IB Docs (2) Team
1. Mao's consolidation of power and rule (1949 - 1976) (ATL)
After defeating the GMD, Mao still had to consolidate his power and to create a communist state in a country that was devastated from years of civil war and from fighting the Japanese; central government control had also been resisted for generations in many regions. The activities on this page cover the means by which Mao consolidated the power of the CCP over China, and also how he also maintained his own personal power within the CCP.
Guiding questions:
How did Mao and the CCP consolidate their power, 1949 - 1953?
How did Mao extend CCP power over the whole of China?
What was the significance of the Hundred Flowers Movement?
What was the impact of the First Five Year Plan?
What was the impact of the Great Leap Forward?
How successful were social policies introduced by the CCP?
What was the impact of the Cultural Revolution?
What was the overall impact of Mao on China, 1949 - 1976?
1. How did Mao and the CCP consolidate their power, 1949 - 1953?
Mao's control of China went through a number of phases of development during which his power fluctuated. As in Russia, there was increased party control to begin with followed by a transition to a more personal dictatorship.
Mao did not immediately launch a 'Second Revolution'. Initially other political parties remained and many GMD and non-CCP officials were left in place. However the CCP was able to extend its power through a series of campaigns launched from above but carried out from below. In addition, the Korean War helped to consolidate its power. Education and media were also used to spread CCP ideas, and CCP cadres and the PLA were sent out to the countryside to help mould people's ideas. In addition, the new political system enhanced Mao's personal authority.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
The following video from the 'People's Century' series gives some interesting first hand accounts of how the CCP established power in the first years. Watch from 10 minutes in until 20 minutes and answer the following questions. (The questions for the video are also on the attached PDF).
Questions on Mao video, "Great Leap'
- How were communist ideas initially spread?
- Why did peasants support the revolution?
- Why was this revolution 'from below'?
- What the attitude of the business people in the cities?
- How were women treated?
- What can you learn from this video about how the CCP tried to make the people conform to their ideas?
Task Two
ATL: Research and thinking skills
1. Research and make notes on each of the following, explaining the characteristics of each and how each helped to consolidate the power of the CCP and the position of Mao:
- the attack on the landlords and the Agrarian Reform Law
- the new constitution
- the 3-Antis Campaign
- the 5-Antis Campaign
- the Korean War
- the role of the PLA
- the Laogai
There is a graded student essay on Mao's consolidation of power: Evaluate the role of terror in establishing the rule of the CCP between 1949 and 1953. It can be found under 7. The People's Republic of China: Graded student essays
2. How did Mao extend CCP power over the whole of China?
Mao was determined to establish his control of the peripheral regions of China in what became known as 'reunification campaigns'. These areas - Tibet, Xinjiang, Guangdong and Taiwan - were border regions which were thus vulnerable to foreign influence and so needed to be controlled. Mao was concerned that the Soviets might extend influence into Xinjiang, whose large Muslim population meant that it had a lot in common with other Soviet areas, and the leader of Tibet, the Buddhist Dalai Lama, also represented a threat to Mao's position. In both areas, the importance of religion in all areas of life was also a challenge to communist attempts to order society according to communist principles.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
In pairs or small groups, research the events that took place in Tibet after 1949.
Identify:
- China's aims with regard to Tibet
- How annexation was accomplished by the Chinese
- The impact of Chinese actions on Tibet both in the short term and in the longer term
Task Two
ATL: Research and thinking skills
Now research China's actions with regard to Xinjiang and Guangdong.
For each of these areas, identify the aims, actions and impact of China's actions.
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
Read the extract below which is from a speech given by the Dalai Lama to the United Nations in November 1950.
According to this source, what tactics were used by the Chinese to take over Tibet?
With reference to origin, purpose and content, what is the value of this source for a historian studying the Chinese takeover of Tibet?
Chinese troops, without warning or provocation, crossed the Dri Chu river, which has for long been the boundary of Tibetan territory, at a number of places on October 7, 1950. In quick succession, places of strategic importance such as Demar, Kamto, Tunga, Tshame, Rimochegotyu, Yakalo, and Markham, fell to the Chinese. Tibetan frontier garrisons in Kham, which were maintained not with any aggressive design, but as a nominal protective measure, were all wiped out. Communist troops converged in great force from five directions on Chamdo, the capital of Kham, which fell soon after. Nothing is known of the fate of a minister of the Tibetan Government posted there.
