World History (Chinese revolution) by Shivlal Gupta

Model Answer

Question #1. Examine the political situation in China from 1945 to 1949 and which led to the Chinese revolution of 1949 and assess its significance.

Approach:

• Briefly introduce Chinese revolution of 1949.(40 words)
• Examine the political situation in China from 1945 to 1949 and which led to the Chinese revolution of 1949.(100 words)
• Assess significance of Chinese revolution of 1949.(70 words)
• Conclusion ( 40 words)

Hints:

The Chinese Civil War was a civil war in China fought between the Kuomintang (KMT)-led government of the Republic of China (ROC) and forces of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) lasting intermittently between 1927 and 1949. The civil war resumed with the Japanese defeat, and the CCP gained the upper hand in the final phase of the war from 1945 to 1949, generally referred to as the Chinese Communist Revolution.

The political situation in China from 1945 to 1949:

• Civil war was complicated by Japanese interference, which culminated in a full-scale invasion in 1937. 
• When the Japanese were defeated in 1945, the KMT and the CCP became locked in the final struggle for power. 
• The USA hoped and expected that Chiang would be victorious. The Americans helped the KMT to take over all areas previously occupied by the Japanese, except Manchuria, which had been captured by the Russians a few days before the war ended.
• The Russians obstructed the KMT and allowed CCP guerrillas to move in. In fact the apparent strength of the KMT was deceptive: in 1948 the ever-growing communist armies were large enough to abandon their guerrilla campaign and challenge Chiang’s armies directly. As soon as they came under direct pressure, the KMT armies began to disintegrate. 
• In January 1949 the communists took Beijing, and later in the year, Chiang and what remained of his forces fled to the island of Taiwan, leaving Mao Zedong in command of mainland China. 
• In October 1949, standing at Tiananmen (the Gate of Heavenly Peace) in Beijing, Mao proclaimed the new People’s Republic of China with himself as both Chairman of the CCP and president of the republic.

Assessment of significance of Chinese Revolution:

• Social:

• The CCP government passed a series of laws that gave women more rights to own land and to seek divorce from abusive husbands. During the Great Leap Forward, women were able to become managers and labourers were regarded as equal – they were all valuable to the national economy.

• Political:

• One of the key legacies of the Chinese Civil War is the continued authoritarian rule by the CCP. China remains a single-party state in which individual rights and freedoms are suppressed.
• The Chinese population had been militarised because of the war and this remained afterwards.
• Mao had huge power in the country because of the victories in the war.

• Economic:

• The CCP had implemented socialism across the country. The government borrowed ideas from the Soviet implementation of their planned economy, centralising power in Beijing.
• The state confiscated the landholdings of feudal lords and some rich (ancient-capitalist) farmers. The peasant farmers were able to use the land and sell their produce, creating vibrant markets in these rural areas and increasing living standards.

• World:

• The communist victory inspired insurgencies in Indonesia, Malaya, Indochina (later Vietnam) and Thailand. It also led to the first ‘hot war’ of the Cold War – the Korean War.
• It made the Cold War worse for the West. With China becoming communist and improving relations with the Soviet Union, this could be a threat to the US if many Asian nations followed suit. The United Nations recognised Taiwan as the true government of China. This led to Mao seeking out an ally in Stalin.

• Issues of Chinese Revolution:

• At first Mao received Russian advice and aid, but in the late 1950s relations cooled and Russian economic aid was reduced.
• In 1958 Mao introduced the ‘Great Leap Forward’, in which communism was adapted .It was not altogether successfully.
• During the Cultural Revolution ( 1966-9), Mao crushed  opposition inhumanely  within the Party.

Conclusion:

The Chinese revolution was the most significant event of the post world war period. In historical terms it can be characterised as the third significant event, after the October revolution and the victory over fascism. That is why the impact of the Chinese revolution was immense on the people fighting for national liberation and social progress. It provided a new impetus to the national liberation struggles around the world generally and particularly the socialist and the communist movements in the third world countries.

Question #2. Discuss the differences in the nature of the communism of China and the USSR. What were the early advantages the Chinese communism had over that of the USSR?

