Communist China:

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Communist China

• The Peoples Republic of China

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Overview
The establishment of the Peoples Republic of
China in 1949 began a new period in Chinese
history. Communists had risen to power during
the 1930s and 1940s by appealing to a large part
of the population and by achieving military
superiority. The communist government continued
to maintain strict control over peoples lives.
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Key Information
Popular support and military power helped the
Communists come to power.
The programs of Mao Zedong hurt China
economically and violated human rights.
Den Xiaping brought economic reforms but not
political reforms to China.
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Chinas Geography
China is the largest Asian country and the most
populous nation in the world. It is located in
eastern Asia. Mountains, deserts, and jungles
separate China from neighboring nations.
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With the beginnings of communism, China developed
command economies, or government-controlled
economies. Government controls were used to
boost industrial output.
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Much of China is rural, and a majority of its
people were farmers. Large numbers of people
were needed to work the land because many farmers
used (and still do use) traditional tools.
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Despite large oil and coal deposits in he western
part of China, development has proceeded slowly
because of the lack of transportation. Chinas
rivers provide important routes inland from
seaports.
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Communists Rise To Power
In the 1930s Mao Zedong emerged as the leader of
the Communists. In 1934, Mao and 100,000 of his
followers fled the Nationalist forces in what
became known as the Long March.
After traveling more than 6,000 miles, Mao set up
a base in northern China with about 20,000
survivors of the march. For the next several
years the Communists and the Nationalists battled
for control. In 1949, Nationalists fled to the
island of Taiwan.
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Reasons for Communist Success
Why was Mao Zedong and his communist followers
victorious against the nationalists led by Chiang
Kai-shek???
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• Mao won the support of the huge peasant
  population by promising them land
• Mao won the support of women by rejecting
  inequalities of traditional Confucian society
• Maos army made good use of hit-and-run guerrilla
  warfare
• Many people thought the Nationalist government
  was corrupt
• Some people believed that Nationalists had
  allowed foreigners to dominate China.

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Civil War
By 1945, there were two Chinese governments. The
Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek was
based in southern and central China. The United
States supported it.
The Communist government under Mao Zedong was
based in North China. In 1945, war broke out
between the Nationalists and the Communists.
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Many peasants joined Maos Peoples Liberation
Army. They were attracted by the promises of
land. By the spring of 1949, the Peoples
Liberation Army had defeated the Nationalists.
Chiang Kai-shek and his followers fled to the
island of Taiwan.
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Communism Under Mao
Mao set out to transform China from an
agricultural society into a modern industrial
nation. Under communism, literacy increased, old
landlord and business classes were eliminated,
and rural Chinese were provided with health care.
Unfortunately, Mao also established a one-party
dictatorship that denied people basic rights and
freedoms.
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China was now ruled by the Communist Party and
called the Peoples Republic of China. In 1955,
the government began a program to build a
socialist society. Land was taken away from
wealthy landlords and given to poor peasants.
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About two-thirds of the peasants received land
under the program. Most industry and commerce
was nationalized, and most farmers were urged to
collectivize. Chinese leaders hoped collective
farming would increase the food supply and allow
more people to work in industry, but this did not
happen.
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The Great Leap Forward
To speed up economic growth, Mao began a radical
program known as the Great Leap Forward.
Collective farms were combined into vast
communes, each with thirty thousand people who
lived and worked together to meet newly imposed
government quotas. Peasant resentment of the new
system, combined with bad weather, led to the
starvation of almost 15 million people. Two
years later, the government began to break up the
communes.
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Key Ideas
Like other totalitarian governments, the Peoples
Republic made use of secret police to crush
opposition.
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Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
In 1966, Mao launched the Great Proletarian
(working class) Cultural Revolution to renew
loyalty to communism.
To promote the Cultural Revolution, Red Guards
were formed. These revolutionary groups, were
sent throughout the country to eliminate the
Four Olds old ideas, old culture, old
customs, and old habits.
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A collection of Maos ideas were published in a
guide called, The Little Red Book. Using this
book as their guide, the Red Guards destroyed
temples, books written by foreigners, and foreign
music.
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Vicious attacks were made on individuals who did
not support Maos plan. Intellectuals and
artists with pro-Western ideas and others who did
not follow Maos plan were attacked. Key groups,
such as Communist Party members and military
officers, did not share Maos desire for
permanent revolution. Opposition to Mao began to
grow.
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Life in Communist China
The Chinese Party wanted to create a new kind of
citizen who would put the society ahead of all
other loyalties. To do so, it attacked the old
Confucian order, including family loyalty, which
Communists felt undermined the state.
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During the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural
Revolution, children were encouraged to spy on
their parents and report any criticism of Mao and
his policies.
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The Changing Roleof Women
Traditionally, in China, women were treated as
inferior to men. In Communist China, however,
women gained some rights. Under the new Chinese
constitution, women gained some rights.
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• Roles Change
• Women could now take part in politics
• In 1950 a marriage law gave women equality with
  men
• Clothing changed people wore only Mao suits

