Mao’s Domestic
Policies
Domestic Policy; Government:
Consolidation 1949-57
• Problems
– Korean War (1 year after seizure of power)
– Massive disorder (1 mi. bandits, drugs, prostitution)
– Damage from 40 years of civil war
– No experience governing cities
• Initially Pragmatic and cautious
– Tolerates other parties except GMD
– Passes Organic Law (temp. const. abolished in1954,
becomes one party state)
– Gov’t is coalition but dominated by CCP
– Seizes GMD property and nationalizes banks and utilities
– Seizes foreign assets (offers compensation)
Domestic Policy; Government:
Consolidation 1949-57
• Recognizes importance of middle class
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Needs civil service (Young CCP members taught by them)
Needs managers, officials
Middle class allowed to stay on if profess loyalty to PRC
Only 750,000 CCP in China, retain 2 mi. GMD until 1953
• Day to Day Governance
– Creates 6 Admin. Regions
• Each has a Chairman, Party Secretary, Military Cdr., Political Commisar
• Last two are PLA Members (Amounts to military control of China)
• Central Peoples Gov’t Council is Central Gov’t
– 56 Members, Mostly Yanan veterans
– Mao is Chairman with 6 Vice Chairmen
Domestic Policy; Government:
Consolidation 1949-57
• Military regions
– Tibet
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Claimed as historic China
Different culture, religion ignored
Fight PRC but no equipment, 60,000 dead in 6 months
Terror program to wipe out culture
– Xinjiang Region
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Far to the west and mostly Muslim
Year long war
Fear Soviets will invade or Muslim succession from China
Conquered and consolidated
– Guangdong
• GMD heartland in the South
• Crushed by PLA
Domestic Policy; Political Control
• Need economic recovery to stabilize Politically
• National Capitalism
– CCP works with Capitalists
– Businessmen w/o close ties to GMD continue businesses
– Heavy industry nationalized (GMD began this; Ex. Chemicals
75%)
– Light industry and small factories left alone
» More regulation and wage and price controls
• Industry and Agri. recover
• Inflation controlled by 10,000 to 1 exchange for new currency
• Land Reform
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1950 4% own 40% of the land
Mobilize peasants: Denounce attack “Speak Bitterness”
2 mi dead and completed by 1952
Peasants bound to CCP still own land at this point
Domestic Policy; Political Control
• 3 Anti Movement (San Fan)
– Anti: corruption, waste, inefficiency
– Aimed at GMD officials and some “corrupt” CCP
– Self criticism and criticism (struggle)
• 5 Anti Movement
– Industrial Sabotage, tax evasion, fraud, bribery, theft of gov’t property
– Real goal is get rid
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Middle Class (bourg.)
Class enemies
Generate fear and uncertainty
Belonging to a certain class is a crime
Nation of informers
– Terror
• One party state is the goal, but 10 exist including left GMD and Democratic League
• Declares war on undefined “counter-revolutionaries and destroys them
• Mass killings of 90,000 criminal Gang Members (Triads) in Shanghai and Canton
Domestic Policy; Political Control
– Technically a total Democracy
• Reality is one Party State
– Only one slate of Candidates (CCP) and CCP counts the votes
– Politburo is dominant
– Peoples Congress Rubber stamps all PB decisions
• Technically has veto power, but never reverses decisions
– Mao and the Politburo
• Not always present, but has to approve all decisions
– Democratic Centralism
• Mao is considered the only leader sufficiently educated in Revolution to make
decisions
Domestic Policy; Social Control
– Mass Organizations
• New Democratic Youth League (14-25), Children’s Pioneer Corps (914)
• National Women’s Association
– Conformity
• Thought Reform Campaign 1951
– 6500 Professionals, Intellectuals, Professors forced to study Communist Thought
– Art: Only themes are class struggle and the CCP
– No Bourgeois Individualism
• Neighbors spy on each other, workers on workers, children/parents
• Block officials act as informers
• Community Association
– Forced politicalization or branded class enemy
– Middle class are eager to inform to prevent being declared class enemies
Domestic Policy; Social Control
– Registration
• Danwei = Work Permit
• Hukon = lodging permit
• Dangan = personal records maintained by state
– Chief means of control
Economic Policy;
• 1st Five Year Plan (15YP) 1952
– Ends National Capitalism
– National Resources Committee left in place by GMD and Mao uses it to
nationalize industry
– 1950 Sino/Soviet Agreement (Friendship Treaty) provides money and
experts
• 300 mi. in loans, 11,000 technicians train 28,000 CCP members
• CCP has no industrial or urban experience and needs a model
– 15YP follows Soviet model
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Coal, steel, petro with secondary focus on autos and transportation
Produce huge facilities like Anshan Steel Plant (35,000)
Team Management out and One man management replaces it
Completes nationalization of remaining 20% of heavy and 60% light industry
9% Growth rate similar to USSR
Bridges/infrastructure grows, Heavy industry up 300%, light ind. 70%, targets
exceeded ny 20%
– Boosts urbanization: from 57 mi to 100 mi 1949 to 1957
Economic Policy;
– Boosts urbanization: from 57 mi to 100 mi 1949 to 1957
• Migration to cities doubles w/o force
• Inflation decrease from 1000% to 15% by 1951
– Cut expenditures, tax urban population, new currency
– Problems
• Soviet aid requires payment through economic concessions
• Loans are all high interest = debt
– Squeeze Agriculture to pay for aid so loans = only 3% of total
– No agricultural investment and it grows only 3.8%
• Agriculture
– Gradualist approach unlike Stalin
– 1st Urges Peasants to pool resources (Mutual Aid Teams) and 40% due
by 1953
– 1954 Agricultural Producer’s Co-ops (APC) pooling 50-100 households
• Pool land, still privately owned and large land owners get the most money
Economic Policy;
• 1953-56 is chaos
– Mao 1st says says process too fast (“Rash Advance”) then that it is too
slow (Rash Retreat)
– By 1955 Liu Shaoqui urges APC slow down but Mao says speed up
– 1956 80% are in Co-ops
– Now Wants higher level APC’s of 200-300 households
• Land will now be owned collectively
• Peasants become wage workers, Modern Serfdom???
