Gang of Four, in October 1976.

Hua Guofeng

was Mao Zedong's designated successor as the paramount leader of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China. In 6 October 1976, Hua brought the Cultural Revolution to an end and ousted the Gang of Four from political power by staging their arrests in Beijing. He attempted moderate reforms and reversing some of the excesses of Cultural Revolution-era policies. However, because of his insistence on continuing the Maoist line, he was himself outmaneuvered in December 1978 by Deng Xiaoping, a pragmatic reformer, who forced Hua into early retirement. As Hua faded into political obscurity, he continued to insist on the correctness of Maoist principles. He is remembered as a largely benign transitional figure in modern Chinese political history.

Deng Xiaoping

was a politician and reformist leader of the Communist Party of China who led China towards a market economy. While Deng never held office as the head of state, head of government or General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (the highest position in Communist China), he nonetheless served as the "paramount leader" of the People's Republic of China from 1978 to 1992. As the core of the second generation leaders Deng shared his power with the two most powerful men after him: Li Xiannian and Chen Yun. Deng was instrumental in China's economic reconstruction following the Great Leap Forward in the early 1960s. His economic policies, however, were at odds with the political ideologies of Chairman Mao Zedong. As a result, he was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution, but regained prominence in 1978 by outmaneuvering Mao's chosen successor, Hua Guofeng. Inheriting a country fraught with social and institutional woes resulting from the Cultural Revolution and other mass political movements of the Mao era, Deng became the core of the "second generation" of Chinese leadership. He is considered "the architect" of a new brand of socialist thinking, having developed Socialism with Chinese characteristics and led Chinese economic reform through a synthesis of theories that became known as the "socialist market economy". Deng opened China to foreign investment, the global market and limited private competition. He is generally credited with developing China into one of the fastest growing economies in the world for over 30 years and raising the standard of living of hundreds of millions of Chinese.

Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957

was a reaction against the Hundred Flowers Campaign which had promoted pluralism of expression and criticism of the government, even though initiation of both campaigns was controlled by Chairman Mao and they were integrally connected. Going perhaps as far back as the Long March there had been resentment against "rightists" inside the CPC, for example Zhang Bojun. The first wave of attacks began immediately following the end of the Hundred Flowers movement in July 1957. By the end of the year, 300,000 people had been labeled as rightists, including the writer Ding Ling. Future premier Zhu Rongji, then working in the State Planning Commission, was purged in 1958. Most of the accused were intellectuals. The penalties included informal criticism, "re-education through labour" and in some cases death. The second part of the campaign followed the Lushan Conference of July 2 - August 16, 1959. The meeting condemned General Peng Dehuai, who had criticised the Great Leap Forward.

Lushan Conference of 1959

was an informal discussion about the Great Leap Forward. The conference's name is derived from the meeting place, a resort on Mount Lu in the district of the same name in Jiangxi Province, southeastern China, During the conference, Peng Dehuai, then PRC's defense minister, wrote a public letter to Mao criticizing some elements of the Great Leap Forward. In the letter, he criticized elements like the "winds of exaggeration" (i.e., over-reporting of grain production), the communal dining and also the establishment of commune militia which he felt would undermine the strength of the People's Liberation Army. For this reason, Mao extended the conference for more than ten days. On July 23, Mao showed Peng's letter to his comrades and ask them to express their views on the issue. However, not long afterwards, Mao bitterly criticised Peng as being part of a group wavering in the face of difficulties and who were "only 30 kilometres away from the rightists".[1] He was subsequently dismissed, arrested and replaced by Lin Biao. Although the criticism of Peng Dehuai resulted in a victory for Mao Zedong, it also led the leadership to conclude that he had been treated unfairly and that the party's norms had been violated. The Lushan Conference marked a key point of departure in Mao's rule. Criticism of party actions and policies were now equated with criticism of Mao. Mao's speech at Lushan was incredibly passionate and bellicose. He defended himself by saying that he, like all of the great writers, Confucius, Karl Marx, and Lenin had made mistakes and that focusing on them would not help the situation. Moreover, he insisted that not one commune had collapsed yet. His personal victory over Peng Dehuai at the Lushan Conference gave Mao confidence and led him to proceed with the Cultural Revolution. More than 3 million officials within the party were indicted and "class struggle" was brought in for the first time into the upper echelon of the Party apparatus.

Red Guards

were a mass paramilitary social movement of young people in the People's Republic of China (PRC), who were mobilized by Mao Zedong in 1966 and 1967, during the Cultural Revolution. he Red Guards were also tasked with rooting out 'capitalist roaders' (those with supposed 'right wing' views) in positions of authority, This search was to extend to the very highest echelons of the CPC, with many top party officials, such as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping and Peng Dehuai being attacked both verbally and physically by the Red Guards.[14] Liu Shaoqi was especially targeted, as he had taken Mao's seat as Chairman of the People's Republic following the Great Leap Forward. Although Mao stepped down from his post as a sign of accepting responsibility, he was angered that a capitalist roader like Liu could take the reins of communist China. However, the Red Guards were not to go about their activities completely unchallenged. The Red Guards were not permitted to enter Zhongnanhai, the Forbidden City, or any military sensitive facilities. When Red Guards entered factories and other areas of production, they encountered resistance in the form of worker and peasant groups who were keen to maintain the status quo.[15] In addition, there were bitter divisions within the Red Guard movement itself, especially along social and political lines. The most radical students often found themselves in conflict with more conservative Red Guards.

Hundred Flowers Campaign

• Mao wanted to encourage people to speak up • Period of "great ideas" • "on the correct handling of contradictions among the people" o Most contradictions were between people within China o Open dialogue and self-criticism were necessary to resolve these issues. o Deng Xiaoping and others were not happy with Mao's idea of encouraging people to speak up. Tried to delay the movement but Mao prevailed o 1957 - torrent of criticism against the party. o Mao's 1957 speech: launched campaign against rightists [?] § People learned that if you're on the left you're okay with Mao, but if you're on the right you're always wrong. § More than half a million rightists dispatched to countryside to do manual labor, mostly from Democratic Party [?] • One of the most significant events in the development of the country... • People who were sent to labor camps were the educated people, human capital necessary to build an industrial economy § Trust began to break down in society because people were informing on each other