- Study the following interpretations of the effects of the Cultural Revolution
(I) The Cultural Revolution was an attempt by Mao to get rid of his rivals and establishing himself in total power. It got out of control and ended in chaos
(ii) The Cultural Revolution brought China and the Chinese people back to true Communism and stopped them from being corrupted by western ideas
Which interpretation is best supported by the evidence in the source and your knowledge of the period? Explain your answer.
The purpose and the intensions of why Mao lunched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is unclear. The Cultural Revolution was an attempt to bring China forward as a unite country along and with great strength of the country. But not everything went like what Mao had planned.
By this Mao promoted the Cultural Revolution as he preached that the Chinese must destroy the four olds and get rid of bourgeois attitude by preventing any western ideas. Mao saw this as the negative effects of capitalism. He would like the Chinese people to live simple lives and come back to be a true communist. However, this positive intension due to Mao’s cult drove the country to a complete chaos and in a totalitarian state. His main intension was not to establish himself with total power but he just aimed to regain some of his power back. From source B, a picture showing during the Cultural Revolution or a form of propaganda shows how the Chinese people warship Mao as a cult of personality. At first the attacks of the Red Guards was aimed at unnamed enemies of socialism but later the attacks were centered at the communist party, the enemies of Mao’s policies. As source D portrays Mao’s Cultural Revolution propaganda of the Red Guards smashing Mao’s opponent. Throughout the country, revolutionary committees sprang up, taking power from the local government and party authorities. The scale and effects of the Cultural Revolution were frightening. The Red Guards attacked anything remotely connected with the West, capitalism, the Soviet Union or intellectualism, From source C which was written by an eyewitness account whose father was threatened by the Red Guards and was accused of having “capitalist tiles” Nonetheless, as source F delivers the positive side of the revolution, “ Her eyes were opened by the Cultural Revolution. She now hated the Communists” The revolution obviously got out of control, it lasted longer that Mao expected as source J provided, “By now the students were completely unprepared… the Cultural Revolution set us back twenty years” Millions of students were sent to the countryside to work on the land – thus preventing the reemergence of the Red Guards. So chaotic was the situation that universities did not reopen until 1970. Years of work and progress were sacrificed. A whole generation of youth went without education, factories and farms lay idle. China fell even further behind the industrialised powers of the world.
History coursework: Assignment B
- What impact did Mao have on the lives of the Chinese people after 1949 in the following areas: Economic, social, and political?
On October 1st 1949, the Communists proclaimed the existence of a new kind of China – The People’s Republic of China. The only remaining part of China under Communist control was the island of Taiwan. The chairman of the Communist Party was Mao Zedong. Two days before the People’s Republic of China was announced, Communist Party leaders drew up a common programme that outlined the Party’s aims and intentions such as independence, democracy, peace, unity and prosperity. All sorts of problems got in the way of reaching these targets. Previously, there had been three years of civil war, which had left China in a mess. There were millions of peasants with not enough food and the population was rising by 15 million a year. Cities were in chaos and inflation had made the currency worthless. There was also a high level of unemployment. This was the period that culminated over two decades of Communist Party- led popular struggle. Mao is sometimes referred to as the “Four Greats”: “Great Teacher”, “Great Leader”, “Great supreme commander” and “Great Helmsman”.
Mao Zedong governed a country that was many years behind the world’s post-war powers. China’s problems were huge and Mao decided to introduce radical solutions for China’s domestic weaknesses rather than rely on conservative ones. Mao’s government began to tackle the system of land ownership. An agrarian reform movement was launched to redistribute land, eliminate landlords, and bring all agriculture under state control. The state set prices, determined how much would be produced, and distributed grain ration tickets to all. Land was collectivized and peasants were organized into Production Teams, which together formed larger units called Production Brigades. Land and equipment were pooled together in these cooperative units. By 1956, 90 percent of the farmers were members of cooperatives. Beginning in 1958, a large number of Production Brigades formed People's Communes. During this agrarian reform, villagers were encouraged to attack "landlords," hold public trials, and engage in mass accusations. The definition of "landlord" was highly arbitrary, as many actually controlled very small amounts of land. Millions were executed in this bloody movement.
