Communism in Crisis: PRC

China "Ten Lost Years" Lin Biao & son plan assassination of

Mao (Lin dies in plane crash 1971) Death of Mao Zedong Zhou Enlai, Hua Guofeng, Liu Shaoqi Power struggle (Gang of Four,

Qingming Festival 1976) Deng Xiaoping: Four Modernizations:

Agriculture, Industry, Sci-Tech, Defense 1989: Tiananmen Square (Uprising &

Massacre, Tank Man)

Mao Review (Paper 2)• Mao & Maoism:

– Ideology– Cult of Personality– Propaganda

• Rise to Power:– Civil War

• Vs. Chiang Kai-shek & Nationalists– Long March– Foundation of the PRC: 1949– Hundred Flowers Campaign

• Domestic Policies:– Collectivization of Agriculture & Land

Reform– Industrialization– 5 Year Plans– Great Leap Forward (GLF)

• Great Leap Backward?– Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

• Red Guard• Four Olds: thought (or philosophy),

culture, customs and habits• 10 Lost Years

• Foreign Policies:– WWII– Korean War– Sino-Soviet Split

• The Red Triangle:– The Party:

• Chinese Communist Party (CCP or CPC)

– The Army:• People’s Liberation

Army (PLA)– The State:

• President / General Secretary

• National People’s Council

– Administration of party directives

Leadership within the PRC:• 1949-1976: Mao was the key

power player

• After GPCR, Mao took a step back for – Successors..– Premiers…– Vice Chairmen…

• Messy after 1976

• Since 1993: sole candidate for the Presidency = the General Secretary of the Communist Party

Chairman of the PRC

Chairman of Central Committee /

General Secretary of the Central Committee

President of PRC

(as NPCSC chairman, 1975+)

Premiers Chairman of the CPPCC National

Committee

CPC Central Military

Commission

1950s Mao Zedong: 1954-1959

Mao Zedong: 1945-1975

Mao Zedong:1949-1959

Zhou Enlai: 1954-1976

Mao: 1949-1954

Mao: 1954-1976

1960s Liu Shaoqi: 1959-1968

Mao Zedong: 1945-1975

Liu Shaoqi: 1959-1968

*Ousted

Zhou Enlai: 1954-1976

Zhou Enlai: 1954-1976

Mao: 1954-1976

1970s Dong Bwo: 1968-1972 -

75(Song Quingling

- acting)

Mao Zedong: 1945-1975

Hua Guofeng:1975-1981

• Song Qingling : 1968 -1972 (resigned)

• Dong Biwu: 1968-1975

• Zhu De: 1975-1976(dies)

• Song Qingling: 1976-78

Hua Guofeng: 1976-1980

1976-78 = Vacant

Deng Xiaoping: 1978-1983

Deng Yingohao: 1983-1988

Mao: 1954-1976

Hua Guofeng: 1976-1981

1980s Hu Yaobang: 1981-1982

GS: 1982-1987

Ye Jianying: 1978-1983

Li Xiannian: 1983-1988

Zhou Ziyang: 1980-1987

Li Xiannian: 1988-1992

1992-93 = Vacant

Deng Xiaoping: 1981-1989

1990s Zhou Ziyang: 1987-1989

Jiang Zemin:1989-2002

Yang Shangkun: 1988-1993

Jiang Zemin: 1993-2003

Li Peng: 1987-1998Zhu Rongji: 1998-

2003

Li Ruihuan: 1993-2003

Jiang Zemin: 1989-2004

2000s Hu Jintao: 2002-2012

Xi Jinping: 2012-Present

Hu Jintao: 2003-2012 Wen Jiabao: 2003-2013

Jia Qinglin: 2003-

Hu Jintao: 2004-2012

Xi Jinping: 2012-

1960s

• Liu Shaoqi = Chairman of PRC, 1959-68– Mao = still a powerplayer

• Central committee

• Trouble in Communist Paradise?– Allow peasants to grow on

small, individual plots and make local crafts to sell at rural markets• Capitalism???

– Counter famines of GLF

– Deng Xiaoping – Openly challenged Mao

• Mao countered with: Socialist Education Movement– Placed Liu in charge

• Mao gained the support of Lin Biao – Head of PLA

• Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution– 10 Lost Years

• Lin Biao = named as Mao’s successor…

Project 5-7-1 &The Lin Biao Incident

• Lin Biao & son Lin Liguo (air force official)

• Planned Coup in 1971• Plot to assassinate Mao

• How much did Mao know?– Zhou Enlai was investigating

• Attempt to flee to USSR?