• State is sole gain buyer and seller
– Fixed grain quotas and prices
– Gradual approach = less violence (Traditional Historiography)
– Short (Revisionist) disagrees and points to riots in 1954/55 which led to
the “Rash Advance” policy
– Rural economy is not seriously disrupted i.e. animal slaughter and grain
decline like USSR
Economic Policy;
• Great Leap Forward (GLF) 1958
– Must “catch” the West, USSR
– Achieve “Lift Off” = collectivized peasants = surplus and workers will
build the economy
• Mao uneasy with Heavy Industry focus and persuades Central
Committee to cancel 2nd 5YP.
• China will “walk on two legs” (agriculture and industry)
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Uncomfortable with incentives paid to skilled workers (USSR style)
Short of capital and need alternative as 5YP’s are capital intensive
Assert Chinese independence from USSR
Fears elitism, wants CCP to connect to the masses again (Yanan)
Accelerate growth
Economic Policy;
• Focus on labor intensive campaign (where population is
advantage) not capital projects
– Use the “Mass Will” (“Emperor of the Blue Ants”)
– Co-ops become communes with 5000 families, 26,000 in 1958
– Believes surplus labor can be created which will be used to reclaim land,
irrigate and permit peasant industry
– Communes also are to be industrial centers (not just agriculture), provide
education, and defense (People’s Militia)
– Backyard Furnaces to produce 10.7 million tons of steel in 1959, 60
million in 1960 (Steel is useless but officials cant acknowledge that to
Mao)
– Huge environmental impact and is abandoned 1959
– Implement communes in cites with factories now run by committee
– GNP grows 8% in 1958 but down 30% by 1960
Economic Policy;
• State owned Enterprises (SOE)
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Take over wages, targets from Government (State)
Subsidies identical, wages same and fixed, no incentives
Workers get homes, medical, education and a guaranteed job
Commodities rise (raw materials) but few finished goods produced
• No technical skills, trained managers, efficient factories or transportation systems
• Quality bad
– Politics not economics dictates production decisions
– No clear Plans, or national integration
– USSR cuts off aid in 1960
Economic Policy;
• GLF Agriculture
– Need more industrial workers and Peasants produce more but it doesn’t
reach the market
– Mao believes Peasants eat too much, families too big
– Creates 70,000 communes made up of Brigades of 200 families each
– No private farming, can’t migrate
– Claims peasants demanded expansion of communes (Lie)
• The Great Famine 1958-62
– Good Harvest 1958, 200 mi. tons of grain but Gov’t claims 260 mi. tons
were produced so quotas/targets are ridiculous
– 1959 only 170 mi. tons, 1960 144 mi. tons
Economic Policy;
• Reasons for the Great Famine 1958-62
– Peasants are allowed to keep consumption levels of grain only
– Lysenkoism applies uniform techniques no matter what the conditions or
weather
– 4 Pests Program (Sparrowcide) kills birds believed to be eating seed
• Insects and rats now reach plague levels
– Starvation follows with 50 mi starving and 20 mi. dead
– Lushon Conference 1959
• Peng Dehuai recounts tales of famine, dead and dying everywhere
• No one backs him
• Zhou En Lai agrees with him but is afraid to speak, Gets drunk and passes out from
shame
• Peng Denounced by Jiang Qing (Mao’s Wife) as trouble maker and liar
• Mao threatens to use the PLA v. Party and mentioning famine becomes treason
– Protests break out but Peasants not organized and PLA used
Life in Mao’s China:
Customs and Traditions
• Peasant Culture
• Patriotic Churches
– Vatican
– Cult. Rev becomes one of “four olds”
• Minorities
• Women
• Education
Treatment of Religious
Groups
• Mao was concerned about the Vatican, especially its
ability to command allegiance beyond national
boundaries
• He used a fake assassination plot to take over all
Catholic institutions
• A smear campaign accused Catholic priests and nuns
of murder, cannibalism, and medical experiments on
babies
• Hundreds of Chinese Catholics were executed and
many foreign priests suffered physical abuse
• In general, religious and quasi-religious organizations
were suppressed or brought under tight control
Role of Women in
Communist China
• In pre-communist China, women were:
– Considered inferior to men
– Excluded from political life
– Robbed of property and inheritance rights
– Forced to obey their fathers before marriage, their
husbands after marriage, and their sons if they
became widowed
– Deprived of the right to receive an education and
take part in social activities
– Matched with a mate and were not allowed to
remarry if their spouse died
– Subjected to polygamy and prostitution
– Subjected to “foot binding”
Role of Women in
Communist China
