Chinese Dynasty and Chinese Revolution

"Leaning to One Side"

"You are leaning to one side." Exactly. The forty years' experience of Sun Yat-sen and the twenty-eight years' experience of the Communist Party have taught us to lean to one side, and we are firmly convinced that in order to win victory and consolidate it we must lean to one side. -Mao Zedong, 'One the People's Democratic Dictatorship...' (1949) Mao Zedong announces that China will "lean to one side" in its foreign policy and that China must ally with the Soviet Union and form an international united front

"Slicing of the Melon"

(1895-1900) Foreign countries entered China and began to divide China like a melon. John Hay's "Open Door Policy" calls for equal trade rights amongst Europeans in China

Peoples' Communes (1958-1983)

- Highest of the three administrative levels in rural areas of China. They had governmental, political, and economic functions. - Was born during the Great Leap Forward, when Mao Zedong had a vision of surpassing the UK and the US in terms of steel production. Mao also wanted to mobilize peasants to undertake huge water projects during the winter slack seasons in order to improve agricultural productivity. - Each commune was a combination of smaller farm collectives and consisted of 4,000-20,000 household. Rural areas were replaced with townships

Sino-Soviet Dispute

- It was the breaking of political relations between China and USSR, caused by doctrinal divergences arisen from each regime's different interpretation of Marxism-Leninism, as influenced by the national interests of each country during the Cold War. - USSR policies on De-Stalinization (peaceful-coexistence policy--Nikita Khrushchev) vs. PRC policies on Chinese Stalinism - PRC called USSR "Revisionist Traitors". -Fighting for the leader position of world communism. - Facilitated the Sino-American relationship 1972 Nixon visit

Third and Fourth Generations of Chinese Communist Leadership

/Third Generation: Jiang Zemin The "third way"→ continuation of liberal economic policies and authoritarian politics Support of many members of the communist party and behind the scenes support Foreign trade and development 1990s foreign investment continued to rise, president HW Bush witnesses the square massacre and the burning of the bodies, he said that Deng was right and that it was a handful of thugs that needed to be executed president had sent advisors to china to come up with new trade deals, money comes first and that the massacre was an inside issue that the US had no business in Investment in market economy Major trade partners, Japan, US, Hong Kong, Russia and the Netherlands Considerable economic progress Faced a lot of challenges to his leadership Zemin gets china into the WTO WTO→free trade organization, reduces or removes tariffs for foreign trading, no restrictions 1996 China joins the WTO, so It was not a founding member Other members worried the Chinese markets were not sufficiently opened up to foreign trade however, there was a lot of foreign trade in China (Clinton was responsible for the Veto of China's entry bc China was still closed to importing) As long as the enterprises were still existed, china should not be in the WTO The People's Daily Article Zemin's successors decide to honor him and to talk about his successes when he was in power See an attempt to put Jiang on the same level as Mao, but it doesn't work A lot of hyperbole, they are trying to say that he was so successful that his principles were the ones guiding the future From 2015 and today, we see that Zemin continued on with Deng's policies and tried to deal with problems of the economy, his govt system would be the same as Deng's and would still continue "third way"→market socialism 3rd way of reform to take place in china Jiang called it Market Socialism (oxymoron)→blending of capitalism and socialism Foundation for leadership policies today in china, combination of state owned enterprises and the free market Jiang focused on an increase in privatization and to slowly eliminate the State-Owned Enterprises, however, he did not succeed in completely eradicating all of the SOEs Three represents→ way in which his philosophy was translated, all that Jiang represented: Marxist-social forces Best culture People's interests Problems/ achievements Chinese Economy The economy was not benefiting the entire society, there was tremendous growth in inequality Part of the inequality was a result of corruption but there were two other factors 1. Class society began to remerge in a way 2. The rural areas began to fall behind (as opposed to in the 80 where there was a surge in production), now there was a population crunch on the land, there was migrant workers in the cities and homelessness US/China relations (Clinton/Bush) Hot and cold during Zemin's presidency Achievement→bringing back Hong Kong to China, joining the WTO Problems→ political tensions→ biggest issue was human rights (The Tiananmen Massacre) The two countries are so tied up Human rights Freedoms that are promoted by Americans Falun Gong in china are not allowed to speak freely and the US has not come forward to help this group out Human Rights Chinese govt determine that there is only one human right→ The Right to Live The govt provides all that is necessary to live They argue that within the American society, citizens do not have the right to live/it is not respected Hong Kong/Tibet Free Tibet Movement Tibet is a province called Ziyang, run by the Dalai Lama, who is escaped Tibet and the people want him to go back to ruling it Chinese argue that Tibet is Feudal, so the govt encourages Han Chinese to go into the province to modernize it Dissidents Human Organs for sale → problem, ethics and the issue of human rights Chinese response to this is that those who are selling organs after they are dead are doing so voluntarily Political prisoners' way of justice is different, they don't have a lot of long prison sentences, they are executed, these prisoners would "donate" their organs to be sold in a market in order to help Chinese in need of organs /4th generation: this generation came of age during the cultural revolution, they have a stronger understanding of the rural areas and the peasant classes (suggests more practical and accessible than their predecessors), fearful of mass movements so closer oversight, support free market economies, but harsh against any western values, want to protect the power of the communist party and get china through the waves of modernism Hu Jintao→ Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Hu Jintao foreign policy Don't support, don't interfere Problem with Obama, bc the Chinese would never go along with US "Developing by China" "Harmonious Society" speech that Jintao came up with in 2006 wanted economic reform based on capitalism and no democracy, run china as a dictatorship under the economic recession, china was growing capitalism, privatization, unemployment and the return of the classes, increase in inequality, environmental degradation, pollution, medical issues, drugs Hu Jintao was the first to address these problems and this speech is addressed to the public and is therefore vague, but has outlined goals. Wanted to guarantee people's rights and interests, but people would have to follow the principles of law, not interested in democracy Wanted to merge the gap between urban and rural Wants to increase wealth and wants people to lead more affluent lives, orderly income distribution pattern Figure out a way to increase employment, and wants a social security system SOE→state owned company, Xiaoping had started privatization, Zemin accelerated this bc he wanted all to be privatized and wanted to let foreign companies to come to employ Chinese people to solve for high unemployment, Jintao said that this was not working out bc unemployment kept going up bc when companies failed, they just left, he stopped the process of privatization and encouraged SOEs to continue→problem for the WTO WTO called for free trade, but Jintao stopped the privatization and can now argue that china is not pure capitalism, but a mixed economy Economic and Technological Development Zones Similar to the SEZs allow further foreign investment and this is why the economy continued to bloon under Jintao Social security system→ how can you assure that Chinese people have jobs Difference between homelessness in china and the us the Chinese have the hukou system(internal passport) where you need govt permission to leave you city, people will not find a job if they move without permission and the kids cannot go to school Critics→ harmony as increased censorship, Jintao tried to silence the dissent and the critique though censorship in internet and TV No access to google, facebook, youtube Search engine is affected strongly by the govt, only shows what the govt wants them to show

Zeng Guofan

1811-1872 曾国藩 A Chinese statesman, military general, and Confucian scholar of the late Qin dynasty. He is known for the raising and organizing the Xiang Army to aid the Qing dynasty in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion and the restoring the stability of the Qing dynasty. He sent the scene for the Tongzhi Restoration, an attempt to arrest the decline of the Qing dynasty.

Twenty-one Demands

1915 二十一条 A set of demands made during the WWI by the Empire of Japan under Prime Minister Okuma Shignenobu send to the Government of China. The demands greatly extend Japanese control of Manchuria and of the Chinese economy and were opposed by Britain and the United States. In the final settlement, Japan gained a little but lost a great deal of prestige and trust in Britain and the US. The demands called for confirmation of Japan's railway and mining claims in Shandong province; granting of special concessions in Manchuria; Sino-Japanese control of the Han-Ye-Ping mining base in central China; access to harbors, bays, and islands along China's coast; and Japanese control, through advisers, of Chinese financial, political, and police affairs. Yuan's forced acceptance of all but the last point greatly increased anti-Japanese feeling in China.

Hong Xiuquan

1814-1864 He was born in a poor but proud Hakka family. The Hakkas were an industrious people who had migrated into South China from the north several centuries earlier and still retained their original customs. At a young age, he showed signs of great intelligence; his entire village sponsored him in his studies, hoping that he would eventually pass the Confucian civil service examination, enter the government bureaucracy, and bring wealth and honor to his family and friends. However, he failed three times to obtain the lowest official title, later caused him to suffered an emotional collapse. During the delirium, he imagined himself to be in the presence of a venerable old man with a golden beard. The old man complained that the world was overrun by evil demons, and he gave him the sword and seal to use in eradicating that bad spirits. He later realized that the old man that he spoke to was God and the middle-aged man was Jesus Christ. He later believed that he was the second son of God. He stressed a wrathful Old Testament God, one who was to be worshipped and obeyed. He demanded the abolition of evil practices such as opium smoking, gambling, and prostitution and promised an ultimate reward to those who followed the teachings of the Lord. He became a Chinese religious prophet and leader of the Taiping Rebellion, during which he declared his own new dynasty, which centered on the captured city of Nanjing. This great upheaval, in which more than 20 million people have been killed, drastically altered the course of modern Chinese history.

Opium War I

1839-1842 第一次鴉片戰爭 Arose from China's attempts to suppress the opium trade. Foreign traders had been illegally exporting opium mainly from India to China since 18th century, but that trade dramatically from about 1820. The resulting widespread addiction in China was causing serious social ad economic disruption there. In March 1839, the Chinese government confiscated and destroyed more than 20,000 chests of opium that were warehoused at Canton by British merchants. The antagonism between the two sides increased few days later when some drunken British sailors killed a Chinese village. The British government, which did not wish its subjects to be tied in the legal system, refused to turn the accused men over the Chinese courts. Hostilities broke out serval months later when British warships destroyed a Chinese blockade of the Pearl River estuary at Hong Kong. The British government decided in ealry 1840 to send an expeditionary force to China, which arrived at Hong Kong in June. The British fleet proceeded up the Pearl River estuary to Canton, and after months of negotiations there, attacked and occupied the city in May 1841. Subsequent British campaigns over the next year were likewise successful against the inferior Qing forces, despite a determined counterattack by Chinese troops in the spring of 1842. The British held against offensive, however, and captured Nanjing in late August, which put an end to the fighting. Peace negotiation proceeded quickly, resulting in the Treaty of Nanjing signed on August 29.