• Plane Crash in Mongolia– …sure, sure, they ran out of fuel…

• Response:

– Mao = purged more than 1,000 senior officials at or above the rank of army commander

– Power struggle between Zhou Enlai & Gang of Four

– Manipulation of Lin Biao’s image / propaganda

• Mao’s 1st stroke

1976• Death of Zhou Enlai

– But he was the new designated successor….

• Qingming festival– Chinese Population = publicly mourns Zhou and supports Deng and indirectly criticize

Mao and the Gang of Four

– Unexpected

– Take down celebration materials (flowers, poems)

– Public reaction Open criticism

– Military actions

– Mao turns on Deng

Zhou Enlai @ Bandung Conference, 1955

Next?

-Deng Xiaoping- Hua Guofeng

- Jiang Qing & Gang of Four

Vying for Power• Death of Mao: 9/9/1976

• “Rise of the Gang of Four”– Jiang Qing (1914–91) = Mao’s

wife• Ministry of Culture, 1950s• Control of Media• Propaganda during GPCR

• Planned coup– Use influence over the media,

urban militia and universities

• Made Hua Guofang a target– Mao’s heir apparent

• Coup = discovered– Arrested– Discredited– Trials– Jail– Purge followers

• Hua = Chairman– three charges:

• to be Mao’s successor• to rehabilitate Deng• to engage in modernization

– Deng = in charge of modernization

Hua Guafeng: 1976-1981

• Success: Defeating the Gang of Four

• Failure: Policy of the Two Whatevers– "We will resolutely

uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave"

• Leadership challenge by Deng

• 1980: Hua = Ousted– Hua's time in office was

"just a transition, not an epoch: his policies were a continuation of the late Mao, and there was nothing original about him“

• Dies in 19811979: Met w/ Thatcher in UK to discuss Hong Kong

Deng Xiaoping the Pragmatist

• Moderate & Pragmatic– By comparison to Madame Mao

(not by western standards)

• Victim of GPCR– “Rehabilitated”

• Mentor Zhou Enlai

• Placed in charge of 10 Year Plan by Hua Guofeng

• Outs Hua in 1980

Ten Year Plan• Announced by Hua Guofeng in

1978

• Goal = compete with the West

• Deng = put in charge of political changes

• Opening up of China to the West– provided capital

• Extensive infrastructure development – Electricity, rail roads, water

transport

• Focused on economic sectors with a heavy industry– Steel production– Goals for natural resource

extractions • oil, petroleum, coal and non

ferrous-metals…

• Too ambitious, too costly

• 1979 = goals modified– Focus on the Four

Modernizations: • Agriculture• Industry• science and technology• military

Four Modernizations• Economic priorities

• Established by Zhou Enlai in 1975

• Gain support under Deng in 1978– New focus:

• Not class struggle• Not revolution

• Increase internal growth• Export oriented• Improve Sci/Tech

• Only by matching the West in terms of economic growth and technological advancement could China hope to emerge as a great power once again

• Four Modernizations1. Defense2. Agriculture3. Industry4. Sci-Tech

1978: Open to foreign investors (the West)

Some level of capitalism to help China develop

1970s China = still an economically undeveloped

Argued that a true socialist revolution could not occur until a bourgeois revolution had first taken place

SEZ: Special Economic Zones: Self-contained, Foreign investment

TVE: Town and Village Enterprises Small businesses, entrepreneurial spirit1978 = 100,000 small businesses

1985 = 17 million1992 = 20 million TVEs employing 100 million people

1. Excerpt from a speech entitled ‘The present situation and the tasksbefore us’ given by Deng Xiaoping on 16 January 1980, from SelectedWorks of Deng Xiaoping (1975–1982), published by Foreign LanguagePress, Beijing, 1984, p. 236. Deng is speaking at a meeting of cadrescalled by the Central Committee of the CCP.

The superiority [of the socialist system] should manifest itself in many ways, butfirst and foremost it must be revealed in the rate of economic growth andeconomic efficiency. Without political stability and unity, it would be impossiblefor us to settle down to construction. This has been borne out by our experience in more than twenty years since 1957 … In addition to stability and unity, wemust maintain liveliness … when liveliness clashes with stability and unity, wecan never pursue the former at the expense of the latter. The experience of theCultural Revolution has already proved that chaos leads only to retrogression,not to progress.

What can be deduced about Deng Xiaoping’s economic and political outlook?

2. Excerpt from ‘China’s “Four Modernizations” lead to closer Sino-U.S.science ties,’ by Barbara J. Culliton, Science, New Series, Vol. 201,No. 4355, 11 August 1978, pages 512–13, published by AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of Science. Culliton is a well-knownjournalist regarding science topics.

