Emergent Nationalism in Asia

Chinese Domestic Policies: 1950-1976

In the following lesson we examine:

• Consequences of the Hundred Flowers Campaign

• Causes and effects of the Great Leap Forward

• The short and long-term effects of the Cultural Revolution

OVERVIEW

Context Question: After gaining absolute power, what steps did Stalin and Hitler take to consolidate their rule?

The Hundred Flowers

After the civil war, the CCP and the Chinese government turned its attention to reconstruction. Chairman Mao’s Hundred Flowers Movement was intended to permit a forum for discussion of party policies. What were the major consequences?

• Scientists, writers and intellectuals were called upon to criticize the new socialist system: – "Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred

schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land."

• On billboards and in newspapers, they heavily criticized the party’s monopoly of power

Criticism

Hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, intellectuals and party officials experienced:

• Public humiliation• Imprisonment• Torture• Execution

Punishment and fear

The Hundred Flowers campaign resulted in:

• An increase in CCP membership• Promotion of politically loyal party

members

Expansion and obedience

The effects of Soviet-style economic planning were largely positive in terms

of collective farming but industrial growth was slow. As a result, Mao

established several key goals in the Second Five-Year Plan of 1958-1963

The Great Leap Forward

Under the Great Leap Forward:

• Collective farms would be consolidated into regional communes

• Workers would be sent to the countryside to create light industry for consumer goods

• Heavy industry would surpass British steel production in 15 years

Although Soviet advisors and party officials warned of potential failure, the

government went ahead. Why was massive human labour unable to meet the goals of the Great Leap Forward?

Peasants

Poorly educated

Unable to produce high quality steel

Forced to sell all food to the state

Lacked motivation and ownership

Diverted from fields to work in

industries

Lowered agricultural

output

By the end of 1960, the program was considered a complete failure. What were some of the major effects?

• Iron production dropped below 1958 levels

• Widespread famine killed an estimated 14-20 million

• Social services expanded into the countryside

• Private enterprise and de-collectivization were introduced

• Mao stepped down from power to avoid embarrassment

Why might the Soviet Five Year Plans have been more successful than the

Great Leap Forward?

In response to both his loss of influence and fears of China’s return to middle-class capitalism, Mao called upon students to engage into a permanent revolution of the masses in 1966.

The Cultural Revolution

Students formed groups which became loosely organized as the Red Guards, targeting the “Four Olds”:

• Old Customs• Old Culture• Old Habits• Old Ideas

What external factors might also have influenced Mao to reject “old” ideas?

In following these goals, what aspects of Chinese society were affected?

• “Struggle sessions” put counter revolutionaries on public trial

• “Rightist” intellectuals and party officials were sent for “re-education”

• Religious institutions were burned down and destroyed

• Books and cultural artifacts were destroyed

By 1967, China was immersed in political and economic chaos:

• Industrial workers joined the Red Guards

• Red Guard groups created local ruling councils

• Competing Red Guard groups fought each other

• Workers in Shanghai attempted to create their own government

In late 1967, the People’s Liberation Army was called to end the unrest.

After Mao’s death in 1976, moderate elements within the CCP moved

against the radical groups that had supported the Cultural Revolution.

In its aftermath:• The “Gang of Four” was put on trial • An estimated 400,000-500,000 died• Entrance exams were not re-

instituted until 1979• Intellectuals who survived “re-

education” left China

• What was the significant legacy of the Hundred Flowers Campaign?

• Why was the Great Leap Forward a failure?

• What were the social and economic costs of the Cultural Revolution?

• In what ways were China’s domestic policies similar or different to Soviet domestic policies?

SUMMARY QUESTIONS