MEAS1004 VII Chinese Communism before 1949

1
MEAS1004 VII Chinese Communism before 1949

• - The Early history of the Chinese Communist
  Party
• The Early Years
• The United Front 1921-1927
• Rural Phase
• Long March and the Second United Front
• Yanan Communism and Ascendancy of the Chairman
  Mao

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Unfolding of the Revolution

• The Early Years
• Immediate cause of the birth of the Chinese
  socialist movement was the May Fourth Movement
  1919 and Beida student radicalism
• Led by Beida professors Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao
  (editors of New Youth)
• Both became leaders in the CCP

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Picture 1) Chen Duxiu, the 1st leader of the CCP
(source Wikipedia)
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The Early Years

• The May Fourth Movement erupted in 1919 as
  protest against the Treaty of Versailles
• Turned into the first popular nation-wide
  campaign against imperialism and the government
  that was perceived as too weak against
  colonialism
• Represented the Chinese Enlightenment demanding
  science and democracy as the new cultural basis
  for regaining national strength

5
The Early Years

• The May Fourth Movement was an iconoclastic
  attack on Confucianism
• The call for a new culture (xin wenhua)
• Many student (and teacher) activists became
  interested in the Russian October Revolution in
  1917

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The Early Years

• The October Revolution had shown how a backward
  nation could shake off feudalism and assume what
  was deemed the most progressive social
  organisation and ideology of the time socialism
  and Marxism-Leninism
• Chinese warlordism and the failure of
  parliamentary democracy in China led many liberal
  intellectuals to disillusionment with Western
  democracy and liberal values

7
The Early Years

• Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao turned to Marxism around
  1920
• Drawing to their intellectual networks (which
  included Mao Zedong) they first mobilised study
  societies on Marxism and then labour unions
• Two versions of the establishment of the CCP

8
The Early Years

• Chen and Li founded the Communist Party of China
  with Soviet help on August 1920
• Official Party history puts the establishment of
  the Party to the first Party Convention in
  Shanghai 1921, because this is the first time Mao
  was present

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Picture 1) a Wax figure Mao Zedong addresses the
1st CCP party congress in Shanghai 1921
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The Early Years

• The beginning of the Party was quite modest
• A few hundred intellectuals as the backbone
• Also those studying abroad important Zhou Enlai,
  Deng Xiaoping, Zhu De
• Headed by Chen Duxiu
• The Party became to rely heavily on Soviet
  leadership and guidance through the Communist
  International (Comintern)
• Highly volatile on membership a lot of early
  activists dropped out, defected to the KMT, or
  were killed

11
The United Front 1923-1927

• As a member in the Komintern, the CCP executed
  the Soviet policy of encouraging colonial
  socialist movements to unite with nationalist
  revolutionaries
• Therefore, the Soviets made the CCP to Join the
  United Front with the KMT 1923-1927
• As a part of the KMT, CCP concentrated on urban
  centres, organising and educating workers

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The United Front 1923-1927

• In 1926 1 million members in unions, and 58.000
  in the Party
• However, the Marxist doctrine of social equality
  and the abolition of private property through
  worker-led revolution was the CCP long-term aim
• Also very nationalistic and anti-imperialist

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The United Front 1923-1927

• Soviet help for the KMT was conducive to a highly
  successful communist infiltration of the KMT
• Helped the KMT to turn into a Leninist Party
• With material aid, made it possible for the KMT
  to gain upper hand in its struggle against
  warlords

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The United Front 1923-1927

• The first united front ended in 1927 when the KMT
  had regained the control of Shanghai with
  communist help during the Northern Expedition
• Chiang Kai-shek ordered a violent purge of the
  CCP activists with the help of local secret
  societies

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The United Front 1923-1927

• The coup was made urgent also due to the Soviet
  Plans to turn Northern China into its puppet
  regime
• White Terror against CCP members and labour
  activists
• Marked also a coup within the KMT
• Chiang was able to purge the left-wing from the
  KMT and thus became more powerful

16
Rural Soviets

• Chen Duxiu was made the scapegoat of the failed
  United Front Policy (originally ordered by
  Stalin) and replaced (in the end) by Li Lisan
• White Terror forced the remaining communists to
  go underground in the cities and flee to the
  countryside (number of the Party members dropped
  to 10.000)

17
Rural Soviets

• The policy of armed insurrections in cities was
  ordered by Stalin, but all of them failed
• The surviving Party members were now forced to
  flee to remote areas in the countryside
• The beginning of rural soviets

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Rural Soviets

• Failure in the cities forced also the Comintern
  finally order the Party to seek support base from
  the countryside
• The proposal to mobilise peasants for the
  revolution had already been put forward by the
  Comintern
• Peasant mobilisation proved difficult
• Marxist theory regarded peasants (backward or
  petty bourgeois at best)

