Government and Politics in China

Kaydee Mueller

Government and Politics in China

Professor Gaenslen

November 20, 2008

The Importance of Mao

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was brought into fruition on the back of Communist Chairman Mao Zedong, and it can easily be argued that without his charisma, leadership and dedication the Communist Party would not have survived the tumultuous Chinese Revolution. On the other hand, Mao is often criticized for being overzealous, paranoid and by the time of his death in 1976, even his most ardent supporters had become disillusioned with the Chairman. After his death, the Communist Party released the 70/30 formula which was a public statement suggesting that the Chinese people view Mao’s as being right 70% of the time, but wrong 30% of the time. This formula was developed by the Communist Party in hopes of reconnecting with the disenfranchised and isolated portions of the population who had fallen out of favor during one or many, of Mao’s Campaigns. Intellectuals, the elderly, the youth, the wealthy, the religious, and even loyal members of the Communist Party were often rehabilitated through public humiliation, violent beatings, or were sent down to rural areas of China to do back-breaking labor and to learn from the local peasants. By the 1980s many people throughout China were unhappy with the state of the country and the government, and by suggesting that Mao was right 70% of the time, the Party was able to remain on the Maoist-Communist path, but also admit that the government, even Mao, occasionally makes mistakes. As time moves on, many continue to evaluate Mao’s impact on the ChineseCommunist Party and China as a whole, from both within the CCP and within intellectual circles and opinions vary drastically.

On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong announced the People’s Republic of China and became the first official Chairman of the ChineseCommunistState. He was essentially in control of the ChineseState, the CCP and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). After organizing his official government Mao instituted the Five Year Plan, which was the first of many campaigns to jump start the Chinese economy, implement various social reforms, and to industrialize the nation. Initially a great success, the Five Year Plan created a trend of launching campaigns to change assorted aspects of Chinese society. After the success of the Five Year Plan, Mao and his supporters decided to ask for criticism and advice from the intellectual class, which had previously been attacked as rightist by the Communist Party. The campaign, known as the Hundred Flower Campaign, experienced a brief “flowering” of intellectual critiquing of the party, but quickly ended when Mao and his supporters decided that the criticism was unacceptable.Within a year of it’s launch the campaign had negatively impacted over half a million lives through exile, hard labor, imprisonment or execution and Mao and the Communist Party lost the trust of the Chinese people. With the negative outcome of the Hundred Flower Campaign, many began to question the Party’s original intent, and wondered if the campaign was actually an under-handed method for the Party to weed out people who could secretly be capitalist or rightist. Although many people lost their confidence in the party after this campaign, Mao and the CCP launched another campaign in 1958, coined the Great Leap Forward, and like the Five Year Plan, it was aimed at stimulating the Chinese economy, industrialization, and modernization. Instead of succeeding in these ambitious plans, the Party actually ended up causing one of the greatest famines in human history and a death toll of over 30 million people. Finally, in the later years of the 1960s Mao launched the most infamous campaign of his tenure—the Cultural Revolution. Through this campaign Mao called upon the youth of China to form the Red Guard, cleanse the Communist Party and revitalize the revolution in China. In two years, over three million government officials were purged and between four and five hundred thousand people were killed as a direct result of the Cultural Revolution. By the time the CCP regained control of the chaos which reigned during these years, many had become disillusioned with the Communist Party and its formidable leader. Yet because so many Chinese people and political leaders lived in constant fear of purging and punishment, they remained silent until the Chairman passed away in 1976.

