Mao’s Opposition Prior to 1949

Mao’s Opposition Prior to 1949

Jiang-xi Period 1927-34

– Mao rejects Comintern Suggestions of Urban based CCP

– Futian Incident 1930

• Purges Jiang-xi Action Committee (JAC) and Red Army Battalion thinks he will purge Generals Zhu De and Peng Dehuai (They are not targets)

• 700 Shot and 70,000 more purged or killed as JAC is claimed to be tied to GMD Anti-Bolshevik League

• Claim is false but Mao eliminates some opponents


– Encirclement Campaigns 1930-34

• Comintern Advisor Li De wants to abandon Guerilla Tactics

• Revolutionary Military Council Agrees – Mao pushed out of leadership of Jiangxi Soviet

• 28 Bolsheviks emerge as new force (Wang Ming)

• Conventional Warfare fails and disaster forces Long March

– 28 Bol.’s and Zhang Guotao crushed during Long March while Mao escapes

• Zunyi Conference Zhou Enlai admits errors switches to Mao

• Bo Gu and Otto Braun (28 Bol.’s) are fired

• Mao’s agrarian revolution and Peasant led revolution and guerilla war adopted

• Mao power grows, but not yet total power


Yanan Years 1935-1945– Continues to resist Comintern

– Rectification Campaign

• Attacks old May 4 CCP members, remnants of 28 Bol.’s and potential Rivals

– Traditional view is Mao was trying to create a Chinese version of Marxism/Leninism w/o slavishly following the Bolshevik model

– Revisionism: Mao wants to eliminate rivals to his absolute leadership of the Party

– Begins with speeches targets “mistakes” of his “friends” Wang Ming, Zhou Enlai etc…

– Forced to confess or are purged arrested, censored, even tortured or shot (Confessions diminish all his opponents

– Ally Chen Boda creates cult of personality around Maoist theory

Mao’s Opposition WWII

– 1945-49

• Begins rapid land transfers to poor peasants

• Peasants forced to join Red Army, brutal atrocities

• Anti-landlord rallies

• Kept outside for days, no shelter as landlords abused or killed

• Many peasants freeze

• CCP Protests and Mao gets Liu Shaoqui to take responsibility for abuse and claim Mao corrected problems

• Boda continues Cult of Mao propaganda

• Mass Line to indoctrinate Peasants directly is created

• Potential Middle class opponents removed

Mao’s Opposition 1950-57

– Land Reform 1950• Resumes harsh and rapid seizure of land from landlords• Wipes out remaining potential right wing land lords

– Campaign against Counter-revolutionaries• Mass demonstrations v. US and Capitalists• People urged to identify spies• Within 6 months 700,000 dead and 500,000 imprisoned

– Anti Campaigns 1951-52• 3 Anti v. corruption, waste, elitism, 5 Anti v. sabotage, tax

evasion, bribes, fraud, theft– Thought Reform Movement attacks intellectuals as well as

bourgeois/capitalist ideas (6500 professors/intellectuals re-taught)


– Futian, Zunyi, Rectification eliminate many Party Opponents– Land reform, Anti-Counter-revolutionary, Anti-Campaigns and

Thought Reform gut the right-wing opposition– 100 Flowers campaign

• 1956 Mao feels it is ok for greater freedom of expression: “Let a 100 flowers bloom…”

• Let intellectuals speak; Has the CCP been too heavy-handed?? (De-Stalinization is going on in Russia at the same time)

• Initial fear to speak, then rush to point out corruption, inefficiency, when mild criticism of Mao emerges, door is slammed shut!