State control and development of industry were based on the Soviet model, which favored heavy industry. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union provided specialists, planning, and loans to help build Chinese industry, and thousands were sent to the Soviet Union for education and training. Beijing's first five-year plan began in 1953 and was patterned after the Soviet five-year plans. It included the goals of socialist industrialization and the socialist transformation of agriculture, light and heavy industry, and commerce, all in successive phases. The communist government adopted a joint state-private enterprise system for all firms and eradicated private industry and commerce. Although some central planners were preparing to scale back the size of factories and concentrate more on light industry and agricultural development, Mao's Great Leap Forward movement in 1958 thwarted their initiatives.
Ideological remolding has been a key component of the Chinese communist "class struggle" from the founding of the party to the present day. The primary goal was to transform the thinking of intellectuals (the definition of "intellectuals" was loose and included educated people from engineers to primary school teachers) and the general population. During the 1950s, professors underwent thought reform; schools were expanded (primary, technical, and universities); textbooks were translated from Russian; struggle sessions were organized in schools and factories; the practice of self-criticism became standard; and children were encouraged to denounce their parents as reactionaries. One of the first post-1949 ideological movements began with the Korean War in 1950, when anti-U.S. and pro-North Korea propaganda was used to mobilize support for the war.
Always suspicious of their support for the communist revolution, Mao regularly launched fierce attacks against intellectuals. In 1956, on the pretext of promoting the progress of science, Mao Zedong called on intellectuals to "let a hundred flowers bloom, and a hundred schools of thought contend" in the arts and sciences. Heated discussions exposed conflicts that had long existed between intellectuals and the Chinese communist regime, and feelings ran high in Beijing. Many now regard Mao's call as a cynical attempt to expose and then attack critics of the government. In May 1957, an anti-rightist campaign began both within and outside the party. During the four-month period that followed, well over a half million intellectuals were labeled "rightists," forced to make public self-criticisms, and lost their jobs. This serious waste of talent, including writers, scholars, scientists, professors, and journalists, was but a dress rehearsal for the much larger Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution launched ten years later.
Impatient with the rate of economic growth, Mao launched the ill-conceived, ignorant, and ultimately disastrous Great Leap Forward movement, which lasted from 1958 to 1960. In agriculture, the Great Leap Forward mobilized the masses to construct dikes, dams, and irrigation works and reclaim land. Larger units of People's Communes were established to manage health care, education, and even communal kitchens. In industry, Mao proclaimed that China would surpass Britain in steel production. Tens of thousands of small, backyard furnaces were built across the countryside, producing iron billets from both scrap metal and useful items that were so inferior as to be useless. Deforestation, resulting from cutting trees for fuel, had disastrous environmental consequences.
Although agricultural infrastructure had been improved, actual production was adversely affected, because labor was diverted to steel production and other projects. Economic ministries, which had been seriously affected by the anti-rightist campaign, gave inaccurate reporting and planning, thereby worsening the economic situation. Poor weather struck China in 1959, causing widespread malnutrition and millions of deaths. Many people were reduced to eating bark, leaves, and grass. It has now been estimated that in the years between 1958 and 1960, some 20 to 30 million people died from famine, largely as a result of bad policies. Part of the success in being able to mobilize such a large population was heavy indoctrination, successful propaganda, and the cult of personality that surrounded Mao Zedong.
Beginning in 1961, economic policies were reversed and there was a shift in power. Liu Shaoqi was promoted to the post of "state chairman" to clean up the mess, with Mao's personal backing. Through the implementation of Liu's policy of "three freedoms and one contract" (extension of plots of land for private production, free markets, increase of private enterprises with sole responsibility for their profits or losses, and fixing output quotas on a household basis), mainland China's economy was revived to some extent.