Taiping Rebellion

1850-1864 A radical political and religious upheaval that was probably the most important event in China in the 19th century. It lasted for 14 years, ravaged 17 provinces, took an estimated 20 million lives and irrevocably altered the Qing dynasty. The rebellion began under the leadership of Hong Xiuquan, a disappointed civil service examination candidate who, influenced by Christian teachings, had a series of visions and believed himself to be the son of God, the younger brother of Jesus Christ, sent to reform China. A friend of Hong's, Feng Yunshan, utilized Hong's ideas to organize a new religious group, the God Worshippers' Society, which he formed among the improvised peasants of Guangxi province. In 1847, Hong joined Feng and the God Worshippers, and three years later he led them in rebellion. On January 1, 1851, he proclaimed his new dynasty, the Taiping Tianguo (太平天国) and assumed the title of Tianwang (天王). Their credo-to share property in common-attracted many famine-stricken peasants, workers, and miners, as did their propaganda against the foreign Manchu rulers of China. Taiping ranks swelled, and they increased from a ragged band of several thousand to more than one million totally disciplined and frantically zealous soldiers, organized into separate men's and women's divisions. Sweeping north through the fertile valley of the Yangtze River, they reached to the great eastern city of Nanjing. After capturing the city on March 10 1853, and dispatched a northern expedition to capture the Qing capital at Beijing. That failed, but another expedition into the upper Yangtze valley scored many victories. Meanwhile, Yang Xiuqing, the Taiping minister of state, attempted to usurp much of the Tianwang's power, and, as a result, Yang and thousands of his followers were slain. Wei Changhui, the general who had killed Yang, then began to grow haughty, and Hong had him murdered as well. Another Taiping general, Shi Dakai, began to fear for his life, and he abandoned Hong, taking with him many of the Taiping followers. In 1860 an attempt by the Taipings to regain their strength by taking Shanghai was stopped by the Western-trained "Ever-Victorious Army" commanded by the American adventurer Frederick Townsend Ward and later by the British officer Charles George ("Chinese") Gordon. The gentry, who usually rallied to support a successful rebellion, had been alienated by the radical anti-Confucianism of the Taipings, and they organized under the leadership of Zeng Guofan, a Chinese official of the Qing government. By 1862 Zeng had managed to surround Nanjing, and the city fell in July 1864. Hong, ailing and refusing all requests to flee the city, had committed suicide in June, though before that he had installed his 15-year-old son as the Tianwang. Those events effectively marked the end of the rebellion, although sporadic Taiping resistance continued in other parts of the country until 1868. Charles George Gordon, who acquired the byname "Chinese Gordon" for his actions in China during the Taiping Rebellion. Charles George Gordon, who Taiping Christianity placed little emphasis on New Testament ideas of kindness, forgiveness, and redemption. Rather, it emphasized the wrathful Old Testament God who demanded worship and obedience. Prostitution, foot-binding, and slavery were prohibited, as well as opium smoking, adultery, gambling, and use of tobacco and alcohol. Organization of the army was elaborate, with strict rules governing soldiers in camp and on the march. For those who followed these rules, an ultimate reward was promised. Zeng Guofan was astonished when, after the capture of Nanjing, almost 100,000 of the Taiping followers preferred death to capture. Under the Taipings, the Chinese language was simplified, and equality between men and women was decreed. All property was to be held in common, and equal distribution of the land according to a primitive form of communism was planned. Some Western-educated Taiping leaders even proposed the development of industry and the building of a Taiping democracy. The Qing dynasty was so weakened by the rebellion that it never again was able to establish an effective hold over the country. Both the Chinese communists and the Chinese Nationalists trace their origin to the Taipings.

Opium War II

1856-1860 While the Qing government was embroiled in trying to quell the Taiping Rebellion, the British, seeking to extend their trading rights in China, found an excuse to renew hostilities. In early October 1856, some Chinese officials boarded the British-registered ship, Arrow, while it was docked in Canton, arrested several Chinese crew members, and allegedly lowered the British flag. Later that month a British warship sailed up the Pearl estuary and began bombarding Canton, and there were skirmishes between British and Chinese troops. Trading ceased as a stalemate ensued. In December, Chinese in Canton burned foreign factories there, and tensions escalated. The French decided to join the British military expedition, using as their excuse the murder of a French missionary in the interior of China in early 1856. After delays in assembling the forces in China, the allies began military operations in late 1857. They quickly captured Canton, deposed the city's intransigent governor, and installed a more-complaint official. In April 1858, allied troops in British warships reached Tianjin and forced the Chinese into negotiations. The treaties of Tianjin, signed in June 1858, provided residence in Beijing for foreign envoys, the opening of several new ports to Western trade and residence, the right foreign travel in the interior of China, and the freedom movement of Christian missionaries. In further negotiations in Shanghai later in the year, the importation of opium was legalized. The British withdrew from Tianjin in the summer of 1858, but they returned to the area in June 1859 and were shelled by the Chinese from shore batteries at Dagu at the mouth of the Hai River and driven back with heavy casualties. The Chinese subsequently refused to ratify the treaties, and the allies resumed hostilities. In August 1860 a considerably larger force of warships and the British and French troops destroyed the Dagu batteries , proceeded upriver to Tianjin, and, in September, captured Beijing and plundered and then burned the Yuanming Garden, the emperor's summer palace. Later the year the Chinese signed the Beijing Convention, which they agreed to observed the treaties of Tinajin and also ceded to the British the southern portion of the Kowloon Peninsula adjacent to Hong Kong.

Self-Strengthening Movement

1861-1895 洋务运动／自强运动 A period of institutional reforms initiated in China during late Qing dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers. To make peace with the Western powers in China, Prince Gong made regent, Grand Councilor, and head of the newly formed Zongli Yamen. He would be assisted by a new generation of leaders. By contrast, Empress Dowager Cixi was virulently anti-foreign, but she had to accommodate Prince Gong because he was an influential political figure in the Qing imperial court. She would, however, became the most formidable opponent of reform as her political influence increased. Majority of the ruling elite still subscribed to a conservative Confucian worldview, but following China's serious defeats in the First and Second Opium wars, several officials now argued that in order to strengthen itself against the West, it was necessary to adopt Western military technology and armaments. This could be achieved by establishing shipyards and arsenals, and by hiring foreign advisers to train Chinese artisans to manufacture such wares in China. As such the "self-strengtheners" were by and a large uninterested in any social reforms beyond the scope of economic and military modernization. *First phase (1861-1872)* Emphasizes the adoption of Western firearms, machines, scientific knowledge and training of technical and diplomatic personnel through the establishment of a diplomatic office and a college. *Second Phase (1872-1885)* The commerce, industry, and agriculture received increasing attention. Attention was also given to the creation of wealth in order to strengthen the country. This was a new idea for the Chinese, who had always been uncomfortable with activities which create wealth from anything other than land. The development of profit-oriented industries such as shipping, railways, mining, and telegraphy, was, therefore rather new ventures for the Chinese government. *Third Phase (1885-1895)* By this period, the enthusiasm for reform had slowed down to a crawl. The conservative faction at court had managed to overwhelm Prince Gong and his supporters. While the emphasis on building tall structures and industries continued, the idea of enriching the country through the textile industry gained the court's favor; the industries like textiles and cotton-weaving developed rapidly.

Liu Shaoqi

1898-1969 刘少奇 He was Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee from 1954 to 1959, First Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1956 to 1966 and President of the People's Republic of China, China's de jure head of state, from 1959 to 1968, during which he implemented policies of economic reconstruction in China. For 15 years, President Liu was the third most powerful man in China, behind only Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. Originally groomed as Mao's successor, Liu antagonized him in the early 1960s before the Cultural Revolution, and from 1966 onward was criticized, then purged, by Mao. Liu disappeared from public life in 1968 and was labeled the "commander of China's bourgeoisie headquarters", China's foremost "capitalist-roader", and a traitor to the revolution. He died under harsh treatment in late 1969, but was posthumously rehabilitated by Deng Xiaoping's government in 1980 and granted a national memorial service.