• Spreads to universities, posters etc… for 6 weeks then halted by Mao

– Anti-rightist movement in response• Forced to retract critiques, confess, re-educated, academics lose jobs

• 500,000 forced to labor reform, even Zhou Enlai forced to confess, no one safe


– Historiography of 100 Flowers

1. Genuine effort at rectification of the party• Give a voice to the people corruption and bureaucratization of the CCP

• Safety valve to let off steam and shocked by the response

• Avoid riots like those in Hungary

2. A confused “muddle”• Philip Short argues it was a totalitarian state trying to create some checks

and balances

• Mao misjudges the response, thought he would be loved

3. A trap designed to root out opponents

Opposition during the Great Leap Forward

Disaster of GLF leads the Lushan Conference 1959– Peng Dehuai recounts famine, dead and dying everywhere– No one supports him though all know it is true

– Denounced as a trouble maker by Jiang Qing– All support Mao (Zhou Enlai gets drunk)– Mao threatens to use PLA v. traitors (i.e. anyone who mentions

famine)– 25% of Tibetans deliberately starved to crush opposition, language

prohibited, religion, leaders imprisoned or flee

– GLF continues until 1961 when it gets so bad the famine has to be acknowledge

– Mao ‘retires” to “Second Front”

Radicals v. Pragmatists 1962-65

Late 1960, Famine worse, rebellion, 25% dead in some provinces and only PLA keeps rural areas under control

CCP turns to Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping (“Pragmatists” i.e. moderates)

Quietly abandon GLF– Private plots created, markets allowed, incentives, redistribute labor, Household

Responsibility Contract allows peasants to keep and sell excess grain after their agreed quota is delivered

– Mao sees this as capitalism, but it Works and Ind. and agri. recover

– Mao feels left out (Short: “Was he pushed out or did he simply withdraw?”)

– Mao tries to undermine Liu and Deng with the Social Education Movement 1962-63 to radicalize students

• Liu and Deng send teams to schools to prevent unrest by explaining ideas to students

Towards the Cultural Revolution

Late 1960, Famine worse, rebellion, 25% dead in some provinces and only PLA keeps rural areas under control

CCP turns to Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping (“Pragmatists” i.e. moderates)

Quietly abandon GLF– Private plots created, markets allowed, incentives, redistribute labor, Household

Responsibility Contract allows peasants to keep and sell excess grain after their agreed quota is delivered

– Mao sees this as capitalism, but it Works and Ind. and agri. recover

– Mao feels left out (Short: “Was he pushed out or did he simply withdraw?”)

– Mao tries to undermine Liu and Deng with the Social Education Movement 1962-63 to radicalize students

• Liu and Deng send teams to schools to prevent unrest by explaining ideas to students, don’t permit direct student mobilization


Mao turns to Lin Biao and the PLA Liu and Deng popularity is growing and some provincial CCP leaders

reverse collectivized agriculture (Most still loyal to Mao) Chen Boda the propagandist publishes the “Sayings of Mao (The

Little Red Book) – Copies are distributed to every soldier, army is politicized and it spreads to civilians

and schools (750 Million Copies)

– Used in all school curriculums

– Publish The Diary of Lei Feng , a false story of a man that lives his entire life only according to the sayings of Mao

– Jiang Qing forms radical Maoist Group the Shanghai Forum to eliminate all western influence in the arts, anti-socialism and class enemies

– 1965-66 Play The Dismissal of Hai Rai from Office describes dismissal of a good official by a corrupt emperor (Peng v. Mao at Lushan)

Jiang Qing

Jiang Qing, wife of Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong, became well-known in Chinese cultural circles for promoting Maoist themes in the arts. After Mao’s death in 1976, she and three radical associates, dubbed the Gang of Four, were arrested for planning a coup. Jiang was convicted and sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life imprisonment.


Biao and Qing denounce the author Wu Han as a rightist and then denounce the Group of Five formed to heal CCP divisions

– Use it as excuse to attack Moderates Liu and Deng who are linked to Wu Han

– May 1966 Mao message says bourgeois (!!!!) have sneaked into the CCP

– The Central Cultural Revolutionary Group (CCRG) a sub committee of the Politburo is dominated by Maoists and they purge Wu Han and the Group of Five

– Shanghai Forum dominates the CCRG

The Cultural Revolution 1966-76

Mao’s Motives?– Reassert his authority

– Stop CCP from becoming a bureaucracy

– Change cultural values (attack western and traditional values still present)

– Provide the youth with revolutionary challenge

May 1966 CCRG groups incite students to rebel– Teams sent by Liu to control this fail this time and Red Guard Units start to form

– August Mao gives approval to R.G.’s and issues wall posters telling them to attack CCP HQ

– Biao organizes 1 mi. R.G.’s in rally in August and urged to attack teachers and CCP officials who have become capitalist

