China 1839-1997

Chapter 3: Defeat and revolution 1901-25

1912 Republic established

1912-16 Rule of Yuan Shikai
1916 Yuan became emperor
Death of Yuan
1919 4 May Movement began
1920 GMD’s southern base established in Guangzhou
1921 Formation of the Chinese Communist Party

1. The rule of Yuan Shikai 1912-16

 A Chinese republic was established in Nanjing.
 After the abdication of the Qing in 1912, Yuan became president of the Chinese republic.
 In the early years of the republic, the Chinese did not understand concepts such as
democracy and representative government.
o Sun formed the GMD. Yuan formed the 進步黨 party led by Liang Qichao.
o the PM was appointed (Beijing army commanders)
o A parliament and a drafting of constitution appeared
o The GMD won a majority in the parliament.
 In 1913, Song who was a GMD leader and a constitutional expert was assassinated.
 In 1913, Sun led failed attempt to remove Yuan in Second Revolution and fled to Japan. He
reorganised the GMD
 Yuan ignored the GMD’s impeachment of him. He consolidated his authority by permanent
suspension of parliament.
 The 21 Demands, 1915
o Japan presented Yuan with the 21 Demands to seize Shandong province with its port
of Qingdao

2. Warlord China
 between Beijing army commanders:
o General Zhang Xun restored the Qing dynasty.
o The republican government under Duan Qirui was split between Beijing army
commanders eg Zhang Zuolin
o The republic’s political divisions between Sun’s Nationalist government in Guangzhou
and the republican govt in Beijing.
o the development of industry and commerce. (閻錫山 Shanxi)
 The weakness of the republic
 o The republic was unable to establish strong central government

3. The 4 May Movement 1919-27

 The origins of the 4 May Movement
 Western pressures on China 1914-19
 4 May reaction to the Versailles settlement: anti-Western and Anti-Japanese boycotts,
protests, demonstrations and strikes
 The creation of the CCP in 1921
 Sun reformed the GMD in 1919
 Cult of science
o Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao challenged the Confucian-dominated ideas
o ‘Science and Democracy’
o Scientists from Europe and the USA was invited
o modernise China’s written language and empirical methods were introduced
o Western technology

4. The GMD under Sun 1912-25

 The Guangzhou government
o Sun reformed the GMD (as a disciplined, centrally directed body) in 1919.
 Three People’s Principles 1923
o national sovereignty, democracy, people’s welfare
 Whampoa Military Academy 1924

5. The CCP
The influence of the Russian Revolution of 1917
 October Revolution
 Lenin
 The CCP organised strikes and boycotts in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
 Chapter 4 Nationalists and Communists 1924-45

1923 Friendship pact between Moscow and the GMD

1924 USSR's seizure of Outer Mongolia
GMD-CCP United Front
1925 Death of Sun Yatsen; Jiang Jieshi became GMD leader
30 May Incident
1926-8 Northern Expedition
1927 Jiang’s White Terror
Autumn Harvest Rising
End of the United Front
1927-34 Jiangxi soviet
1934-5 Long March
1935-45 Yanan soviet
1942-4 Rectification of conduct campaign

1. The GMD-CCP United Front 1924-27

The Soviet Union’s attitude towards China
 USSR’s seizure of Outer Mongolia in 1924 as a buffer against Japan
 Friendship pact between Moscow and the GMD
 The GMD was reorganised along Soviet lines. Borodin drafted a new GMD constitution

 Jiang Jieshi became GMD leader in 1925.

