communist rule

• Mao held a dominant position because:

  • he had led the CCP through years of hardship, which made them trust him
  • his guerilla tactics against Japan and the GMD meant he had the army's backing
  • he worked well with other CCP and PLA leaders
  • he showed how Marxism could be applied to peasants
  • his nationalism also made him popular with non-Marxists
• Mao argued that:

  • China needed to combat the West and its capitalism due to them treating China badly in the past
  • China had been a world power for a long time until the West made it poor, and that it was time for China to rise up
• 80% of China's population were peasants.
• Mao believed mobilising China's peasants would make China unbeatable.
• This mobilisation of peasants would form a revolutionary army, which would utilise guerilla tactics as a majority of the army would be untrained.
• Mao argued that other CCP leaders wanted to follow the way the USSR worked. As a nationalist, Mao believed that China could find its own path.
• In 1943, Mao became leader of the CCP.
• When Mao became leader of the CCP, he wanted to purge the CCP, and get rid of anyone who disagreed with his ideas. This resulted in more than 10,000 people being killed.
• Instead of building a normal army, Mao's military theory said:

  • strong motivation made people better fighters rather than advanced weapons
  • if fighters treated local peasants well, the peasants would support them
  • even if outnumbered, enemy armies could be worn down with ambushes
• The CCP grew from 4.5 million members in 1949 to 6.5 million in 1953. Mao used mass Party membership to organise mass campaigns, like the 'antis' movements, which helped the CCP secure control of China.
• How Mao secured control of the CCP and government:

  • organised mass campaigns against opponents
  • stopped US forces from destroying communism in the Korean War
  • propaganda
  • reinforced CCP control across China
  • introduced land reforms across the whole of China
• Roles of the PLA:

  • Military - hunted bandits, killed 100,000 people
  • Economic - rebuilt railways, taught in schools