Nature, extent and treatment of opposition in Communist China

On By bfIn Authoritarian States, Consolidation and maintenance of power, Uncategorized

 

The Hundred Flowers Campaign (1957) and Anti-Rightist movement

 

  • Called on members to debate issues facing China
  • Initially minor attacks → progressed to attacks on Mao
  • Those who spoke out were considered ‘rightists’ and were imprisoned in Anti-Rightist Movement (1957)  = Mao launched, Deng Xiaoping led
  • Half a million people labelled “rightists” → committed suicide, executed, re-education
    • Zhou Enlai forced to confess his responsibility for slowing reform to the party, Strengthened his position
  • Historians views:
    • Revisionist, Jung Chang: deliberate trick by Mao so he could root out the enemies
    • Lei Feignon: Mao wanted the inefficiencies of bureaucracy to be publicly identified
    • Jonathan Spence: result of confusion within the party (industrial and agricultural reform)

Tibetan Uprising (1959)

 

  • First PLA invasion of Tibet (1950) → Millions faced starvation, suppressed and arrested

 

    • Tibetans banned from mentioning the Dalai Lama in public → had to flee to Northern India, religious practices were banned
    • CCP encouraged Chinese settlement in Tibet
    • The Panchen Lama issued a report in 1962
      • 20% of the Tibetan population had been imprisoned
        • 50% of them died in prison

Cultural revolution

  • Purge of Wu Han – playwright critical of Mao (1965) suicide in 1969
  • Struggles within the CCP
  • Gang of Four ⇒ grew in prominence, e.g. Jiang Qing
  • Launched assault on Liu and Deng = targeted counter-revolutionaries (Liu was publicly beaten)
  • Central Cultural Revolution Group in May 1966 served to purge any “capitalist” – it was part of the Politburo

 

The ‘cleansing the class ranks’ Campaign (1968 – 1971)

  • PLA squads replacing the Red Guards → more violent in persecution of “counter-revolutionaries”
    • Eradicated ALL signs of capitalism
      • Inner Mongolia: 22,900 killed + 120,000 maimed
      • Beijing: 3,731 people killed → classified as “suicides”
      • Zhejiang: 100,000 arrested and “struggled against” → 9198 died from treatment

Relationship with Lin Biao

  • Head of PLA. April 1967 portrayed as ‘most loyal supporter’ and best successor to Mao.

  • Mao increasingly suspicious of him ⇒ 1968 differences of opinion between Mao and Lin developed over the purge of party members.

  • 1970 – removing Lin’s position.

  • Mao used three tactics to weaken Lin’s position

 

  1. ‘Throwing a stone’, purge of Ch’en Po-ta as an admonition to Lin
  2. ‘Mixing gravel with mud’, infiltrating the Military Affairs Committee with own men to spy on Lin
  3. ‘Digging the cornerstone’, reorganizing the Military Region in Jan 1971, undermine Lins power base.

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