It is ironic that Mao sought such drastic change for China, because though marked difference exists in his method of rule, he is following a pattern of rule developed by Chinese emperors over many centuries. For thousands of years China had been ruled by dynastic families and a Confucian system. Very important within the Confucian system was a strong belief in the Mandate of Heaven. When given to a ruler, the Mandate of Heaven grants the right to rule to one person, and it is passed along from father to son until a ruler loses the Mandate. Signs that a ruler has lost the Mandate of Heaven are natural disaster, internal discord and revolt, war and poverty. The Mandate of Heaven granted justification for revolting against the government if the government proved inadequate, but if the government won a revolution, the Mandate was restored. By the time the Communist Party was forming in 1921, the Qing Dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven and the Empress Dowager was forced to abdicate the throne. For 28 years, the Communist and the Nationalist would battle for control of the Chinese state and in 1949, the Communist Party would finally take power. Many people in China still remembered the Mandate and despite Communist attempts to stamp out all signs of old traditions believed to hold China’s development back, they believed that the Communist had earned the Mandate to rule. As Mao’s rule drew to a close many people began to wonder if the Communist Party had lost the Mandate after the failure of the Great Leap Forward and the blood shed of the Cultural Revolution. Though subsequent Party leaders managed to regain support lost in the 1960s and 1970s, the Communist Party has yet to break the powerful hold that tradition has on the beliefs of the Chinese people, and despite it’s best attempts the Communist Party has not been able to break China from it’s past. The historical study of Mao can and has been revised many times and measuring his connection to the traditions of Chinas past is only one of many aspects debated by historians. Many things, especiallythe implications of hissocial, economic and politicalcampaigns can still be felt throughout China today. Though much more open and democratic than any time under Mao, current Communist leaders of China still discourage protests against the government, limit religious affiliations and expression and control what the Chinese press is allowed to print. Many Chinese people still hope that China will develop more democratic society, and, though it took over two-thousand years to gain a voice, as history shows—what the Chinese people want, they do eventually get.

In political science Mao is a sort of anomaly—he created an entire political system and filled the highest political position for 30 years in a country with the largest human population on the planet. The question is simple, how did one man gain such a powerful position and create an environment of absolute power and control of a country as geographically, socially and economically diverse? In his 30 years as the leader of China, Mao continuously developed a multi-prong position of power that enabled him to amass more control over both China and the Communist Party. The method of cleansing the party through political campaigns, especially during the Cultural Revolution was one of many methods Mao used to instill fear in anyone who disagreed with or disobeyed the Communist Party and, more directly, the Chairman. Because Mao spent most of his young, developing years in the constant flux that marks a civil war, he developed a strong tendency to rely conflict to ensure that the Communist Revolution was always in transition. According to Mao, constant conflict would ensure that party members were acting properly according to party line and that those in power were behaving correctly. By creating a political system that valued different characteristics and opinions to his whim, Mao established control over party members, government officials and even ordinary city-dwellers. In more detail, Mao’s successful ruling rested on certain key aspects of the government that he controlled such as making important decisions about initiating campaigns, foreign policy, and keeping his subordinates in constant competition to ensure that no one would compete for the position of Chairman. By retaining this much power in his own hands, Mao ensured his position and created an environment that did not foster dissent. Finally and probably most important to his success as a ruler of China was Mao’s ability to create a cult of personality. By creating Maoism and making himself seem almost god-like to the average Chinese citizen, Mao made himself above reproach. Though he ruled the government and the party with fear, to the ordinary Chinese people who only saw Mao on the television or in newspaper pictures he developed a demigod like status and was unquestionable. By doing this, Mao was worshiped by the largest population in the world, and any politician who dared question or disagree with Mao was often ostracized by the masses. It was not until the end of the Cultural Revolution and just a few years before his death that many Chinese people would realize that Mao was human, bound to make mistakes and far from a god-like ruler. But in the end, Mao was a brilliant political leader who amassed more power and popularity that most of his contemporaries and brought a strong, organized government to a country that had suffered over a century of conflict and war. Though Mao would have a better reputation had he given up power earlier in his life, it can not be argued that he was a politician and a rule like no other, and though he bears semblance to figures throughout history, Mao was truly a genius of Chinese politics.

Evaluating Mao from the perspective of a political scientist or a historian is a very difficult process, but the beauty of understanding Mao, his ability and gain and maintain the ultimate position of power and his lingering legacy is that we must comprehend both the man and his environment, the history and the contemporary, to truly understand him. China is one of the world’s largest countries, has the longest continuous history, and has developed some of the most deeply rooted social traditions known to mankind. By understanding these traditions and incorporating many of them into his style of rule(whether consciously or subconsciously) Mao gained the trust and favor of the Chinese people. His promise to bring peace, stability and modernization to China, knowing that the country’s history was rife with military conflict won Mao popular support and displayed his understanding of the people’s hopes and needs. By creating Maoism and making himself seem almost god-like he demonstrates a keen understanding of both the past imperial system and the power of creating a cult of personality to gain legitimacy as an authoritarian leader. To fully understand how Mao managed to accomplish everything he did, we must understand the history and traditions of China, the contemporary environment in which he gained power, and the politics of being an authoritarian ruler in modern China. Mao was one of the brilliant figures of the twentieth century, and though he passed away over thirty years ago, it is clear that the impact of his reign is still felt throughout the world.