Caroline Nester

Topic 3: The Rise and Rule of Single­Party States

Meisner, Chapter 20 The Aftermath of the Cultural Revolution and the Close of the Maoist Era, 1969­1976

Major Theme: Origins and Nature of Authoritarian and Single­Party States Conditions That Produced Single­Party States

Emergence of Leaders: Aims, Ideology, Support

Totalitarianism: the Aim and the Extent to Which it was Achieved

Historiography

Major Theme: Establishment of Authoritarian and Single­Party States Methods: Force

Methods: Legal

Form of Government, (Left & Right Wing) Ideology

Nature, extent and Treatment of Opposition

Historiography

Major Theme: Domestic Policies and Impact Structure and ­ Deng was appointed a Vice Premier of the State Council under Zhou and, Organization of at the 10th Party Congress in 1973, was reelected to the Party’s Central Government and Committee and Politburo. In spring of 1974, he headed the Chinese Administration delegation to a special session of the UN where he announced the “socialist bloc” no longer existed so now China should be considered Third World. ­ In Jan. 1975, Deng was elevated to the Politburo’s Standing Committee and appointed chief of staff of the PLA. ­ Deng seemingly became Premier Zhou’s heir apparent ­ Due to a new state constitution approved by the Fourth Congress, the People’s Republic was no longer described as a “people’s democratic state” but was now “a socialist state of the dictatorship of the proletariat” ­ Now the total supremacy of the Party was law ­ The revolutionary committees were made permanent institutions, although they were more like administrative bodies than policy­makers. ­ The position of Chairman of the Republic was abolished. The ceremonial duties of China’s formal head of state now fell to Marshal Zhu De as Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. ­ After Zhou Enlai died in 1976, was the relatively obscure Minister of Public Security, Hua Guofeng.

Political Policies ­ Between 1966 and 1969 China focused on national isolation. ­ preoccupied with internal conflicts ­ recalled most Chinese ambassadors in 1967 ­ Liu Shaoqi disposed of for proposing to revive the Sino­ Soviet alliance to ward off the American threat in Vietnam, which would have delayed the Cultural Revolution ­ Lin Bao’s 1965 treatise “Long Live the Victory of People’s War” was a Maoist document that projected the Chinese revolutionary experience into a global vision of a revolutionary process in which the “revolutionary countryside” (Asia, Africa, and Latin America) would overthrow Europe and North America. ­ China would be the model for successful socialist revolutions elsewhere ­ Mao and Zhou felt the rapid restoration of the Party was the most essential task w/ a focus on correcting the anomalous political result of the Cultural Revolution, which made the army the dominant force of the political side of the nation. ­ Old “capitalist­roaders” were being returned to prominence in Beijing. ­ At the 9th Congress, Lin Biao proposed that the Cultural Revolution Group should continue to function with the hopes that it would serve to rival the Party Politburo and slow the process of rebuilding the Party. ­ Effort was unsuccessful and the Cultural Revolution Group was abolished in 1969. ­ Lin Biao and Mao had an open confrontation when the Central Committee of the Ninth Congress in 1970. ­ Lin and Chen proposed appointing a State Chairman (Mao did not want this to happen) ­ After this confrontation, there was no appointment of a Chairman and Lin Biao and Chen Boda were criticized for obstructed the process of Party rebuilding. ­ Zhou Enlai’s foreign policies were endorsed (peaceful coexistence) ­ US withdrew forces from Taiwan and recognized it as a Chinese matter. ­ The Party constitution was revised by the Tenth Congress in 1973 ­ deleted the paragraph naming Lin the successor ­ omitting some of the more grandiose praises of Mao ­ adding predictions that other cultural revolutions would take place ­ emphasized training revolutionary successors ­ By 1974, Zhou Enlai and the vet. bureaucrats held the better political hand ­ But in May 1974, Zhou fell mortally ill ­ Deng Xiaoping, as First Vice Premier (head of gov’t), had the State Council issue three policy documents in 1975. 1. rationalization of industry through the strengthening of managerial authority 2. the rapid development of modern science and tech. partially to be achieved by borrowing from abroad 3. the need to win intellectual support by revitalizing the system of higher education. ­ The Gang of Four were arrested in a military coup and accused of having conspired to seize state power among other charges.

Economic Policies

Social Policies ­ In the 1975 constitution, it was said that “the freedom of citizens to engage in scientific research, literary and artistic creation, and other cultural pursuits” were no longer allowed.

Religious Policies

Role of Education ­ The radical reforms of the Cultural Revolution continued in 1973.

