Mao’s Consolidation of Power

TerrorAndrea, Emma, Deborah

Introduction

• Terror was used as during Mao's consolidation of power.  There were primarily five different ways of terror:

• 1. Labour Camps (Lao Gai)

• 2. Public Denunciations & Purges

• 3. Mass Campaigns

• 4. Imprisonments & Executions

• 5. Social Scrutiny

Labor camps (Lao Gai)

• lao-gai prisons

• millions of Chinese sent to these camps

• harsh environments, hard physical labour in the fields or mines.  

• over 1,000 camps by the late 1960s

• estimated that as many as 27 million people

• executed, committed suicide or worked to death in camps.

 

Public Denunciations & purges

• The purge of Gao Gang and Rao Shushi

• Gao became head of the Central Planning Commission to direct the First Five Year Plan.

• Gao took side of Mao, criticised Zhou Enlai and Liu Shaoqi for their more cautious approach

• Mao accused Gao and Rao of attempting to build independent kingdoms and of ‘underground activities’.

• Gao committed suicide and Rao was arrested

Mass Campaigns

• The Resist America & Korea Campaign

• Korean War 1950

• foreigners were the enemies of China

• Westerners were prosecuted and accused of being spies

• Churches were closed and priests expelled

• Suspicion

Mass Campaigns

• Suppression of Counter-revolutionaries Campaign

• October 1950

• concentrated on internal threats; • counter-revolutionary = GMD, bandits and

religious sect

• denounced, investigated, punished

• Shanghai = 28,332 in less than 1 year

• Public executions

• Mao: “Persons who have to be executed to assuage the people’s anger must be put to death for this purpose”

Mass campaigns

• The Three-Antis Campaign

• started in Manchuria, late 1950s

• targets; corruption, waste, obstructionist bureaucracy

• mass meetings & denunciations

• self-criticism

• success!

Mass campaigns

• The Five-Antis Campaign

• January 1952

• directed against the bourgeoisie

• Targets; bribery, tax evasion, theft, cheating

• Group criticism & confessions

• those found guilty had to face enormous fines• confiscation of property & labour camps

• 2-3 million suicides

• people had no freedom and private thought

Imprisonments & executions

• Persecution of former landlords and merchants

• Execution of more powerful landlords

• Drug dealing was clamped down - dealers shot

• Public executions to terrorise the population

• Jung Chang's view: Mao intended most of the population (children and adults alike) to witness violence and killing - aim was to scare and brutalise the entire population

Social Scrutiny

• A nationwide network of work units, street and neighbourhood committees established

• By summer of 1951: Chinese citizens over age of 15 - acquire official residence permits from the police + obtain permission if they wished to move to another area

• Every citizen under scrutiny of their neighbours, workmates + people = encouraged to inform on each other

Results & Conclusion

• Effective method in consolidating Mao's power in China

• Feeling of fear and constant scrutiny from society led to obedience of the Chinese people

• Opposition = virtually wiped out or silenced

• Prostitution = virtually stamped out by 1953

• Through ruthlessness and careful organisation, much of crime in China’s cities in years before 1949 = stamped out

• CCP increased control over Chinese society