Little is known in the outside world of this sneak invasion. Long after the invasion had taken place, China announced to the world that it had asked its armies to march into Tibet. This unwarranted act of aggression has not only disturbed the peace of Tibet, but it is also in complete disregard of a solemn assurance given by China to the Government of India, and it has created a grave situation in Tibet and may eventually deprive Tibet of its long-cherished independence. We can assure you, Mr. Secretary-General, that Tibet will not go down without a fight, though there is little hope that a nation dedicated to peace will be able to resist the brutal effort of men trained to war, but we understand that the UN has decided to stop aggression whenever it takes place.
The armed invasion of Tibet for the incorporation of Tibet in Communist China through sheer physical force is a clear case of aggression. As long as the people of Tibet are compelled by force to become a part of China against their will and consent, the present invasion of Tibet will be the grossest instance of the violation of the weak by the strong. We therefore appeal through you to the nations of the world to intercede on our behalf and restrain Chinese aggression.
3. What was the significance of the Hundred Flowers Movement?
In 1956, Mao invited debate and criticism with the apparent aim of helping China to move forward.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Read the speech below that was given in May 1956 by Lu Dingyi, a propaganda director of the Chinese Communist Party,
“…To artists and writers we say, ‘Let flowers of many kinds blossom.” To scientists we say, “Let diverse schools of thought contend’. This is the policy of the Chinese Communist Party. It was announced by Chairman Mao Zedong at the Supreme State Conference…
If we want our country to be prosperous and strong we must - besides consolidating the people’s state power, developing our economy and education and strengthening our national defence - have a flourishing art, literature and science. That is essential.
If we want art, literature and science to flourish, we must apply a policy of letting flowers of many kinds blossom, letting diverse schools of thought contend… ‘Letting flowers of many kinds blossom, diverse schools of thought contend’ means that we stand for freedom of independent thinking, of debate, of creative work; freedom to criticise and freedom to express, maintain and reserve one’s opinions on questions of art, literature or scientific research."
According to Lu Dingyi, what was the purpose of letting people speak out?
Task Two
ATL: Thinking and research skills
In pairs:
1. Research the impact of the Hundred Flowers Movement
2. Research views of historians on Mao's motives in starting this movement
4. What was the impact of the First Five Year Plan?
Soviet advisers with Chinese workers
Starter:
What is the message of this propaganda poster? Refer to details in the poster to support your answer.
The Chinese economy was largely dependent on agriculture, but this was backwards and inefficient. Mao wanted China to develop as quickly as possible and this meant giving priority to economic policies. Such a goal was driven not just by the economic aim of making China a strong country but also the ideological aim of creating a socialist nation; increasing food supplies would feed the growing urban population who would provide labour for the new factories. Similarly, collectivisation of farmland would force the peasants to live together and thus to see the benefits of communism.
Following the Agrarian Land Reform, the CCP decided to introduce co-operative ownership of land. Voluntary Mutual Aid Teams (MATS) were set up in which peasants pooled their resources. This reflected the kind of co-operation that was already going on in villages and so was enthusiastically supported by the peasants. However, it was felt that these did not go far enough in promoting socialist ideals as capitalist actions such as buying and selling of land were still continuing. Thus in the second stage towards collectivisation, Agricultural Producers Co-operatives were established. There were arguments within the party as to how fast the pace of collectivisation should go but in 1956, the final phase was introduced by which private ownership was ended and larger-scale co-operatives introduced.
Meanwhile, with regard to industry all private businesses and commercial enterprises were nationalised under state control. The Soviet-style Five Year Plan was introduced with coal, steel and petro-chemicals targeted. A number of spectacular civilian engineering projects were undertaken. Soviet technical and financial aid was used to meet Mao's aims of industrialising as soon as possible.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Read this article (also on the PDF below) which is an editorial by Ji Yun, called “How China Proceeds with the Task of Industrialisation”. It appeared in the People’s Daily on May 23, 1953.
