Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INTRODUCTION:
2200 BC – the recorded history begins.
From then to 1911 AD – there were 15 Imperial dynasties
- A rather stable country – Manchu Dynasty – 1644-1911
- Han, Tibetans, Mongols, Manchu (Manchurians)
- they didn’t have any contacts outside their part of continent
- until 19th Century China didn’t have much of contact with other countries and China didn’t
change albeit being highly developed
- mostly because of the religion, Confucianism
- there was a continuous civil service
- China as a middle kingdom, between the earth and heaven;
- 1794 – King George 4th of Britain send a trade mission to China
- Lord Mc Cartney – he didn’t kowtow
- Chinese did allow the British to buy their stuff but they didn’t buy British goods
- Chinese told Britain to stop trading the opium
* First opium war – British navy bombs the China and imposes a humiliating treaty
* British imposed the buying of the opium;
- the division into the spheres of influence
- effective colonization
Phase 1: July 1946 – June 1947: A phase when seemingly all goes well for Nationalists
- they push the communists out of cities and Yan’an
- this apparent victory was in fact a communist trick
- the Red Army was reorganized as a People’s Liberation Army, led by Lin Biao
- they tactically retreat and build up their forces
Phase 2: June 47 – April 1948
- Nationalist troops were trapped in the cities
- Communists switched from guerrilla tactics to regular warfare
- they concentrated on recapturing Yan’an and Manchuria
- Americans realized that Guomindang might lose and began supporting them massively
Phase 3: June 19498 – October 1949
- by the end of 1948 Communists took over Manchuria
- Guomindang army began deserting massively
- Corruption spread massively, up to the point of the Guomindang selling weapons to
communists
- Numbers began turning in Communist’s favour
- January 1949 Beijing, Nanjing April 1949
- October 1949 in Beijing Mao declared the People’s Republic of China
- Chiang Kaishek and his followers fled to Taiwan
MASS CAMPAIGNS
The 3 Antis – against the bureaucracy (1951)
And the 5 Antis – against the bourgeoisie (1952)
• both campaigns were against the corruption
• Mao was aware that corruption was a major problem for Guomindang; he knew he had to
get rid of it
• What happened was that 10% of civil service were sacked and fined
• The 5 Antis – against the bourgeoisie – for tax evasion
• Business went under the grater state control
• A Campaign against the counter-revolutionaries (1950)
Death of Mao
- September 1976, Mao Zedong dies
- The power struggle between Deng and party against the Gang of Four
- Party and Deng won and