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Rural Soviets

• Complexities of the peasant situation
• E.g. about half of the peasantry owned their
  land, peasants more interested in land reform,
  not a socialist revolution, etc.
• Traditional loyalties strong (clan, family, etc.)
• The urban intellectuals were generally ignorant
  of the countryside
• In many cases the communists had to fight hostile
  peasants

20
Rural Soviets

• Only a few enthusiastic individuals had tried to
  mobilise peasants before 1927 for modern
  revolution / reform
• Nevertheless land reform was an official KMT
  policy
• In 1926-1927 Mao Zedong was in a KMT office in
  charge of peasant policies in Hunan as a part of
  the Northern Expedition

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Rural Soviets

• Maos radicalism caused him to be deemed as too
  radical a communist for Chiang Kai-shek
• Forced Mao to opt for the CCP and flee to the
  remote areas where he could rule as a Red
  bandit
• At first no much more than a gang of fugitives

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Rural Soviets

• When the insurrections ordered by Stalin failed,
  Mao retreated to the Jinggang mountain region of
  Hunan-Jiangxi
• Set up the first rural soviet (there were other
  similar soviets elsewhere)
• Later in 1931 moved to Jiangxi-Fujian border
  area, which grew to became the central rural
  soviet the Chinese Soviet Republic

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Map 1) The Soviet areas and the Long March
(source Wikipedia)
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Rural Soviets

• In the Soviet the CCP learned to rule over
  territory
• Moderate land redistribution policies carried out
• The creation of the Red Army
• Purge of big land owners and political dissidents
• The Party also factionally split over many policy
  issues such as the military strategy and land
  policies
• A left wing favoured more radical land
  redistribution
• Military strategy defence or offence?

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Rural Soviets

• Following Komintern instructions the CCP used the
  Red Army to attack cities in order to expand its
  area
• Led to failed armed campaigns to conquer central
  China
• When the Communists leadership was forced to flee
  Shanghai in 1932 Zhou Enlai assumed the
  leadership of the Jiangxi Soviet
• Mao retained the titular office of the President
  (or Chairman), but this was not a central post

26
Rural Soviets

• The GMD attempted five times to destroy the
  Jiangxi soviet in Encirclement and Suppression
  Campaigns 1931-1934
• Survival of the Jiangxi soviet was based mostly
  on the disputes within the KMT ranks, red terror,
  active peasant recruitment, but also on peasant
  empowerment, military discipline and smart but
  ruthless guerrilla tactics

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The Long March

• The Fifth Encirclement and Suppression campaign
  in 1934 succeeded and led the communists to beat
  a retreat to the west and later to north (the
  Long March)
• Two versions of the beginning of the Long March
• The Red Army defeated encircling troops and was
  able to flee towards its chosen destination

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The Long March

• Chiang Kai-shek let the communist through the
  encirclement for political purposes
• Wanted to use Red Army to scare provincial
  warlords in the Southwest and the West to ask for
  his military help (and thus, leadership)
• This actually worked

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The Long March

• The Long March has created a heroic myth of the
  Party relocating itself to the north to fight the
  Japanese aggression (the Communists had declared
  war on Japan in 1932)
• In reality a military defeat
• Of 90 000 who set on to the march, only 9000
  finished it

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The Long March

• Much of the casualties caused by Mao, who
  manoeuvred to get his political rivals killed or
  demoted
• Rest deserted or died many of the marchers
  were forced labourers
• In 1935 Zunyi meeting Mao assumed leadership of
  the Party
• In practise, but not yet nominally

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The Long March

• The Long March ended in the Yanan Soviet
• Located in Shaanxi
• A remote town with little resources
• An existing Soviet there and the proximity to the
  Japanese made the decision strategically good
• The KMT was nevertheless determined to root out
  the Communist insurrection

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The Second United Front and the War Against Japan
(1937-1945)

• The Second United Front
• Became possible when when the warlord / GMD
  general Zhang Xueliang kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek
  in Xian in December 1936 (the Xian Incident)
• In the official version Zhang kidnapped Chiang in
  order to persuade him to enter an alliance with
  the CCP against the Japanese

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The Second United Front

• Alternative explanation Zhang schemed to take
  over GMD with Soviet help
• Mao let Zhang to believe that he had the the
  support from the USSR
• When Stalin found out of the Incident, he
  regarded deposing Chiang as too risky

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The Second United Front

• However, Chiang made a deal with the Soviet Union
  on a truce with the CCP and formation of the
  Second United Front against the Japanese in 1937
• Informal talks of the Second United Front had
  been going on from September 1936
• The CCP complied when Moscow demanded the Second
  United Front

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The Second United Front

• The incident elevated the status of the CCP to a
  recognised national player instead of being
  regarded as a band of red bandits as before
• Allowed the Communist to resume propaganda and
  recruitment in nationalist areas (highly
  successful)

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The Second United Front

• Awkward alliance with sporadic fighting between
  the parties
• Both sides tried to undermine other even during
  the War against Japan Communist
• Held together by Japanese aggression

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The War Against Japan (1937-1945)