Approach

• Introduce with theme of the question that is highlight the difference in the nature of communism and how this has acted as an advantage for china to bring stability in its development and continuace of communist ideology.
• Explain the basis of ideological differences and its impact
• Factor in socio- economic and geopolitical factors.
• Explain or simply discuss the advantages for china.
• Conclude summing up main contours of your arguments.

Hints

stemming from variations in historical, geopolitical, and ideological contexts, The nature of communism in China and the USSR differed in several ways. The most prominent difference is seen in application of its ideology in socio-economic developments. 

Differences in the nature and Early Ideological Differences:

The Chinese communist party emerged as revolutionary force as they primarily focused on overthrowing of feudalism and Japanese advances, it found huge support among peasants. Further the Maoism emphasized the importance of rural peasants as a revolutionary force and advocated for continuous revolution and mass mobilization. It focused on agrarian reform, rural development, and empowering the peasantry. 

The Soviet Union followed a more orthodox interpretation of Marxism-Leninism under the leadership of Lenin and later Joseph Stalin. Soviet communism emphasized industrial development, urban workers' revolution, and the centralized control of the economy through Five-Year Plans.

The early Communist Party in China adhered closely to Russian political philosophy. However, Mao Zedong disagreed with the concept of a workers’ revolution in China. Reasoning that the majority of theChinese population were peasants, Mao refocused the goal of Chinese communism toward the concept of a peasant revolution.

Despite this, the two nations still shared fairly similar values until the 1950s, when a major ideological rift developed. During this time, the Soviet Union advocated coexistence with capitalism. China, meanwhile, remained determined to pursue a policy of aggression, labeling the United States in particular as an imperialist enemy and declaring an intent to assist with revolutionary struggles of people oppressed by imperialism.

Cultural:

The other great difference is cultural. The Soviets lauded the cultural greats of the Russian past, while Mao’s tendency was to displace the historical culture. He even outlawed traditional medicine for a while.

Political:

Mao’s programme envisages co-operation and coalition with progressive bourgeois parties. Thus communist regime in China doesn’t profess to be dictatorship of proletariat in true sense. Chinese Communists didn’t seek to liquidate the bourgeois and private Capitalist, though they placed increasing restrictions on private business, but tolerated private capital.

So Chinese Communism is modification of orthodox Marxism. Economic and other Differences:

In the Soviet system, land was organized by collectivization. Stalin replaced the old system on private peasant farming with “collective farms” and “state farms”, where peasants would work for the greater good of the proletariat under strict party supervision. In China on the other had, they had a social obligation where there was a goal set by the government, and any surplus product that the farmers made, they were allowed to use as they wanted. This system gives farmers incentive to produce more than the set goal for their own personal gain.

In Russia there was forced urbanization when Stalin made people move to the cities. In China on the other hand, Mao’s support was rural based, and people were kept out of the cities.

visiualising the World through communist Lens:  The CPSU (Communist Party of Soviet Union) wanted to export world revolution and turn the world communist. The CCP (Communist Party of China) didn’t care what other countries do. This means that the CCP didn’t spend nearly as much money on the military as the CPSU did, and didn’t maintain large and expensive armies in other countries.

Ideological dependency: The CPSU was essential to the identity of the Soviet Union. Without the CPSU, the Soviet Union could not exist, because without the CPSU, people became Russians and Ukaranians and Tajiks, and not Soviets. China has a national identity that is independent of the Party, so it’s possible to imagine a non-communist or even anti-communist China. Conversely, because China can exist without the CCP, it’s possible for the CCP to redefine itself radically without losing power. This makes a big difference because China can create a liberal free-speech special administrative region (Hong Kong). The Soviet

Union couldn’t create anything like HK. The Constitution of the PRC states that secession is prohibited, whereas the Constitution of the Soviet Union gave republics a right to secede. This was reflected in the structure of the parties. The CCP is a highly centralized party, where as the CPSU was theoretically a federation of parties with the Republic parties being nominally independent.

Adaptation:

One of the impact of differences between Soviet and Chinese Communism is that Chinese Communism lasted but Soviet Communism did not. After Mao’s death, China restructured its government and changing its economic policy to favor a market economy open to foreign trade instead of one that was centrally managed.

During the 1980s, the Soviet government remained unwilling to make reforms it viewed as capitalistic, and the resulting economic decline led to the Soviet downfall.

At the same time, China shifted to a system known as market socialism, which differed from the USSR in its reliance on a free market.