What does this article indicate about:
a. The aims of the Five Year Plan
b. Strategies to meet those aims
c. China's relationship with the Soviet Union at this point
Questions on editorial by Ji Yun called “How China Proceeds with the Task of Industrialisation”
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
Read the following historian's assessment of China's First Five Year Plan:
Even allowing for exaggeration of figures, the Plan achieved a considerable degree of success in stimulating production. Annual growth rate averaged 16% and heavy industrial output nearly tripled. However the value of agricultural output grew only an average of 2.1% and not enough food was getting into the cities to feed the growing working class. Consumer goods were also in short supply. The peasantry suffered the most; the Plan could only work if food prices for workers were kept low, so they received little reward for their hard work. Moreover the Soviet aid had to be paid for by commercial concessions. The PRC had to spend a portion of its bullion reserves to the USSR and had to pay for the 10,000 economic advisers by taking out high interest loans. Only 5% of the capital sent to China was genuine industrial investment. This strained the relationship between the Soviet Union and China.
What, according to this source, were the results of the First Five Year Plan?
5. What was the impact of the Great Leap Forward?
Starter:
What is the message of this poster promoting the Great Leap Forward?
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Read the extract below and create a mind map to show Mao's aims for the Great Leap forward.
The Great Leap Forward was the name given to China’s Second Five Year Plan (1958-62). The Great Leap Forward was born from Mao's impatience for industrial and manufacturing growth which would allow China to catch up with the West (in his words, “more, faster, better, cheaper”). While the First Five Year Plan had succeeded in stimulating rapid industrialisation and increased production, Mao was suspicious of Soviet models of economic development and resentful of the cost of the aid. Instead, Mao favoured an ideological shift in economic policy that would continue industrialisation but also move China towards agricultural collectivisation and iron out the differences between industry and agriculture and between town and country. He believed that the people's sheer force of will and energy would be able to overcome technical difficulties and also dispose of the need for Soviet aid. In the process he also aimed to increase the vitality of Chinese communism though his idea of 'continuing revolution'.
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
Continue watching the People's Century on China (above) from 20 minutes in until 35 minutes and answer the following questions as an introduction to this topic:
- What was the aim of the Great Leap Forward?
- What was the aim of Commune?
- What was life like on a Commune?
- Why was there 'cheating' and what were the results of this?
- How were great projects to be built?
- What were the results?
- Why was the attempt to create 'backyard steel' a failure?
- What were the results of this failure for the people of China?
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
Study the propaganda posters for the Great Leap Forward on this website.
What message does the Chinese government want to convey about the GLF?
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
1. The following were all aspects of the Great Leap Forward. Make notes on each point focusing in particular on its success or failures:
- The establishment of Communes
- Backyard furnaces
- 'Revolutionary' agricultural methods such as 'deep-ploughing' and 'close cropping'
- The Four Noes campaign
2. In pairs discuss the following questions:
- Which groups in Chinese society would Mao’s economic policies have initially appealed to?
- Which groups in Chinese society would have suffered from Mao’s initial economic policies?
- Discuss how the revolutionary economic policies of Mao’s regime may have a] redressed the issues that China faced economically at the end of the civil war and b] made the economic situation worse.
Task Four
ATL: Thinking skills
In pairs or small groups research the impact of the Great Leap Forward. Find statistics, images, first hand reports as well as historians' verdicts.
Produce a report with your findings. Group your conclusions under the headings: economic results, social results, political results. Also explain the reasons for these results.
Note that the video on the Great Leap Forward which can be found on the page: 5. The People's Republic of China (1949 - 2005): videos will help in your research. There is also an interview with Frank Dikotter on this page regarding his conclusions on the Great Leap Forward.
Using the evidence your group has gathered, discuss in your groups the extent to which you agree with Frank Dikotter’s assertion, in his book Mao’s Great Famine, that Mao’s economic policies, and the Great Leap Forward, led to “the worst catastrophe in China’s history, and one of the worst anywhere’.
6. How successful were social policies introduced by the CCP?
Starter: What is the message of this poster?
Transforming China into a modern Communist state involved the introduction of radical social policies to transform traditional attitudes to women and religion, and also to create an educated workforce that would be capable of carrying out the new economic policies.
Policies towards women
Mao had always been critical of the subservient role played by women in society and politics arguing that 'Women hold up half the sky'.
The Communists' victory led to the implementation of a social revolution in family life. In 1950 a New Marriage Law was passed which gave equal rights to women, banned arranged marriages, and permitted women to own property. Children born to unmarried parents were given equal rights in society, and divorce was made readily available to both men and women.
Task One
ATL: Research and thinking skills
Complete the following grid on the position of women in China after 1949. Click on the eye below for suggestions on points to consider in your research and analysis.
