Role of PLA/Terror/Propoganda

• ''The party commands the gun and the gun must never be allowed to command the party'' - Mao
• The PLA had to be partially demoralised due to it costing 41% of the staet budget. It was decreased to 3.5 million men by 1953
• The PLA recieved 800,000 conscripts per year
• Mao pushed the idea of the PLA as heroes and had the propoganda slogan of ''learn from the PLA''
• The countryside was indoctrinated via the PLA and a slogan of ''learn from the PLA was pushed''
• There were over 1000 Laogais by the 1960s
• Laogais = a large network of forced labour camps
• Around 27 million were either executed, worked to death or commited suicide in the Laogais
• The danwei were used to maintain a police state
• Mao had a kill quota of one in 1000 people. This led to increased suspicon and party cadres began killings with little evidence
• Crime was treated harshly in China. Drug addicts were handed over to families after drug dens and dealers were wiped out. Prostituion was treated similarly and by 1949 crime was mostly eradicated.
• Propoganda now included films, radio, and cinema. Party cadres read to the illiterate to ensure they heard the propoganda