Boxer Rebellion

1900 义和团运动 A violent anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprise that took place in China uprise that was initiated by the Militia United in Righteousness (义和团) or the Boxers. For many of their members had been practitioners of martial arts, such as boxing. They were motivated by proto-nationalist sentiments and oppositions to Western colonialism and associated Christian missionary activity. In the late 19th century, because of growing economic impoverishment, a series of unfortunate natural calamities, and unbridled foreign aggression in the area, the Boxers began to increase their strength in the provinces of North China. In 1898 conservative, antiforeign forces won control of the Chinese government and persuaded the Boxers to drop their opposition to the Qing dynasty and unite with it in destroying the foreigners. The governor of the province of Shandong began to enroll Boxer bands as local militia groups, changing their name from Yihequan to Yihetuan ("Righteous and Harmonious Militia"), which sounded semiofficial. Many of the Qing officials at this time apparently began to believe that Boxer rituals actually did make them impervious to bullets, and, in spite of protests by the Western powers, they and Cixi, the ruling empress dowager, continued to encourage the group. Christian missionary activities helped provoke the Boxers; Christian converts flouted traditional Chinese ceremonies and family relations; and missionaries pressured local officials to side with Christian converts—who were often from the lower classes of Chinese society—in local lawsuits and property disputes. By late 1899 the Boxers were openly attacking Chinese Christians and Western missionaries. By May 1900, Boxer bands were roaming the countryside around the capital at Beijing. Finally, in early June an international relief force of some 2,100 men was dispatched from the northern port of Tianjin to Beijing. On June 13 the empress dowager ordered imperial forces to block the advance of the foreign troops, and the small relief column was turned back. Meanwhile, in Beijing the Boxers burned churches and foreign residences and killed suspected Chinese Christians on sight. On June 17 the foreign powers seized the Dagu forts on the coast in order to restore access from Beijing to Tianjin. The next day the empress dowager ordered that all foreigners be killed. The German minister was murdered, and the other foreign ministers and their families and staff, together with hundreds of Chinese Christians, were besieged in their legation quarters and in the Roman Catholic cathedral in Beijing. Imperial viceroys in the central Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) valley and in South China ignored government orders and suppressed antiforeign outbreaks in their jurisdiction. They thus helped establish the myth that the war was not the policy of the Chinese government but was a result of a native uprising in the northeast, the area to which the disorders were mainly confined. An international force of some 19,000 troops was assembled, most of the soldiers coming from Japan and Russia but many also from Britain, the United States, France, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. On August 14, 1900, that force finally captured Beijing, relieving the foreigners and Christians besieged there since June 20. While foreign troops looted the capital, the empress dowager and her court fled westward to Xi'an in Shaanxi province, leaving behind a few imperial princes to conduct the negotiations. After extensive discussions, a protocol was finally signed in September 1901, ending the hostilities and providing for reparations to be made to the foreign powers. Perhaps a total of up to 100,000 or more people died in the conflict, although estimates on casualties have varied widely. The great majority of those killed were civilians, including thousands of Chinese Christians and approximately 200 to 250 foreign nationals (mostly Christian missionaries). Some estimates cite about 3,000 military personnel killed in combat, the great bulk of them being Boxers and other Chinese fighters.

Tongzhi Restoration

1862-1874 同治中兴 An attempt to arrest the dynastic decline of the Qing dynasty of China by restoring the traditional order. The harsh realities of the Opium War, the unequal treaties, and the mid-century mass uprisings of the Taiping Rebellion caused Qing courtiers and officials to recognize the need to strengthen China. The restoration was named for the Tongzhi Emperor and was engineered by the emperor's mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi. The restoration, however, which applied "practical knowledge" while reaffirming the old mentality, was not a genuine program of modernization. Academics are divided as to whether the restoration arrested the dynastic decline, more merely delayed its inevitable occurrence. The restoration was a direct result of the Self-Strengthening Movement led by the statesmen Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang to revitalize government and improve economic and cultural conditions in China. A number of reforms were implemented such as the development of an official foreign ministry to deal with international affairs, the restoration of regional armies and regional strongmen, modernization of railroads, factories, and arsenals, an increase of industrial and commercial productivity, and the insituation of a period of peace that allowed China time to moderinze and develop.

Sun Yatsen

1866-1925 孙逸仙 The leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang 国民党), known as the father of modern China. Influential in overthrowing the Qing dynasty and he served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China and later as de facto ruler.

Chiang Kaishek (Jiang Jieshi)

1887-1975 Head of the Nationalist government in China from 1928-1949 and subsequently head of the Chinese Nationalist government in exile on Taiwan. From 1909 to 1911, he served in the Japanese army, whose Spartan ideals he admired and adopted. More influential were the youthful compatriots he met in Tokyo; plotting to rid China of the Qing dynasty, they converted Chiang to republicanism and made him a revolutionary. In 1911, upon hearing of revolutionary outbreaks in China, he returned home and helped in the sporadic fighting that led to the overthrow of the Manchus. He then participated in the struggles of China's republican and other revolutionaries in 1913-1916 against China's new president and would-be emperor, Yuan Shikai. After these excursions into public life, he lapsed into obscurity. For two years he lived in Shanghai, where he apparently belonged to the Green Gang, a secret society involved in financial manipulations. In 1918, he reentered public life by joining Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Nationalist Party (GMD). Thus begun the close association with Sun on which he was to build his power. Sun's chief concern was reunifying China, which the downfall of Yuan had left divided among warring military satraps. Having wrested power from the Qing, the revolutionists had lost it to indigenous warlords; unless they could defeat these warlords, they would have struggled for nothing. Shortly after Sun Yatsen had begun to reorganize the Nationalist Party along Soviet lines, he visited the Soviet Union in 1923 to study Soviet institutions, especially the Red Army. Back in China, after four months, he became commandant of a military academy, established on the Soviet model, at Whampoa near Canton. Soviet advisors poured into Canton and at this time the Chinese Communists were admitted into the Nationalist Party. The Chinese communists quickly gained power, after Sun's death in 1925, and tensions developed between them and the more conservative elements among the Nationalists. He, with the Whampoa army behind him, was the strongest of Sun's heirs, met thus threat with consummate shrewdness. By alternate shows of force and of leniency, he attempted to stem the communists' growing influence without losing Soviet support. Moscow supported him until 1927, when in a bloody coup of his own, he finally broke with the communists, expelling them from the Nationalist Party and suppressing the labor unions they had organized. Meanwhile, he had gone far toward reunifying the country. Commander in chief of the revolutionary army since 1925, he had launched a massive Nationalist campaign against the northern warlords in the following year. This drive ended only in 1928 when his forces entered Beijing. A new central government under the Nationalists was then established at Nanking. As head of the new Nationalist government, he stood committed to a program of social reform, but most of it remained on paper, partly because his control of the country remained precarious. In the first place, the provincial warlords, whom he had neutralized rather than crushed, still disrupted his authority. The communist posed another threat, having withdrawn to rural strongholds and formed their own army and government. In addition, he faced certain war with Japan, which after seizing Manchuria in 1931, showed designs upon China proper. He decided not the resist the coming Japanese invasion until he had crushed the communists- a designs that aroused many protests, especially since a complete victory over the communists continued to elude him. To give the nation more moral cohesion, he revived the state cult of Confucius and in 1934 launched a campaign, called "New Life Movement" to inculcate Confucian morals. In 1936, he was seized by one of his generals who believed that Chinese forced should concentrate on fighting the Japanese instead of the communists. He was held captive for two weeks, and the Xian Incident, ended after he agreed to form an alliance with the communists against the Japanese invaders. In 1937, the mounting conflict between the two countries erupted into war. For more than four years, China fought alone until it was joined by the Allie, who with the exception of the Soviet Unions declared war on Japan in 1941. China's reward was an honored place among the victors as one of the Big Four. But internally his government showed signs of decay, which multiplied as it resumed the struggle against the communists after the Japanese surrendered to the US in 1945. Civil war recommenced in 1947, by 1949 he had lost continental China to the communists, and the People's Republic of China was established. He moved to Taiwan with the remnants of his Nationalist forces established a relatively benign dictatorship over the island with other Nationalist leaders, and attempted to harass the communists across the Formosa Strait.

Mao Zedong

1893-1976 He was a principal Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, and statesman who led his country's communist revolution. He was the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1935-1976, and he was chairman of the People's Republic of China from 1949 50 19599 and chairman of the party also until his death. Pursued by the military governor of Hunan, Mao was soon forced to flee his native province once more, and he returned for another year to an urban environment—Guangzhou (Canton), the main power base of the Nationalists. However, though he lived in Guangzhou, Mao still focused his attention on the countryside. He became the acting head of the propaganda department of the Nationalist Party—in which capacity he edited its leading organ, the Political Weekly, and attended the Second Kuomintang Congress in January 1926—but he also served at the Peasant Movement Training Institute, set up in Guangzhou under the auspices of the Nationalists, as principal of the sixth training session. Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) had become the leader of the Nationalists after the death of Sun Yat-sen in March 1925, and, although Chiang still declared his allegiance to the "world revolution" and wished to avail himself of aid from the Soviet Union, he was determined to remain master in his own house. He, therefore, expelled most communists from responsible posts in the Nationalist Party in May 1926. Mao, however, stayed on at the institute until October of that year. Most of the young peasant activists Mao trained were shortly at work strengthening the position of the communists. Nevertheless, when the communists did take power in China, both Mao and Stalin had to make the best of the situation. In December 1949 Mao, now chairman of the People's Republic of China—which he had proclaimed on October 1—traveled to Moscow, where, after two months of arduous negotiations, he succeeded in persuading Stalin to sign a treaty of mutual assistance accompanied by limited economic aid. Before the Chinese had time to profit from the resources made available for economic development, however, they found themselves dragged into the Korean War in support of the Moscow-oriented regime in North Korea. Only after that baptism of fire did Stalin, according to Mao, begin to have confidence in him and believe he was not first and foremost a Chinese nationalist. Despite those tensions with Moscow, the policies of the People's Republic of China in its early years were in very many respects based, as Mao later said, on "copying from the Soviets." While Mao and his comrades had experience in guerrilla warfare, in mobilization of the peasants in the countryside, and in political administration at the grass roots, they had no firsthand knowledge of running a state or of large-scale economic development. In such circumstances the Soviet Union provided the only available model. A five-year plan was therefore drawn up under Soviet guidance; it was put into effect in 1953 and included Soviet technical assistance and a number of complete industrial plants. Yet, within two years, Mao had taken steps that were to lead to the breakdown of the political and ideological alliance with Moscow.

Sino-Japanese War

1894-1895 甲午战争 Conflict between Japan and China that marked the emergence of Japan as a major would power and demonstrated the weakness of the China empire. The war grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea. Korea had long been China's most important client state, but its strategic location opposite the Japanese islands and its natural resources of coal and iron attracted Japan's interest. In 1875, Japan, which had begun to adopt Western technology, forced Korea to open itself to foreign, especially Japanese trade and to declare itself independent from China its foreign relations. War was finally declared on Aug 1, 1894. Although foreign observers had predicted an easy victory for the more massive Chinese forces, the Japanese had done a more successful job of modernizing, and they were better equipped and prepared. Japanese troops scored quick and overwhelming victories on both land and sea. By March 1895, the Japanese had successfully invaded Shandong providence and Manchuria and had fortified posts that commanded the sea approaches to Beijing. The Chinese sued for peace. In the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the conflict, China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded Taiwan, the adjoining Pescadores, and the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria. China also agreed to pay a large indemnity and to give Japan trading privileges on Chinese territory. This treaty was later somewhat modified by Russian fears of Japanese expansion, and the combined intercession of Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to return the Liaodong Peninsula to China. China's defeat encouraged the Western powers to make further demands of the Chinese government. In China itself, the war triggered a reform movement that attempted to renovate the government; it also resulted in the beginnings of revolutionary activity against the Qing dynasty rulers of China.