 30 May Incident in 1925 created anti-foreigner sentiments that could be turned against
warlordism

Sun’s death in 1925

 Jiang used his leadership of the NRA to overcome his rivals within the GMD
 Jiang’s success in the GMD power struggle

The Northern Expedition 1926-28

 The GMD announced that it was the legitimate govt of China and it would rule from Nanjing.
 The CCP’s contribution
 Mao’s links with the peasant associations in Hunan
 Caused trouble for the warlord forces through acts of sabotage and by organising strikes and
boycotts
 In 1926 Jiang dismissed Wang Jingwei (leader of the Left GMD)
2. The Communists under Mao Zedong
 In 1931-34, Jiang organised encirclement campaigns against Communists
 The Long March 1934-5
o Mao led the Long March and created the Yanan soviet (1935-45).
 Mao’s ideology
o He crushed his political opponents eg Twenty eight Bolsheviks
o The urban versus rural dispute: Mao rejected Comintern instructions that revolution
could be achieved only by the urban proletariat (industrial workers). China’s
revolution must be a peasant revolution.
 Mao’s land policy
o reallocated land to the peasants
 Mao’s Rectification Movement
o to discipline party members who were guilty of revisionist ideas eg Wang Shiwei and
Ding Ling
o Mao consolidated his power as leader and was elected chairman in 1943.
o He moved towards cult status (a position that puts him beyond criticism) in Yanan.
o Chinese communism had become Maoism.

3. The GMD under Jiang Jieshi 1928-41

Achievements Limitations
 Northern Expedition (undermined the  Run a corrupt govt reliant on foreign capital
warlords)  German influence in Nationalist China (Blue
 Gained international recognition Shirts, fascist)
 Began modernising China, freeing it from  Inflation 1937-49
foreign domination  Japanese occupation of China

GMD’s reform policies

 Civil service was modernised.
 Measures to improve education (to instruct the people in political understanding).
 The Bank of China
 The Shanghai stock exchange
 To develop industry and negotiate foreign trade deals
 To improve urban transport and communication
o Road building eg Burma Road
o Buses, trams, railways, airlines
 o Telegraphy
 To help the Chinese film and fashion industry
 TV Soong
o Founded the China Development Finance Corporation (CDFC) in 1934
o Modernising China’s banking system
 The New Life Movement (moral improvement)
o rejection of communism and capitalism and a reassertion of Confucian values
o to bring the opium trade under state control

 Inflation 1937-49
o After 1945, inflation became hyperinflation. By 1949, monetary system had collapsed.
o Even had it had the will, the govt was bankrupt to address the social problems.
o Even had the Nationalists not been defeated in the Civil War, they could not have
survived.

 Policy towards the foreign concessions

 Many Chinese depended for livelihoods within the concession areas
 Jiang needed foreign support after 1931

 Failure to alleviate poverty

o Failed to implement the land reforms promised
o Regionalism
 Chapter 5: The Japanese threat and Communist takeover 1931-49

1. The Japanese occupation of China 1931-37

 In 1931, Japan occupied the resource-rich Manchuria.
o If the Soviet Union were to take Manchuria they would possess a stepping stone to Japan
itself. (Japan: South Manchuria Railway, Lushun)
o In the 1920s, Japan experienced economic recession.
o Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere
 In 1932, Manchuguo created. Jiang appealed to the League of Nations but the powers took no
action. Shanghai resistance
 In 1933, Japan withdrew from the League of Nations. Treaty of Tanggu (marked the acceptance
of Manchuguo). Jiang suffered damage to his reputation.
 In 1936, Xian Incident. Jiang kidnapped at Xian and obliged to lead the second UF against the
Japanese.
 In 1936, the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan created.

2. The Sino-Japanese War 1937-41

 In 1937, a full-scale Sino-Japanese war broke out using Marco Polo Bridge Incident as a pretext.
Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing fell to Japan.
 Despite the second UF formed, divisions weakened China’s response.
 In 1938, GMD capital moved from Nanjing to Chongqing.
 In 1940, 100 Regiments Campaign c
 Wang Jingwei became leader of a Japanese puppet regime in Nanjing in 1940.
 No foreign power had intervened.
 Role of the USA 1939-41
o US foreign policy during the 1930s was neutrality / non-intervention / respect for
territorial integrity / maintenance of the status quo in the Pacific.
o American-Japanese hostility:
Japan blamed the USA for the restrictions on its naval expansion at the 1922
Washington Conference
 The Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan of 1936
 90% of Japan’s oil supplies coming from the USA
o US involvement in China 1939-41
 1939: the USA cancelled US-Japanese trade agreements.
 7/1940: a large loan to China. Restricted the sale of arms and supplies and
aviation oil to Japan.
 9/1940: Japan entered into a Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy.
  8/1941: the USSR and Japan signed a Non-Aggression Pact.
 9/1941: an American embargo on oil exports to Japan. China supplied with
American resources.