‘The entire nation is embarking with tremendous enthusiasm on the marchtowards the modernization of science and technology. Splendid prospects liebefore us,’ declared Vice-Premier Teng Hsiao-ping [Deng Xiaoping], who isactively engaged in expanding China’s contacts with foreign nations. On thetheory that ‘Backwardness must be perceived before it can be changed,’ Tengspoke bluntly about China’s state of affairs and her new determination to catchup with and even surpass the rest of the world, adhering ‘to the policy ofindependence and self-reliance.’ Then Teng went on to say, ‘But independencedoes not mean shutting the door on the world, nor does self-reliance mean blindopposition to everything foreign.’

In what ways did Deng Xiaoping wish to transform the PRC?

3. Excerpt from Modern China, third edition, by Edwin E. Moise, publishedby Longman, UK, 1986, page 231. Moise teaches History of ModernChina, Japan and Vietnam at Clemson University in South Carolina, USA.

China’s great problem remained its fundamental poverty. Most of the people still lived in poor villages, where they scraped out a living without enoughmachinery, fertilizer or land. Most villages were still not far above subsistencelevel; when crops failed through drought or flood, as they did in parts of twoprovinces in 1980, the peasants went hungry … In an effort to promoteagricultural production, the government released many of the restrictions on the‘spontaneous capitalist tendencies’ of the peasantry. The income of a family came to depend much more on the production of that family, rather than being the family’s share of the production of a larger group. Experiments with the‘responsibility system’, in which a family or a small group of families was givenresponsibility for a piece of land or an enterprise owned by their productionteam, brigade, or commune, occurred quite widely in 1979. Soon afterwards some of the provincial officials who had played a major role in these experiments were promoted to top positions in Beijing; Zhao Ziyang from Sichuan became Premier.

What reasons does the author put forward to explain China’s poverty?

4. Excerpt from China and the Crisis of Marxism–Leninism, sixth edition, byFranz Michael, Carl Linden, Jan Prybyla and Jurgen Domes, published byWestview Press, Colorado, USA, 2000, page 65. Michael was a Professorof History at University of Washington and National Chekiang Universityin Hangchow, China. Linden is a Professor Emeritus of Political Scienceand International Relations at George Washington University. Prybyla wasa Professor of History at Pennsylvania State University. Domes was aProfessor of Political Science at the University of Saarland, Germany.

[The] idea that 1 acre per family is socialist but 2 acres is capitalist has not beenfully exorcised. Since 1980, however, progress has been made on that front.Consolidation of land parcels and their expansion are now permitted, if stillcarefully watched for possible capitalist abuses.

How was capitalism in rural areas defined?

5. Excerpt from The Rise of Modern China, sixth edition, by Immanuel C.Y.Hsu, published by Oxford University Press, UK, 2000, pages 843 and 852.Hsu was a Professor Emeritus of History from the University of California,Santa Barbara, California, USA.

On October 1, 1984, on the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the founding ofthe People’s Republic, he [Deng] confidently announced to the nation that theannual economic growth rates of 7.9 percent during the period 1979–83 and of14.2 percent in 1984, surpassed the 7.2 percent needed to quadruple the GNP to$1 trillion by the year 2000 … Perhaps the most visible result of the economicreforms was the mushrooming of private businesses and free markets in bothrural and urban areas. Private businesses grew in number from 100,000 in 1978to 5.8 million in 1983 and 17 million by 1985, with some making impressiveprofits in the capitalist fashion … These free markets and private businessesconstituted a lively sector in the vast sea of state-owned enterprises … Peoplecomplained of inflation, which outpaced both wage increases and cost-of-livingadjustments. Inflation was officially put at 4 percent in 1979, 6 percent in 1980,2.4 percent in 1981 and 1.9 percent in 1982, though the unofficial estimatesranged from 15 to 20 percent or more annually … Confusion, fear and disbeliefwere prevalent. Having experienced the hardships caused by thehyperinflationary period of 1945–49, the Chinese dreaded any sign of itsRecurrence.

What were the negative economic consequences of the Four Modernizations?

6. Excerpt from ‘China’s Special Economic Zones’ by Xu Dixin, BeijingReview, No. 50, published by the China International Publishing Group,1981. The Beijing Review is a national weekly PRC magazine published inEnglish. Xu is Vice-President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciencesand director of its Institute of Economics.

