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 part two AOS 2
Consequences of revolution:
The new society – significant
ideas, events, individuals and
popular movements in China,
1949–1971

144
“ Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in
order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish
the dictatorship.

”
– GEORGE ORWELL

OVERVIEW
Revolutionaries make promises in order to win power. They are then expected to honour those
promises. Mao Zedong certainly intended to do just that. However, he became impatient and tried to
achieve growth too quickly, and also set unrealistic expectations. Unfortunately, he was not inclined
to listen to advice from his colleagues. When policies such as the Great Leap Forward did go wrong,
there was friction in the Party. Mao was never one to tolerate dissension or criticism.
The moderates in the Chinese Communist Party wanted to slow the pace of change so the
peasants would not continue to suffer. This meant putting the brakes on Mao’s rule. Mao was not to
forgive those who tried to ignore him and his policies. When the opportunity came, Mao turned the
Red Guards against his own party. Very few officials escaped the suffering of the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution. Inevitably, many others were caught up in the chaos that Mao had unleashed
through his newly created Red Guards.
Mao was not only back in control by 1966, but was more powerful than ever. His Minister for
Defence, Lin Biao, had promoted the cult of Maoist Thought through the publication of Quotations
of Chairman Mao. After turning against many of his former colleagues, Mao then turned against his
Red Guards by sending them to the countryside. He seemed to have it all, but failing health and an
alleged assassination attempt by Lin Biao forced Mao to bring back the surviving moderates who had
the ability to restore order. The Gang of Four, led by Mao’s wife, tried to maintain the revolutionary

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 momentum but the citizens were weary of the chaos. As we will see in Part Three (Chapter 15), the
way was open to a new economic path for China.
Eventually, Deng Xiaoping gained control and slowly opened the economy to capitalist forces.
Although Deng died in 1997, his policies continue in China today. After a long and difficult struggle,
the people of China now belong to an economic superpower that is quite a contrast to the humiliated
and divided nation of the late nineteenth century.

CHAPTERS

 9 ‘Liberation’: The early years, 1949–1956

10 Hundred Flowers, 1957–1958
11 The Great Leap Forward 1957–1959
12 Mao moved aside, 1959–1965
13 Cultural Revolution 1: Chaos unleashed, 1966–1969
14 Cultural Revolution 2: Fall of Lin Biao, 1969–1972

145

Source 9.0 Souvenir statues of Chairman Mao, Red Guards and common revolutionaries are still sold in Shanghai markets today.

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 TIMELINE OF KEY EVENTS, 1949–1971

CCP Mao
rule Zedong
1949 Mao is Chairman of the CCP and the PRC
.
.
.
.
.
.
. The Hundred Flowers Campaign and
1957 the Great Leap Forward (1957)
.
1959 Lushan conference
. Mao moved aside (1959)
.
.
.
.
.
1966 Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution
. begins (1966)
146 .
.
.
1971 Lin Biao dies (1971)

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 9
‘Liberation’: The early years, 1949–1956
新中国早期概况

“
OVERVIEW
Dong fang hong (东方红 The East is Red)
– POPULAR CCP SONG

” 147

After struggling to survive and then to overthrow the GMD government, Mao’s CCP now had the
opportunity to put into practice the promises it had made, particularly to the peasants. The Party
had the advantage of a united China, a humiliated Japan and an almost total withdrawal of foreign
intervention and influence. Despite this, China was not a clean slate and the Party had an unexpected
military conflict, as well as old customs and traditions, with which to contend.

KEY ISSUES
• Would the new government deliver on its promises?
• How did the Korean War affect the new society, 1950–53?
• What were the aims of the First Five-Year Plan, 1953–57?

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 FLOW OF CHAPTER

New laws Political Government structure

Agrarian Peasants Fanshen

Social Women

War in Korea ‘Success’ Reaction

Mass campaigns San Fan Wu Fan

Economy First Five-Year Plan Nationalisation

148

TIMELINE

1949 October: People’s Republic of China proclaimed

1950 Treaty of friendship signed between PRC and Soviet Union

May: The Marriage Law
June: Agrarian Reform Law

1951 San Fan (Three Antis campaign)

1952 Wu Fan (Five Antis campaign)

1953 First Five-Year Plan

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 Chapter 9 ‘Liberation’: The early years, 1949–1956

9.1 Would the new government deliver on its

promises?
After securing most of China and then claiming ‘China has stood up’, Mao needed to establish his
new government. The Party established the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – by
invitation only. Mao was elected Chairman of both the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese
Communist Party. This made him the most powerful man in China. The number two position of
Vice-Chairman was held by Liu Shaoqi, while Premier Zhou Enlai was number three.