– Attack the “Four Olds”: thought, culture, practices, customs

• Youth response is terrifyingly intense, nothing in China’s past is worth preserving

Factions During the Cultural Revolution– Maoist Faction

• Closely associated with Mao

• Believed in continual revolution, mass campaigns

• Believed in virtues of “red over expert”

• Members included Mao, Jiang Qing (wife) Ken Shang

– Party Bureaucrats• Leaders of the party apparatus in Secretariat

• Believe in pragmatic economic development using incentives to increase production

• Respected Mao but disliked his romantic views of change

• Great Leap policies were misplaced and damaging

• Members included Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping

– Government Faction• Composed of governmental officials in administration

• Ideologically closer to party bureaucrats but members has close personal relations with Mao

• Knew their skills would be necessary to administer China

• High managerial ability

• Zhou Enlai identified with this faction

– Military Faction• Internally divided between followers of Lin Biao who

supported Mao and Lo Juijin who favored a strong, conventional PLA

• People’s militay vs. regular military

• Improvement in relations with Russia favored by PLA


Deng and Liu are demoted and then dismissed in October 1966, Liu dies in prison 1969 and Deng is reeducated

– RG’s told to attack officials, teachers, intellectuals, middle class, landlords, rich peasants, “bad elements”

– PLA provides transport, Security Minister orders police not to intervene, Secret Police Chief identifies targets for RG’s

– Mass psychosis: youth believe special role, Mao is God, peer pressure, herd instinct, easier that studying

– Brutal beatings, criticism and self-criticism, struggle, airplane position

– Forced to greater extremes to prove loyalty

– Mao withdraws and Biao and Qing run it


Out of Control by late 1966– Rebel RG groups emerge

– Workers form Peoples Communes and fight RG’s

Verge of Civil war– 1000’s die in clashes between RG’s factions

– Rebels take over some local gov’t’s and Mao gives them support

– Ceremonial cannibalism of Rightists in Guangxi

Zhou Enlai demands order– 1967 real civil war possible and Mao finally frightened

– PLA sent in and terrorizes RG’s into submission

– 1967-68 PLA sets up Revolutionary Committees in each province

– Purge is moderated but continues

– Mao implements “Up to the Mountains, down to the Village” program• RG’s are to go to country and learn from peasants (12 mi. do this) (cynical way to get rid of RG’s)

Results of the Cultural Revolution 1966-76

Liu, Deng, revisionists/pragmatists purged although Deng is reinstated in 1973

– Cult of Mao is Supreme

– 500,000 dead

20-30 Million exiled to countryside/Minor economic disruption May 7th Schools created (Officials get yearly Maoist training)

– Is this a permanent rectification campaign?

Education Collapses, no school for several years– When it resumes it is all political consciousness/indoctrination training not

educatiom

Art and literature completely sterile or destroyed PRC isolated particularly after attacks on froeign embassies and riots

in other countries

Lin Biao

Lin Biao was a Chinese Communist military leader who won fame as the commander of the Fourth Field Army, which helped defeat Chinese Nationalist forces in 1949, then fought on the side of the North Koreans the following year. Lin was designated to succeed Communist Chairman Mao Zedong in the late 1960s, and during that period he helped lead the Cultural Revolution in China. He allegedly died in a plane crash in 1971 after a failed coup against Mao, in which he was said to have taken part.

Results of the Cultural Revolution 1966-76

The fate of Lin Biao– Mao and Zhou become unnerved over border clashes with the USSR

– Several major fights occur

– Mao sends out discrete feelers to the US proposing better relations to offsetUSSR

– Biao opposes US outreach

– Biao accused of organizing a military takeover (Unclear if this was real or a way for Mao to get rid of Biao)

– Biao allegedly is discovered, tries to flee to the USSR and is killed in a plane crash

– Only evidence are photos of the crash site so it is unclear if the story is true or simply a way to kill Biao w/o embarrassing Mao