Some people wonder why it is necessary, more than 30 years since the foundingof the People’s Republic, to set up special economic zones. They also wonderwhether the special zones signify that China is seeking help from capitalistcountries. Such concerns are understandable, but unwarranted. Since itsestablishment, New China has scored brilliant achievements in many fields ofwork, including economic construction. But it has also traversed a tortuous path.Compared with the world’s most advanced nations, China’s level of production isstill rather low. Its funds and technology are incompatible with the requirementsof the modernization drive. Furthermore, while implementing its policy ofself-reliance in economic construction, China does not exclude co-operation withcapitalism. Facts will prove that through developing the economies of the specialzones, we will be able to make use of foreign and overseas Chinese capital, aswell as state capitalism, to develop China’s socialist economy. Economicconstruction in the special zones will possibly become a special form of supplement to the development of China’s socialist economy. The total economies of the special zones will only constitute a very small portion of the national economy. Although the socialist economy will continue to dominate, the role of the special zones must not be overlooked.

What was the purpose of the SEZs?

7.

Explain the significance of the chart

8. “The Present Situation and the Tasks Before Us” (Speech, January 16, 1980) By Deng Xiaoping

First, it is essential to follow a firm and consistent political line. We now have such a line. In his speech at the meeting in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, Comrade Ye Jianying formulated the general task — or, if you will, the general line — as follows: Unite the people of all our nationalities and bring all positive forces into play so that we can work with one heart and one mind, go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better, and more economical results in building a modern, powerful socialistcountry. The socialist system is one thing, and the specific way of building socialism another. This superiority [of the socialist system] should manifest itself in many ways, but first and foremost it must be revealed in the rate of economic growth and in economic efficiency. Without political stability and unity, it would be impossible for us to settle down to construction. This has been borne out by our experience in the more than twenty years since1957. … In addition to stability and unity, we must maintain liveliness … when liveliness clashes with stability and unity, we can never pursue the former at the expense of the latter. The experience of the Cultural Revolution has already proved that chaos leads only to retrogression, not to progress …

How does Deng Xiaoping understand socialism? (How does Deng’s understanding of socialism contrast with that of Mao?)

Tiananmen Square: 1989• Student Protests &

Government Reprisals

• "fascists stop killing• “down with the government“

• The greatest challenge to the communist state in China since the 1949 revolution

• International outrage

H.W. Bush's Secret Letter to Deng

• Why is Bush writing the letter (Purpose?)

• Why is this a secret letter?

• Fang Lizhi

• “China’s best-known dissident”

lao pengyou = old friend

Mao: Paper 2 Review:

Mao & Maoism:IdeologyCult of PersonalityPropaganda

Rise to Power:Civil War

Vs. Chiang Kai-shek & Nationalists

Long MarchFoundation of the PRC: 1949Hundred Flowers Campaign

Domestic Policies:Collectivization of Agriculture & Land ReformIndustrialization5 Year PlansGreat Leap Forward (GLF)

Great Leap Backward?Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR)

Red GuardFour Olds: thought (or philosophy), culture, customs and habits10 Lost Years

Foreign Policies:WWIIKorean WarSino-Soviet Split

The Red Triangle:• The Party: Chinese Communist Party

(CCP or CPC)• The Army: People’s Liberation Army

(PLA)• The State: President / General

Secretary, National People’s Council, Administration of party directives

Communism in Crisis: PRC

Key Figures: Key Events: Key Vocab:

Mao ZedongLiu ShaoqiLin BiaoZhou EnlaiHua GuofengHu YaobangJiang QingGang of FourDeng Xiaoping

WWI, WWII, Chinese Civil WarLong MarchGreat Leap Forward & 5 Year PlansGreat Proletarian Cultural RevolutionLin Biao IncidentQingming FestivalArrest and Trial of the Gang of FourTwo Whatevers PolicyFour Modernizations

Little Red BookFour OldsGLF, GPCR, 5 year plansRed GuardPragmatismFour ModernizationsOpen Door PolicySpecial Economic ZonesTown and Village Enterprises

Historiography:

• Marxism: 1920s

• PRC Institutionalized Party Historiography: Mao-centrism (40s & 50s), Cultural Revolution Propaganda (60s & 70s) Post Cultural Revolution/post-death of Mao

• Western Sympathetic: 1937 Red Star over China by an American journalist, Edgar Snow

• Revisionism/Post-Revisionism: John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, Jonathan Spence, Chang and Halliday (critical)

Paper 2 Questions:• With reference to two examples each chosen from a different region, to what extent do you agree with the claim that ideology was the most important factor in the rise to power of single-party leaders?• Evaluate the successes and failures one ruler of a single-party state• Compare and contrast the economic and social policies of Mao and Stalin

Deng Xiaoping the Pragmatist