China essay plans

• PLA


  • Key factor in establishing communist rule in China in 1949-57
• Reunification campaigns


  1. Securing peripheral regions of China

  2. Invading and 'liberating' Tibet

  3. Clearing resistance in Xinjiang and Guangdong
• Mao greatly feared the Soviet Union might try to seize Xinjiang or Tibet break away under the guidance of the Buddhist Dalai Lama
• In Tibet, Mao sent the PLA to invade and 'liberate' the area; 60k resisted but to no avail
• China imposed policies to wipe out Tibetan identity: traditional religious practice prohibited, as well as political meetings
• 7 million Han Chinese made to migrate to Tibet to marginalise the indigenous population and replace their traditional culture and way of life
• Any Tibetan rebellions brutally suppressed by PLA; Dalai Lama fled to India 1959
• In Xinjiang with Uighurs, nationalist leaders invited to Political Consultative Conference, plane crashed; replacements agree to submit to Chinese rule
• PLA cleared resistance, securing territory for in-migration of Han Chinese in Xinjiang
• In Guangdong, traditionally a pro-nationalist stronghold with capital Canton a valuable trading port, 28k executed during CtSCR
• Korean War


  1. China entered the war in 1950

  2. Used it to promote national unity

  3. Created antipathy to the USA

  4. Sense of collective endeavour promoting the idea of the PLA soldier-hero
• One woman recalled being so impressed by the PLA soldier-hero propaganda that she donated her whole week's wages to the war effort
• Workers joined the patriotic campaigns under the slogan 'our factory is a battlefield and our machines are our weapons'
• Entire country uniting as a national entity with support for CCP as body standing up to the west which was seen as an exploitative, evil entity
• China no longer 'Sick Man of Asia' but showing the West to be 'Paper Tigers'
• Sense of national identity solidified, and support for the CCP consolidated
• CtSCR


  • Targeted nationalist sympathisers and spies who wanted to undermine the regime
  • Western businessmen forced to leave, Christian missionaries arrested and charged as imperialist agents
  • Ministry of Public Security asked those who had previously held positions within the nationalist regime to register themselves to be able to 'start life anew': tricked into implicating themselves
  • After they registered, many rounded up by the police after midnight and never seen again
  • Mass participation in public struggle meetings where people were forced to admit their guilt in front of large crowds demanding retribution
  • Campaign expanded during civil war, with Mao having justification for purging of all traitors
• 1951 'Regulations' decree extended definition of 'counter-revolutionary activity' to include all forms of political dissent, e.g. those that had studied in USA/had family in Taiwan suspected
• 800k deaths in first half of 1951, with the 'People's Daily' publishing long lists of details to intimidate
• 3 Antis campaign


  • Against corruption, waste, and obstructionist bureaucracy
  • Many Chinese including middle class supported this
  • Anyone in the civil service the regime didn't like was removed, imprisoned, or executed
• 5 Antis Campaign


  • Against bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts, stealing state economic information
  • Middle class and private business owners were rounded up and forced into confession before being executed
  • Wives and children pleading business husband/fathers to admit to guilt, alternatively wives and children denounced husbands and fathers in 'denunciation boxes' set up on street corners to help them do so
  • 'Tiger Beaters' employed to gather incriminating evidence against former managers and bosses
  • Extremely successful, in Shanghai 99% of businessmen found to be guilty of at least one of the five antis
• If businesses found guilty, forced to pay heavy fines and sell stock to state plus cadres sent into companies to take leading management roles, creating public-private enterprises enhancing CCP control
• Created atmosphere of fear and repression, where only way to save yourself was to denounce others, meaning the only protection was utter loyalty to the CCP, allowing for much easier establishment of a one-party state and ensuring the consolidation of the regime
• Situation in China when Mao took over


  • Tens of millions killed since the 1920's, with the country engulfed in a bitter civil war
  • China ruined, bankrupt and chaotic after years of exploitation by western powers
  • 1 million bandits/warlords in countryside preying on refugees displaced by the Japanese invasion and feeling civil war
  • Hyperinflation, shortages of goods, hoarding
• There was hope in the future and willingness to try radical solutions to end the chaos of the previous decades of conflict
• People had begun to see chances of brighter future in: the beginnings of education and increasing literacy, with primary school students between 1949-57 increasing from 26 to 64 million students, healthcare such as with the barefoot doctors who educated the illiterate peasants about how to prevent the spread of diseases; from 1949 to '57, life expectancy went from 36 to 57 years
• When Mao in October 1949 stood atop the entrance to the Forbidden City, the old imperial palace and historical centre of the Emperor's political power and declared the creation of the PRC, a vast gathered crowd cheered; he promised the Chinese people had 'stood up' now
• Mao consolidated power by gaining support by bringing stability and improved living conditions
• Agrarian Reform Law 1950


  • Attempt to destroy the 'gentry landlord' class
  • Land to be redistributed 'to the tiller', meaning the peasants who worked the land
  • By 1952, the 'land to the tiller' movement largely completed, with 43% of the land redistributed to 60% of the population
  • Agricultural production boomed
• Mutual Aid Teams (MATs)


  • Peasants pooled resources like tools and ploughs
  • Approximately ten households to a MAT
  • Particularly beneficial to the poorest peasants
  • By 1952, approximately 40% of peasant households in MATs
• Agricultural production boomed between 1950-52 at a rate of 15% per annum
• 100 Flowers Campaign


  • In May 1956, Mao declared that 'a hundred flowers' should 'bloom', hoping for discussion and greater speaking up from intellectuals
  • Little impact, most unwilling to talk
  • Mao tried again 1957, admitting CCP had made mistakes
  • When the criticisms became too much, Mao launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign in June, stating that amongst the 'fragrant flowers', 'poisonous weeds' had emerged
  • Cadres given a quota of 5% of every Danwei (work unit) to be damned as rightist
  • Purge of 400-700k intellectuals and sent to the countryside or laogai for 'labour reform'
• Laogai


  • Labour camps inspired by gulags for reform through labour
  • Had been set up during Civil War, by 1955 1.3m undergoing forced labour
  • Mostly political prisoners with 300k doctors/engineers/experts rounded up during CtSCR/Antis
  • Horrific conditions e.g. digging uranium mines, in Sichuan building railroad in winter without trousers, in tin mines of Guangdong, 1/3 suicide rate
  • Provided indispensable source of labour to consolidate economic power, also as a way to terrorise/enforce compliance of population, plus convert former opponents through brainwashing
• Jung Chang: 27m died in prisons/labour camps under Mao
• Head of public security bureau: 'better to die than to flee'
• By mid-1950s, laogai contributing 700m yuan in industrial products/350k tons of grain
• Purge in 1955 adding 750k members, so establishment of laojiao dropping pretence of judicial procedure, enabling being held indefinitely
• 10m prison population at peak
• China entered the Korean War in 1950


  Used it to promote national unity by creating antipathy to the USA and a sense of collective endeavour promoting the idea of the PLA soldier-hero
• This was especially evident in the 'Resist America, Aid Korea' campaign, where collective spirit was forged in whipping up hatred for the USA