Grid on the changing position of women in China after 1949
Points to consider:
Positives:
- 1950 New Marriage Law
- Educational reforms allowed equal access and career advancement
- Female participation in workforce - 8% in 1949 to 32% in 1976
- Land reform improved economic position of women, broke male land-holding tradition
- Communes enabled women to break free of traditional roles
Negatives:
- Ingrained prejudice still existed within CCP and in society – boys still favoured over girls
- Women only 13% CCP membership
- Female members of National People’s Congress only increased from 14% in 1954 to 23% in 1975
- Impact of Collectivisation
- Impact of Great Famine
- Impact of cultural revolution on family life
- Regional differences
Note that there is a an essay comparing the impact of Mao's policies on women to the impact of Hitler's policies on women here: Graded student essays for Authoritarian States
Educational policies
When the CCP took power in 1949, up to 85% of the population was illiterate. Education was the preserve of the elites and education was based on the need to prepare students for the imperial examinations which enabled the applicants to become bureaucrats. These examinations were based on study of classical works; practical subjects, such as science and mathematics, required by a modern economy were not studied. Teaching was also based on rote learning.
Task One
ATL: Research and thinking skills
Research how the CCP tackled these fundamental problems in education up to 1960. Organise your research under the following headings, Identify the key reforms and the impact of the reforms in each case.
- Improving literacy; establishment of min-pan schools
- Improvements in higher education
- Introduction of pinyin
Problems remained in education; the village min-pan schools were of poor quality and, in terms of higher education, only 1% workers had degrees by 1982. Indeed, elitism remained with the establishment of 'key point' schools which received the best funding and the best teaching. The peasants were largely excluded from such schools which mainly took the children of CCP families. This failure to create educational equality led Mao to accuse 'capitalist roaders' of taking over the Party and it set the stage for the Cultural Revolution and the attack on intellectuals. The May 1966 Central Committee's 'Decision on the Cultural Revolution' announced that 'The task of the Cultural Revolution is to reform the old educational system and educational philosophy and methodology'.
Task Two
ATL: Research and thinking skills
Why did young people during the time of the Cultural Revolution become known as 'the lost generation'?
Research and make notes on the impact of the Cultural Revolution on:
- the education of the Red Guards during and after the Cultural Revolution
- teachers
- universities
Health provision
Health care before 1949 was also very basic and almost non-existent in rural areas. The CCP lacked funds for health care and focused on preventative solutions to health problems. Through the use of mass campaigns like the ‘Patriotic Health Movements’, street and neighbour committees were mobilised on sanitation projects like building sewers, draining swamps and eradicating pests that carried disease. Emphasis was also put on clean drinking water and disposal of human sewage. Films, posters, lectures and radio broadcasts were all used to educate peasants in these areas.
Successes:
- Diseases such as smallpox,cholera, typhus and leprosy were eliminated and others such as TB greatly reduced
- Attacks on drug suppliers and criminal gangs lowered numbers of drug addicts
- Communes established medical clinics
- 800 Western-style hospitals were built
- Trained doctors rose from 40,000 in 1949 to 150,000 in 1965
- The barefoot doctors, set up during the Cultural Revolution, did help provide basic care to rural areas
- Life expectancy rose
Failures/problems
- The Antis campaigns of the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution attacked the medical profession as bourgeois and many doctors were denounced
- Inequalities remained between rural and urban China
- The Great Leap Forward led to malnutrition and starvation
- The 'barefoot' doctors could only provide rudimentary health care
- There was under investment in hospitals; only 1.3% of GDP was ever spent on healthcare
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
1. Create an infographic to show Mao's policies on health, and the successes and failures
2. In pairs discuss how far Mao's social polices regarding women, health and education were affected by his ideological campaigns
7. What was the impact of the Cultural Revolution?
Starter: Watch this short account of the Cultural Revolution. Write down the key features of this revolution.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Continue watching 'The People's Century' from 35 minutes to see an overview of the Cultural Revolution and answer the following questions:
- What was the impact of the Great Leap Forward on economic policy?
- Why was Mao unhappy about this?
- What were his aims in introducing the Cultural Revolution?
- What were the characteristics of the Cultural Revolution?
- What were the results of the Cultural Revolution?
Note that the video 'A Century of Revolution part 2' also has a good section on the Cultural Revolution. See the video page for timings: 5. The People's Republic of China (1949 - 2005): videos
Task Two
ATL: Thinking skills
1. Using the excerpt below from a history text-book along with your own research, create a mind map to show the different reasons Mao had for introducing the Cultural Revolution.
