Communist China: Mao Zedong

History of China• The Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901: against European and

US control of China) is defeated in 1901.• Chinese Republic proclaimed in 1912 after the abdication

of the child-emperor• Yuan Shikai (a warlord) seizes power from 1912 to 1916• Dr Sun Yat-Sen, leader of the Kuomintang Party, attempts

to establish the republic despite feuding warlords but dies in 1925

• In 1928 Chang Kai-shek seizes Beijing for the Kuomintang

• Civil war with Mao Zedong’s Communist Party begins in 1929.

Chiang Kai-shek Becomes President of Nationalist China, 1928

Chiang Kai-shek Becomes President of Nationalist China, 1928

Mao Zedong or Mao Tse-tung , 1893–1976, founder of the People's Republic of China

Mao's ideas on revolutionary struggle and guerrilla warfare were extremely influential.

Of peasant stock, Mao was trained in Chinese classics and later received a modern education. As a young man he observed oppressive social conditions, becoming one of the original members of the Chinese Communist party.

With eldest son Anying at the Fragrant Hills 1949

He organized peasant and industrial unions and directed (1926) the Kuomintang's Peasant Movement Training Institute.After the Kuomintang-Communist split (1927), Mao led the disastrous “Autumn Harvest Uprising” in Hunan, leading to his ouster from the central committee of the party.

•The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Chinese Communist Army to evade the pursuit of the Nationalist Chinese army. The Communist Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, was on the brink of complete annihilation by Chiang Kai-Shek's troops in Jiangxi Province in October 1934. •The communists escaped in circling retreat to the north, which ultimately covered some 4960 miles over 370 days. The route branched through some of the most difficult terrain of western China and arrived 5952 miles west, then north, to Shaanxi

The Long MarchThe Long March

Survivors of the MarchSurvivors of the March

The Civil War and Revolution• Despite partial alliances against the

Japanese, a state of war exists between the Kuomintang and Communist forces for over 20 years from 1926

• The Civil War fully breaks out in 1946• The Communist Party of China seizes

power on October 1st, 1949 (although some parts of China are not captured until 1950)

• Various offshore islands stay loyal to the Kuomintang and Chang Kai-Shek re-establishes the Chinese Republic on Taiwan

• Several offshore islands are captured by the Communists between 1949 and 1960

CHINESE CIVIL WAR: 1944-1947

• Despite the U.S. sending $ billions to the Nationalists, the Communists under Mao won the war and ruled China

• Mao established the People’s Republic of China

The Peoples’ Liberation Army, 1949The Peoples’ Liberation Army, 1949

The Communist VictoryThe Communist Victory

Taiwan: The Republic of ChinaTaiwan: The Republic of China

The People’s Republic of ChinaThe People’s Republic of China

Reasons for the Communists’ SuccessReasons for the Communists’ Success►Mao won support of peasants (How does this differ from what we know about communism?) – land

► Mao won support of women

► Mao’s army used guerilla war tactics

► Many saw the Nationalist government as corrupt

► Many felt that the Nationalists allowed foreigners to dominate China.

Great Leap Forward, 1958► The Great Leap Forward (1958-60) saw Mao attempt to turn

China from an agrarian economy to an industrialized society. Between 14 and 43 million Chinese starved to death.

►5 year plan to increase agriculture and industry

► Communes Groups of people who live and work

together Property held in common Had production quotas

► Failed due to poor quality of products, poor weather hurt agriculture

Communist China Under Mao

► Industrialized China

► Increased literacy

► Class privileges ended

► Rural Chinese received health care

► One-party dictatorship

► Denied people basic rights and freedoms --> Inner Mongolia, Tibet

Communist China Under Mao

►Designed to renew revolutionary spirit and establish a more equitable society

► Mao wanted to put “intellectuals” in their place

► Schools shut down – students revolted

► Red Guards – students who attacked professors, government officials, factory managers

• The Red Guard defaced ancient monuments, destroyed historical artifacts, burnt monasteries, persecuted traditional arts, and tortured minorities and "bourgeois thinkers", leaving half-a-million dead in their wake. A special venom was directed at things Confucian. Encouraged to question their parents and teachers youngsters were soon marching with slogans like: "Parents may love me, but not as much as Chairman Mao".

Red Guard

Red Guard

A Campaign Against the “FOUR OLDS”

A Campaign Against the “FOUR OLDS”

► Old Thoughts

► Old Culture

► Old Customs

► Old Habits

• Popular slogans

• “breaking down the four olds, setting up the four news (old versions of other four concepts)”

• “beating down the bad elements”

• “beating down imperialism”

• “beating down foreign religion”

• “beating down Jesus following”

• “beating down the counter revolutionists”

Red Guards March to Canton

Red Guards March to Canton

The reddest, reddest, red sun in our heart, Chairman Mao, and us together

Zhejiang Workers, Farmers and Soldiers Art Academy collective, 1968

The reddest, reddest, red sun in our heart, Chairman Mao, and us together

Zhejiang Workers, Farmers and Soldiers Art Academy collective, 1968

•Mao’s Little Red

Book

Propaganda PosterPropaganda Poster

Go among the workers, peasants and soldiers, and into the thick of struggle!

1967-1972

Go among the workers, peasants and soldiers, and into the thick of struggle!

1967-1972

Propaganda PosterPropaganda Poster

Propaganda PosterPropaganda Poster

Propaganda PosterPropaganda Poster

The cultural revolution group continued its campaigns until Mao's death in Sept., 1976.

A month later its leaders were purged and Mao's surviving opponents slowly regained power pushing aside Mao's successor, Hua Guofeng, and erasing the cult surrounding Mao.

The End