• In war by Japan against China from 1937-1945,
most of the over 30 million Chinese who were
brutally killed were women and children. Within
a month after the Japanese troops occupied
Nanking, they committed over 20,000 rapes
• For the women of China, the founding of the
People's Republic of China ended the
thousands of years of feudal oppression and
enslavement
Role of Women in
Communist
China
• After the founding of Communist China, there was a
movement throughout the country to quickly change
the customs that discriminated against and humiliated
women
• This effected an earth-shaking historic change in the
social status and condition of women
• In 1949, The Common Program was adopted (like a
constitution)
• It ended the feudal system and stated that women
enjoyed equal rights with men in the political,
economic, cultural and educational fields and in other
aspects of social life
Role of Women in
Communist China
• Ban on prostitution –
– In 1949, the municipal government of Beijing
immediately:
• Closed all brothels
• Gathered prostitutes in designated places where
they could be educated and reformed
• Receive treatment for venereal diseases
• Be provided with guidance to help women start
normal lives and support themselves through work
– Most other areas of China followed suit
Role of Women in
Communist China
• In 1950, The Marriage Law declared the
abolition of the feudal marriage system
characterized by arranged and forced marriage,
male superiority and female inferiority, and
disregard for the interests of children
• Following months of publicity of the new law,
this action resulted in the annulment of
numerous feudal engagements, a rapid
reduction in domestic abuse and maltreatment,
and an increase in freely chosen love marriages
Role of Women in
Communist China
• Land reform – Rural women obtained land, just like
their male counterparts, and became masters of their
piece of soil
• Universal balloting – In 1953, The Electoral Law of the
People's Republic of China stipulated that women
enjoy the same rights to vote and stand for election as
men
• The move out of the home – In 1957, around 70
percent of rural women engaged in agricultural work,
and the number of urban women workers and staff
reached 3.286 million, representing a 5.5-fold increase
over 1949
Role of Women in
Communist China
• Illiteracy eradication
campaign – Various literacy
classes, popular evening
schools and workers' sparetime schools mushroomed in
both rural and urban areas,
and women attended these
in their millions. By 1958, 16
million women had learned
to read
Culture
• Proletarian Culture
– Art: Serve the People
• Jiang Qing
– Contemporary themes only
– Only triumph of workers over class enemies
– boooooring!!!!
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Kids taught to reject bourgeois concepts
Even music fades
Artistic wasteland
Deng is only on who says art should let people be
entertained
Education
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Few in primary or secondary schools 1949
Doubles by 1953nbut still tiny
80% illiterate in mid-1950’s
“Pinyin”
Failures as a result of cultural Revolution
– Why?
Health
• Patriotic health movement
– Teams to countryside
– Collapses with GLF and Cult. Rev.
• Cult. Rev = attack on doctors
– Politics over healthcare
– Proletarian solidarity
– Barefoot doctors
• Marginal improvement
Treatment of Minorities
• Order-Keeping Committees were formed
everywhere
• They kept an eye on everyone, not just political
suspects and petty criminals
• The regime also gave everyone a fixed job and
place of residence
• He intended most of the population, even
women and children, to witness violence and
killing to scare the population
Treatment of Minorities
• Laogai – means reform
through labor
• Back-breaking labor in the
most hostile wastelands and
down the most contaminating
mines, while being harassed
incessantly
• Many were executed and
some committed suicide
Laogai in China
Laogai slave labor
camps still exist today
Treatment of Minorities
• Three-Antis (1951) & FiveAntis (1952)
• Hundred Flowers
Campaign (1957)
• Anti-Rightist Campaign
(1957 & 1959)
• The Cultural Revolution
(1966–76)
Treatment of Minorities
• Purges from 1949-1959 (2 million died);
Cultural Revolution (1 mil died); Laogoi – forced
labor camps (20 mil died); Great Leap Forward
– forced collectivization (30-40 mil)
• Millions were injured
• Many committed suicide
• Many suffered torture and physical/emotional
abuse
Party leaders
accused of
supporting
capitalism are
first put on
public
display, and
then are
executed
Mass
executions
and the
parading of
those due to
be killed
through the
streets have
been
methods
employed
since the
earliest days
of
communist
China
Human Rights Abuses
Continue In China Today
Muslims Are Not Allowed to
Practice Their Religion