It can be argued that the Cultural Revolution strengthened Mao’s personal power, because one of the main outcomes was the weakening of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their power. For example, Mao was able to blame the party for the outcome of the Cultural Revolution. The horrific deaths of half a million Chinese people. This enabled Mao to then put the blame on the party members, for being too enthusiastic about the movement. This can be shown by the fact that one outcome was the re – education enforced by Mao, that was made compulsory to the Red Guards, the youth league of the CCP.
It is suggested that only after this had failed and criticism began to stack up against the policies of the CCP that Mao decided to begin his anti-rightist campaigns as some form of damage control to lessen the disastrous impact that the hundred flowers campaign had taken on the CCP by 1957. Mao believed firmly in the concept of a permanent revolution and that in order to remain successful the CCP had to remain connected to the people. The Hundred Flowers campaign can be seen as a method of doing this and it was only after political dissidents ignored the CCP’s advice to send in what amounted to constructive communist advice was Mao’s hand forced to act against growing calls for a more democratic government. In addition to this Mao was worried that the policies of Liu and Deng were leading to a prevalence in experts within the economy which was creating a
During the beginning of the 1900s, there were plenty of revolutions and violence that took place. The Chinese revolution in 1911 and Russian Revolution in 1917 shared similar goals, they wanted to end the power of their current leader and establish a new one. For Russia, it was Tsar Nicholas II and for China it was the Qing Dynasty, Russia wanting a functioning communist government and Chinese revolutionaries wanted a democratic government. The first outcome is different in that China relied on agriculture to maintain its economy and Russia relied on industry to fuel its economy. The second outcome of the revolutions was that the countries were dramatically changed, two great powers were stopped and communist leaders eventually took over in the two countries.
However, they did help unite China and form the Yuan Empire. Additionally, the Mongols moved the capital to Beijing in an attempt to make it the center of politics and commerce in China. They made other improvements to encourage trade, such as reorganizing and rebuilding roads, irrigation, and plumbing, building granaries to prevent famines, and extending the Great Canal. These improvements proved successful, as it helped them export in large amounts and become a lucrative center for trade. Nevertheless, their excessive spending severely depleted China’s economy.
The change in Chinese policy was to shatter the perception of a bipolar world that existed since the beginning of the cold war. Superpower relations were now best described as a triangular process involving china, the USSR and the USA. Therefore, the deterioration in Sino-soviet relations in the years 1958-69 was due to a change in China’s foreign policy to protect Chinese national security, rather than simply being put down to personal rivalries. The communist takeover of China in 1949 was viewed by the US government as another victory for the forces of world communism. Mao was seen as an instrument of the Soviet Union’s bid to spread worldwide revolution.
Arguably, he had wanted to limit the influence of them due to his distrust of their background and knowledge gained through being educated in foreign institutions. On the contrary, Source B claims that “Mao was unsure” about what negative consequences the campaign might bring about. According to the second source, Mao genuinely wanted the intellectuals to “join the revolution of their own free will rather than being forced to do” rather than accuse them for being a threat to the Communist regime. It seems to be a reasonable explanation of his intentions as he was very much concerned with the CPC becoming more bureaucratic, which was highlighted by the Three-Antis Campaign of 1951, and therefore he wanted to find a solution to this problem through hearing what the educated part of society had to say. Moreover, Mao’s famous saying “unity, criticism, unity” suggests that the campaign indeed had good intentions, not implying any “trap”.
However, Nicholas II had no choice to create the Duma because of the 1905 revolution; so he reluctantly did so he did not completely lose his position. The Communists were a lot more willing to reform politically. Krushchev, similar to Lenin, was keen to reform politically for example decentralisation; he transferred economic planning to more local
For Lenin, the party was to be a group prepared to seize power as soon as possible yet on the other hand, for Martov, the main purpose of the party was to spread propaganda and raise the level of consciousness of the proletariat. This was because he did not believe that Russia was ready for a Marxist revolution for many years. Lenin believed that is the Mensheviks had their way, it would take years to start the revolution; they would just waste time on useless discussion and argument. Martov, replied that the revolution would fail if it did not have the support of the whole working class. The social democratic party remained spilt on the issue.
It is evident that Mao Zedong's abilities to control the party and to know how to improve its stranglehold on China, was the main reason for the CCP's survival. After the White Terror, where about 5,000 communists had been killed, the CCP were in disarray and mainly due to Mao's abilities in turning the situation into a positive, were the CCP able to survive. Mao used the White Terror to signal a way forward for the CCP; he used propaganda to make the peasants feel sympathetic towards the CCP and so would support them. This tactic meant that the support for the CCP started to rise again. This was pivotal to the survival of the CCP as they needed to increase their numbers.
Greer Liguori October 13, 2014 In 1937, Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of China. They occupied this land until Japan was defeated during the Second World War in 1945. The Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Despite the fact that many did not favor communism in China, the party did unify the peasant class in multiple ways. Between circa 1925 and circa 1950, the relationship between the peasants and the Chinese Communist Party was that the party encouraged the state of the people, involved the peasants in nationalism, also encouraged anti-Japanese sentiment, and favored social