Mao did not want China to become like the Soviet Union where the revolution appeared to have stagnated and where the leaders were more interested in preserving their own comforts and privileges than in putting revolutionary ideas into practice. Mao declared that many party bureaucrats 'were taking the capitalist road'. He believed in 'continuous revolution'; keeping the revolution alive and, in the case of the Cultural Revolution, harnessing the revolutionary enthusiasm of the youth of China. However, there was also a personal political motive. Mao had suffered a blow to his personal power in 1958 - 9 over the failure of the Great Leap Forward. He had resigned the State Presidency to Liu Shaoqi. Liu favoured better relations with the USSR, which Mao opposed. Indeed, he saw the USSR as a threat; tension was rising over disputed frontiers in the north east and north west of China. The influence of Deng Xiaoping was also rising in the party; Deng favoured a less ideological approach to China's economic development which also went against Mao's ideas. Thus the Cultural Revolution allowed him to recapture his personal leadership and remove enemies; both Liu Shaoqi and Deng were imprisoned.
Mao was able to use the anger of students, who were frustrated at being deprived of political advancement because of their family origins or connections, as well as the anger of urban youths who had been relocated to the countryside during the party campaigns of earlier years.
Task Three
ATL: Thinking skills
This is a document drawn up by Mao in August 1966. Click on the eye to read the document and then answer the following questions:
1. What does Mao mean by:
- reactionary bourgeoisie academic authorities
- capitalist road
2. What can you learn from this source about the aims of the Cultural Revolution?
3. With reference to origin, purpose and content, assess the value and limitations of this source to a historian studying the aims of the Cultural Revolution
Although the bourgeoisie has been overthrown, it is still trying to use the old ideas, culture and customs, and habits of the exploiting classes to corrupt the masses, capture their minds, and endeavour to stage a comeback. The proletariat must do just the opposite: it must meet head on every challenge of the bourgeoisie in the ideological field and use the new ideas, culture, customs, and habits of the proletariat to change the mental outlook of the whole of society.
At present our objective is to struggle against and crush those persons in authority who are taking the capitalist road, to criticise and repudiate the reactionary bourgeois academic “authorities” and the ideology of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes and transform education, literature, and art and all other parts of the superstructure that do not correspond to the socialist economic base, so as to facilitate the consolidation and development of the socialist system.
The masses of the workers, peasants, soldiers, revolutionary intellectuals, and revolutionary cadres form the main force in this Great Cultural Revolution. Large numbers of revolutionary young people, previously unknown, have become courageous and daring path-breakers. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution now unfolding is a great revolution that touches people to their very soul and constitutes a new stage in the development of the socialist revolution in our country, a deeper and more extensive stage.
Since the Cultural Revolution is a revolution, it inevitably meets with resistance. This resistance comes chiefly from those in authority who have wormed their way into the party and are taking the capitalist road. It also comes from the old force of habit in society. At present, this resistance is still fairly strong and stubborn. However, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is, after all, an irresistible general trend. There is abundant evidence that such resistance will crumble fast once the masses become fully aroused.”
Task Four
ATL: Thinking skills
Watch the following short video on one's man experience of being in the Red Guards.
1. What does this tell you about the motivations of those who joined the Red Guards?
2. Research further the activities of the Red Guards; try to find primary sources which give accounts of their actions.
Task Five
ATL: Research and thinking skills
Research the following key figures of this period. Create a fact file on each on of them on one side of A4. Include a photo, key positions held in the party, reaction to the the Great leap Forward, what happened to them during the Cultural Revolution.
Liu Shaoqi
Zhou Enlai
Jiang Qing
Deng Xiaoping
Task Six
ATL: Thinking skills
Listen to this BBC podcast on The Cultural Revolution from the series, In Our Time in which 3 historians discuss the causes and signficance of The Cultural Revolution
- Rana Mitter Professor of the History and Politics of Modern China and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford
- Julia Lovell Professor in Modern Chinese History and Literature at Birkbeck, University of London
- Sun Peidong Visiting Professor at the Center for International Studies at Sciences Po, Paris
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Cultural Revolution (BBC)
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mao's uprising against his own party from 1966-76
- What was the Great Leap Forward 1958?
- What were the results of the GLF?
- According to Julia Lovell, how many people died as a consequence?
- In what ways did the GLF set the context for the Cultural Revolution?