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Maos Programs
Program The Great Leap Forward The Cultural Revolution
Goals Increase farm and factory production Renew Communist loyalties
Methods Communes Production Quotas Red Guards attack opponents
Results Program fails Two years of hunger and low production Economy slows China closes to outside world People fear arrest Civil war threatened
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China After Mao
When Mao died in 1976, a group of reformers led
by Deng Xiaoping seized power and brought the
Cultural Revolution to an end.
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Policies of Deng Xiaoping

• Four Modernizations
• agriculture
• industry
• technology
• national defense

For more than 20 years, China had been isolated
from technological advances around the world.
Xiapoing worked to change this.
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The government invited foreign investors to China
and sent students abroad to study. The
government also allowed privatization of
agriculture and industry.
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Movement for Democracy
Students who studied in other nations learned
about Western society and began to call for a
fifth modernization, democracy.
The Communist Party did not allow criticism, and
those calling for democracy could be sent to
prison.
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Tiananmen Square
In the 1980s, problems of inflation and
corruption erupted in student protests in
Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Students wanted to
put an end to communism in China.
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Xiaoping ordered tanks and troops into Tiananmen
Square to crush the demonstrators. Thousands of
protestors were killed.
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Two Chinas
Today, China is the most populous nation in the
world. There are two Chinas. The Peoples
Republic of China is a communist state on the
Asian mainland. It has a vast land area and many
natural resources.
Taiwan, also called the Republic of China, is a
small island that today is one of the Asian
Tigers. It has a non-communist government.
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Taiwan The Other China
Chiang Kai-shek and his followers established a
capital at Taipei. The new government built a
modern industrialized society, but other
political parties were not allowed. After the
death of Chiang in 1975, Taiwan began to move
slowly toward a representative form of
government. Free elections took place in 2002.
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The Peoples Republic still considers Taiwan a
part of China proper. Efforts to reunite the two
Chinas have sometimes led to tension because
Taiwan values its independence.
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Return of Hong Kong
In 1842, Britain had gained the island of Hong
Kong, off the northern coast of China. During
the years that Hong Kong was under British rule,
it modernized and became wealthy.
In the 1980s, Britain and China decided that Hong
Kong would return to Chinese rule in 1997. China
agreed not change Hong Kongs social or economic
system for 50 years and to allow the island a
degree of self-rule. The island was turned over
to China on July 1, 1997.
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Summary
The Communists, under Mao Zedong, rose to power
in China after WWII. Their appeal to peasants
and to women, their superior army, and lack of
support for the Nationalists led to victory for
the Communists.
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The communist government severely restricted the
rights and freedoms of most Chinese. Later
leaders, such as Deng Xiaoping, allowed free
market reforms but little political freedom.
Violations of human rights in China have often
made relations between China and the United
States difficult.