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Mao Zedong's consolidation of power 1949-1957

Mao Zedong's consolidation of power 1949-1957. TERROR. BY: ALICE WONG. Historian Jung Chang: “Mao intended most of the population…to witness violence and killing. His aim was to scare and brutalise the entire population …”. WHY TERROR?.

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Mao Zedong's consolidation of power 1949-1957

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  1. Mao Zedong's consolidation of power 1949-1957 TERROR BY: ALICE WONG

  2. Historian Jung Chang: “Mao intended most of the population…to witness violence and killing. His aim was to scare and brutalise the entire population…”

  3. WHY TERROR? • The outbreak of the Korean war in 1950 had led engendering a sense of national unity and that China’s revolution was under threat internally and externally. • A deliberate atmosphere created by Mao and the CPC; an excuse to use more extreme measures against ‘counter-revolutionary elements. • Pursued with repression and terror methods to hasten the establishment of his dictatorship.

  4. OVERVIEW • Propaganda campaigns isolated and shamed targets: police, the courts. • No one was trustworthy; citizens were encouraged to inform on each other. • Prostitution virtually stamped out in 1953. • Sent to ‘re-education’ centres as punishment. • Drug-dealing was rooted out; dealers were shot. • By Summer 1951, everyone above the age of 15 needed official residence permits and obtain permission if they wished to move to another area. • All the ‘bad things’ in China before 1949 were clamped down on, increasing the Party’s control of Chinese Society.

  5. FOUR MASS CAMPAIGNS …established in the year 1950-1952. • The Resist American and Aid Korean Campaign • The Suppression of Counter-Revolutionaries campaign. • The Three-Antis Campaign. • The Five-Antis Campaign.

  6. THE RESIST AMERICA AND AID KOREA COMPAIGN 1950 • Both China and America were involved in the Korean War (fighting opposite sides). • Foreigners in China were identified as enemies of the PRC (People’s Republic of China); many persecuted. (Except for Russians). • Christian Churches, nuns, priests expelled from PRC. • China closed off to Western influences once again. • Anything that had Western influences (businesses, universities and churches) all came under suspicion. • Terror extended to Chinese too. • Police started confiscating weapons and radios at home. • Mass rallies drew Chinese citizens into the growing frenzy of suspicion.

  7. THE SUPPRESSION OF COUNTER-REVOLUTIONARIES CAMPAIGN 1950 • Focused on internal threats to the Chinese revolution. • Mao tried to exercise close control over the level of executions of counter-revolutionaries. • Counter-revolutionaries: • Those with links with the GMD regime, bandits and members of religious sects. • Many denounced, investigated and punished.

  8. THE THREE-ANTIS CAMPAIGN 1951 • Targets: corruption, waste, obstructionist bureaucracy. • Officials and managers denounced at mass meetings. • Investigations carried out by Party Committees. Those found guilty were humiliated. • Party members forced to self-criticise and face group pressure to ‘rectify’ their errors of thoughts of deeds. • Successful campaign in rooting out many corrupt practises(bribery).

  9. THE FIVE-ANTIS CAMPAIGN 1952 • Directed against bourgeoisie. • Targets: bribery, tax evasion, theft of State Property, cheating on government contracts and economic espionage. • Group criticism sessions: • Employers either self-criticised or denounced others. • Mass meetings were scenes for public denunciations. • Guilty faced large fines, confiscation of their property and sent to labour camps (Lao-gai). • Many of those who were denounced for the three-antis and five-antis campaign committed suicide; there weren’t many executions.

  10. Historian Jung Chang: She described this intrusion into people’s lives became known as the process of “thought reform”.

  11. Historian Jung Chang: “…meetings tended to be dominated by self-righteous and petty-minded people, who used them to vent their envy and frustration.”

  12. PURGING THE CPC (THE PURGE OF GAO GANG AND RAO SHUSHI 1953). • Purge of CPC began due to the launch of the First Five-Year Plan (FYP). • It began a series of discussions and decision-making amongst leading ranks of the Communist Party. • Gaohad a strong power base and became the head of the Central Planning Commission, in charge of the FYP. • Was leading CPC official in Manchuria, held all four senior posts in the Government, the Communist Party and the PLA. Gao gang. RaoShushi.

  13. PURGING THE CPC (THE PURGE OF GAO GANG AND RAO SHUSHI 1953). • Gao supported Mao and criticised Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi’s cautious approaches. • Gao believed he had Mao’s backing and support from Rao (CPC leader in Shanghai), he tried to usurp Zhou’s position and become Vice-Chairman. • December 1953: Politburo meeting. • Mao accused Gao and Rao of attempting to build independent kingdoms in their regions and of “Underground activities”. • Gao committed suicide rather than face humiliation and disgrace. Gao gang. RaoShushi.

  14. SO… • Mao had used terror in order to: • Further strengthen his control of China. • Root out all the ‘plagues’ that had existed before 1949. (Bribery, corruption, prostitution…etc). • “Thought-reform”: to brainwash people. • Establish a dictatorship for himself.

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