Historical conditions for China’s emergence as an authoritarian state

On By bfIn Authoritarian States, Emergence of authoritarian states, Uncategorized

Historical conditions

  • 100 years of humiliation
    • Opium wars
    • Sino-japanese war
    • Boxer rebellion – foreign domination
  • Warlord Period 1912-1916
    • Practice of decentralisation
    • Lack of unity
    • War and rivalry between warlords made conditions tough ⇒ high taxes, looted land, pillaged by armies
    • Anarchy ⇒ outsiders could easily interfere, tibet/Xinjiang/mongolia take n from China
    • Politically unstable
  • Nanjing era 1916-1927
    • Warlordism pursued
    • End of first world war – lost Shandong, greater Chinese humiliation
    • Taxed peasants and refused to challenge Japan (disease of skin and disease of heart)
    • High crime rates and corruption – kept business class support for GMD
    • High inflation
    • No effective reforms (however, did have stable currency and industrial growth)
  • Late imperialism
    • 21 Demands
    • Manchuria – Manchukuo, Puyi, puppet state

Weakness of opposition

  • 28 bolsheviks who failed to undermine Mao
  • Northern expedition → full military success against warlord
  • Spread their influence during the Chinese Civil WAr
  • 1938 Yellow River Flooding
    • Chiang Kai Shek fails to alleviate problems
    • 800k DROWNED
  • Nanjing decade 1927-37
    • Failure to reform china
    • KMT ⇒ corrupt
      • Failed to meet expectations
      • Worked with gangsters
    • Party of the upper-classes = didn’t want to reform

War against Japan

  • Manchuria invaded in 1931
    • Chiang Kai Shek slow failed to respond quickly
      • Dependence on foreign allies (December 1941) – start of WW2
        • CCP advertised themselves as the only patriots
    • Formed the 2nd United Front ⇒ CCP credited for this
      • CKS was kidnapped
  • Crucial role in weakening GMD
    • 1941 – CKS turned on the communists ⇒ lost support at home and abroad
    • Chiang was stubborn, corrupt, ignored reports that GMD troops selling food on black market + rice was filled with sand
    • Under GMD = peasants had conscription, sickness and starvation ⇒ became INCREASINGLY dictatorial, Generalissimo
      • Used secret police to arrest
  • Strengthening the CCP
    • Japanese was spread too thinly to prevent CCP
    • 90m chinese controlled by CCP after 1945

Chinese Civil War

  • After the war against Japan – enabled the communists to expand army and guerrilla tactics ⇒ Jiang also depicted as dependant on the West
    • Jiang made fatal mistakes by putting his best troops first and staying in the cities
    • Mao cult, inspiring confidence on the CCP
    • GMd defectors
    • Lin Biao’s great military feats – formidable
  • US continued to supply aid, arms and advisors to CKS ⇒ communists captured weapons from the Japanese troops
  • 1946 0 Mao’s military forces reorganised as the PLA ⇒ unified command, PLA defeated CKS forces despite US aid
    • 800k troops vs 2.8m troops
    • Took key railway junctions at Jinzhou, manchuria,
    • Took steps to control prices, kept troops restrained, used propaganda to win support of youth, taxed landlords

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