Chairman Chairman

Standing Committee Standing Committee

National People’s Congress Politburo

149

Military Affairs
Commission

Premier and General

Central
State Council Secretary
Committee
Departments

People’s
Liberation Army

Regional committees and

Local and regional congresses
secretaries

Source 9.1 The new government structure

The political structure consisted of three vertical and parallel tiers. These consisted of the
government, the Party and the PLA. The CCP was the dominant force in all three; lesser parties –
such as left-wing Guomindang – featured, but not significantly. Elections were rather indirect in
that people voted for representatives who would then vote for the next level up, and so on. Whoever
controlled the Party controlled the other two political areas, and therefore the country.

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 Analysing the Chinese Revolution

fanshen a reversal of the

previous order – peasants
Land
now persecuted landlords
One group on which the CCP had relied to win the civil war was the peasantry. As
speak bitterness the policy the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ‘liberated’ towns and villages, peasants initially
of peasants criticising former
took it upon themselves to seize the landlords’ lands and mete out punishment.
landlords after Liberation
This reversal of the traditional order was called fanshen (literally to ‘turn the body
counter-revolutionary
over’). There was no consistency until the new government established village
a derogatory term for any
Communist who did not agree associations to redistribute the land and to deal with the landlords. Up to half the
with you arable land changed hands. Landlords often faced ‘speak bitterness’ meetings, where

mutual aid teams

peasants aired their grievances. The landlord might be humiliated and then given
an early form of cooperative lowly chores to do or, if feelings ran high, he might be executed. The government at
for peasants first encouraged a non-violent approach but, after the Korean War, a fear of counter-
cooperatives a voluntary revolutionaries led to the policy of encouraging greater violence.
sharing of resources and While the peasants were content to own their own land, the government wanted
labour by a few familiesto advance socialism. It first suggested mutual aid teams, which formalised how
collectives large-scale families (often 10 at a time) had learnt to work together on a short-term basis. Then
cooperatives it encouraged cooperatives (of 20 or more families), where they pooled resources but
still owned their own land. Many in the CCP were happy with this pace, but Mao
signalled with his ‘High Tide’ speech that he wanted to advance to the next stage of collectives (100–200
households). There was greater resistance to this, as the peasants did not want to give up personal
150
control and not directly benefit from their own labour. They had waited a long time for unhindered
ownership of the land they tilled.
William Hinton first wrote about fanshen when he lived in the village of ‘Longbow’ (actually
Zhangzhuang) in 1948:

Every revolution creates new words. The Chinese Revolution created a whole new vocabulary. A most important
word in this vocabulary was fanshen. Literally, it means ‘to turn the body’ or ‘to turn over’. To China’s hundreds of
millions of landless and land-poor peasants it meant to stand up, to throw off the landlord yoke, to gain land, stock,
implements and houses. But it meant much more than this. It meant to throw off superstition and study science, to
abolish ‘word blindness’ and learn to read, to cease considering women as chattels and establish equality between
the sexes, to do away with appointed village magistrate and replace them with elected councils. It meant to enter
a new world.
Source 9.2 William Hinton, Fanshen: A Documentary of Revolution in a Chinese Village, Pelican, Harmondsworth, 1972, p.xi

Women
The other section of society to which Mao had appealed was the group that he stated ‘Held up half
the sky’ – that is, women. To reward them, on 1 May 1950 the Marriage Law was enacted. In one bold
stroke, legally at least, women were set free. Its key provisions were:

• Women could freely choose their partners.

• Polygamy and concubinage were banned.
• There were equal rights and ownership for both sexes.
• Child betrothal was banned. A woman had to be 18 before she could marry.
• Payments for brides were prohibited.
• A woman had free choice of employment.

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 Chapter 9 ‘Liberation’: The early years, 1949–1956

• Widows were free to remarry.

Focus questions
• Divorce was much easier.
• Prostitution was prohibited. 1 How do these laws
• Foot-binding was banned. deviate from the old
society?
• Infanticide (common with female babies) was prohibited.
2 Which of these were
While educated women in the cities were quicker to embrace the new opportunities, likely to be easily
it was more difficult for the peasant girls in the villages, where family clans were put into practice by
women?
still important. The peasants were more likely to have fought for land than for
3 Which of these laws
gender equality. are likely to have
struggled against the
traditional ways?

