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The Chinese Revolution
Today we begin our unit on the Communist Revolution in
China, a topic that I’m sure many of you have already
studied or at least have some knowledge of. For a variety
of reasons, this topic remains extremely relevant today.
Above all, China is rapidly emerging as one of the world’s
great economic powers. What happens in China today
matters more than ever before. Indeed, I would argue that
the current “revolution” in China – which we might call the
great Chinese industrial revolution – is in many ways more
important than the Communist Revolution of 1949. What
China has experienced over the past twenty years has
arguably reshaped Chinese society in ways far more
profound than Mao ever did. Those changes, moreover,
have global consequences as well, much more than Mao’s
revolution.
Still, we can’t understand how China arrived at its current
state without looking back to what happened in China in
the first three quarters of the twentieth century,
particularly after 1949.
Now, this topic – “The Chinese Revolution” – can be
difficult to locate in world history since 1945. Does it
belong to the history of the Cold War and post-war
communism? That’s where I’ve located it in the syllabus.
But I did so largely for reasons of convenience – this
week’s reading, a memoir of a young man who grew up in
Mao’s China, will hopefully provide a good comparison
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with last week’s reading. More than that, we can get a
sense of another variety of communism, which was far
from the monolithic force it is often made out to be.
But you could just as easily make the argument that this
topic should be understood less as a problem of the Cold
War and communism and more as an example of post-war
de-colonization. As I’ll try to argue today, the communist
Revolution in China can – and probably should – also be
understood as a nationalist struggle of liberation from
foreign domination.
That will be the main point I want to make today. But what
I really want to do is give you a general overview of
Chinese history from the 19th century to the 1950s – some
key facts that I think you need to know in order to
understand the emergence of modern China. On
Wednesday we’ll look more closely at the more radical
phase of the Chinese Revolution in the late 1950s and
1960s.
That said, keep in mind that the Chinese history after 1945
highlights a number of key issues of post-war world
history: communism, nationalism, de-colonization, and,
perhaps most importantly, economic development and
modernization – a topic we’ll return to in the third part of
our course.
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I. Background: Imperialism and Revolution in China,
1839-1919
In order to really understand the Communist Revolution
that succeeded in 1949, we first need to go back to the 19th
century and China’s fateful encounter with the West. At
the time, China was ruled by the Qing dynasty, which had
been in power since 1600. Before 1900, Chinese history is
often told as the saga of the rise and fall of usually longlasting dynasties. By the 19th century, the Qing dynasty
had entered into its own period of steep and seemingly
inevitable decline – politically and economically.
Opium Wars: China under the Qing was certainly no
match for modernizing, dynamic, and ambitious
Western powers like the British, who in the early 1800s –
from their base in India – began to seek trading “rights” in
China. Above all, the British sought the right to sell opium
from Northern India – and Afghanistan to the Chinese.
(Afghanistan just enjoyed another bumper poppy crop, by
the way, the fifth straight record since 2001; several
hundred percent each year. It’s the major source of
revenue and has made the country into a classic narcostate.)
The opium trade devastated China – drug addiction was
rampant. So the Chinese government tried to stem the flow
of British opium into the country by closing its ports in the
late 1830s, the British went to war under the banner of
“free trade” – a natural right. The two so-called
“Opium Wars” of 1839 and 1856 forced the Chinese to
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open their markets to British and other Western powers on
extremely unfavorable terms. More than that, Western
powers claimed what is known as “extraterritoriality” –
that is, immunity for their citizens from Chinese laws. In
other words, British citizens could break Chinese law, but
not be arrested and tried by Chinese courts.
The Western rights were first laid down in the Treaty of
Nanjing of 1842, which represented an enormous
humiliation for the Chinese. Indeed, the humiliations of the
First Opium War of 1839-1842 and the Treaty of Nanjing is
a good place to date the birth of modern Chinese history,
national consciousness, and nationalism.
Spheres of Influence: The expansion of Western
influence in China continued to grow in throughout the
nineteenth century. Western powers – first the British, then
the French, Russians, Germans, Japanese, and finally the
Americans – carved out what are known as “spheres of
influence” in China. This model of imperialism afforded
foreign powers with all of the rights and influence they
desired in China without the burden of direct political and
military control, which remained technically in the hands of
the corrupt and venal Qing government, which proved
powerless to resist this growing Western control of the
country. In effect, the Qing became clients of Western
powers.