Mao and Liu had different views on economic development. Mao believed that Liu's policy allowing private plots of land would lead to a resurgence of revisionism and a restoration of capitalism. At the Tenth Plenum of the Eighth CCP Central Committee held in October 1962, Mao advanced the slogan, "Never forget class, class contradictions, and class struggle," and began an all-out "socialist education movement" in the rural areas beginning in 1963. This movement was in fact a prelude to the Cultural Revolution, which was aimed, among other objectives, at purging Liu Shaoqi.
The Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao as an ideological struggle in art and academic circles in 1966, throwing the entire nation into a fury of chaos and destruction that did not end until Mao's death in 1976. On one level, Mao planned to further revolutionize society and rid it of any vestiges of "feudal thought and foreign influence." He attacked what he saw as an increasingly conservative bureaucracy, lacking in revolutionary spirit. At a deeper level, Mao hoped to recover the power and respect he had lost following the disastrous Great Leap Forward. At the highest level, the Cultural Revolution was an attempt by Mao to wrest power from "rightists," such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping.
Beginning in 1966, the 73 year-old Mao encouraged the organization across China of revolutionary committees and teenage groups called Red Guards. Schools were closed, and Red Guards were given free railway passes to travel around the country to wage war against revisionism and the "Four Olds": old ideas, culture, customs, and habits. This movement resulted in the senseless destruction of books, temples, and art. Brandishing little red books of Quotations of Chairman Mao, the uniformed Red Guards broke into and ransacked the houses of intellectuals and officials, denouncing them and parading them through the streets with dunce caps on their heads. Professors and artists were forced to stand on platforms for hours, bent with their arms stretched back, confessing their "crimes." A countless number died from beatings or suicides. On university campuses, students attacked administrators and covered walls with revolutionary slogans and posters. Much of the government was purged, including former leader Liu Shaoqi, who died in prison in 1969.
By 1969, the Cultural Revolution had thrown every level of society into disorder. Mao was forced to end factional fighting between groups of Red Guards by ordering in the army and sending the youths to the countryside. The head of the army, Lin Biao, died in a failed coup attempt against Mao, and Deng Xiaoping regained a high position within the government. Like the Great Leap Forward, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was another costly waste for the nation. Economic development stagnated, government services were damaged, an entire generation of youth was deprived of education, and hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people died. The worst years of the Cultural Revolution were between 1966 and 1969; however, many consider this tragic period in China's history to have persisted until Mao's death in 1976.
Although the Cultural Revolution was very much a power struggle at the top, most puzzling was the enthusiastic support the movement was given by millions of youth throughout the country. There was also tension between educated urban and non-educated rural youth, as well as the usual conflicts between generations. The chaos of the Cultural Revolution inflicted many deep scars upon China, from which the nation has yet to fully recover.
The first three years of the People’s Republic of China were a time of great change that affected virtually all-Chinese people. The first change affected the rights of the 270 million females who made up half the population. Family life was changed. In 1950, Mao introduced the Marriage Reform Law, which banned forced marriages. The minimum age for marriage was fixed at twenty for men and eighteen for women. Husbands and wives now jointly owned the family property, where before it had belonged to the husband only. The law was very blunt:
"All marriages are to be based on the free consent of men and women."
Divorce was made easier to get. It had been all but impossible under the old regime. Polygamy, the sale of women into prostitution and the killing of unwanted female babies were all banned. Punishment for breaking these laws could be severe.
During this decade, Mao created a in which his image was displayed everywhere and his quotations were included in bold face or red letters in even the most mundane of writings. However, in an era where economic growth has caused corruption to increase in mainland China, there are those who regard Mao as a symbol of moral incorruptibility and self-sacrifice in contrast to the current leadership.
- Have the Chinese people been better off in each of these areas since the death of Mao? Explain your answer.