9.2 How did the Korean War affect the new

4 Is infanticide still
practised in China

society, 1950–53?
today?

After the Japanese surrender, the Soviet Union secured northern Korea above the 38th Parallel
while the United States maintained the southern section. The two halves were to be reunited, but
Stalin had installed his leader, Kim Il-Sung, in the north. On 25 June 1950, North Korea unexpectedly
invaded South Korea and occupied most of the peninsula. The United States, with UN agreement and
the assistance of 15 other countries, including Australia, led the counter-attack that split the North 151
Korean forces and eventually approached the Yalu River, the border with China.
While the United States blamed China for the attack, Mao Zedong was just as surprised. Suspicion
pointed to Stalin. However, the imminent defeat of the Communist North and a fear of the United States
entering China led Mao to place Peng Dehuai in charge of 1.2 million PLA ‘volunteers’ to push the US-
led troops back. At first, sheer weight of numbers
worked for the Chinese, but soon US technology
and better equipped soldiers held them up. The
war proved very costly for China, which suffered
an estimated 900 000 casualties, including Mao’s
son from his first marriage, Mao Anying.
The sides stalemated at the 38th Parallel.
Negotiations began in July 1951, but it took
Stalin’s death and a US threat to continue the
war before the armistice was signed in 1953.
Despite the high number of
PRC People’s Republic of
casualties, the Korean War was China
hailed as a victory for the PRC.
After a century of humiliating defeats by foreign
powers, China had held off the United States and

Source 9.3 Kim Il-Sung

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 Analysing the Chinese Revolution

its allies. The war united the country behind the new regime through the wave
Focus question
of patriotism it produced. However, the war also produced two negative effects.
To what extent was The chance for China and the United States to cooperate vanished, leading to the
the Korean War a United States becoming the protector of Taiwan and refusing to recognise the
success for the new
PRC. Also, fearing a US-sponsored invasion from Taiwan, the Chinese government
government?
became more repressive in its search for ‘counter-revolutionaries’.

A MATTER OF FACT
The sticking point for the Korean armistice was that a number of captured Chinese soldiers –
14 000 in all – did not want to be repatriated but asked to be sent to Taiwan instead.

A MATTER OF FACT
When Mao was told of the death of his son, Mao Anying, who was shelled by a US plane as
it attacked Peng Dehuai’s headquarters, he shed no tears and was reported as saying, ‘This is
nothing.’
152

What were San Fan (1951) and Wu Fan (1952)?

The resentment against the United States and fears of an invasion provoked an internal reaction as
well. Mao’s campaign of the Three Antis (San Fan Yundong), against graft, waste and bureaucracy in
the government, was transferred to anyone with former connections with Western
San Fan the Three Antis institutions, an unsuitable background or who was deemed to be resisting change.
(graft, waste, bureaucracy) Those accused on the flimsiest of reasons were subject to mass struggle and self-
Wu Fan the Five Antis criticism. For tens of thousands of people, this resulted in quick trials and executions.
(bribery, tax evasion, theft This was an extension of Mao’s Rectification Campaign of the 1940s and the Chinese
from the state, cheating
corollary of the McCarthyism (anti-Communist witch hunt) of the United States.
on government contracts,
industrial espionage) In 1952, this program was extended to the Five Antis (Wu Fan Yundong): bribery,
tax evasion, theft of state property, cheating on government contracts and stealing
of economic information (industrial espionage). This campaign was far-reaching and, in its efforts to
find scapegoats, ruined many innocent lives.

9.3 What were the aims of the First Five-Year Plan,

1953–57?
To build up China, Mao needed support from the Soviet Union, which China referred to as ‘elder
brother’. Mao’s trip to Moscow in December 1949 was not welcomed enthusiastically by Stalin. The
visit gained little coverage in the Russian press, and after five days Mao’s party was invited to see the

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 Chapter 9 ‘Liberation’: The early years, 1949–1956

Bolshoi Ballet perform a piece that strongly indicated the Soviet Union’s superior status. The occasion
was not a welcome to the Chinese delegates but rather a celebration of Stalin’s 70th birthday. Mao
was being snubbed for not following Stalin’s directives about working with the GMD. Eventually, the
Soviet Union and China signed a Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance, whereby the
Soviet Union agreed to provide loans to China (US$300 million) and the use of 10 000 Soviet engineers
and other experts.
While ‘Liberation’ meant that many business people and experts went to Hong Kong, ‘Liberation’ the capture
Taiwan or further overseas, others stayed and many even returned from overseas to of an area by the CCP

help build the new China. So the CCP had not scared off all the talent it needed.