Boxer Rebellion: By the end of the nineteenth century,
Western influence and the Qing government’s failure to
stop it, gave rise to a nationalist movement, especially
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among intellectuals, students, and some urban workers. In
1899, anti-foreigner sentiment exploded in the rebellion of
peasants and urban workers called the Boxer Rebellion.
The Boxers (Society of Right and Harmonious Fists) killed
a few hundred foreigners, but were eventually crushed by a
joint expedition of Western troops who occupied Beijing
and “restored” the Qing – also a target of the Boxers – to
power in 1901. In fact, the failure of the Boxer Rebellion
and the Western response signaled the end of Chinese
sovereignty, which was retained in name only.
The “Last Emperor” and the Revolution of 1911/1912:
Popular revolts directed largely against the puppet Qing
imperial government continued, however. And in 1911 it
was finally overthrown in the first Chinese revolution.
Although it enjoyed the support of students and urban
workers, this revolution was largely the work of
economic elites backed by the military.
The first president of the new republic was Sun Yat-sen, a
Western-educated Chinese nationalist – the so-called father
of the modern Chinese nation - who had dreams of creating
a democratic republic in China.
Sun’s tenure lasted only a few months, however, as he was
replaced by a Yuan Shih-kai. Shih-kai was a general who
lent crucial support to the Revolution of 1911, and
managed to get himself appointed president by the emperor
just before he abdicated in February. And two years after
becoming president, Shikai dissolved the new Chinese
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parliament and established a dictatorship with the hope of
becoming a new emperor.
Shikai’s plans never materialized, however, and after he
left his office in 1916, the country fell into a period of
choas. The central government was unable to establish its
control of the provinces and many cities, and the country
sank into warlordism – where local strongmen exercised
effective control over provinces and regions. (Some
analysists are saying that Iraq may collapse into warlordism
as well). Foreign powers, especially Japan, continued to
exercise and expand their influence throughout the weak
and divided country.
II. The Struggle for Renewal and Power: Nationalists
vs. Communists, 1919-1949
The Fourth of May (1919) Movement and Sun Yat-sen
Following World War I, nationalists and students stepped
up their protests against the growing rise of Japanese
influence in China. They demanded reforms such as more
democracy and a government that takes a stronger stance
against foreign influence.
On May 4, 1919 protests broke out in several cities. These
protests spread quickly and assumed the character of a
mass movement, which was given the name Fourth of
May Movement. The Nationalist Party – the
Guomindang – led by Sun Yat-sen, who had been in the
opposition since 1913 - emerged as the leader of this
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movement for reform, and in the early 1920s begins the
process of retaking China from the warlords and
establishing a strong central government. He promises to
reform China on the basis of the principles of
1)nationalism, 2) republicanism, and 3) social welfare,
really moderate socialism.
Communism for China, Mao Zedong, and the CCP
(1921):
While the Nationalists emerged in the early 1920s as the
main political force in China, the Fourth of May Movement
had also spawned the development of a Chinese
Communist Party, which was officially founded by a
small group of intellectuals in 1921. The Communists took
their cues from the Bolshevik Party in Russia, and, while
they remained a marginal force in Chinese politics
throughout the 1920s, they developed a tight organization
and coherent ideological and revolutionary program that
served as an alternative to the Nationalists, who
increasingly fell short of their promises.
The key to that program was based on Mao Zedong’s
crucial revision of Marxism-Leninism. Mao, the son of a
wealthy peasant and a founding member of the CCP, had
become an influential figure in the party by the mid-1920s.
He was particularly interested in the revolutionary
potential of the peasant class. 90% of the Chinese
population, after all, were peasants. Mao realized that a
successful revolution in China would come not from the
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urban, industrial proletariat (as dictated by classic MarxistLeninist theory), but instead from the peasantry.
Mao thus reformulated Marxist-Leninist theory by making
the peasantry the key revolutionary class. Like workers,
peasants could be instilled by the vanguard Communist
Party with a revolutionary class consciousness. Mao thus
directed his efforts at mass mobilization to the countryside.
Indeed, his entire strategy for revolution hinged upon the
mobilization of the peasantry to effect a communist
revolution.
Crucial: Mao’s revision of Marxism-Leninism would have
a crucial impact on post-war communist movements
throughout the Third or developing world, as they were
almost always rooted in the peasantry
Mao’s progress was slow, but by the end of the 1920s this
strategy began to bear fruit as the communist party began to
carve out pockets of control in the countryside.