The Cultural Revolution was not officially ended until 1977 but it had passed its worse excesses by 1972, and a balance of power between left wing and right, radicals and moderates was established. The political instability caused by the Cultural Revolution had an enormous impact upon the economy of China. Recognising that a period of stability was required, Mao stepped back from the day-to-day administration, and Premier Zhou Enlai embarked upon the reconstruction of the economy. Mao, now ageing and suffering ill health increasingly retired from public affairs. In order to build a solid state bureaucracy Zhou reinstated many of the senior bureaucrats who had been denounced during the Cultural Revolution. The army was brought into firmer Party control, and material incentives were introduced into industry, and private plots into agriculture.
The balance of power was still very precarious, and the Shanghai based Gang of Four, led by Mao's fourth wife, Jiang Qing were poised for power, with one of their number, Wang Hong Wen, holding the third most powerful post in the Party, after Mao and Zhou. By 1973 Zhou was seriously ill with cancer, and suffered two heart attacks in 1974. Mao was four years older than Zhou, and himself was now suffering from Parkinson's disease. With the leadership so clearly at a crucial turning point, an all out power struggle emerged.
The Gang of Four was no friends of Zhou, and Zhou attempted to make the succession clearer by reinstating Deng Xiaoping to high office, including Chief-of-Staff of the military. The Gang of Four tried a number of poster campaigns to criticise the new direction of Zhou and Deng. Mao himself, although he disliked the Gang of Four, and his relationship with his wife was, to say the least, strained, disliked Deng's 'capitalism' even more.
The power struggle grew more intense when, on the 8th January 1976, Zhou Enlai died of cancer in a Beijing Hospital. Zhou's natural successor, Deng, was not chosen to succeed him, but rather a relatively little-known member of the Politburo, Hua Goofing. Criticism in the media (in the control of the Gang of Four) of Deng became virulent, and Deng went into hiding in southern China. Demonstrations in Tiananmen Square took place at the annual Qing Ming Festival. On the surface they were wreath laying ceremonies in honour of Zhou Enlai - a genuinely admired politician. However, the occasion was used to display banners critical of the Gang of Four, and in praise of Deng. The posters and wreaths were removed, thus enraging the crowd even more. The end result was a riot which was quelled by the Beijing militia. The Gang of Four blamed Deng, and he was stripped of his positions in the government. However, he was permitted to keep his Party membership at the personal request of Mao.
On 9th September, 1976, Mao himself died. Mao's death was not exactly unexpected, but nonetheless, the reality of it hit the country hard. Where China was to go, and who was to lead her was the burning question. Although in hiding, Deng was a serious contender to the leadership. He had widespread support throughout the bureaucratic and administrative agencies, as well as among the military. Jiang Qing recognised her weakness, only having support among radical students and the extreme left-wing of the party. Jiang Qing tried to convince Hua Guofeng to support her bid to be Party Chairwoman. He decided against it, and was himself elected Party Chairman. In a radical step, he had the Gang of Four arrested on evidence that they had military coups planned in Beijing and Shanghai. The arrest of the Gang of Four was greeted with demonstrations in support of the arrests in every major city in China, including Jiang Qing's stronghold of Shanghai.
Hua was now in control, but only as a stopgap. He was acceptable to a wide spectrum of the Party, being centre-left: supporting Mao, but holding out against the excesses of the Gang of Four. With Deng still technically in disgrace, Hua presided over a political body still seeking the ultimate successor to Mao. Hua tried to distance Deng with a poster campaign which backfired. Posters appeared demanding Deng be reinstated. This move was supported by provincial leaders and the military, fearing demonstrations on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square incident.
Deng's reinstatement was followed by a speedy climb to real power, and his four-modernisation programme was given increased prominence - modernisation of agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defence. At the same time there was a reinterpretation of Mao's work, with new editions of his pre-1960's work being published. Mao's pre-Cultural Revolution published work was far more pragmatic, and much more in line with the Deng approach. With the official trial of the Gang of Four, Hua was to lose his last remaining powers as he was implicated in some of the activities of the gang as Minister for Security. Deng became the unquestioned leader, and he set about transforming China in a way that probably no other country in history has been transformed.
