MR SPENCE HISTORY
Authoritarian States:
Mao's China
Key Content​
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The path to power
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Consolidation of power
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Opposition to Maoism
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Aims and impacts of his policies.
During Mao Zedong's reign in China, the country underwent significant economic changes. Mao's economic policies were centered around collectivisation and the establishment of a socialist economy. The government took control of all industries and implemented a series of reforms aimed at redistributing wealth and resources. There are debates over whether the first five-year plan was successful. Mao certainly thought the pace of development was too slow and put the reforms into overdrive with his Great Leap Forward. In every respect 1958 to 1962 was a disaster on an unimaginable scale, with up to 45 million killed by Mao's economic policies.
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In a Communist society, separating social policies from economic ones is difficult. In an essay, you can talk about the People's Communes and the resulting social issues they produced. You can also refer to the treatment of women and minorities for a social policies essay. You should also be able to discuss education and health care. The gains made in these areas are often used as a counterbalance to the many failures of Mao's regime. However, although the statistics show significant improvements in both these fields, there is evidence that actual gains were superficial and conditions, especially in rural areas, remained third world.
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The aspect to be covered is Mao's cultural policies. Literature and art were of particular interest to the Chairman, and he was well aware of their importance in a semi-literate society. Art was taken out of the hands of the elite, but the subject matter was tightly controlled, and social realism was the only appropriate style. Foreign art outside the Soviet Union disappeared. Even these narrow artistic parameters were considered too bourgeoise, and creativity was even more narrowly controlled during the Cultural Revolution. The current iteration of the CCP has distanced itself from the cultural policies of the Mao years, and interest in the period is limited to a kitschy nostalgia.
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Domestic Policies
Chinese women had high expectations from the new regime. Mao wrote extensively on the need to raise women's status in China, and many responded by joining the Communist cause. While the CCP abolished many of the most egregious customs from the imperial era, many women were frustrated that promises of greater political equity were never realised. Their disappointment was compounded by the disproportionate suffering that many experienced during the failed experiments of the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Ultimately, many resented their roles in the new China, being subjected to unfamiliar, brutal working conditions for reimbursement below their male counterparts while concurrently being subjected to increased sexual violence.​
Minorities in China maintained their status and identity throughout the Qing rule. Initially, they maintained these allowances in the early years of CCP rule, with the party lacking the ability to enforce Marxist ideals on ethnicity. The wave of discontent unleashed in the Hundred Flowers campaign, ended any ideas of limited ethnic sovereignty. Minorities suffered the most during the Great Leap Forward, with discontent crushed in Tibet and Xinjiang. The Cultural Revolution hit minorities particularly hard, with them having less power to prevent the wholesale vandalism of their civilization.
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Women and Minorities
Mao's rule was characterized by a high level of authoritarianism. He exercised strict control over all aspects of Chinese society, including politics, the economy, and culture. His policies and actions resulted in widespread human rights abuses, including the persecution of potential dissidents and the suppression of criticism. The future leader, Deng Xiaoping, summed up the fear the communist regime instilled in the population, when he described his early years in Anhui.
"In one place in western Anhui the masses hated several landlords and demanded that they be killed, so we followed their wishes and killed them. After they had been killed, the masses feared reprisals from the relatives of the victims, so they drew up an even longer list of names, saying that if they could also be killed everything would be fine. So again we followed their wishes and killed those people. After they had been killed, the masses thought that even more people would seek revenge, so again they came up with a list of names. And again we killed according to their wishes. We kept on killing, and the masses kept on feeling more and more insecure, taking fright and fleeing. In the end we killed two hundred people, and all the work we did in twelve villages was ruined."
Still, Mao was too contradictory and unpredictable for his regime to be conventionally authoritarian. China's size and backwardness also made it impossible to enforce conformity. How far Mao achieved his ambitions is a matter of debate. What you need to concentrate on is how far China's people were willing to embrace his vision of a powerful industrial nation created by a proletariat willing to abandon their personal ambitions for the betterment of the nation. Again there is not a consensus on how far the population embraced Mao's ideology. You will need to read through the various views I assembled and then begin to prepare an essay answering that question.
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How Authoritarian was Mao's Regime?
Potential IA Questions
How far did the Japanese public support the Meiji reforms?
How far was the Tonghak rebellion the reason for the First Sino Japanese War?
How far was technology responsible for the Japanese victory in the First Sino Japanese War?
How far did Japan benefit from the Treaty of Shimonoseki?
How far did the First Sino Japanese War increase nationalism in Japan/China?
Who murdered Empress Myeongsong?
Why was the 1913 Alien Land Act passed?
 Why did Japan sign the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance?
 How responsible was Admiral Rozhestvensky for the defeat at Tsushima?
 How successful was the Japanese Army in the Russo Japanese War?
How beneficial was the Treaty of Portsmouth for Japan?
How beneficial was the 1910 annexation of Korea?
Why did Japan join the First World War?
How successful was the Japanese campaign at Tsingtao?
Why did Japan not send troops to Europe in the First World?
How important was Japan's contribution to the First World War?
How far did the Renaissance improve the lives for the women of Milan?
Why did Japan issue the 21 Demands in 1915?
How far were Japan's 21 Demands a foreign policy misstep?
How far did Japan benefit from the Paris Peace Conference?
Why did the League of Nations not adopt the Racial Equality clause?
How deep was the Japanese anger at the rejection of the Racial Equality clause?
Why significant was the Washington Naval Conference in promoting disarmament?
How successful was the Washington Naval Conference for Japan?
How representative was the Japanese government in the 1920s?
How extensive was cannibalism during the Great Famine?
How far were foreign commitments responsible for the Great Famine?
How far did natural disasters contribute to the Great Famine?
How far did the CCP overestimate their food reserves in 1958?
How effective was the Socialist High Tide?
How successful was the First Five Year Plan?
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How far was The Dismissal of Ha Rui responsible for the Cultural Revolution?
How scandalous was Jiang Qing's behaviour in the 1930s?
How total was CCP control of art between 1949 and 1966?
How successful were the barefoot doctors?
How far had living standards improved in China between 1949 and 1976?
How successful was the Socialist Education Movement?
How successful was the half-work, half-education program?
How successful was the CCP in ending illiteracy?
How successful was the CCP in breaking the old imperial education system?
How far did the Cultural Revolution impact higher education?
How far did the Sino-Soviet split negatively impact Uyghers in Xinjiang?
How far was Tibetan culture destroyed in the Cultural Revolution?
How threatening was the 1959 Tibetan Uprising to Chinese control?
How far did the Hundred Flowers campaign impact the treatment of minorities in China?
How extensive was child abuse within the People's Communes?
How far was sexual violence against women engrained in CCP discipline?
How far did the People's Communes fulfil their objective of changing women's roles?
How successful were educational reforms in improving women's lives?
How far did the 1950 marriage law improve Chinese women's lives?
How successful was the 1950 ban on prostitution?
How far did the memory of Li Zhejiang influence Mao's policies upon taking power?
How far did Mao seek to emulate Stalin?
How accurate are Jung Chang's descriptions of Mao's sex life?
How far was the Hundred Flowers Campaign a genuine attempt at reform?
How far did Mao abandon Marxist-Leninism before the Great Leap Forward?
Why did President Roosevelt move the Pacific Fleet to Pearl Harbour?
How extensive was the Maoist labour camp system?
Was Lin Biao's death an accident?
How far did Deng Xiaopeng bring about the end of Hua Guofeng?