3. The Sino-Japanese War 1941-45

 In 1941, Pearl Harbor attack brought USA (President Roosevelt) into Sino-Japanese war and
made China and the USA allies.
 Jiang gained international recognition for his leadership of China’s resistance to Japan.
 Ichigo Offensive in 1944. The unpopularity of the Nationalists.
 The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
 Japanese surrender
o Soviet-GMD Friendship Treaty. Soviet armies occupied Manchuria in 1945 in return for
the USSR’s recognition of Jiang as China’s leader.
o The USA recognised Jiang as China’s leader and continued to back the GMD.

 The Sino-Japanese War prepared the way for the Communists’ takeover in 1949.
o President Truman held meetings between the CCP and the GMD in 1944-45.

4. The Communist takeover 1945-49

 In 1946-9, the Chinese Civil War
o The Communists were able to take over China in 1949.
 The Left GMD broke away from the GMD.
 In 1949, Mao founded the PRC. Jiang fled to Taiwan and created the GMD-dominated Chinese
republic in Taiwan (1949-75).
o GMD weaknesses
 Jiang appointed commanders according to their personal loyalty
 Faced by growing opposition, e.g. the Left GMD
 Conscription
 Inflation
o CCP strengths
 Mao’s leadership of the PLA’s campaigns
 The USA and the Soviet Union continued to recognise Jiang as China’s leader /
support the GMD
 Mao did not listen to Stalin to come to terms with the Nationalists.
 Chapter 6: China and the wider world 1949-76
1950 Sino-Soviet Treaty
1957 Moscow meeting
1971 member of the UN Security Council

1. The PRC’s international position and regional issues

 The Soviet Union’s takeover of Eastern Europe after 1945. ‘Truman doctrine’ in 1947 and the
formation of the NATO in 1949 against Soviet expansion.
 The PRC took over Tibet (1950) and Xinjiang.

2. The PRC’s relations with the USA

 Relations between the PRC and the USA were bitter 1949-1971
 The ‘loss’ of China
 McCarthyism
 CIA involvement in Tibet
 The Korean War 1950-3
 The USA continued to recognise Taiwan.
o Nationalist China was a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
o Mutual Security Pact (1954) between the USA and Taiwan
o Taiwan Strait
o Eisenhower threatened to use nuclear weapons against the PRC
o SEATO and NATO

 Sino-American relations improved in the 1970s

 Mao attacked Soviet policies of détente and coexistence in 1963
 PRC developed its own atomic bomb in 1964
 In 1971, the USA recognised PRC in the UN.
 In 1972, Nixon’s visit to China.

3. The PRC’s relations with the Soviet Union (1949-76)

 Dependence on the SU 1945-54
 Soviet forces occupied Manchuria in 1945.
 Ideological differences: the dispute over the leadership of international communism
o Revolution could only occur in an urban industrial NOT rural peasant society.
 Dependence on the SU: the PRC’s economic needs and isolation made it sign the Sino-
Soviet Treaty (1950). The SU returned Manchuria.
 The Korean War 1950-53. China entered the war in exchange for Soviet technology and
 equipment.