Role of the Arts ­ In 1973, there was a loosening of restrictions on art and Western symphony orchestras, numerous books and movies that were previously banned came back to China. Role of Media, ­ In the summer of 1973, articles attacking Confucius began to appear in Propaganda popular magazines and newspapers. ­Crusade against Confucius linked with the campaign against Lin ­ Named the “Pi Lin, Pi Kong” movement ­ official press reported finding old Confucian scrolls hanging in Lin Biao’s home

Status of Women

Treatment of Religious Groups and Minorities

Historiography ­ “The struggles revolved around the issues the Cultural Revolution had raised­ and left unresolved­ and were inflamed by the political passions that the great upheaval continued to arouse… Chinese politics now reverted to factional strife among Communist leaders of the bureaucracy, entirely hidden from public view.” (Meisner) ­ There were two issues that dominated Chinese politics after the Cultural Revolution: ­ How to deal with the two hostile “superpowers” the US and the SU ­ What is the Party’s role after the Cultural Revolution ­ “An enormous measure of national egoism was reflected in the Maoist belief that the fate of the world revolution was dependent on the fate of the Chinese revolution.” ­ Zhou Enlai had more support from the military than Lin who was supposed to be Mao successor. ­ Lin was very opposed to the Gang of Four though he was cast to be allies with them. ­ “The Lushan Plenum also marked the downfall of Chen Boda, Mao’s longtime personal secretary.” ­ Chen excommunicated as “China’s Trotsky” ­ Mao felt the need to dispose of Lin Biao because Lin was Mao’s official heir apparent and China’s Minister of Defense. He also had popular prestige. ­ The conflict between Mao and Lin was hidden from the public view. ­ Mao started to remove political and military leaders sympathetic to Lin and ensured the loyalty of the PLA units by transferring troops under Lin’s direct command from Beijing to their original base in northern Manchuria to counter a Soviet threat. ­ In Sept. of 1971, Lin disappeared from the public scene. Explanation came ten months later that he had tried to assassinate Mao and when that failed had tried to escape to the SU but his plane crashed on the way. There is no way to know whether this story is true or not. ­ “It seems likely that it was Mao who took the political initiative, determined to eliminate Lin and his faction for reasons of both power and policy.” ­ Mao’s inspection tour in 1971 was intended to mobilize the support of local PLA commanders in the campaign against Lin. ­ Lin planned to kill Mao and perform a coup d’etat as stated in the “Outline of the 571 Project” ­ Plan never carried out. Lin fled instead­> death plane. ­ There was a large reestablishment of the Chinese Communist Party after the fall of Lin Biao ­ “As the Party was rebuilt, the political role of the revolutionary committees and the army declined.” ­ The Mao cult mentality “cooled” after 1971 and the emphasis was now on the supreme authority of the Party, which was led by a more Leninist­inclined Mao. ­ “The restoration of the system of total Party dominance, now fully laid down in theory as well as in fact, required an absurd rewriting of the history of the Cultural Revolution.” ­ “The most difficult task confronting the Congress was to explain the fall of Lin Biao” ­ Party members worried that they would be associated with Lin so they made him out to be an “ultra­rightist” ­ How the party dealt with Lin’s death “only served to deepen the political cynicism festering in Chinese society since the latter days of the Cultural Revolution.” ­ There was a large conflict of who was to lead China into the post­Cultural Revolution era. ­ The veteran officials and cadres who had been attacked and criticized during the Cultural Revolution looked to Premier Zhou Enlai ­ Cadres who had gained from the Cultural Revolution looked to The Gang of Four: Jiang Qing, Yao Wenyuan, Zhang Chunqiao, and Wang Hongwen. ­ The anti­Confucius campaign “soon became the vehicle for the intensification of the political conflict.” ­ Because both Mao and Zhou were dying, the question of political succession “assumed a new urgency and inflamed the factional strife that erupted into furious political and ideological battles over the final 18 months of the Maoist era.” ­ “Zhou Enlai had succeeded in establishing a stable post­Cultural Revolution political order and had arranged for a smooth transition to the era when neither he not Mao would be on hand” ­ The most prominent leftists were Zhang Chunqiao. Yao Wenyuan, Wang Hongwen, and Jiang Qing (later to be known as the “Gang of Four” ­ Though they were high up in politics and media portrayed that image, the real power lay with veteran officials of pre­Cultural Revolution. ­ The Gang of Four wished to restrict the “bourgeois right” meaning that there would be state policies favoring more egalitarian forms of remuneration and distribution. ­ reduce the three great differences: mental and manual labor, town and countryside, and worker and peasant. ­ Deng’s three policies of 1975 “were clearly the expansion, not the restriction, of ‘bourgeois right’” ­ The Gang of Four bore much of the responsibility for a rise in arbitrary arrests and secret police violence (1975­76) ­ In the autumn of 1975, a short­lived movement dealing with the popular historical novel Water Margin. ­ What broke the international stalemate was the death of Zhou Enlai which “ushered in the final chapter in the political history of the Maoist era.” (He died 1976) ­ The “April Fifth Movement” ­ On April 4, hundreds of thousands of citizens brought flowers and posters to Tiananmen to pay respects to Zhou. The municipal gov’t threw it all away that night causing an uproar the next day. Several thousand stayed all day and were attacked that night by the urban militia. ­ Symbolic of the spirit of popular resistance to a despotic state ­ incident blamed on Deng Xiaoping “With Mao’s death, the May Fourth generation of Communist revolutionaries had all but vanished.”