Meiling Soong

1897-2003 A notable Chinese political figure and second wife of the Nationalist Chinese president Chiang Kai-Shek. She was educated in the US from 1908 to 1917, when she graduated from Wellesley College and was thoroughly Americanized. In 1927, she married Chiang Kai-shek, and she helped introduce him to Western culture and ideas and worked to publicize his cause in the West. With Chiang, she launched in 1934 the New Life Movement, a program that sought to halt the spread of communism by teaching traditional Chinese values. In 1936, Chiang Kai-shek was taken captive by Chang Hsueh-liang, a warlord who believed the Nationalist government should stop fighting China's communists and instead concentrate on resisting on Japanese aggression; she played a major role in negotiations that led to his release. During WWII, she wrote many articles on China for American journals, and in 1943, during a visit to the US, she became the first Chinese and only the second woman to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress, where she sought increased support for China in its war against Japan. Her efforts resulted in much financial aid, and she was so impressed that American public that until 1967 her name appeared annually on the U.S. list of the 10 most admired women in the world. In the mid-1940s civil war broke out in China as Nationalists and communists battled for control of the country, Chiang Kai-shek's forces were defeated in 1949, she and her family moved to Taiwan, where Chiang established his government. Still highly influential, she continued to seek support from the United States and her efforts helped sway the U.S. government's policy toward China and Taiwan.

Hundred Days Reform

1898 戊戌变法 Imperial attempt at renovating the Chinese state and social system. It occurred after the Chinese defeat in the Sino-Japanese War and the ensuing rush for concessions in China on the part of Western imperialist powers. Following the Sino-Japanese War, a series of clubs sprang up across China urging reform on the Western model. One of these was founded by a civil service examination candidate, Kang Youwei, who led a group of other candidates in the writing of a "Ten Thousand Word Memorial," which advocated the rejection of the peace treaty and the institution of a whole series of reforms. This petition was ignored by the imperial Qing government. Meanwhile, within established official circles, a group of conservative reformers—led by Zhang Zhidong, whose famous work Quanxue pian ("Exhortation to Learning") was distributed in 1898—called for the development of Western-style industrialization without the abandonment of China's cultural heritage. In all, the emperor issued more than 40 edicts, which if enacted would have transformed every conceivable aspect of Chinese society. The old civil service examination system based on the Chinese Classics was ordered abolished, and a new system of national schools and colleges was established. Western industry, medicine, science, commerce, and patent systems were promoted and adopted. Government administration was revamped, the law code was changed, the military was reformed, and corruption was attacked. The attack on corruption, the army, and the traditional educational system threatened the privileged classes of traditional Chinese society. Conservative forces rallied behind the empress dowager, Cixi; with the army on her side, she carried out a coup d'état and imprisoned the emperor in his palace. Kang and Liang managed to escape to Japan, but six other young reformers were executed. Although some moderate reform measures, such as the establishment of modern schools, were retained, the examination system was reestablished and most of the reform edicts, which had never been enacted anyway, were repealed. In the early 1900s, officials like Zhang Zhidong were allowed to carry out a full-scale reform effort, but it was a piecemeal, belated effort. The failure of the Hundred Days of Reform marked the last attempt at a radical revolution by the imperial regime in China.

Northern Expedition

1926-27 A campaign of the Chinese Nationalist army that advanced north from Guangzhou to the Yangtze River battling warlord forces. It was aided by Soviet arms and advisers and by propaganda corps that preceded them. After defeating the warlords, the Nationalist army turned on Britain as the chief of imperialist power and primary enemy. In response, the British returned their concessions in Hankou and Jiujiang but prepared to defend Shanghai. The alliance between the communists and the Nationalist fell apart at that point: when communist-led labor unions captured Shanghai for Chiang Kai-shek, he attacked and suppressed them, and when he set up his new government in Nanjing, he expelled the communists from it.

Twenty-eight Bolsheviks

1931-1935 二十八个半布尔什维克 A group of Chinese students who studied at the Moscow Sun Yat-sen University from the late 1920s until early 1935, also known as the "Returned Students". The university was founded in 1925 as a result of Kuomintang's founder Sun Yat-Sen's policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and was named after him. The university had an important influence on modern Chinese history by educating many prominent Chinese political figures. The most famous of these were collectively called the 28 Bolsheviks.

Long March

1934-1935 A Civil war in China between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927. In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Jiangxi province in the southeast. Between 1930 and 1934, the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) launched a series of five encirclement campaigns against the Chinese Soviet Republic. Under the leadership of Mao, the Communists employed guerrilla tactics to successfully resist the first four campaigns, but in the fifth, Chiang raised a huge force and built fortifications around the Communist positions. Mao was removed as chairman, and the new Communist leadership employed more conventional warfare tactics, and its Red army was decimated. With defeat imminent, the Communists decided to break out of the encirclement at its weakest points, and the Long March began on October 16, 1934. Secrecy and other tactics confused the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before they realized that the main body of the Red army had fled. The retreating force initially consisted of more than 85,000 troops, by some estimates, and thousands of accompanying personnel. Weapons and supplies were borne on men's backs or in horse-drawn carts, and the line of marchers stretched for miles. The Communists generally marched at night, and when the enemy was not near, a long column of torches could be seen snaking over valleys and hills into the distance. Mao began to regain his influence, and in January, during a meeting of party leaders in the captured city of Zunyi, he re-emerged as a top military and political leader. He then changed strategy, breaking his force into several columns that would take varying paths to confuse the enemy. And the destination would now be Shaanxi province, in the northwestern region of the country, where the Communists hoped to fight the Japanese invaders and earn the respect of China's masses. After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment and almost daily skirmishes with Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns in northern Shaanxi on October 20, 1935, where they met other Red army troops. The Long March was over. By some estimates, 8,000 or fewer marchers completed the journey, which covered more than 4,000 miles and crossed 24 rivers and 18 mountain ranges. The Long March marked the emergence of Mao Zedong as the undisputed leader of the Chinese Communists. Learning of the Communists' heroism and determination in the Long March, thousands of young Chinese traveled to Shaanxi to enlist in Mao's Red army. After fighting the Japanese for a decade, the Chinese Civil War resumed soon after the end of World War II (1939-45). In 1949, the Nationalists were defeated, and Mao proclaimed the People's Republic of China. He served as head of the Communist Party of China until his death in 1976.

Xian Incident

1936 Seizure of the Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek by his two generals, Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng. Zhang, the commander forces in the Northeast China and Yag, the commander of the forces stationed around Xi'an. In northwestern China, opposed Chiang's policy of continuing to fight the Chinese communists rather than devoting the Nationalist full effort to fighting the Japanese, who had invaded northern China. The incident ended with Chiang release and the formation of the second communist-Nationalist United Front against the Japanese. The Xi'an incident relieved Nationalist military pressure on the communists, who are able to rebuild their forces during the ensuing alliance with the Nationalists.

Second United Front

1937-1941 国共关系 The brief alliance between the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or KMT) and Communist Party of China (CPC) to resist the Japanese invasion during the Second Sino-Japanese War, which suspended the Chinese Civil War from 1937 to 1941.

First Five-Year Plan

1953-1957 第一个中国五年计划 A series of social and economic development initiatives. The economy was shaped by the Communist Party of China through the plenary sessions of the Central Committee and national congresses. The party plays a leading role in establishing the foundations and principles of Chinese socialism, mapping strategies for economic development, setting growth targets, and launching reforms. Planning is a key characteristic of socialist economies, and one plan established for the entire country normally contains detailed economic development guidelines for all its regions. In order to more accurately reflect China's transition from a Soviet-style planned economy to a socialist market economy. The plan emphasized rapid industrial development, partly at the expense of other sectors of the economy. The bulk of the state's investment was channeled into the industrial sector, while agriculture, which occupied more than four-fifths of the economically active population, was forced to rely on its own meager capital resources for a substantial part of its fund requirements. Within the industry, iron, and steel, electric power, coal, heavy engineering, building materials, and basic chemicals were given first priority; in accordance with Soviet practice, the aim was to construct large, sophisticated, and highly capital-intensive plants. A great many of the new plants were built with Soviet technical and financial assistance, and heavy industry grew rapidly.

Hundred Flowers Movement

1956 百花运动 A period in 1956 in the People's Republic of China[1] during which the Communist Party of China (CPC) encouraged its citizens to openly express their opinions of the communist regime. Differing views and solutions to national policy were encouraged based on the famous expression by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong: "The policy of letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend is designed to promote the flourishing of the arts and the progress of science." The movement was in part a response to the demoralization of intellectuals, who felt estranged from The Communist Party.[citation needed] After this brief period of liberalization, Mao used this to oppress those who challenged the communist regime by using force. The crackdown continued through 1957 as an Anti-Rightist Campaign against those who were critical of the regime and its ideology. Those targeted were publicly criticized and condemned to prison labor camps. The ideological crackdown following the campaign's failure re-imposed Maoist orthodoxy in public expression and catalyzed the Anti-Rightist Movement.

