GASB58 Class 9 March 15, 2012
WEEK 9: CIVIL WAR AND THE EARLY PRC ERA
THE CIVIL WAR 1945-49
- Ceasefire in Jan. 1946
- First Stage: July 1946-June 1947
- Nationalists had advantages
- The CCP, especially led by Lin Biao 林彪 attacked in Manchuria
- Second Stage: June 1947-Fall 1948
- The PLA crossed the Yellow River
- By March 1948, Manchuria fell to the CCP, except for 3 cities
- Third Stage: Fall 1948-Oct. 1949
- By Nov. 1948, Lin Biao took over the whole Manchuria
- Nov. 1948-Jan 1949, The Ping-Jin Battle, and The Huai-Hai Battle
- April 1949, Nanjing fell and Shanghai fell in May
- Dec. 1949, Chiang Kai-shek （蒋中正/蒋介石）fled to Taiwan
- Oct. 1, 1949, Founding of the PRC (Peoples Republic of China)
THE EARLY STAGE OF THE PRC, 1949-66
- Founding of the PRC, Oct. 1, 1949
- The Consolidation Period, 1949-52
- Political Nature:
~Sept. 1949, People’s Political Consultative Conference
a. The Organic Law
b. “Common Program”: human rights, equality, land reform, development of heavy industries, and
safeguards of rights of minorities
- Economy
- Unification of Territory
- Foreign Relations
~Dec. 1949: Mao to the Soviet Union, “Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance”
~ The Korean War 1950-53
- The Soviet Period 1952-58
- Mass Campaigns
~Suppression of “Anti-revolutionaries”, corrupted cadres, and capitalists
~ Land Reform, 1950-53; The Land Reform Law 1950
- great accomplishment of the PRC over 3 years. (almost completed: 300 M peasants got 700M mu
farming land
~ The New Marriage Law (Allow women to divorce husband, equal rights within a marriage)
- Industries: The First 5 Year Plan 1954-57
~ The Soviet Model:
a. Heavy industries, large-scale, capital intensive, technologically advanced plants
b. Soviet assistance: expertise, equipment, technology, capital
- Collectivization of Agriculture
~ 1954-55, Mutual Aid Teams: Merged into Cooperatives
~ 1955-56: “Advanced Cooperatives”
~ By the end of 1956, Socialist Transformation of Agriculture Completed
- The Great Leap Forward and Its Aftermath, 1958-65
- 1958: advanced cooperatives merged into “communes”
~ 70 K Cooperatives into 24K Communes, each with 5K families
~ Problems: Exaggerated Production Figures
- The Lushan Meeting 庐山会议, July 1959, Peng Dehuai 彭德怀
- Sino-Soviet Split, 1959-1960
- Second Great Leap Forward, 1960
- 1959-61, Natural Disasters
- Lessons: Permanent Revolution, Democratic Dictatorship
- The Cultural Revolution 1966-76
To Surpass England and the US; Rush into Communism
The Great Leap Forward: “More, Faster, Better, and Cheaper”