• During The War Against Japan (1937-1945) Japanese
  victories left most of Northern China open for
  the Communist recruitment and guerrilla warfare,
  while the Nationalists held to the interiors
• In the end GMD virtually blocked the communist
  regions and the two parties fought largely
  separate wars against the Japanese

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The War Against Japan (1937-1945)

• The CCP evaded major engagements with the
  Japanese forces, expecting them to bleed the GMD
• The Communists held the countryside, the Japanese
  the cities, and the GMD faced the brunt of their
  (both) attacks
• The War in general was favourable to the
  Communists, who aimed to expand their territories
  by force, attacking GMD forces when necessary

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The War Against Japan (1937-1945)

• Although the War was highly destructive to her,
  China played only a secondary role as a theatre
  in the WW II
• Military role was mainly to pin down the Japanese
  forces
• In the end the West won the Pacific War and
  defeated the Japanese, which the Chinese could
  not have defeated on their own
• The Chinese war effort made victory easier,
  however

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The War Against Japan (1937-1945)

• The War changed the scene dramatically in favour
  of the Communists
• Economic hardship
• Hyperinflation
• Repressive KMT politics and blatant corruption
• Mediocre record of the Nationalist army when
  compared to the discipline and heroism of the Red
  Army (exacerbated by propaganda)

41
The War Against Japan (1937-1945)

• The Communists were able to make their definition
  of national revolution as the most appealing
  version
• However, the Nationalists were in the side of the
  victors of the war, which made China one of the
  Great Powers after the war

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Yanan Communism

• The Shaanxi Soviet (The Shan-Gan-Ning Border
  Regions) capital was moved to Yanan after the
  agreement on the second united front
• The scarcity of recourses in the soviet and the
  need to secure the leadership of Mao Zedong made
  the Party to develop peculiar form of Yanan
  communism

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Yanan Communism

• Presented a self-sufficient economy with
• Labour intensive, collective and decentralised
  small industries
• Moderate land reforms
• However, other sources of revenue were also
  utilised by the CCP
• High taxation on peasants, opium trade, Soviet
  aid, salt mines which used forced labour, and
  printing paper money (which led to hyper
  inflation also in Yanan)

44
Yanan Communism

• Mao Zedong was made the paramount leader in the
  Party in 1943 (announced officially only in 1945)
  
• Along with this also Mao Zedong thought appeared
  as the leading doctrine of the Party
• A result of a committee work by Maos think
  tank

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Yanan Communism

• Was termed as a sinification of Marxism
• Meant the making the Party intellectually
  independent from the Soviet Union, justifying
  peasant revolution, and, most importantly, Maos
  leadership
• Features
• Voluntarism i.e. stress on moral consciousness
  and awareness of man as the basis of all social
  action

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Yanan Communism

• Ideal notion of socialism as a society of
  autonomous local communities, not a state-led
  centralised structure impressed upon man (Karl
  Kautsky)
• Revolutionary practise (experience) as the
  foundation of knowledge and the truth about
  society (John Deweys pragmatism and Marxist
  epistemology)

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Yanan Communism

• The people as the basis of revolution (not only
  the working class)
• Supreme leader with direct connection to the
  people
• Strict intellectual controls part of Maoism right
  from the beginning

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Yanan Communism

• Yanan rectification campaign 1942-1945, aimed at
  taking control of intellectual and scientific
  circles and purge Maos remaining political
  opponents (like Wang Ming)
• Made necessary by the discontent of the young
  volunteers arriving to Yanan from nationalist
  areas

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Yanan Communism

• Mostly young educated people who had believed the
  communist propaganda of Yanan as the
  revolutionary Mecca of equality and social
  justice (e.g. Edgar Snows Red Star over China)
• Became soon disappointed over the unequal
  treatment of people and Party cadres and strict
  controls over intellectual life and media in
  Yanan

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Yanan Communism

• Mao prepared for zero tolerance of dissident
  (like Wang Shiwei in 1942)
• Techniques of brain washing through torture,
  peer group control, self-criticism and
  deprivation of other sources of information,
  communist indoctrination and purges of political
  opponents through violent hunts for enemy spies
  (possibly thousands died)

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Yanan Communism

• Sending down (xiafang) of bureaucrats and
  intellectuals to learn from the masses
• Beginning of the personality cult of the
  Chairman Mao and rewriting Party / Chinese
  history Right decisions made by Mao, wrong
  decisions by others

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Yanan Communism

• The Yanan communism formed the basis of many
  features of what was later to transpire in the
  course of building socialism (features of Maoism
  and its opponents, the Great Leap Forward, the
  Cultural Revolution)

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Exercise VII

• Reading the tutorial articles, what were the
  early arguments Mao made for peasant revolution?
  What were the main characteristics (guiding
  principles in organisation, motivation, action,
  and regarding the relation between the Communist
  Party and its members, etc) of the Party
  organisation as outlined by Liu Shaoqi?