On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was formally
established, with its national capital at Beijing. "The Chinese
people have stood up!" declared Mao as he announced the creation
of a "people's democratic dictatorship." The people were defined
as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants,
the petite bourgeoisie, and the national-capitalists. The four
classes were to be led by the CCP, as the vanguard of the working
class. At that time the CCP claimed a membership of 4.5 million,
of which members of peasant origin accounted for nearly 90
percent. The party was under Mao's chairmanship, and the
government was headed by Zhou Enlai(1898-1976) as premier of the
State Administrative Council (the predecessor of the State
Council).
The Soviet Union recognized the People's Republic on October 2,
1949. Earlier in the year, Mao had proclaimed his policy of
"leaning to one side" as a commitment to the socialist bloc. In
February 1950, after months of hard bargaining, China and the
Soviet Union signed the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance, and
Mutual Assistance, valid until 1980. The pact also was intended
to counter Japan or any power's joining Japan for the purpose of
aggression.
For the first time in decades a Chinese government was met with
peace, instead of massive military opposition, within its
territory. The new leadership was highly disciplined and, having
a decade of wartime administrative experience to draw on, was
able to embark on a program of national integration and reform.
In the first year of Communist administration, moderate social
and economic policies were implemented with skill and
effectiveness. The leadership realized that the overwhelming and
multitudinous task of economic reconstruction and achievement of
political and social stability required the goodwill and
cooperation of all classes of people. Results were impressive by
any standard, and popular support was widespread.
By 1950 international recognition of the Communist government
had increased considerably, but it was slowed by China's
involvement in the Korean War. In October 1950, sensing a threat
to the industrial heartland in northeast China from the advancing
United Nations (UN) forces in the Democratic People's Republic of
Korea (North Korea), units of the PLA--calling themselves the
Chinese People's Volunteers--crossed the YaluJiang River into
North Korea in response to a North Korean request for aid. Almost
simultaneously the PLA forces also marched into Xizang to
reassert Chinese sovereignty over a region that had been in
effect independent of Chinese rule since the fall of the Qing
dynasty in 1911. In 1951 the UN declared China to be an aggressor
in Korea and sanctioned a global embargo on the shipment of arms
and war materiel to China. This step foreclosed for the time
being any possibility that the People's Republic might replace
Nationalist China (on Taiwan) as a member of the UN and as a
veto-holding member of the UN Security Council.
After China entered the Korean War, the initial moderation in
Chinese domestic policies gave way to a massive campaign against
the "enemies of the state," actual and potential. These enemies
consisted of "war criminals, traitors, bureaucratic capitalists,
and counterrevolutionaries." The campaign was combined with
party-sponsored trials attended by huge numbers of people. The
major targets in this drive were foreigners and Christian
missionaries who were branded as United States agents at these
mass trials. The 1951-52 drive against political enemies was
accompanied by land reform, which had actually begun under the
Agrarian Reform Law of June 28, 1950. The redistribution of land
was accelerated, and a class struggle
landlords and wealthy peasants was launched. An ideological
reform campaign requiring self-criticisms and public confessions
by university faculty members, scientists, and other professional
workers was given wide publicity. Artists and writers were soon
the objects of similar treatment for failing to heed Mao's dictum
that culture and literature must reflect the class interest of
the working people, led by the CCP. These campaigns were
accompanied in 1951 and 1952 by the san fan or "three anti") and wu
fan "five anti" movements.
The former was directed ostensibly
against the evils of "corruption, waste, and bureaucratism"; its
real aim was to eliminate incompetent and politically unreliable
public officials and to bring about an efficient, disciplined,
and responsive bureaucratic system. The wu fan movement aimed at
eliminating recalcitrant and corrupt businessmen and
industrialists, who were in effect the targets of the CCP's
condemnation of "tax evasion, bribery, cheating in government
contracts, thefts of economic intelligence, and stealing of state
assets." In the course of this campaign the party claimed to have
uncovered a well-organized attempt by businessmen and
industrialists to corrupt party and government officials. This
charge was enlarged into an assault on the bourgeoisie as a
whole. The number of people affected by the various punitive or
reform campaigns was estimated in the millions.
The period of officially designated "transition to socialism"
corresponded to China's First Five-Year Plan (1953-57). The
period was characterized by efforts to achieve industrialization,
collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization.
The First Five-Year Plan stressed the development of heavy
industry on the Soviet model. Soviet economic and technical
assistance was expected to play a significant part in the
implementation of the plan, and technical agreements were signed
with the Soviets in 1953 and 1954. For the purpose of economic
planning, the first modern census was taken in 1953; the
population of mainland China was shown to be 583 million, a
figure far greater than had been anticipated.
Among China's most pressing needs in the early 1950s were food
for its burgeoning population, domestic capital for investment,
and purchase of Soviet-supplied technology, capital equipment,
and military hardware. To satisfy these needs, the government
began to collectivize agriculture. Despite internal disagreement
as to the speed of collectivization, which at least for the time
being was resolved in Mao's favor, preliminary collectivization
was 90 percent completed by the end of 1956. In addition, the
government nationalized banking, industry, and trade. Private
enterprise in mainland China was virtually abolished.
Major political developments included the centralization of
party and government administration. Elections were held in 1953
for delegates to the First National People's Congress, China's
national legislature, which met in 1954. The congress promulgated
the state constitution of 1954 and formally elected Mao chairman
(or president) of the People's Republic; it elected Liu Shaoqi( 1898-1969) chairman of
the Standing Committee of the National
People's Congress; and named Zhou Enlai premier of the new State
Council.
In the midst of these major governmental changes, and helping to
precipitate them, was a power struggle within the CCP leading to
the 1954 purge of Political Bureau member Gao Gang
and Party Organization Department head Rao Shushi, who were accused of
illicitly trying to seize control of the party.
The process of national integration also was characterized by
improvements in party organization under the administrative
direction of the secretary general of the party Deng Xiaoping
who served concurrently as vice premier of the State Council).
There was a marked emphasis on recruiting intellectuals, who by
1956 constituted nearly 12 percent of the party's 10.8 million
members. Peasant membership had decreased to 69 percent, while
there was an increasing number of "experts" , who
were needed for the party and governmental infrastructures, in
the party ranks.
As part of the effort to encourage the participation of
intellectuals in the new regime, in mid-1956 there began an
official effort to liberalize the political climate.
Cultural and intellectual figures
were encouraged to speak their minds on the state of CCP rule and
programs. Mao personally took the lead in the movement, which was
launched under the classical slogan "Let a hundred flowers bloom,
let the hundred schools of thought conten. At first the party's
repeated invitation to air constructive views freely and openly
was met with caution. By mid-1957, however, the movement
unexpectedly mounted, bringing denunciation and criticism against
the party in general and the excesses of its cadres in
particular. Startled and embarrassed, leaders turned on the
critics as "bourgeois rightists"
and launched the Anti-Rightist
Campaign. The Hundred Flowers Campaign , sometimes
called the Double Hundred Campaign, apparently had a sobering
effect on the CCP leadership.
Compiled by Ying Xiu Chang
