Modern China: Qing Dynasty to Democracy to Warlord-run Anarchy to Japanese Takeover to Civil War to Communist Control to Modern Economic

Superpower

The end of the Qing… 1908 Boxer Rebellion = Boxer Protocols =

humiliation of China

Gross inequality + Repeated Humilation = Revolution

1911 Revolution = overthrow of the last Chinese Dynasty

Elements of the 1911 Revolution: Led by the Guomindang (Chinese Nationalist Party

who wanted democracy) Nationalism against “foreign” Manchurian Qing

emperor & European interference Rural Peasants wanted traditional values & a return

to good government & a better life (aka: land) Middle Class Urban intellectuals wanted

westernization & liberalism

Sun Yat-sen & Chaing Kai Shek Leaders of the Guomindang & 1911 Revolution

Wanted to bring democracy, industrialization, & a modern, strong China BUT

Never equalized the land – peasants remained downtrodden

Never gained control of the whole country – had to work with warlords who were powerful local leaders

Corrupt bureaucrats Distracted with a civil war against Communist

forces of Mao ZeDong

1930s Japanese Imperialism and Invasion of China Japan took over Manchuria and then eventually

most of China China humiliated AGAIN

Mao Zedong & the Chinese Communist

Party An alternative vision for China’s future developed -

Communism

Mao was a Marxist, but CHANGED Marx’s focus on factory workers. Mao said PEASANTS were the true proletariat.

Wanted to take land from the bourgeoisie and redistribute it to poor peasants.

Lost ground to the Nationalists before WWII – experienced The Long March - The communist party had to escape the pursuit of the Nationalist government and fled on a 6,000 mile hike! About 100,000 die.

Civil War with Guomindang paused during WWII, then resumed until 1949 the communists won this civil war

Established the People’s Republic of China

The Long March

Be Courteous to the people, and help them when you can.

Return all borrowed articles and replace all damaged goods.

Be honest in all transactions with the peasants.

Be sanitary- dig latrines at a safe distance from homes and fill them up with earth before leaving.

Don’t damage crops.

Don’t molest women.

Never ill-treat prisoners of war.

Mao: Instructions to the Communist Army, 1927

Question 1: How did his focus on peasants help Mao Zedong come to power in China?Question 2: What values did Mao Zedong hold that made him sound good to the majority of Chinese people?

Mao Zedong, “On Tactics against Japanese Imperialism” Dec 27, 1935

Speaking of the Long March, one may ask, What is its significance? We answer that the Long March is the first of its kind in history, that it is a … propaganda force, a seeding machine. Since Pan Ku divided the heavens from the earth and the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors reigned, has history ever witnessed a long march such as ours?...

We were encircled and pursued, obstructed and intercepted by a huge force of several hundred thousand men; yet by using our two legs we swept across a distance of more than 6,000 miles through the length and breadth of eleven provinces… Has there ever been a long march like ours? No, never. The Long March also…proclaims to the world that the Red Army is an army of heroes and that the imperialists and their jackals, Chiang Kai-shek and his like, are perfect nobodies. It announces the failure of the encirclement, pursuit, obstruction and interception attempted by the imperialists and Chiang Kai-shek. The Long March…declares to the 200,000,000 people of the provinces that only the road of the Red Army leads to their liberation. Without the Long March, how could the masses have known so quickly that there are such great ideas in the world as are upheld by the Red Army? The Long March is also a seedling machine. It has sown many seeds which will sprout, grow leaves, blossom into flowers, bear fruit and yield a crop in the future. Without the Communist Party, a Long March of this kind would be inconceivable. The Chinese Communist Party, its leadership and its members fear no difficulties or hardships…to sum up, the Long March ended with our victory and the enemy’s defeat. Question 1: How did his rhetoric help Mao Zedong come to power

in China?Question 2: What did the Long March do for the Communist Movement in China?