Great Leap Forward

1958-1959 大跃进 The campaign was undertaken by the Chinese communists between 1958 and early 1960 to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China's industrial and agricultural problems. The Chinese hoped to develop labor-intensive methods of industrialization, which would emphasize manpower rather than machines and capital expenditure. Thereby, it was hoped, the country could bypass the slow, more typical process of industrialization through the gradual accumulation of capital and purchase of heavy machinery. The Great Leap Forward approach was epitomized by the development of small backyard steel furnaces in every village and urban neighborhood, which were intended to accelerate the industrialization process. The promulgation of the Great Leap Forward was the result of the failure of the Soviet model of industrialization in China. The Soviet model, which emphasized the conversion of capital gained from the sale of agricultural products into heavy machinery, was inapplicable in China because, unlike the Soviet Union, it had a very dense population and no large agricultural surplus with which to accumulate capital. After intense debate, it was decided that agriculture and industry could be developed at the same time by changing people's working habits and relying on labor rather than machine-centered industrial processes. An experimental commune was established in the north-central province of Henan early in 1958, and the system soon spread throughout the country Under the commune system, agricultural and political decisions were decentralized, and ideological purity rather than expertise was emphasized. The peasants were organized into brigade teams, and communal kitchens were established so that women could be freed for work. The program was implemented with such haste by overzealous cadres that implements were often melted to make steel in the backyard furnaces, and many farm animals were slaughtered by discontented peasants. These errors in implementation were made worse by a series of natural disasters and the withdrawal of Soviet support. The inefficiency of the communes and the large-scale diversion of farm labor into small-scale industry disrupted China's agriculture seriously, and three consecutive years of natural calamities added to what quickly turned into a national disaster; in all, about 20 million people were estimated to have died of starvation between 1959 and 1962. This breakdown of the Chinese economy caused the government to begin to repeal the Great Leap Forward program by early 1960. Private plots and agricultural implements were returned to the peasants, expertise began to be emphasized again, and the communal system was broken up. The failure of the Great Leap produced a division among the party leaders. One group blamed the failure of the Great Leap on bureaucratic elements who they felt had been overzealous in implementing its policies. Another faction in the party took the failure of the Great Leap as proof that China must rely more on expertise and material incentives in developing the economy. Some concluded that it was against the latter faction that Mao Zedong launched his Cultural Revolution in early 1966.

"return" of Hong Kong

1997.. Queen was not happy about that...

Examination system

A civil service examination system to select candidates for the state bureaucracy. This common culture helped to unify the empire and the ideal of achievement by merit gave legitimacy to imperial rule, while leaving clear problems resulting from a systemic lack of technical and practical expertise. The examination helped to shape China's intellectual, cultural, political, shopping, arts and crafts, and religious life. It also provided one of the major outlets for social mobility in Chinese society. The exam was divided into three parts: ∆Local ∆Prefectural ∆ Imperial

Hong

A large general trading housing in Canton (now Guangzhou) region in the 19th century.

China under Mao

After the ending of the Sino-Japanese War in 1945, the Chinese Civil War immediately started. In 1949, the Communist Party of China (CCP) defeated the Republic of China, which was led by the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party). This led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC), which has since been based on "Mainland China". The KMT fled to Taiwan, an island to the southeast of Mainland China. Mao declared the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Mao's first goal was equal distribution of land. In the old days, landlords have complete ownership of farmland. This system of landlord ownership clashed with communist beliefs. The new distribution system was in favor of less wealthy peasants. The idea of owning farmland appealed to many peasants even before the CCP came to power, and was significant in building up grassroots support for the CCP. In 1953, Mao began various campaigns to suppress former landlords and capitalists. Foreign investment was largely wiped out. Mao believed that socialism would eventually triumph over all other ideologies. Following the First Five-Year Plan based on a Soviet-style centrally controlled economy, Mao took on the ambitious project of the Great Leap Forward in 1958, beginning an unprecedented process of collectivization in rural areas. Mao urged the use of backyard iron smelters to increase steel production, pulling workers off of agricultural labor to the point that large amounts of crops rotted unharvested. Mao decided to continue to advocate these smelters despite a visit to a factory steel mill which proved to him that high-quality steel could only be produced in a factory; he was probably concerned that ending the program would dampen peasant enthusiasm for the leap forward. The destruction of balance constitutes leaping forward and such destruction is better than balance. Imbalance and headache are good things. - Mao, May of 1958, in a speech. The implementation of Maoist thought in China may have been responsible for over 70 million deaths during peacetime, with the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957-58, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. Because of Mao's land reforms during the Great Leap Forward, which resulted in famines, thirty million perished between 1958 and 1961. By the end of 1961, the birth rate was nearly cut in half because of malnutrition. Active campaigns, including party purges and "reeducation", resulted in imprisonment and the execution of those deemed contrary to the implementation of Maoist ideals. Mao's failure with the Leap reduced his power in government, whose administrative duties fell on Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. To impose socialist orthodoxy and rid China of "old elements", and at the same time serving certain political goals, Mao began the Cultural Revolution in May 1966. The campaign was far reaching into all aspects of Chinese life. Red Guards terrorized the streets as many ordinary citizens were deemed counter-revolutionaries. Education and public transportation came to a nearly complete halt. Daily life involved shouting slogans and reciting Mao quotations. Many prominent political leaders, including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, were purged and deemed "capitalist-roaders". Liu later died in prison, which is now considered the single most tragic story during the Cultural Revolution. The campaign would not come to a complete end until the death of Mao in 1976.

Han

An Eastern Asian ethic group and nation. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China. The name was derived from the Han dynasty. It is the majority in most region of China.

Treaty of Nanjing

August 1842 Treaty that ended the first Opium War, the first of the unequal treaties between China and foreign imperialist powers. China paid the British an indemnity, ceded the territory of Hong Kong, and agreed to established a "fair and reasonable" tariff. British merchants, who had previously been allowed to trade at five "treaty ports" and with whomever, they pleased. The treaty was supplemented in 1843 by the British Supplementary Treaty of the Bogue, which allowed British citizens to be tried in British courts and granted Britain any rights in China that China might grant to other countries

"China's Dream"

China wants to be on top lol

Nine-Dash Line

China's nine-dash line territorial claim over the entire South China Sea is against international laws, particularly the United Nations Convention of the Laws of the Sea (UNCLOS)

Little Red Book

Covers subjects such as class struggle, "correcting mistaken ideas" and the "mass line", a key tenet of Mao Zedong Thought. Included is Mao's famous remark that "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun". Wanted to distribute it to every citizen of china In the Cultural Revolution, where everyone was dying, the book became a way of survival and people depended on it

Extraterritoriality

Diplomatic immunity in international law, the immunities enjoyed by foreign states or international organizations and their official representatives from the jurisdiction of the country in which they are present, usually as a result of diplomatic negotiations.

Agricultural Producers' Cooperatives (APCs)

During the 1950s the government of the new People's Republic made a concerted effort to redistribute land more equitably. Although many peasants owned part or all of the small holdings they farmed before 1949, tenancy was common, especially in south China. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) implemented land reforms in areas under its control even before 1949, and subsequently landlords and wealthy peasants became targets of party attack. Their elimination as a class was a major aim of the land reform movement begun under the Agrarian Reform Law of June 28, 1950. Collectivization of agriculture, which was accomplished in several stages, began about 1952. The first stage of land reform was characterized by mutual aid teams. The mutual aid system was kept simple at first, involving only the temporary sharing of labor and some capital; individual households remained the basic unit of ownership and production. In 1954 mutual aid teams were organized with increasing rapidity into agricultural producers' cooperatives, which differed from mutual aid teams in that tools, draft animals, and labor were shared on a permanent basis. Cooperative members retained ownership of their land but secured a share in the cooperative by staking their plots along with those of other members in the common land pool. By 1956 the transformation of mutual aid teams into agricultural cooperatives was nearly complete. By the end of that year, moreover, the great majority of cooperatives had moved to a still higher stage of collectivization, having become advanced producers' cooperatives. These cooperatives contrasted with those of the earlier stage in that members no longer earned income based on shares of land owned. Instead, collective farm profits were distributed to members primarily on the basis of labor contributions. The average cooperative was made up of 170 families and more than 700 people. Although small private plots were permitted, most of the land was owned collectively by the cooperative. Another development in this period was the establishment of state farms in which land became the property of the state.

Marshall Mission

George C. Marshall arrived in China on December 20, 1945. His goal was to unify the Nationalists and Communists with the hope that a strong, non-Communist China, would act as a bulwark against the encroachment of the Soviet Union. Immediately, Marshall drew both sides into negotiations which would occur for more than a year. Significant agreements failed to appear, as both sides used the time to further prepare themselves for the ensuing conflict. Both the communist and nationalist governments were riddled with corruption and had no intention of agreeing on anything that contradicted their ultimate goal, which proved to be a difficult feat to overcome during negotiations. In order to assist in brokering a ceasefire between the Nationalists and Communists, the sale of weapons and ammunition to the Nationalist forces were suspended between 29 July 1946 to May 1947. Finally, in February 1947, exasperated with the failure of the negotiations, Marshall left China. The failure of the Marshall Mission signaled the renewal of the Chinese Civil War. George Marshall returned to the United States and committed himself to the revitalization of Europe with the Marshall Plan in the role of United States Secretary of State, which became yet another roaring success in Marshall's distinguished career. By 1949, the Kuomintang was driven from the Chinese mainland into Taiwan by a victorious Communist Party, which established the People's Republic of China.

Deng Xiaoping

He was the paramount figure of the "second generation". After Chairman Mao Zedong's death, Deng led his country through far-reaching market-economy reforms.

Great Revolution for Proletarian Culture (Cultural Revolution)

In 1966, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in order to reassert his authority over the Chinese government. Believing that current communist leaders were taking the party and China, in the wrong direction. He called on the youth to purge the "impure" elements of Chinese society. The Revolution continued till 1976. A personality cult sprang up around Mao.