 A fierce rivalry developed between the PRC and the USSR (1956-64)
 Khrushchev’s de-Stalinisation (1956)
 Mao accused the Soviet policy of détente at the Moscow meeting in 1957
 The USSR declined to offer China support to attack Taiwan in 1958
 The SU dismissed China’s Great Leap Forward (1958-62)
 The Lushan Conference (1959)
 Soviet advisers withdrawn from PRC (1959)**
 The PRC gave support to Albania (1961)
 China’s walkout from the 1961 Moscow Conference

 The Sino-Soviet split (1962-69)

 The SU supported India during the Sino-Indian War 1962
 The Cuban Missile Crisis 1962: Mao condemned Soviet policy of détente.
o Trotsky’s idea of permanent revolution
o rivalry over the leadership of international communism
 Nuclear rivalry
o PRC developed its own atomic bomb in 1964
 Khrushchev dismissed in USSR (1964)
o Mao opposed Brezhnev doctrine to suppress the Prague Spring (1968)
o 1969 Sino-Soviet nuclear confrontation

4. Britain
 In 1967, Mao tried to turn a worker’s strike into an anti-British demonstration
 The PRC’s relations with Britain improved in the 1970s
o recognition of the PRC in 1971
o Edward Heath visited the PRC.
o The Labour government made trade and diplomatic agreements
 Chapter 7: Government, economy and society under Mao after 1949

1950 Land Reform Law

Marriage Law
Treaty of Friendship with Soviet Union
1952-6 first Five Year Plan
1958 GLP
1962 Sino-Soviet split
1966 Cultural Revolution

1. Government
 Mao had authority over the Politburo and the CCP ruled with democratic centralism
o ‘Anti-movements’ launched in 1951 to attack class enemies (landlords) in Shanghai
and Guangzhou
 Purges of party members
 Political parties banned eg the Left GMD and the Democratic League
 maintained control by registration
 The anti-rightist campaigns in the 1950s.

2. The economy: industry

 first Five-Year Plan (1952-6)
 the PRC signed the Sino-Soviet Treaty in 1950 and made a cult of heavy industry (iron
and steel production)
 initially dependent on Soviet economic aid
 determined to build the economy where it matched the USSR and the Western
powers.

 Great Leap Forward (1958-)

 He announced in Moscow in 1957 he was determined to gain economic
independence by modifying Soviet Marxism
 Every family was encouraged to build backyard furnaces
 State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). Prices, targets and wages fixed by the state and
incentives abandoned.
 There were increases in output but the output of manufactured goods fell.
 In 1960, the USSR withdrew technical assistance.
3. The economy: agriculture (1958-)
 Mao introduced collectivisation in 1958.
o Land reforms
o collectives and communes
o great famine (1958-62) & starvation
o ‘Sparrowcide’
o The famine in Tibet was an act of genocide after the Tibetan Rising in 1959?

4. Social change
 women
 female equality and outlawed the foot-binding.
 Marriage reform was introduced in 1950. (+)
 collectivisation on women. Women were freed from their role as mothers
 Women made up 13% of the membership of the CCP.
 Introduced Birth control in 1963 (+)

 Education
 Literacy rates were increased to 70%
 Language reform introduced. In 1955, a new form of Mandarin Pinyin was adopted.

 Religion
 Mao declared that religion was poison. Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity were
denounced. (-)

 Chinese customs suppressed

 Peasant religion & Ancestor worship condemned. (+)
 The songs and dances replaced with political meetings and agitation propaganda films
and live performances (-)
 Chapter 8: The Cultural Revolution 1966-76
Mao launched the CR between 1966-76 to purge China of the reactionary elements

1. Origins: the power struggle 1962-6

 The impact of the failure of the GLF
 Following the failure of the GLF, Mao had resigned as President in 1959. Liu Shaoqi, Deng
Xiaoping and Chen Yun restored private ownership
 Lin Biao and the cult of Mao
 Little Red Book
 The PLA was politicised
 Attempts to radicalise 1963-4
 The Socialist Education Movement (SEM) created in 1963
 The Wu Han affair from 1965
 The Gang of Four became members of the Politburo.
 The Central Cultural Revolution Group (CCRG) (a sub-committee of the Politburo) set up in 1965

