Evaluate how successful Mao Zedong and the CCP were in instituting socialist ideals in the people from 1912-1937

by deworst (student)

Evaluate how successful Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party were in instituting socialist ideals in the people from 1912-1937?

Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were relatively successful at implementing socialist ideas into the people of China. Established in 1921, the CCP started out as a small, unnoticeable political party to one that emerged rapidly as the other preferred form of government system that appealed to the population with their attractive ideas. Unlike the nationalist party, Mao and his party were able to dig into the hearts and the minds of the Chinese population, which was essential for the communist party if they were to succeed by gaining support from the peasant population.

After the Fourth of May Movement in China during 1919, Marxist ideas began to attract the Chinese people because it challenged the traditional Confucius ideas that has been engraved into the minds of people since centuries ago. The eventual founder of the CCP, Chen Duxiu promoted the ideas of reform and reinforcing the Chinese society. The Chinese held patriotic feelings for the event because they were discontented at the decisions made during the Versailles Peace Conference; the Shandong province was not returned to China after being occupied by Germany during the Great War, instead, it went to Japan. This brought about nationalistic feelings amongst the people which lead them to resort to ambitious ideas that would liberate them from being oppressed by foreign powers. Since China’s society was disintegrating, many would have accepted proposals to improve people’s lives, as it was highly unjustified because the rich owned most of the property and the poor were suffering from starvation.

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Even though the Chinese Communist Party started out being a minute party, it managed to increase in numbers rapidly within a couple of years. Mao reached out to the peasants living in the rural areas because he believed that the support of the large peasant population would be the key to success. The communists promised the redistribution of land so that everyone would be given a piece of land. The peasants were attracted to this because almost all the land in China belonged to the aristocrats and they believed that they would gain land from them. Industrial workers were also interested in communist ideas because they were suffering from appalling working conditions, low wages and the abusive nature of the managers. The communists promised to help improve these conditions if they received their support. Therefore, industrial workers supported them because the nationalist party was more interested in their own self-interests than the people of China.

Another reason why Mao and the party attracted the majority of the peasants was because Mao was born in a peasant family- he would be able empathise with the peasants since he understood what they were demanding for. Whereas the Guomindang’s (GMD) leader Sun-Yat Sen came from a middle-class background and later when Chiang Kai-Shek came to power, he was more concerned in strengthening China than improving the lives of the population. At least 80% of the population was made up of peasants; this gave the communists an advantage when they were looking for more support because the majority of the peasants resided in the rural areas. The communists were able to reach out to the peasant population by travelling to the countryside whereas the GMD did not bother to visit those areas. Since the countryside was far from the cities and the peasants were illiterate, they would naturally support the communists who came to promote themselves.

At the beginning of the 1930s, China was threatened by the Japanese when they attempted to invade. The GMD was undoubtedly weakened because it had to divert its attention to fighting the Japanese, communists, as well as securing its hierarchical dominance over the massive peasant population. They endangered their reputation when they failed to drive the Japanese out of China and the corruption within the party itself. They were receiving foreign support, which the Chinese detested because they have always suffered from foreign intervention. Due to this, the communists were able to gain more support from the Chinese population since they were more efficient at defending against the Japanese invaders.

Nevertheless there were drawbacks with their ideas in instituting socialist ideals in the people. Although land reform was carried out by redistributing the land the landlords and the richer peasants owned, some of landlords and rich peasants were able to keep more land if they supported the communists. This defeats the principles of equality because some people were getting more land. The communists were also strictly disciplined- they would purge would be opponents as well as being willing to sacrifice their own members. As a result, this led to people being sacrificed or mistakenly accused of their wrong doings.

Overall the communist were mostly successful at implementing socialist ideas into the Chinese people because they were able to capture the minds of the vast peasant population. They acknowledged that the issue of land reform was an important matter in gaining peasant support even though they did not always redistribute the land equally. Mao was also able to attract the merchants and civil servants because he carefully avoided proclaiming any radical measures, such as the abolition of private property. The principle ideas of the communist party were more appealing since they were determined to drive out foreign influence in China because the Chinese had been undermined by the foreign powers since the 19th century.

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