Mao’s, Political Power Grows Out of the Barrel of a Gun, Nov. 1938.

Every Communist must understand this truth: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun; the gun shall never be allowed to command the Party. But it is also true that with the gun at our disposal we can really build up the party organizations…We can create schools, culture, and mass movements. Anything can grow out of the barrel of a gun. Viewed from the Marxist theory of the state, the army is the chief component of the political power of the state. Whoever wants to seize and hold onto political power must have a strong army. Some people have ridiculed us as advocates of the ‘theory of the omnipotence of war’: yes. We are, we are advocates of the theory of the omnipotence of revolutionary war. This is not a bad thing. With the help of guns, the Russian communists brought about socialism. Experience in the class struggle of the Era of [European] Imperialism teaches us that the working class and the toiling masses cannot defeat the armed bourgeois and landlord except by the power of the gun; in this sense we can even say that the whole world can be remolded only with the gun. As advocates of the abolition of war, we do not desire war; but war can only be abolished through war- in order to get rid of the gun, we must first grasp it in hand.

Question 1: What is the main point of Mao in this source?Question 2: Do you see any problem with the line of thought that “we do not desire war; but war can only be abolished through war.” Discuss your thoughts in agreement or disagreement.

Hsiang Yang, “Chairman Mao Has Given Me A Gun”

Chairman Mao has given me a gunTo guard our red political power;

Clear what I love and hate, firm in my stand, Holding my course through densest clouds and mist.

Chairman Mao has given me a gunTo guard our red political power;

I shall support to the Left, make revolution, Ready to shed my blood or lose my head!

Chairman Mao has given me a gunTo guard our red political power;

If the enemy dare attackThey will meet their doom!

Chairman Mao has given me a gunTo guard our red political power;

All my life I shall follow Chairman MaoTo make our land impregnable for ever.

Question 1: What is “red political power” and how does this song say it is supported?Question 2:What person is the focus of this song? Why do you think so many communist nations are built around one charismatic ruler?

Victory of the Communist People’s Army

Reasons for the Communist’s Success

Reasons for the Communist’s Success

• Mao won support of peasants by giving land • Mao won support of women (Communism calls for equality)• Mao’s army used guerilla war tactics• Many saw the Nationalist government as corrupt• Many felt that the Nationalists allowed foreigners to dominate China.

Communist China Communist China under Mao had two

big movements Great Leap Forward (1950s)

Goal = Industrialize China Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

(1960s) Reform the “thinking” of Chinese

people to erase “bourgeoisie” leanings

Great Leap Forward All property was owned by the state

People lived and worked on “Communes”

Communes would make iron in backyard iron smelters and meet government quotas Obviously, trying to make high-quality iron in

your backyard fails Quotas were so huge that no one bothered to

grow crops MASS FAMINE AND STARVATION RESULTS Millions die

Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution

Mao needed to reestablish his power

Needed an “enemy” to focus on

He said the failure of the Great Leap Forward was due to secret “bourgeoisie elements” of society that intentionally sabotaged it

Just like Stalin’s Purges, a “witch hunt” for people who weren’t proletarian enough began

Campaign against the “Four Olds” – Old Thoughts, Old Culture, Old Customs, Old Habits

Millions more die

Red Guards – students who attacked professors, government officials, factory managers

A Red Guard

“Smash the Old World. Create a New World.”

With regard to the great teacher Chairman Mao, cherish the word

'Loyalty'. With regard to the great Mao Zedong Thought,

vigorously stress the word 'Usefullness'. (1968)

“The reddest, reddest, red sun in our heart,

Chairman Mao, and us together”

Everyone carried their Little Red

Book – the quotations of Chairman

Mao

Today: China After Mao Mao dies in the early 1970s

Power struggle in the Communist Party

Most want to STOP the focus on class-based persecution & focus on the Economy

Deng Xaoping = modernizing head of the Communist Party who turns China into the modern economic superpower that it is today