2. The course of the CR

 Mao’s reasons for launching the CR
 Mao’s idea of permanent/continuing revolution.
 Khrushchev dismissed (1964).
 Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi dismissed in 1966

3. The Red Guards

(-)
 Students told to insult and abuse parents and teachers; children to denounce elders
 ‘Confucius Co’ smashed, eg temples, shrines and words of art.
 Anyone wearing Western-style clothes, intellectuals, teachers, writers and doctors
purged was exposed to public humiliation and forced to undergo self-criticism sessions
 cultural vandalism in Qufu in Shandong province

4. The PLA and the last stage of the CR

 Mao and the PLA
 industrial production put to a halt and schools and universities closed. (-)
 The PLA took over the Red Guards. The Red Guards demobilised and sent to live among
the peasants (1967-72). (-)
 The PLA’s ‘cleansing the class ranks’ campaign (1968-71)
 The death of Lin Biao (1971)
 The last stage of the CR
 Nixon made an official visit in 1972.
 Zhou died in 1976.
 The death of Mao, 1976

5. The effects
 Impact on politics
 It revealed the deep divisions and group rivalry within the CCP
 The power struggle eg the Lin undermined trust in party politics. (-)
 ‘anti-Maoists’ imprisoned in labour camps (to enforce conformity)
 Economic effects
 Industrial production fell. The govt introduced austerity measures
 Impact on culture
 Jiang Qing’s rejection of all bourgeois culture produced an artistic wasteland.
o She imposed censorship.
o Western music banned.
o Traditional Chinese opera replaced
o Artists sent to labour camps.
 Impact on education
 schools and universities closed.
 Studying dismissed as worthless
 The young sent to ‘the mountains and villages’
 Intellectuals purged sent to labour camps
 Impact on health provision
 Doctors attacked. Patients denied painkillers. New ‘barefoot doctors’ trained but they
could not provide the medical service a modern state requires.

 Impact on women and the family: family denounced as the ‘four olds’
 (+) Collectivisation meant the rejection of the traditional nuclear family
 Religious persecution
 Religion denounced as the ‘four olds’
 Campaigns against Confucianism
 The attack on the ‘four olds’ (+)
 Chapter 10: China and the wider world 1978-87

1978 Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty

1984 Joint Declaration over Hong Kong
1989 Gorbachev visited China
1991 Collapse of USSR
1994 USA granted PRC ‘Most Favored Nation’ status
1997 death of Deng Xiaoping
China joined the IMF and the World Bank
Return of Hong Kong to China
Kyoto Protocol

1. China as a regional power in Asia

 extend influence over Vietnam (1979)
 Control of Tibet:
 The Lhasa Rising in Tibet in 1993. No UN intervention
 The Taiwan issue
 China and the Pacific Rim
 China took Spratly Islands
 The PRC in Africa
 Commercial and financial deals

2. Reconciliation with old enemies

 China and the USA: rapprochement
i. China’s position as a global power
ii. Clinton was willing to grant MFN status to China
 Collapse of the Soviet Union
i. China was left as the only major Communist power
ii. Deng’s pragmatism – not pursue international revolution
 China and Japan
i. Sino-Japanese Peace and Friendship Treaty 1978 (trade)
ii. Reluctance of Japan to acknowledge its war crimes
1. Omit reference in history books
2. Japan’s PM to visit the Yasukini Shrine in 1985
3. The PRC and HK
 Negotiations with Britain
 The Joint Declaration 1984
  the peaceful return of HK

4. China’s membership of international organisations

 The United Nations (1971)
 The IMF and the World Bank
 The WTO (1955) (2001)
 Declined to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 1997

5. Deng’s impact on China’s international standing

 Four Modernisations: modernise its economy and open China to the world
 Tiananmen in 1989 international condemnation but US ‘engagement without
endorsement’

6. Deng’s legacy
 Rejection of Mao’s collectivism and isolationism
 Neo-capitalist methods of incentives and profit-making
 Opening up
 Rejection of Western-style democracy

7. Jiang Zemin & Clinton