Political History of China
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT
 Four influences:
 Geographical Influences
 Historical Influences before 1949
 Historical Influences of the PRC
 The Political Culture
Influences before 1949: Dynastic rule
 The political culture inherited from centuries of dynastic rule
centers around:
 Confucian values, such as order, harmony, and a strong
sense of hierarchy - "superior" and "subservient" positions.
 China has traditionally valued scholarship as a way to
establish superiority
 Strong sense of cultural identity and a relatively high
degree of cultural homogeneity.
 Ethnocentrism
 A strong merit-based bureaucracy long before the
Europeans adopted it
Revolutionary upheavals
 Major revolutions occurred in China in 1911 and 1949,
with many chaotic times in between.
 Three themes dominated this revolutionary era:
 Nationalism
 Establishing a new political community
 Socioeconomic Development
China after 1911
 The Revolution of 1911 was intended to create a modern
republican form of government in China.
 Instead, the country broke up into warlord-dominated
regions with increasing poverty and violence.
 The Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party led the revolution, but
controlled few areas.
Kuomintang Party
 Sun Yat-sen was the main leader
of the 1911 Revolution and the
Nationalist Party (KMT).
 He died in 1925 and was
succeeded as leader by Chiang
Kai-shek.
 Chiang cooperated with the
Communists for a time, but then
massacred them in 1927.
Life of Mao Zedong
 Mao led a Communist area in Jiangxi Province in 1934, but
attacks by the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) government
army forced them to undergo the “Long March” lasting over
a year and covering 6,000 miles to a new, safer area to the
north in Shanxi Province.
 Mao emerged as a hero of the people, and many of his loyal
friends on the March lived on to be prominent leaders of the
People's Republic of China after its founding in 1949
Land Reform
 Mao discovered even in the 1920s that the Communists could
win the support of the peasants by taking away land from the
rich and sharing this with the poor.
 Mao learned how to get the vast majority of peasants on his
side by concentrating the confiscations on a small minority of
wealthy farmers.
Yan’an, 2
 At the end of the Second World War, the Russians moved into
Manchuria against the Japanese and were able to share some
weapons with the Chinese Communists.
 Stalin urged Mao to ally with Chiang Kai-shek rather than to
fight him.
Communist Victory, 1949
 Due to corruption and
inefficiency among the KMT
leadership, the Communists took
power in mainland China in
October, 1949.
 The KMT leaders retreated to
the island of Taiwan.
 “Two Chinas”
 Now Mao was in charge of the
whole country.
Maoism
Mao Zedong was strongly influenced by Karl Marx
and Lenin, but his version of communism is distinctly
suited for China.
He believed in the strength of the peasant, and
centered his philosophy around these central values:
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collectivism
struggle and activism (don’t let people get
comfortable, leads to corruption)
mass line
egalitarianism (focus on peasants)
self-reliance
Mao in 1949
The political development of the PRC
 Phases:
 The Soviet Model (1949-1957)
 Land Reform.
 Civil Reform
 Worked to eliminate opium addiction and prostitution, ending
arranged marriages which increased legitimacy
 Five-Year Plans
 nationalize
 collectivize
 socialize
Industrialization
 Between 1949 and 1960, China followed the Russian strategy
of industrialization.
 They built large factories in the cities.
 Many Russian engineers came to China to assist in this effort.
 Many of the largest factories in China today were built during
this period.
Anti-Rightist Campaign 1957
 100,000’s of people were
accused of enemies of the
Revolution and demoted,
fired, or sent to labor
camps
 Hundred Flowers
Campaign – govt
encouraged dissent to
appease the people( briefly)
“Struggle against the anti-rightest resolutely”
The Great Leap Forward (1958-1960)
• In 1958, Mao decided that the Russian strategy of industrial
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development was not suitable for China because it was not helping
countryside.
The Great Leap Forward was a utopian effort to transform China into a
radical egalitarian society. It's emphasis was mainly economic, and it
was based on four principles:
All-around development
Mass mobilization
Political unanimity and zeal
Decentralization
The Great Leap Forward was a big flop
• Misreporting common and starvation occurred on mass scale
The Cultural Revolution (1966-1978)
• Political, social and economic change:
• Mao’s main goal was to purify the party and the country
through radical transformation.
• Remove all vestiges of the old China and its hierarchical
bureaucracy and emphasis on inequality.
• Included self-criticism session in the xiaozu’s
• People would admit their shortcomings and promise to change
• Included attacks on elites/capitalists; students would attack those
who harmed them and they were sent to farms and not school
• Mao died in 1976, leaving his followers divided into
factions:
– Radicals
– The Military
– The Moderates
Cultural Revolution, 2
 Cultural Revolution followed the Hundred Flowers Campaign
(1957) which encouraged open criticism, but actually helped
government locate those against government who were later
imprisoned
 The Cultural Revolution started among students, but it began to
affect other sectors of society.
 Red Guards…carried out Mao’s police/soldiers who carried out
the goals of the revolution
 “Reactionary” teachers and officials were common targets, who
were often killed or committed suicide
Cultural Revolution
Publicly criticized
Deng Xiaoping's Modernizations (1978”Present”)
 1978, the new leader was
Deng Xiaoping.
 New policies
 "Open door" trade
policy
 Special Economic
Zones
 Reforms in education
 Institutionalization of
the Revolution
After Mao
 From 1975 to 1997, China was led by Deng Xiaoping who
welcomed economic reforms in the direction of capitalism
(socialism with chinese characteristics).
 Peasants were allowed to farm on their own and to leave the
collective farms.
 Local governments were permitted to establish industrial
companies that functioned like capitalist firms.
After Mao
 Mao would be turning over in his grave at the foreign
investment and the consumer culture that is spreading in
China today.
 However, Mao’s efforts did create a strong, united Chinese
state that after Mao’s death was able to make serious reforms
to compete in a global economy.
 Political legitimacy rests on economic growth and a rising
standard of living.
Deng Xiaoping Theory
 - "It doesn't matter whether a cat is white or black, as long as
it catches mice."
 The result of his leadership was a dramatic turnaround of the
Chinese economy through a combination of socialist planning
and the capitalist free market.
 True to Communist Party
Participation
 Citizens are subjects of government, not
participants in a political system.
 The communist state redefined political
participation by creating a relationship
between the Communist party and
citizenship, and by defining the
economic relationship between citizens
and the government.
 In recent years popular social
movements that support democracy,
religious beliefs, and community ties
over nationalism have influenced
Chinese politics and helped to define
China's relationships with other
countries.
BACKGROUNDS OF PARTY MEMBERS
 Transition in the backgrounds of party members.
 Cadres were peasants or factory workers, and few were
intellectuals or professionals.
 Increasingly "technocratic"
 Today less than 40 percent of party members come from the
peasantry, although peasants still make up the largest single
group within the CCP.
 The fastest growing membership category consists of
officials, intellectuals, technicians, and other professionals.
 Women make up only about 20 percent of the membership
and only about 4 percent of the Central Committee.
INTERESTS, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS, AND
PROTESTS
Policy Making in China
 How to maintain the power of the elite
 Desire to make China a world power
 An orderly society
 Compliance of a politically-passive people
 Hope for respect from the global community
Protest
 Difficult for the party-state to monitor citizens.
 Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989
 Major protests have been staged by religious groups
 Village protests
 Labor strikes
 Stability issues