Gang of Four

Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen Leaders of the communist party Arrested after Mao Zedong's death

Four Modernizations

Industry, military, agriculture, and science

British East India Company

It was an English and later British joint-stock company, which was formed to pursue trade with the "East Indies", modern time Southeast Asia, but ended up trading mainly with Qing China and seizing control of the Indian subcontinent. From China, the Company brought tea, silk, and porcelain. The Chinese wanted silver in return. Over the next 100 years, tea became a very popular drink in England, and there was a fear that too much silver was leaving the country to pay for it. To stop this happening, the Company became involves in a triangular trade by smuggling opium from India into China. The Company grew opium in India. They were looking for something that the Chinese would accept instead of silver, to pay for the goods they bought at Canton. Opium was a valued medicine which could deaden pain, assist sleep and reduce stress. But it was also seriously addictive and millions of Chinese became dependent on the drug. Although opium smoking was a subject of fascinated horror for the Europeans, the Company actually encouraged people to use the drug in China- sales of opium were extremely lucrative. As a result, millions of Chinese would die from opium addiction, and the very fabric of Chinese society was threatened. After the Company's trade monopoly was abolished in 1834, smuggling of opium into China by Europeans private traders intensified. The Chinese state was deeply disturbed at this and threaten force. Britain was prepared to defend 'free trade' and, in 1840, they went to war. These 'Opium wars' led to a humiliating defeat of the Chinese and a trade treaty which ceded Hong Kong to the British.

Commissioner Lin Zexu

Leading Chinese scholar and official of the Qing dynasty, known for his role in the events leading up to the first Opium War between Britain and China. He was a proponent of the revitalization of traditional Chinese thought and institutions, a movement that became known as the 'Self-Strengthening Movement' In the middle of the 1830s, the Daoguang emperor became alarmed over the growth of the opium trade carried on by Britain and Chinese smugglers-both for the obvious moral reasons and for the more practical one that even illegal imports had to be paid for with the export of Chinese silver-Lin submitted a memorial condemning a suggestion that the trade be legalized. In support of his position, he cited the measures by which he had suppressed the drug traffic in the provinces of which he was then governor general. The emperor, who for almost two decades had vainly attempted to enforce the ban on the importation of opium, responded by appointing Lin imperial commissioner in late 1838, vesting him extraordinary powers. After an unusual 19 personal audiences with the emperor, Lin proceeded to Canton. His diary for this period survives and conveys a vivid picture of a Chinese official of the time at work: making the arduous journey from Beijing: perspiring in the heat of the Guangzhou's subtropical climate as he kowtows before the well-written instructions of the emperor: peremptorily summoning the British merchants and officials; vainly trying to make the corrupt Chinese officials, grown soft on the profits and use of opium, perform their duties; and composing an ode of apology to the god of the sea for defiling his ocean with confiscated opium. Lin was only too successful. He forced foreign merchants to surrender their stocks of opium for destruction and put pressure on them to guarantee that they would cease importing the cargo. Yet, when the British retaliated by ravaging large parts of South China, the emperor, who had personally approved Lin's tough policies, quickly dismissed him.

The Second Revolution (1979-)

Modernization transition after the cultural revolution led by Deng Xiaoping, with Four Modernizations policy.

"Development by China"

New type of strategic partnership with developing nations for resources Importing resources into China so as not to degrade their own environment nor deplete their own resources In places like south east asia and Africa where there are govts that need money and have govts that violate certain laws of the west, the Chinese don't care about that, they adopt a policy of non-interference. Example of the time→ Sudan, the govt was responsible for a genocide in the Darfur region Sudan had tremendous supplies of oil and the Chinese govt was the only one willing to help the Sudanese develop their industry Example→ Angola, referred to the UN as a beggar nation, but has a lot of off shore oil, the Chinese extended a 2-billion-dollar loan to help Angola to develop its oil industry China became a good leader in the eyes of developing nations

1911 Revolution

October 10, 1911 The nationalist democratic revolt that overthrew the Qing dynasty and created a republic. Ever since their conquest of China in the 17th century, most of the Manchu had lived in comparative idleness, supposedly a standing army occupation but in reality inefficient pensionaries. All through the 19th century, the dynasty had been declining, and upon the death of the empress dowager Cixi, it lost its last able leader. In 1911, the emperor Puyi was a child, and Regency was incompetent to guide the nation. The unsuccessful contests with foreign powers had shaken not only the dynasty but the entire machinery of government. The chain of events immediately leading to the revolution began when an agreement was signed with a four-power group of foreign bankers of the construction of lines on the Hukwang Railway in central China. The Beijing government decided to take over from a local company a line in Sichuan, on which construction had been barely begun, and to apply part of the loan to its completion. The sum offered did not meet the demands of the stockholders, and in September 1911, the dissatisfaction boiled over into open revolt. On October 10, in consequence of the uncovering of a plot in Hankou (now [along with Wuchang] part of Wuhan) that had little or no connection with the Sichuan episode, a mutiny broke out among the troops in Wuchang, and this is regarded as the formal beginning of the revolution. The mutineers soon captured the Wuchang mint and arsenal, and city after the city declared against the Qing government. The regent, panic-stricken, granted the assembly's demand for the immediate adoption of a constitution and urged a former viceroy, Yuan Shikai, to come out of retirement and save the dynasty. In November he was made premier. Had Yuan acted vigorously, he might have suppressed the uprising and so have delayed the inevitable. He dallied, however, and, by the end of the year, 14 provinces had declared against the Qing leadership. In several cities Manchu garrisons had been massacred, the regent had been forced out of office, a provisional republican government had been set up at Nanjing, and the arch-evolutionist Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan) had returned from abroad and had been elected provisional president.

"One Child Families"

One child policy-every family are only allowed to have one child due to the over-population in China. Introduced in 1979. It allowed exceptions for many groups, including ethnic minorities.

Red Guards

Paramilitary groups formed by students. They attacked and harassed members of China's elderly and intellectual population.

Imperial Bureaucracy

Refers to both a body of non-elective government officials and an administrative policy-making group. It was based on the teachings of Confucius. With each subsequent Dynasty, the bureaucracy evolved.

Red v. Expert Debate

Scientists and Chinese communists debating on economic and scientific development It escalated during the Cultural Revolutions. In the early 1950s, Chinese scientists, like other intellectuals, were subjected to regular indoctrination intended to replace bourgeois attitudes with those more suitable to the new society. The scientific establishment was attacked during the Cultural Revolution, causing major damage to China's science and technology.

Capitalist Roader

Someone who gets pressured from borguassie forces and tries to pull the revolution to the capitalist side

Three Bonds

Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationship and emphasize the chastity, filial piety, and loyalty ∆Ruler-Subject ∆Father-Son ∆Husband-Wife

Comintern

The Communist International, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization that advocated world communism. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State" It was founded after the 1915 Zimmerwald Conference in which Vladimir Lenin had organized the "Zimmerwald Left" against those who refused to approve any statement explicitly endorsing socialist revolutionary action and after the 1916 dissolution of the Second International. Marxist ideas started to spread widely in China after the 1919 May Fourth Movement, In June 1920, Comintern agent Grigori Vointinsky was sent to China, and met Li Dazhao and other reformers, He financed the founding of the Socialist Youth Corps. The Communist Party of China was initially founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in the French concession of Shanghai in 1921 as a study society and an informal network.

Establishment of the People's Republic of China

The communist victory in 1949 brought to power a peasant party that had learned its techniques in the countryside but had adopted the Marxist ideology and believed in class struggle and rapid industrial development. Extensive experience in running base areas and waging war before 1949 had given the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deeply ingrained operational habits and proclivities. The long civil war that created the new nation, however, had been one of the peasants triumphing over urban dwellers and had involved the destruction of the old ruling classes. In addition, the party leaders recognized that they had no experience in overseeing the transitions to socialism and industrialism that would occur in China's huge urban centers. For this, they turned to the only government with such experience—the Soviet Union. Western hostility against the People's Republic of China, sharpened by the Korean War, contributed to the intensity of the ensuing Sino-Soviet relationship. When the CCP proclaimed the People's Republic, most Chinese understood that the new leadership would be preoccupied with industrialization. A priority goal of the communist political system was to raise China to the status of a great power. While pursuing this goal, the "center of gravity" of communist policy shifted from the countryside to the city, but Chairman Mao Zedong insisted that the revolutionary vision forged in the rural struggle would continue to guide the party. In a series of speeches in 1949, Chairman Mao stated that his aim was to create a socialist society and, eventually, world communism. These objectives, he said, required transforming consumer cities into producer cities to set the basis on which "the people's political power could be consolidated." He advocated forming a four-class coalition of elements of the urban middle class—the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie—with workers and peasants, under the leadership of the CCP. The people's state would exercise a dictatorship "for the oppression of antagonistic classes" made up of opponents of the regime. The authoritative legal statement of this "people's democratic dictatorship" was given in the 1949 Organic Law for the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and at its first session, the conference adopted a Common Program that formally sanctioned the organization of state power under the coalition. Following the communist victory, a widespread urge to return to normality helped the new leadership restore the economy. Police and party cadres in each locality backed up by army units, began to crack down on criminal activities associated with an economic breakdown. Soon it was possible to speak of longer-term developmental plans. The cost of restoring order and building up integrated political institutions at all levels throughout the country proved important in setting China's course for the next two decades. Revolutionary priorities had to be made consonant with other needs. Land reform did proceed in the countryside: landlords were virtually eliminated as a class, the land was redistributed, and, after some false starts, China's countryside was placed on the path toward collectivization. In the cities, however, a temporary accommodation was reached with noncommunist elements; many former bureaucrats and capitalists were retained in positions of authority in factories, businesses, schools, and governmental organizations. The leadership recognized that such compromises endangered their aim of perpetuating revolutionary values in an industrializing society, yet out of necessity they accepted the lower priority for communist revolutionary goals and a higher place for organizational control and enforced public order. Once in power, communist cadres could no longer condone what they had once sponsored, and inevitably they adopted a more rigid and bureaucratic attitude toward popular participation in politics. Many communists, however, considered these changes a betrayal of the revolution; their responses gradually became more intense, and the issue eventually began to divide the once cohesive revolutionary elite. That development became a central focus of China's political history from 1949.