The Nationalist Party, however, with whom the Communist
had originally worked, viewed the still small, but
increasingly popular, Communist Party as a threat. Under
the leadership of the virulently anti-Communist general
Chiang-Kai Shek, who had assumed power after the death
of Sun-Yat Sen in 1925, the Nationalists began a campaign
to destroy the Communist Party. Chiang himself
established an authoritarian dictatorship that paid only lip
service to democracy and human rights. As a former
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colleague of mine in Chinese history used to tell me, he
was a “gangster and a thug.”
The result of Chiang’s policies was a kind of “White
Terror” (as opposed to Red Terror) that victimized
communist sympathizers as well as innocent workers in
cities in the late 1920s and 1930s.
His ruthless campaign against the Communist Party nearly
succeeded. The Communists were forced to flee into the
Chinese hinterland on the famous “Long March.” During
the Long March, which would later play an important part
in the official mythology of the communist party (you’ll
see this in Son of the Revolution), Mao consolidated his
leadership role over the party.
Japan, World War II, and the New Communist
Advantage
But it was not the Long March and retreat that saved the
Communist Party, but rather the Japanese, who invaded
China in 1937. Had they not done so, the Nationalists
would likely have wiped them out. In order to fight the
common Japanese enemy, the Nationalists agreed to an
alliance proposed by the Communists. Moreover, during
World War II the Communists often proved to be more
effective fighters against the Japanese than the
Nationalists. Their exploits during the war served to
bolster their credentials as the true protectors of the
Chinese nation from foreigners. In other words, the
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Communists were staking a claim to being China’s true
nationalists.
In addition, the Communists extend their influence over
the peasantry during the war, thereby positioning
themselves for the coming struggle after the war.
Side Note: During World War II, Japanese soldiers
famously slaughtered and raped thousands of Chinese
citizens in the city of Nanjing – the so-called “Rape of
Nanjing.” Unlike the Germans, who have worked very
hard to make ammends for their war crimes, the Japanese
never acknowledged – at least not as sincerely – their
crimes. If you want to understand why Chinese-Japanese
relations today continued to be strained – you need to take
into account the powerful memories of World War II.
III. Mao Zedong’s “Good Revolution,” 1949-1955
As soon as the common enemy Japan is defeated, the
Communists and Nationalists quickly resume their struggle.
The Communists, however, emerged from the war in a
much stronger position. Despite massive American aid, the
Nationalists go from one defeat to another. They lacked all
support in the countryside. Moreover, the came to be seen
as simply the stooges of foreign powers – this time the
United States – not unlike the Qing before them.
On October 1, 1949, with the nationalists all but defeated,
the People’s Republic of China was proclaimed. Chiang
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Kai-shek and the nationalists fled to Taiwan, which China
to this day claims is a renegade province. Mao also
proclaims a so-called “People’s Democratic
Dictatorship” – supposedly a coalition between peasants,
workers, the lower middle classes, as well as business
interests who are willing to work with the new government
to build a socialist society. But in reality, he established a
party dictatorship on the model of the Soviet Union.
Thus begins what I like to call Mao Zedong’s “Good
Revolution”. Indeed, the Chinese Revolution seems to
follow the trajectory of many revolutions, for example the
French and the Russian – a period of progressive reforms
that then degenerates into radicalism.
But the revolution does seem to begin auspiciously
enough. Mao pursued a series of domestic reforms and
foreign policies that sought to restore China after nearly a
century of decline, social injustice, and foreign rule.
Among other things, the Communist Party worked to
cultivate and strengthen a sense of Chinese national
identity and pride – even if communism is supposed to
offer an alternative identity that displaces national identity.
It also sought to cleanse China of decadent and corrupt
foreign influences, such as gambling, prostitution, and
drugs. It moved against government corruption and sought
to create a more professional bureaucracy.
Moreover, measures were taken to emancipate women.
And even if the rhetoric never matched the reality, women
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did experience real gains in terms of legal rights and public
and professional roles.
More important still, the Party moved quickly to institute
major social and economic reforms, above all land
reform. In 1950, more than 300 million peasants received
small parcels of land that had been expropriated by the
landlord class. A massive and bloody persecution of
members of that class accompanied this land reform. As a
class, they were “liquidated.” Estimates run as high as
1,000,000 killed – and almost entirely by the peasants, who
took matters into their own hands. As Mao himself said,
“Revolutions are not dinner parties.”