- What role, according to Lovell, did relations with the USSR play in the Cultural Revolution?
- According to Rana Mitter, what does Mao aim to achieve from launching the Cultural Revolution?
- What was the ‘socialist education campaign’ of 1962?
- What was the new campaign for the People’s Liberation Army in 1964?
- According to Mitter, what was the final turning point event on 10 November 1965 that primed the Cultural Revolution?
- According to Sun Peidong, what did Mao set out to destroy, and what was the reality?
- When did the Red Guard movement begin in Beijing?
- In August 1966, Mao publicly approved the Red Guard and stated that what was justified?
- What did the Red Guard activists do?
- Who, according to Mitter, were the most violent of the Red Guards?
- How many Red Guards fought each other in Shanghai in December 1966?
- Why did Mao send the Red Guards to the countryside?
- What concerned Mao about the Red Guard actions in Shanghai in early 1967?
- According to Mitter, what was the international / global impact of the Cultural Revolution in 1968?
- Who was killed in an air crash in 1971 and what had his role been in the Cultural Revolution?
- Why had Mao come to distrust this Lin Biao?
- Which US president visited China in 1972 which marked the beginning of the end of the Cultural Revolution?
- What, according to Lovell, was the impact of the Cultural Revolution on the international communist movement?
- The Cultural Revolution ended with the death of Mao in 1976, when were the gang of four put on trial?
- According to Mitter, how many people died in the Cultural Revolution and how many were persecuted?
- What was the long-term legacy of the Cultural Revolution for China according to a] Mitter and b] Lovel
Task Seven
ATL: Thinking skills
Before completing the next task, read this article (which also has embedded videos) to review the causes, course and impact of the Cultural Revolution.
The Cultural Revolution: all you need to know about China's political convulsion (the Guardian)
Fifty years ago one of the bloodiest eras in history began, in which as many as two million people died. But who started it and what was it for?
Task Eight
ATL: Self-management skills
Using the information that you have found so far on the Cultural Revolution, create a mind map to show the impact of the Cultural Revolution under the following headings:
- the political impact
- the social impact
- the cultural impact
- the economic impact
Click on the eye for points to consider - you will need to add detail to these points:
- Mao was restored to political dominance
- PLA initially became more powerful than the Party. Lin Biao, head of PLA, was appointed as Mao's successor - though this trend was to be reversed
- It created a power base for Jiang Qing
- China lost an efficient generation of administrators and good political leaders
- Damage to the economy due to disruption and attacks on experts and specialists
- Disruption to educational system - schools closed, teachers persecuted as bourgeois elements.
- Disruption to family patterns and generational respect
- 'Old culture' physically destroyed - though unclear how much attachment of the Chinese to traditional culture was affected
- Minority Nationalities suffered especially badly, especially the Islamic Uyghurs of Xinjiang and the Buddhists of Tibet
- Disillusionment with ideological campaigns - the excesses of the Cultural Revolution made many doubt the wisdom of the Party
- Many youths sent to countryside also saw first hand the poverty and backwardness of their country; this led them to distrust the propaganda. Set scene for more pragmatic reforms of Deng after Mao
- Population control programmes were disrupted as Mao had encouraged large families to protect against foreign invasion
- China's youth brutalised; respect for law wiped out - this led to a rise in crime
- Red Guards sent to the countryside which disrupted development in the country side; the urban youth did not want to be there and had no aptitude for rural work
- Red Guards became 'a lost generation' whose education had been interrupted. This meant no trained engineers and scientists
8. What was the overall impact of Mao on China, 1949 - 1976?
Essay questions will often ask you to focus on the successes and failures of Mao. It is easiest if you think about this thematically: his successes and failures economically, socially and politically and also with regard to foreign policy.
Task One
ATL: Thinking skills
Complete the following grid on Mao. Use this as a basis for planning essays on The People's Republic of China: Essay writing exercises and essay frames
Also refer to the complete grid on Stalin's vs Mao's on agricultural policies for some ideas which can be found here: Comparative essay planning for authoritarian states
There is another grid to complete on the success of social policies only which you may want to do first. That can be found here: Case Study: Mao (ATL)
Grid to complete assessing successes and failures of Mao's policies
Task Two
ATL: Thinking and communication skills
In pairs discuss the extent to which you agree with the following quote from Immanuel Hsu:
'Mao was extremely successful as a revolutionary, but disappointingly erratic as a nation builder'
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn