Communism Spreads in East Asia

30.3

China’s Communist Revolution

• Communist Revolution in 1949– Mao Zedong – communist

forces• Won support from the poor

peasants• Set up “People’s Republic of

China”• 1950 – captured Tibet, Dalai

Lama forced to flee (religious leader)

– Jiang Jieshi (Chaing Kai Shek) – nationalists• Support from the West• Lost fled to the island of

Taiwan

Changing Chinese Society

• One-party totalitarian state• Discouraged religion – Buddhism, Confucianism• Govt seized property of citizens (landowners and

business owners)• Political opponents beaten, sent to labor camps,

or killed• Financial support from Soviets• Forced collectivization (pooling of peasant land

and labor)

The Great Leap Forward

• Great Leap Forward (1958-1960): urged a huge effort to increase farm and industrial output– Communes (several villages,

thousands of acres, 25,000 people) industrial/agricultural efficiency

– Epic Fail!– Cut food output…no incentives for

individuals…neglect of farmland and food shortages

– Terrible famine– 55 million Chinese starved to death

Cultural Revolution• Cultural Revolution (1966) –

purge China of “bourgeois” tendencies (propertied middle class)– Urged young to experience

revolution– “little red book” – quotes from

Chairman Mao– Red Guards attacked bourgeois

• Beaten, killed• Skilled workers and managers forced

to leave jobs and do manual labor on farms or labor camps

– Schools and factories closed

Playing the “China Card”

• Relations between the S.U. and China were tense

• U.S. used this tension to drive wedge between the 2 communist govt’s– 1972 – Nixon visited Mao in

China– 1979 – US set up diplomatic

relations w/ China

Korean War• N. Korea – Communist (backed by SU)• S. Korea – Democratic (backed by US)• Before WW2, NK controlled by Japan– After WW2, US and SU agreed to divide at 38th parallel

• Both N and S wanted to rule entire country– June 1950 – NK attacked– US organized UN force to help SK

• Pushed back NK all the way to the border w/ China• China worried…sent troops to help NK…forced SK back across 38th

parallel

• Stalemate – 1953 both signed armistice (agreement to end fighting)– Troops still stationed on either side of DMZ (demilitarized zone)