ANALYSIS ACTIVITY 9.1

153

Source 9.4 Mao with dockyard workers in 1971

1 Who dominates this picture, and how?

2 What does the image suggest about China’s growth at this time?
3 In what ways is this a utopian image?

Following Stalin’s example, Mao decided on a Five-Year Plan to encourage Focus question
economic and industrial growth. This required setting targets to be achieved by the
To what extent was the
end of the five-year period. The emphasis was on heavy industry (particularly steel
economy making better
production) to help drive industrialisation and advance the Chinese economy. This progress than politics?
would allow China to become more powerful as well as help pay off Russian loans.

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 Analysing the Chinese Revolution

Generally, the First Five-Year Plan was a success and most targets were met. Steel production went
from 1.3 million tonnes in 1952 to 5.2 million in 1957, beating the target of 4.7 million. However, Mao
was impatient to see greater growth.

Source 9.5 A stamp

depicting the meeting of
Mao and Stalin

154

The story so far

While Mao and the CCP had clear control over China, they felt the challenge of the old ways. At
first they were successful in redistributing land. Women were given equality (at least on paper). The
unexpected involvement in a war in Korea united most people behind the Party, and was perceived
as a victory for the PLA. However, the war created further distrust of the Soviet Union and turned
the United States from a potential friend into the enemy. This led to a witch hunt against perceived
traitors, which destroyed the honeymoon period of government and fomented Party divisions that
were to fester for some time.

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 Chapter 9 ‘Liberation’: The early years, 1949–1956

CHAPTER REVIEW
DEVELOPING CLEAR DEFINITIONS
Write your own definition of each of the following key terms:

Political terms Land policies Campaigns

• executive (power) • mutual aid teams • fanshen
• legislative (power) • cooperatives • speak bitterness
• Liberation • collectives • San Fan
• Wu Fan

ANALYSIS ACTIVITY 9.2

155

Source 9.6 Mao announces the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, 1949

1 Identify those standing with Mao above the Gate of Heavenly Peace.
2 To what extent did they help with the revolution?
3 What does the painting show about the political relationship of those pictured?
4 Using your understanding, discuss how the picture correctly or incorrectly reflects their importance in the revolution
and civil war.

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 Analysing the Chinese Revolution

ROLE-PLAY
Act out and/or write a script for one of the following scenarios:
1 In 1950, two old peasant women discuss the Marriage Law. Mrs Chen is against the break in tradition, whereas Mrs
Lao wishes the law had been in existence when she was first betrothed. Write and/or act out their conversation.

2 It is 1950, and Miss Gao is trying to explain to her father why she does not wish to go through with the marriage
arranged for her 10 years ago.

3 Mr Wang has been brought before a mass meeting of employees at the No. 1 Watch Factory of Shanghai, accused of
cheating on a government contract. His main accuser is his rival for the manager’s position, Assistant Manager Sun.

PRACTISING PARAGRAPH ANSWERS

1 Which initial problems faced by the CCP were inherited from previous governments?

2 What motivated the government’s actions?

PRACTICE ESSAY QUESTION

156

By 1956, what obstacles did the new government face and how well did it handle them?

READING MORE DEEPLY

Easy
Jonathan Spence & Annping Chen, The Chinese Century: A Photographic History, HarperCollins, London, 1996, Chapter 8.
Margot Morcombe & Mark Fielding, The Spirit of Change: China in Revolution, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 2005, pp. 119–68.

Moderate
Zhisui Li, The Private Life of Chairman Mao, Arrow Books, London, 1994, Part 2.
Harrison E. Salisbury, The New Emperors: Mao and Deng – A Dual Biography, HarperCollins, London, 1992, Parts 1 & 2.

Challenging
Ross Terrill, Mao: A Biography, Harper & Row, New York, 1980, Chapters 11–13.
Dating from 1980, this biography does not have the advantage of more recent revelations from those disenchanted with
Mao. However, it is well researched, balanced and very readable.

Alexander V. Pantsov, Mao: The Real Story, Simon & Schuster, 2007 (trans. 2012), Chapters 23 & 24.
Pantsov’s main thesis is that Mao was dependent on, and grateful to, Stalin. Uses recently opened archives.

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