Deng was famed for saying 'It does not matter whether a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice'. This was a reference to state-control verses free market economics. Deng was convinced that the test of theory was practice (a sentiment frequently arising in Mao's writings), and was willing to take on board capitalist principles where they were evidently more efficient than state-control. In this way China was opened up for inward investment, special economic zones established among much of China's coastline and Deng developed what he called 'Socialism with Chinese Character'.
Mounting economic success was mirrored in political advances, with agreements being reached with both the United Kingdom and Portugal for the return of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese Sovereignty in 1997 and 1999 respectively. The dates for drawing lines under European intervention in China and its legacy were timetabled.
China's rapid economic development was not without its problems. Rapid growth had lead to overheating of the economy, and inflation, unknown to China under Mao, was a matter of real political concern. Tight fiscal policies were not popular, nor were the dismantling of much of the state subsidy on food and other daily necessities. To compound matters, economic crimes rose, as did corruption within government.
Growing discontent with the economic disadvantages of restructuring the economy together with anger at corruption and in particular nepotism were focused with the death of Hu Yaobang. A popular politician, his death gave reason to a public display. Again, on the surface, the movement of people to Tiananmen Square was to lay wreaths. However, the marches became more political and bigger. Beijing ground to a halt. The authorities appeared to do nothing, and the demonstrations simply grew bigger.
In the early hours of Sunday 4th July 1989 troops restored the authority of the Communist party through military intervention. The exact number of fatalities is not known. The Chinese authorities place the figure at around three hundred, Amnesty International anything up to three thousand. What is certain is that the international repercussions on the Chinese government were short-lived for all the noise. Certainly sanctions were quietly lifted as the US, Western Europe and Japan all realised that the Chinese market was far too big a prize to be jeopardised by grand political gestures. Frozen aid, soft loans and reciprocal trade agreements suffered only superficial damage, though some have criticised the developed nations for their unseemly haste to restore normal relations after what was termed the 'Tiananmen Square Massacre' by the western press. However, what was clearly demonstrated was that China was an economic force that no nation could ignore - or would ignore at its peril.
Internally, the events in Tiananmen Square had repercussions as various factions within the government sought to apportion blame, and thus gain political power. However, despite a period of slight instability, Deng retained his overall control, and his reform programmes continued up until his death on 20th February, 1997, just four months away from the handover of Hong Kong back to Chinese sovereignty. There was no power struggle after Deng's death like that that had occurred after the death of Mao. Deng had put in place a strong government team, lead by Zhang Zemin and Li Peng.
On the 30th June, 1997, the world watched as the British left their last significant colonial possession, and the Special Administrative Zone of Hong Kong, China became a reality. It was a period of national celebrations across China, with an official three day public holiday to mark the event.
The speculation and forecasts of the collapse of Hong Kong's booming stock market and vibrant economy under a socialist government have come to nothing. Indeed, while the 'Tiger Economies' of South East Asia have cracked, notably Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia and Malaysia, Hong Kong has retained a stable currency, although the value of the stock market has slumped. And while the economic giant of the region, Japan, seems to be on the brink of depression, China, with her booming economy, national unity ever closer and a stable political environment is looking towards a brighter future. Her history shows that political life and economic fortunes weave as intricate a web as any other major nation, but not withstanding the inevitable twists and turns, the third millennium certainly looks exciting for China and her inhabitants.
- How much of Mao’s China is left today? Explain your answer.
When Deng came to power he immediately began to reverse what Mao had done, he wanted to change he direction that china was headed. The type of communism that Deng practised was very different from Maoist China. Deng wanted to reverse the damage caused by Mao during the Cultural Revolution and the great leap forward without ruining the reputation of Mao.