Special Economic Zones (SEZs)

The government of China gives SEZs special (more free market-oriented) economic policies and flexible governmental measures. This allows SEZs to utilize an economic management system that is more attractive for foreign and domestic firms to do business in than the rest of mainland China. (Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shanto, Xiamen, Kashgar) In 1984, China opened 14 other coastal cities to overseas investment (listed north to south): Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, and Beihai. Then, beginning in 1985, the central government expanded the coastal area by establishing the following open economic zones (listed north to south): Liaodong Peninsula, Hebei Province (which surrounds Beijing and Tianjin), Shandong Peninsula, Yangtze River Delta, Xiamen-Zhangzhou-Quanzhou Triangle in southern Fujian Province, Pearl River Delta, and Guangxi.

Co-Hong

The guild of Chinese merchants authorized by the central government to trade with Western merchants at Guangzhou (Canton) prior to the first opium war (1839-42). A system was established in the 1740s that required each foreign ship arriving at Guangzhou to be supervised by a hong merchant, who would guarantee to the Chinese government the payment of all duties and the proper behavior of the foreign traders. When Guangzhou became the only Chinese port open to foreign trade (1757), the hong merchants were the only merchants in Guangzhou who were permitted to sell tea and silk to the Westerners. Although the hong merchants were subject to heavy exactions from officials, a few, such as Howqua (also called Wu Bingjian), accumulated great wealth.

Cult of Mao

This personality cult was fuelled by the fanaticism of the Red Guards, pro-Mao propaganda and the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) control of information. Mao's leadership - or, more precisely, public perceptions of his leadership - made him the subject of respect and adoration. The cult of Mao intensified during the Cultural Revolution. During this period the Chairman was depicted as an ideological visionary, a political genius, a guardian of his people and a kindly and benevolent leader. Mao's achievements were exaggerated and glorified, while his shortcomings were suppressed or concealed. The failings and brutalities of Mao-era China were concealed or explained away and blamed on others. Meanwhile, as this personality cult intensified, Mao's power over the party and his control of China both increased.

hukou

govt household registration system that limits where a person is allowed to live, work and go to school, consolidates govt control over the population

"Radish communist"

When you say your communist but you're really not Stalin accused Mau of being Radish Red on the outside, white on the inside In Mao's view, Stalin had provided considerable support to Chiang Kai-shek's effort to unite China

Jiang Qing

Wife of Mao Part of the Gang of Four Deputy Director of the Central Cultural Revolution Group Great influence during Cultural Revolution Arrested by Hua Guofeng in 1976

Bo Xilai

corrupt person, Jingping's competitor and was arrested by the current govt of xi jinping.

Fifth Modernization

essay by human rights activist Wei Jingsheng, originally begun as a signed wall poster Called on the communist party to add democracy to the list of four modernizations, if it truly wants to be a modern nation

Tiananmen Massacre

student-led demonstrations in Beijing, the protests were forcibly suppressed after the govt declared martial law, troops with assault rifles and tanks killed several hundred demonstrators trying to block military entrance into the square Students were initially upset bc of the influx of Japanese products into the market and then the protests escalated Students called for democracy, greater accountability, freedom of the press, freedom of speech The govt cracked down and their mission was to kill and cripple, they burned bodies so that no one would know the true body count

TPP

transpacific partnership

Mao's Five Points

∆Gain mass support ∆Be self-sufficient ∆Secure position away from the enemy ∆Establish a support approach ∆Military

Three People's Principles

三民主义 It is the ideological basis of the political program of the Chinese Nationalist leader Sun Yat-sen, championing the principle of nationalism, democracy, and socialism. *Nationalism*: meant the opposition to the Qing dynasty and to foreign imperialism *Democracy*: by allowing the Chinese people to control their own government through such devices as election, initiative, referendum, and recall then rights of the people could be achieved *Socialism*: idea of equalization of land ownership through a just system of taxation

May 4th Movement

五四运动 May 4th, 1919 It was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student participants in Beijing, protesting against the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially allowing Japan to receive territories in Shandong which had been surrendered by Germany after Siege of Tsingtao. 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 a populist base rather than intellectual elites. Many political and social leaders of the next decades emerged at this time. As a part of this movement, a campaign had been undertaken to reach the common people; mass meetings were half throughout the country, and more than 400 new publications were begun to spread the new thought. As a result, the decline of traditional ethics and the family system was accelerated, the emancipation of women gathered momentum, a vernacular literature emerged, and the modernized intelligentsia became a major factor in China's subsequent political developments. The movement also spurred successful reorganization of the Nationalist Party (GMD), later ruled by Chiang Kai-shek and stimulated the birth of the Chinese Communist Party as well.

Confucianism

儒家 The way of life propagated by Confucius and followed by the Chinese people for more than two millennia. Sometimes viewed as a philosophy and sometimes as a religion. It is a worldview, a social ethic, a political ideology, a scholarly tradition and a way of life. Its primary purpose is to achieve harmony, the most important social value. "Ren" or humanity is the central ethical principle, following the statement: *Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself* *It strongly emphasizes*: ∆Mercy ∆Social Order ∆Fulfillment of Responsibility *Five Cardinal Relations*: ∆Soveregin-Subject ∆Father-Son ∆Elder-Younger Brother ∆Husband-Wife ∆Friend-Friend These bonds are categorized in ways that show respect and obedience from one group to the next. The family is the center and comes before the individual. *The Five Virtues*: ∆"Ren" or Humanity: Humaneness can be defined as the quality of compassion for others, which can include both people and animals. Three of the key concept are love, mercy, and humanity ∆"Yi" or honesty or righteousness ∆"Li" or propriety and correct behavior ∆"Zhi" or wisdom or knowledge ∆"Xin" or fidelity and sincerity These Five Virtues teach the followers the basic ideas about how a person should behave

Warlords

军阀 Independent military commander in China in the early and mid-20th century. They ruled various parts of the country following the death of Yuan Shikai, who had served as the first president of the Republic of China from 1912-1916. Yuan's power had come from his position as head of the Beiyang Army, which was the only major modern military force in China at the time. His conduct of the government through a reliance on military power rather than parliamentary methods made him the "father of the warlords"; at least 10 of the major warlords that came to power in the 1920s had originally served as officers in his Beiyang Army. The other warlords achieved power by backing either of various provincial military interests or foreign powers, most notably Japan. New factions and alliances constantly ensured that no one warlord ever became powerful enough to destroy all the rest. As a result, few warlords were able to extend their power over more than one or two provinces. Nevertheless, a major cleavage developed between warlord groups after Yuan's death.

Guomindang (GMD)

国民党 China's largest revolutionary and Republican party. The primary mission was to unify China under a republican government. For by Sun Yat Sen and his followers in 1912, the Guomindang was the largest party in both houses of the National Assembly, China's newly formed legislature. But when autocratic president Yuan Shikai rendered the assembly powerless and dissolved it, he also declared the GMD an illegal organization. Forced into exile, the GMD and its leaders launched a 15-year struggle to reunify Chinese and restore a truly republican government. The GMD developed its own military arm, the National Revolutionary Army, which finally achieved reunification in 1927-28. Lead by Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek), the GMD was able to form a national government and rule China until the Japanese occupation in the late 1930s. The origins of the Guomindang can be found in nationalist political clubs, literary societies and reform groups that were active in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Inside China these groups were small, secretive and did little other than talk; outside China they were more active and visible, populated by Chinese students and expatriates. Two important seedling groups were Sun Yixian's Xingzhonghui (Revive China Society), which called for the expulsion of foreigners and the formation of a unified Chinese government, and the Tongmenghui (Chinese Revolutionary Alliance), which promoted the overthrow of the Manchus and the introduction of land reform. These groups fuelled political radicalism and nationalism in China, ideas that contributed to the Xinhai or 1911 Revolution that eventually toppled the Qing dynasty. Though the Guomindang was not yet formed, many of its future members participated in the December 1911 congress in Nanjing, where Sun Yixian was elected president of a new Chinese republic.

Scholar-Gentry Class

士大夫 Scholar-officials, or Literati. Are civil servants appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance from the Han Dynasty to Qing Dynasty. These scholar-gentry earned academic degrees by passing the imperial examinations. These scholars were schooled in calligraphy and Confucian texts.

Qing (Manchu) Dynasty

大清 The last imperial dynasty of China, established by Manchus to designate their regime in Manchuria in 1636 and ruling China from 1644-1912. In 1644, the Chinese capital at Beijing was captured by the rebel leader Li Zicheng, and the desperate Ming dynasty officials called on the Manchus for aid. The Manchus took advantage of the opportunity to seize the capital and established their own dynasty in China.

Mandate of Heaven

天命 "Heavenly Son" The idea that there could be only one legitimate ruler of China at a time, and that this ruler had the blessing of the gods. The intrinsic concept gave the right of rebellion against an unjust ruler. If a ruler was overthrown, this was interpreted as an indication that ruler was unworthy, and had lost the mandate. It was created during the Zhou Dynasty, which allowed them to justify their overthrowing of the Shang and their subsequent rule.

Confucius

孔子 Circa 551-478 BCE Chinese philosopher who was considered China's most influential scholar. He created Confucianism, that later became the philosophical teaching in China and other Eastern Asian countries. His teachings, preserved in the Analects, focused on creating ethical models of family and public interaction and setting educational standards.

