China: Unit 9Part One

Hannah Ibele

Before the Revolution

• 2 groups emerged from divisions: GMD or the National People’s Party (led by Chiang Kai-shek) and the communists (led by Mao Zedong)

• Both organized armies• Both idolized Sun Yat-sen and accepted the 3 People’s

Principles • Chiang supported businessmen and alliances with

foreign countries• Mao supported peasants and stressed the importance

of community organization

The Struggle for PowerChiang Kai-shek/GMD

• Had conservative values and a diverse array of professional connection

• Commander-in-chief of GMD’s National Revolutionary Army

• Fought against the warlords, Japanese, and communists

• Foreigners made lots of investments• 1920s – unionization of workers led

to violence from employers• Had many early military victories, but

alienated the peasants and the communists won them over

Mao Zedong/Communist Party• Goals: strong unified china,

improvement of people’s livelihood• Personal experience limited to China• Little experience in Western business• Organized peasants and workers with

local solutions, little industrialization, and appropriate rural technology

• Peasants violently overthrew landlord• Long March: guerilla army• Improved women’s lives, no selling

them for wives• Leadership remained mostly male

The Long March and the Fight against the Japanese

• Communists attacked by GMD, Mao led 80,000 men and 35 women on a strategic retreat (370 days, 6000 miles)

• Mao became the unquestionable leader of communist party and army during the march

• Established a capital in Yan’an and rebuilt soviet structure (redistributed land, encouraged handicrafts, arts, and schools)

• Peasant-centered economy with dictatorial, benevolent leadership• Communists fought guerilla-style against Japanese• Jiang seemed less nationalistic than Mao and less willing to fight the Japanese, more

willing to compromise• Jiang cooperated with communists to fight Japan after being kidnapped by

communists (1936)• Temporary truce in 1945, then brutal civil war resumed• 1945: Communist forces defeat GMD• By 1949, GMD members are driven to Taiwan out of China

Policies of Communist China• Most important: redistribute land, women can hold land, use appropriate

technology, produce and equally distribute basic necessities, universal literacy• Social networks supported by government suppressed vices (Opium use,

prostitution)• “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom” (1956-1957)

– 5 year plan to double industrial output– Public expression and gov’t critacism encouraged– Late 1957: Policies shifted to squash protests

• The “Great Leap Forward” (1957-1960)– Terminated small enterprise, people moved to farms– Economic catastrophe– Local small scale industries

• Cultural Revolution (1966-1969)– Remove bureaucrats from party– Red Guard formed by army and students, professors etc, exiled to villages– Little Red Book published, creativity squashed, economic chaos, anarchy reigned

Recovery and International Relations

• Red Guard suppressed, relations with the United States improved• Industrialization, steel production increased• Agriculture neglected, barely enough produced to feed country, growing population• Relations with USSR

– Fought over ideology– 1960: USSR recalled technical advisors to China– No diplomatic relations after 1962– 1985 – diplomatic relations normalize (Gorbachev)

• Relations with United States– Began with hostility – 1970s – Mao and Nixon normalize relations

• Relations with E. Asia– Fear and resented neighbor, many Chinese minorities murdered

• Relations with India– India and China both see themselves on the top of the third world