Economically when Deng came to power he wished to turn China away from Maoist policies. Under Mao everything was state controlled and the government kept all the profits there were no incentives to work because everyone was paid the same even if one person did more than another. Deng gave the people the opportunity to do things themselves; they could start their own businesses, private enterprise was encouraged and soon brought about an increase in wealth. The change in economy and industry was shown in ‘Special Economic Zones’, which were set up by Deng to enable China to get more contact with the outside world and benefit from foreign industry. One of these zones was set up next to the colony of Hong Kong; this was to bring China and the colony closer together. These zones and the growing private sector is another example of how China was changing and getting rd of the old Maoist China. Deng believed in trade with overseas countries, this was something Mao would have feared; also he believed that only people of political importance should gain wealth. Under Deng, private sectors were growing and there were new ideas circulating, he welcomed foreigners into the country and people were encouraged to learn new languages. When Mao was in power, he limited contact with people outside china and almost forbade foreign influence.
Agriculturally Mao had introduced the ‘Agrarian Reform Act’ the communes he set up were strictly controlled, people had to work when they were told to and to grow what was given to them. Deng abolished the communes, people were allowed to charge prices and grow crops of their own choice. This meant they could earn more wages and acted as an incentive to work harder. Under Mao some people had to work in places they didn’t want to and students were taken out of education to experience the peasant’s life style. Deng returned these people to school and college, which resulted in a wealthy and successful group of people. How politically inclined you were no longer mattered, with Mao it did, success was down to the individual.
In Industry Mao had every thing state controlled or owned he made sure that communists rather than businessmen ran businesses. Under Deng this changed and he applied a managerial responsibility system in 1984. Managers were given much greater responsibility and could even sell abroad to capitalist countries. Capitalist enterprise was being accepted in Chinese industry. They could set up workshops, hire people and profit from the work of their employees. This open engagement in what Marx called exploitation, would never have been allowed in Maoist China.
In education, only 80,000 out of one billion people received university education, Mao had decided the future of young intellectuals and made sure they would never become to powerful, they were no longer in a position to judge or denounce his policies. Mao was more concerned with the physical side of teaching people. Under Deng more encouragement was given to progress in education. Once education was complete the people had a choice of jobs, they could now go for technical or skilled jobs with large pay. Deng promised that everyone should have at least a primary school education; he recognised that there were too many illiterate people.
Socially, Deng wanted China to remain communist, but he also wanted China to change its view of other countries and how they saw China. He made China more accessible through buying and selling. China became more up to date and began to allow other political parties, but only those that didn’t threaten communism. With Mao anyone suspected of not being a fully-fledged communist was sent away, tortured or even killed. Secret meetings were held for any rebels of the system. A select group discussed with Deng the possible changes to china, often these were based on more developed countries like America, ideas were then published in papers or on television for discussion. Mao would never have tolerated this, he deemed the people not worthy of this knowledge.
In the media under Mao everything was strictly controlled. Under Deng however, the introduction of televisions meant the people were more aware of news and affairs abroad. China became part of the modern world, as westerners knew it. Pop concerts, dancers and other western entertainment became more popular, there were more bikes, cars and motorbikes and there was more time for recreational activities. The people were more relaxed and the standard of living greatly improved. This would certainly not have been allowed in Mao’s time.
In tourism, Mao had no idea how to treat foreigners and never allowed. Deng realised that tourism would bring big business and outside influences this would help China to become more modern.
In conclusion there have been so many changes that virtually none of Maoist china exists today. The economy was revamped and made more modern, there was a greater capacity to become wealthy and afford new things. People were given more responsibility in the workplace and were free to make their own decisions. The younger generations were helped to educate themselves and given a free choice as to what they wanted to do with their lives. People’s social life was improved, they had more time and they were happier. Because of the change in the economy they had more money to spend. Politically China had changed, communism was still there but the beliefs had lessened a bit to allow people to be able to live in the world comfortably, however the main points are still in focus. The people’s army is still running as it was in Mao’s day but it is now much less of a force. China Still had a long way to go to become a democracy and as Tiananmen Square shows that some people do want it. These changes maybe a long time coming but at least they escaped Mao’s restrictive control.