– Hurts Mao anyway as his infallibility is put in question

V. The Cultural Revolution in China

A. Background to the Cultural Revolution

B. Start of the Cultural Revolution

C. End of the Cultural Revolution

D. Lin Biao's Bid For Power

E. Death of Zhou Enlai

F. Death of Mao Zedong and the Fall of the Radicals

"A 'barefoot' doctor is a peasant who does part-time medical work... With their medical kits slung over their

shoulders, they called on patients in their homes, and when not occupied with medical tasks, they worked

barefoot in the paddy fields. The peasants recognized this type of doctor as their own and fondly gave them the name. Hsingkuang Production Brigade has some 290

households with a total population of 1298 organized into seven teams. The brigade provides a house for the co-

operative medical station and assigns two 'barefoot' doctors and one midwife there... These two 'barefoot'

doctors are very close to the people and serve them devotedly. There are many moving stories about Shen

Pennan, a young man, and the young woman Hsing Yichen... Shen's formal education was only five years of

primary school. After two months' training in the commune hospital, he began serving as 'barefoot' doctor in

the brigade..."

Barefoot Doctors in China

This year, in many areas and in every province, productivity has been extraordinarily high. These are the results of the commune-based system, of the coordination of efforts under the lead o the Party... and of the intelligent application to local conditions of the eight points of the Agricultural Charter..."

Gang of Four

During China’s Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), Zhang Chunqiao, Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan, and Wang Hongwen, clockwise from top right, developed a series of radical political campaigns with the support of Communist Party leader Mao Zedong.

The campaigns caused ten years of chaos and violence. After Mao’s death in 1976, the group was dubbed the Gang of Four, and each was tried and convicted of crimes associated with the Cultural Revolution.

Hua Guofeng

In 1976 Hua Guofeng became premier of China and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party. He resigned from both posts in the early 1980s.

After Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping became the most influential political official in China. Deng was the force behind the Communist government’s easing of cultural and political policies and push for economic modernization that occurred during the 1980s. He also ordered the military crackdown in June 1989 on the students demonstrating for democratic reforms at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Deng Xiaoping

Hu Yaobang

Two days after Hu Yaobang’s death in April 1989, thousands of students from Beijing universities marched to Tianamen Square and laid wreaths at the Monument to the People’s Heroes in honor of the former CCP Secretary-General who had been forced to resign his post in January 1987.

Zhao Ziyang

Communist Party Secretary Zhao Ziyang urging students in Tianamen Square to end their hunger strick. Later he would tearfully admit,” I came too late, I came too late,” but he assured them that “The problems that you have raised will eventually be resolved.”

They weren’t resolved. Zhao Ziyang would be purged by the hardliners in the Politburo

Prescribed Subject 3:

Communism in Crisis 1976-1989

Area 1: The Struggle for Power following the Death of Mao, Hua Guofeng, the re-emergence of the of Deng Xiaoping and the Defeat of the Gang of Four

The Struggle for Power following the Death of Mao

Background: The Radicals and the Pragmatists battle for control of the CCP 1971-76

From 1971 Zhou Enlai and Mao run the party but both are ageing– 1972 Zhou diagnosed with cancer– Mao struggles to keep balance between the

Pragmatists and Radicals


Not clear which group will govern when Mao dies– Debate on Economic Policy

• Radicals what continued central control, mass mobilization, production targets based on quantity and speed

• Pragmatists/modernizers led by Deng and Zhou (dies 1976) want gradualism, quality of production, incentives and wage variations

• Critical issue arrives in 1975-76– Deng and Zhou propose the 4 Modernizations


The Gang of Four• Even after disaster of Cult. Rev. radicals are a major force in

the CCP

• Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunquiao, Yao Wenyuan were pe[art of the Shanghai Forum and the CCRG.

• Wang Hongwen: Shanghai union leader is 4th member– Rapid rise gives him nickname; the Helicopter


Group will be labeled the Gang of Four 1973 three are put on the Politburo

– Wang is presented as Mao’s successor!!!

– Mao seems concerned about G4’s power and brings Deng back to Central Committee in 1973

– Radicals launch propaganda attack on Zhou in 1973• Criticize Confucius and Lin Biao Campaign

– Zhou dies 1976 but Mao makes Hua Guofeng, Hunan Party Secretary the new Premier (unknown, compromise candidate not a part of either faction)

Documents

Mao’s Opposition Prior to 1949