Kang Youwei

康有为 When China was defeated by Japan in 1895, Kang mobilized hundreds of provincial graduates then in Beijing to protest against the humiliating peace terms and to petition for far-reaching reforms to strengthen the empire. To arouse the people to the dangers confronting China, he and his associates published newspapers and founded the Society for the Study of National Strengthening, the archetype of political parties in modern China. The society was suppressed in 1896. In 1898, when foreign powers threatened to partition China, Kang and his followers suggested an alliance with Britain and Japan to check Russia's advance and insisted that only institutional reforms could save China. He urged the clearing of channels for the expression of public opinion, the convocation of assemblies, and even the acceptance of popular sovereignty and the separation of state powers, and he organized the Society to Preserve the Nation to marshal support. Finally, he prevailed upon the Guangxu emperor to launch the reform program. Among the many measures that were promulgated were streamlining the government, strengthening the armed forces, creating new standards in the civil service examination system, developing commerce and industry, promoting local self-government, and opening Peking University and modern schools. The reform measures were annulled, however, when the dowager empress Cixi reasserted control. The emperor was placed in confinement, six of the reform leaders, including Kang's brother, were executed, and scores were arrested. Kang and Liang Qichao escaped to Japan. Unable to persuade the Japanese and British governments to intervene for the emperor, Kang went to Canada and founded the China Reform Association (Zhongguo Weixinhui; popularly known as the Save the Emperor Association and in 1907 renamed the Constitutional Party) to carry on his plans. After the failure of the revolts instigated by the reformers in 1900 in Anhui and Hubei provinces to restore the emperor, Kang resumed his writing in exile. His most significant work completed at this time was The Great Commonwealth (Datongshu), in which he envisaged a utopian world attainable through successive stages of human development, a world where the barriers of race, religion, state, class, sex, and family would be removed and where there would be an egalitarian, communal society under a universal government. Kang emerged from his retreat in 1903. To help the overseas Chinese and to unite them in a common effort, he and his colleagues founded an international business firm and established schools and newspapers. These activities, conducted in the United States, Mexico, Japan, and Southeast Asia, brought them into sharp competition with the Chinese revolutionists. During his exile, Kang traveled extensively. His stay in Europe and his study of Western history moved him to shun the violence and destructiveness of revolution as means of political change, and he proposed as an alternative course the promotion of science, technology, and industry to rebuild China. After his return in 1913 to a weak and troubled China, he was soon involved in the campaign to thwart the monarchical scheme of the Chinese statesman Yuan Shikai. In 1917, in line with his idea of a constitutional monarchy to bridge the transition to a truly democratic republic, he participated in the abortive restoration of the Qing ruler. In the years that followed, animated by the fear of a divided country, he opposed the South China government of the revolutionary leader Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925). He called for the preservation of the best of China's heritage and the establishment of a reformed Confucian church to provide the people with spiritual guidance. Partisan writers have criticized him for holding to these views. In his later years, he renewed his philosophic reflections, completing his last book, The Heavens, in which he blended astronomy with his own metaphysical musing, a year before his death at Qingdao in 1927.

Thought Reform

思想改造 A campaign of the Communist Party of China to reform the thinking of Chinese citizens into accepting Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought (Maoism) from 1951-1952. Techniques employed included indoctrination, "struggle sessions," propaganda, criticism and self-criticism, and a variety of other techniques. The Thought Reform Movement first began in September 1951, following a speech by premier Zhou Enlai calling for intellectuals to reform their thought. The People's Daily called for teachers and college staff to "arm oneself with the thought of Marxism-Leninism" and "throw away the vulgar perspectives of individualism and liberalism, and the cultural thought of European-American reactionary bourgeoisie". Intellectuals who studied overseas were forced to confess to their role as "implementers of the imperialist cultural invasion", while writers across the country were ordered to study Mao's speech "Talk at Yan'an Forum on Literature and Arts" and engage in self-criticism. During the movement, many school curricula were restructured, with science and engineering adapting the Soviet models, while courses seen as "pseudo-bourgeoisie" such as sociology, political science, and economics were abolished.

New Democracy

新民主主义 A concept based on Mao Zedong's "Bloc of Four Social Classes" theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a decisively distinct path, much different from that of the liberal capitalist and parliamentary democratic systems in the western world as well as Soviet-style communism in Eastern Europe. As time passed, the New Democracy concept was adapted to other countries and regions with similar justifications. Once New Democracy has been established in the way Mao's theory outlines, the country is subsequently claimed to be ideologically socialist and working towards communism under the leadership of its leading communist party, and its people are actively involved in the construction of socialism. Examples are the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution for what Mao viewed as the participatory democracy inherent in the New Democracy concept. According to the theory, the construction continues to happen even as the country itself may maintain and practice many aspects of capitalism, such as a market-based economy (usually called a socialist market economy), for purposes of rapid economic growth. However, it is usually these "lesser evil" aspects of New Democracy that prompts many non-Maoist communists to criticize it as precisely not the way to achieve communism. Because of New Democracy's nature as an "intermediate stage", it is considered a stepping-stone to socialism—an essentially two-stage theory of first New Democracy, then the dictatorship of the proletariat ("socialism"). Given that the self-proclaimed ultimate goal of socialist construction is the creation of a stateless, classless and moneyless communist society, adding the New Democratic Revolution as a prerequisite stage arguably makes the whole process of the Revolution a three-stage theory: first New Democracy, then socialism, then communism.

Li Dazhao

李大钊 1888-1927 He was a co-founder of the Chinese Communist Party and mentor of Mao Zedong. Inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Li began to study and lecture on Marxism, influencing many students who later became important communist leaders, including Mao Zedong (then an impoverished student whom Li had employed as a library clerk). When the Marxist study groups that Li had created evolved into the formally organized CCP in July 1921, he was instrumental in carrying out the policy dictated by the Communist International and in effecting cooperation between the minuscule CCP and the national leader Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist Party (Guomindang). As a party leader, Li's role was limited to North China. In 1927 he was seized at the Soviet embassy in Beijing, where he had taken refuge, by the Manchurian warlord Zhang Zuolin, who had him hanged. A seminal Chinese Marxist thinker, Li was more party theoretician than party leader. Like most of the Chinese communists of his day, he was intensely nationalistic before he embraced Marxism. Li was unwilling to wait for the international proletarian revolution to occur in the West and liberate China, and he was convinced that China's small urban working class was unable to carry out the revolution by itself. Because of these views, he disregarded or played down the doctrine of proletarian class struggle presented in Marxism-Leninism. The communist revolution, in Li's conception, became a populist revolution against the exploitation and oppression of foreign imperialism, with an overwhelming emphasis on the central role of China's impoverished peasantry. In a country that was seething with national resentment against foreign aggression, chafing at its own backwardness, and composed chiefly of peasants, Li's ideas had decisive relevance and formed the core of the thinking of Mao Zedong, who later formulated the military strategy by which the peasantry could carry out its revolution. After his death Li became the most venerated of Chinese communist martyrs.

First United Front (1923-1927)

联俄容共 1923-1927 KMT-CPC was formed in 1923 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revolutionary Army and set out in 1926 on the Northern Expedition. The CPC joined the KMT as individuals, making use of the KMT's superiority in numbers to help spread communism. The KMT, on the other hand, wanted to control the communists from within. Both parties had their own aims and the Front was unsustainable. The Soviet Union had its own interests in supporting the Kuomintang. The Bolsheviks, in exchange for their help, demanded that the Kuomintang form an alliance with the Chinese communists. Moscow was not convinced that the communist party alone would be able to complete the revolution in the country, which was thought to be ready for communism right after the bourgeoisie destroyed the old Chinese dynastic system. China's newly founded communist party had only a few hundred members at the beginning of the 1920s, whereas the Kuomintang had over 50,000. The idea was that the communists would gain broader support by joining the common front with the nationalists, after which they would eventually take over from the Kuomintang. At the request of the Russians, the Chinese communists—among them Mao Zedong—became members of the Kuomintang, and thus the first coalition of the two parties was born. With the help of the Soviet Union the Kuomintang did succeed in gaining more support, and with renewed vehemence, it continued to vigorously pursue its goal—the unification of the republic. Securing its grip on southern China, the Kuomintang was ready to unite the country by launching a military campaign against the North. The coalition with the communists, however, was a forced union, held together only by their common enemies: the warlords and imperialism. After the death of Sun Yat-Sen in 1925 cooperation began to weaken, and the right wing of the Kuomintang soon put an end to the brotherhood with the Soviet Union and the Chinese communists. The United Front, however, continued officially until 1945, when, at the end of World War II, talks on unification between the two sides broke down, and a full-scale civil war ensued between the communists and the KMT.

Chen Duxiu

陈独秀 1897-1942 A founder of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and a major leader in developing the cultural basis of a revolution in China. The Russian Revolution of 1917 impressed Chen as a way of modernizing an underdeveloped country, and shortly after his release, he was converted to Marxism in Shanghai. There in May 1920, with a handful of followers, Chen founded a communist group and prepared to establish the Chinese Communist Party. In July 1921 the first representative conference of the CCP was held, and Chen was elected as secretary-general. (The founding date of the CCP was officially set later in July 1921 by the party leadership.) He remained in that post as the party's undisputed leader for seven years, often regarded as "China's Lenin." In December 1920, in an effort to promote his communist views, Chen accepted the invitation of the rebel military governor of Guangdong province to become head of the education board of the provincial government in Guangzhou (Canton). In the fall of 1922, Chen established the influential Xiangdao Zhoubao ("Guide Weekly") as a successor to the "New Youth," which he had converted into a communist organ two years earlier. After his attendance at the Fourth Congress of the Comintern (the international organization of communist parties) in Moscow in November-December 1922, Chen reluctantly carried out the order of the Comintern to head his party's collaboration with the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), founded by Sun Yat-sen; he was elected to that party's Central Committee in January 1924. A year later, when the Nationalists' right wing launched its attack on the communists, Chen repeatedly proposed to withdraw en masse from the Nationalist Party but was overruled by the Comintern. After the collaboration collapsed in 1927, the Comintern blamed Chen for the failure of the alliance with the Nationalists and had him removed from his position of leadership. In November 1929 he was expelled from the party. For several years, with the support of the Chinese Trotskyists and other communist dissenters, he tried to regain influence in the party but failed. A fearless protester, Chen rejected China's traditional values and saw Marxism as a means to achieve a "mass democracy" with the broad laboring masses as its base. He recognized, however, the significant role played by the bourgeoisie in the Chinese revolution that he hoped to achieve. During the last years of his life, Chen, still a socialist, denounced Joseph Stalin's dictatorship and defended such democratic institutions as an independent nonpartisan judiciary, opposition parties, the free press, and free elections.