Communism in Crisis: PRC

1. Communism in Crisis: PRC

3. Mao Review (Paper 2) • Mao & Maoism: • Ideology • Cult of Personality • Propaganda • Rise to Power: • Civil War • Vs. Chiang Kai-shek & Nationalists • Long March • Foundation of the PRC: 1949 • Hundred Flowers Campaign • Domestic Policies: • Collectivization of Agriculture & Land Reform • Industrialization • 5 Year Plans • Great Leap Forward (GLF) • Great Leap Backward? • Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution • Red Guard • Four Olds: thought (or philosophy), culture, customs and habits • 10 Lost Years • Foreign Policies: • WWII • Korean War • Sino-Soviet Split • The Red Triangle: • The Party: • Chinese Communist Party (CCP or CPC) • The Army: • People’s Liberation Army (PLA) • The State: • President / General Secretary • National People’s Council • Administration of party directives

4. Leadership within the PRC: • 1949-1976: Mao was the key power player • After GPCR, Mao took a step back for • Successors.. • Premiers… • Vice Chairmen… • Messy after 1976 • Since 1993: sole candidate for the Presidency = the General Secretary of the Communist Party

7. 1960s • Liu Shaoqi = Chairman of PRC, 1959-68 • Mao = still a powerplayer • Central committee • Trouble in Communist Paradise? • Allow peasants to grow on small, individual plots and make local crafts to sell at rural markets • Capitalism??? • Counter famines of GLF • Deng Xiaoping – Openly challenged Mao • Mao countered with: Socialist Education Movement • Placed Liu in charge • Mao gained the support of Lin Biao – Head of PLA • Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution • 10 Lost Years • Lin Biao = named as Mao’s successor…

8. Project 5-7-1 &The Lin Biao Incident • Lin Biao & son Lin Liguo(air force official) • Planned Coup in 1971 • Plot to assassinate Mao • How much did Mao know? • Zhou Enlai was investigating • Attempt to flee to USSR? • Plane Crash in Mongolia • …sure, sure, they ran out of fuel… • Response: • Mao = purged more than 1,000 senior officials at or above the rank of army commander • Power struggle between Zhou Enlai & Gang of Four • Manipulation of Lin Biao’s image / propaganda • Mao’s 1st stroke

9. 1976 • Death of Zhou Enlai • But he was the new designated successor…. • Qingming festival • Chinese Population = publicly mourns Zhou and supports Deng and indirectly criticize Mao and the Gang of Four • Unexpected • Take down celebration materials (flowers, poems) • Public reaction  Open criticism • Military actions • Mao turns on Deng Zhou Enlai @ Bandung Conference, 1955 • Next? • -Deng Xiaoping • HuaGuofeng • Jiang Qing & Gang of Four

10. Vying for Power • Death of Mao: 9/9/1976 • “Rise of the Gang of Four” • Jiang Qing (1914–91) = Mao’s wife • Ministry of Culture, 1950s • Control of Media • Propaganda during GPCR • Planned coup • Use influence over the media, urban militia and universities • Made HuaGuofang a target • Mao’s heir apparent • Coup = discovered • Arrested • Discredited • Trials • Jail • Purge followers • Hua = Chairman • three charges: • to be Mao’s successor • to rehabilitate Deng • to engage in modernization • Deng = in charge of modernization

11. HuaGuafeng: 1976-1981 • Success: Defeating the Gang of Four • Failure: Policy of the Two Whatevers • "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave" • Leadership challenge by Deng • 1980: Hua = Ousted • Hua's time in office was "just a transition, not an epoch: his policies were a continuation of the late Mao, and there was nothing original about him“ • Dies in 1981 • 1979: Met w/ Thatcher in UK to discuss Hong Kong

12. Deng Xiaoping the Pragmatist • Moderate & Pragmatic • By comparison to Madame Mao (not by western standards) • Victim of GPCR • “Rehabilitated” • Mentor Zhou Enlai • Placed in charge of 10 Year Plan by HuaGuofeng • Outs Hua in 1980

13. Ten Year Plan • Announced by HuaGuofeng in 1978 • Goal = compete with the West • Deng = put in charge of political changes • Opening up of China to the West • provided capital • Extensive infrastructure development • Electricity, rail roads, water transport • Focused on economic sectors with a heavy industry • Steel production • Goals for natural resource extractions • oil, petroleum, coal and non ferrous-metals… • Too ambitious, too costly • 1979 = goals modified • Focus on the Four Modernizations: • Agriculture • Industry • science and technology • military 

14. Four Modernizations • Economic priorities • Established by Zhou Enlai in 1975 • Gain support under Deng in 1978 • New focus: • Not class struggle • Not revolution • Increase internal growth • Export oriented • Improve Sci/Tech • Only by matching the West in terms of economic growth and technological advancement could China hope to emerge as a great power once again • Four Modernizations • Defense • Agriculture • Industry • Sci-Tech

15. 1978: Open to foreign investors (the West) Some level of capitalism to help China develop • 1970s China = still an economically undeveloped • Argued that a true socialist revolution could not occur until a bourgeois revolution had first taken place

16. SEZ: Special Economic Zones: Self-contained, Foreign investment TVE: Town and Village Enterprises  Small businesses, entrepreneurial spirit 1978 = 100,000 small businesses 1985 = 17 million 1992 = 20 million TVEs employing 100 million people

22. Tiananmen Square: 1989 • Student Protests & Government Reprisals • "fascists stop killing • “down with the government“ • The greatest challenge to the communist state in China since the 1949 revolution • International outrage

24. H.W. Bush's Secret Letter to Deng • Why is Bush writing the letter (Purpose?) • Why is this a secret letter? • Fang Lizhi • “China’s best-known dissident” laopengyou = old friend

26. Communism in Crisis: PRC • Mao: Paper 2 Review: • Mao & Maoism: • Ideology • Cult of Personality • Propaganda • Rise to Power: • Civil War • Vs. Chiang Kai-shek & Nationalists • Long March • Foundation of the PRC: 1949 • Hundred Flowers Campaign • Domestic Policies: • Collectivization of Agriculture & Land Reform • Industrialization • 5 Year Plans • Great Leap Forward (GLF) • Great Leap Backward? • Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) • Red Guard • Four Olds: thought (or philosophy), culture, customs and habits • 10 Lost Years • Foreign Policies: • WWII • Korean War • Sino-Soviet Split • The Red Triangle: • The Party: Chinese Communist Party (CCP or CPC) • The Army: People’s Liberation Army (PLA) • The State: President / General Secretary, National People’s Council, Administration of party directives • Paper 2 Questions: • With reference to two examples each chosen from a different region, to what extent do you agree with the claim that ideology was the most important factor in the rise to power of single-party leaders? • Evaluate the successes and failures one ruler of a single-party state • Compare and contrast the economic and social policies of Mao and Stalin • Historiography: • Marxism: 1920s • PRC Institutionalized Party Historiography: Mao-centrism (40s & 50s), Cultural Revolution Propaganda (60s & 70s) Post Cultural Revolution/post-death of Mao • Western Sympathetic: 1937 Red Star over China by an American journalist, Edgar Snow • Revisionism/Post-Revisionism: John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, Jonathan Spence,Chang and Halliday (critical)

27. Deng Xiaoping the Pragmatist