As it was, the liquidation of the landlord class in 1950 was
not the intended policy of the Party. But it was viewed as
an exercise in the building of a “class” consciousness
among the peasantry, who carried it out enthusiastically –
and often on their own initiative.
In addition, the Party took steps to modernize the
economy by launching a Five Year Plan in 1953. At the
same time, it realized that it could not squelch all private
economic activity and arrive at socialism all at once. By
allowing the private sector to continue, the Chinese
economy began to recover after the devastation of the war.
In other words, the Party adopted what seemed to be a
rational, incremental approach to building socialism that
looked more like Lenin’s NEP than Stalin’s forced
modernization.
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Finally, the Party moved quickly to improve education
and literacy, especially among the rural population,
improve health care, and create a kind of social safety net.
All of these reforms markedly improved the standard of
living of hundreds of millions of Chinese.
So, even while the Party had unleashed a kind of “Red
Terror,” and tens of thousands of landlords and other class
enemies were being liquidated, and a one-party
dictatorship was being established, there is little doubt
that the Revolution brought tangible gains to the majority
of the Chinese population.
Restoring China Sovereignty
In addition to these domestic reforms, Mao took measures
to restore China’s sovereignty in the international
arena. His foreign policy was always accompanied by a
powerful rhetoric of nationalism and anti-imperialism.
As I began this lecture, the Chinese Communist Revolution
must be seen as part of the process of de-colonization and
anti-imperialism that gripped much of the non-Western
world after 1945.
Mao thus abrogated most of the humiliating treaties that
had effectively undermined China’s sovereignty since the
19th century. Interestingly, he did not abrogate the
provision of the Treaty of Nanjing, which had ceded Hong
Kong to Great Britain for 150 years. China only got it back
in 1997, as per the treaty – and I’ve always wondered why
Mao didn’t take it back!
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In addition, foreigners and foreign economic interests were
expelled, and foreign assets seized and nationalized.
National defense became a priority, and, with the help of
the Soviet Union, China began building up its military
strength. In 1950 it signed a friendship treaty with the
Soviet Union and accepted its role as the junior partner to
the more experienced Soviet “big brother.” Mao,
however, was always uncomfortable with this position.
His policies in the late 1950s increasingly alienated the
Soviets, however, leading to a final break between the two
powers in 1960. Eventually, relations deteriorated to the
point that the two sides engaged in open fighting in 1969 –
the Sino-Soviet War, which, importantly, provided an
opening for the United States to seek out better relations
with Beijing.
Communist China demonstrated its confidence and
willingness to protect its revolution in 1950, moreover,
when it intervened in the Korean War. Its initial attack
threw the United States off-guard and American soldiers
were sent reeling before finally stabilizing the front. For
the next two years, China fought the United States to a
standstill, losing over 100,000 dead. While the Korean
War was enormously expensive for China, it did much to
solidify the Communist Party’s rule and legitimacy and
establish China as a force to be reckoned with in world
affairs.
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And as a result of the war, North Korea became a kind of
client state – if a rather unpredictable one – of China’s. If
China wanted to end the North Korean regime of Kim Jung
Il, it probably could do so overnight.
Finally, Communist China has taken a strong stance
against the independence – or, actually, autonomy – of
Taiwan. In 1954 and 1958 it risked war with the United
States over Taiwan. In 1996, its aggressive moves toward
Taiwan led the Clinton administration to sail the Seventh
Fleet into the straights of Taiwan to show that the US
would protect it from a Chinese invasion. Until Bush came
to office, the United States remained vague about whether
it would protect Taiwan, but Bush – in what some
interpreted as beginner’s mistake – stated shortly after
coming to office that the United States would absolutely
protect Taiwan.
Right now, Taiwan, which has over the past 10 years
undergone a remarkable democratic transformation, is
pushing for membership in the UN. The United States,
however, has what is known as a “One China” policy – it
only recognizes the People’s Republic of China. Even
though it sells advanced weaponry to Taiwan, the US
doesn’t recognize it’s independence, even though, again,
Taiwan has become a democracy. Realpolitik, which in
this case dictates that the US not alienate the much more
important China, trumps the rhetoric of supporting
democracy. Just last week, in fact, President Bush assured
China that the US does not support Taiwan’s membership
in the UN.
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Okay, on Wednesday we will look at the radicalization of
the Communist Revolution in the late 1950s and 1960s. I
also plan on showing you 20 minutes of a documentary so
that we can put some images to the things you’ll be reading
about this week.