Communism? In the eyes of a democratic- crime of crimes, sins against mankind.

Although in the eyes of china communism was chinas last hope. so what is it? The
devil incarnate or a red surge to revive I once lost nation? “Communism is an
ideology that seeks to establish a future classless, stateless social organization based
upon common ownership of the means of production and the absence of private
property” so how is it that one person can take over every aspect of every individuals
lives? Ideas of communism were originated well back in ancient Greece with many
myths and fables strongly symbolising communism. Characters like Karl Marx and
Vladimir Lenin were very much against capitalism and sought different ways of
governing a nation and communism became a nearly adapted technique that sounded
all too good in theory but wasn’t so good in action. Stalinism and Maoism are
essentially communist although with personnal alterations of their own, Joseph Stalin
and Mao Zedong for Russia and china respectively.
Totalitarianism? Total control, to regulate every behavior both public and private. To
eliminate religion, political opposition, culture, individuals. With secret police, mass
surveillance, underground gangs, propaganda, regulated media, all control over what
comes in and what goes out. Turning a country into a prison. Under totalitarianism
there can be no growth, there can be no hope.
Mao Zedong (Tse-Tong) December 1893 was born into a moderately poor family in
the Shaoshan village, Hunan in china’s east. Although the majority of Chinese
family’s were very much like Mao’s if not worse. Attending a school common to the
teachings of Confucian, Mao’s education was very valuable to him and later he seeks
to broaden his knowledge. Mao’s main interest at this young age were novels clearly
outline the struggle against power in the form of Chinese heroes and bandits in feudal
with wit bureaucracy and corruption. And it was this very passion that led Mao to a
far greater horizon then what even he could perceive.
Mao had his first taste of military service in 1911 when he enlisted in the
revolutionary in Hunan. His appetite still not satisfied by the war, Mao realized that to
expand the mind and cherish the body serves a far greater priority than fighting an old
mans quarrel. To satisfy this as sush he returned to school to further his education.
And it was here at the First Provincial Normal School of Hunan under the study of
Yang Changji that Mao discovered the ideals of communism and the prosperity of a
communist china.
There, of course, was only one problem, china was controlled by everyone and
anyone, it did not stand under one rule nor would the majority of the nation fall under
one rule, china was impossible to govern. Once the final dynasty of the Manchu had
diminished, a nationalist china was set up by a wealthy and wise doctor, Sun Yat Sen,
who was the later elected as president of nationalist china, unfortunatley for him he
was later replaced by a more worthy candidate, Yuan, who almost became a dictator
over china. Apart from the republic the rest of the nation was ruled by ruthless
warlords and scattered parts under the order of communism. Together the communists
and the capitalists both attacked the warlord tribes before once again turning on each
other. After the death of Sun yat sen, Chaing Kai-Shek was free to take control over
the nationalists. During this world war II was spreading its quarrels and soon enough
struck china, with japan invading chinas east taking control of Manchuria forcing a lot
of the east side under Japanese control. It was easy for japan seeing as the nationalist
army was too busy fighting not only the remaining warlords but the red communist
army as well.
The Kuomintang wanted nothing more than to be rid of the communist, as did the
United States. In 1934 the communist army had established base in the province f
Jiangxi. With help from American weapons and tactics that nationalists managed to
completely surround the province and setting up a dense perimeter in order to starve
out the red army. The first attacks on the parameter were in june when a small force
broke through the parameter in june followed by another force in august, at this stage
it was clear that the Kuomingtang were far superior to the Communists and these
attacks were not only surprising but shocking seeing as the communists actually broke
free. Although no matter how significant these attacks were they were only diversions
so that the main force with more important leaders could escape the threshold of the
Nationalists. The red army was forced into exile and so the communists made for the
great snow mountains in chinas west. And so began the Long March.
With the nationalists at their heels and the blizzard in their faces, the communist red
army were subjected to huge casualties and moral crushing fatigue. The Communist
Army was exhausted after breaking through three strong defensive lines of the
nationalist force, the Red Army lost more than 5,000 troops and there were five more
Nationalist strong defensive lines ahead. The Communists knew that action must be
taken and quickly so in january 1935 a meeting was held in Zunyi at the the province
of guizhou to decide the fate of communism and its futre leadership. After three days
the council had finished all that it set out to do and Mao was elected as one of three
military affairs officers, the other two members were Zhou Enlai and Wang Jiaxiang,
although both these two had little experience with military affairs in comparison with
Mao, so Mao effectively became leader of the Red Army.
Mao had been marching for several months since leaving Jaingxi and was down to
only 25,000 men. The Red Army resumed its march north, they found the direct route
to Sichuan blocked by Chiang's forces. Mao now aimed to travel north to join Zhang
Guotao's Fourth Front Army. However, Chiang easily determined what Mao had
planned and moved to stop him. A brilliant series of tactical maneuvers in Guizhou
enabled Mao to break out to the north and cross the Yangtze on May 8. A decision was
made to head for the Shaanxi Province although this decision was not favored, many
of which wanted to set up close to the soviet border, however the main decision was
in Mao’s hands no matter the resistance. The red army marched over mountains across
rivers past bridges all through hostile warlord provinces that not only harassed them
but were just as determined to stop the communists as the Kuomintang. In july the
troops under Mao united with the army from the Fourth Front, which was coming
from Henan. After some dissension over where to go the two armies quarreled and
went their separate ways. Mao’s troops then traversed several swamps and suffered
from several ambushes from the Tibetans and the Hui and in October the army finally
reached Shannxi.
Although I question was it really worth it, only 8,000 troops under Mao’s control, the
First Front Red Army, made it to Shaanxi, less than 7,000 of these were from the
original 100,000 soldiers who had set out from Jaingxi.
Japanese forces were still raising concern for all Chinese people and both the
Communists and Nationalists attacked the Japanese, although even if both armies
united to fight they would not be able to over throw the Japanese forces. And it wasn’t
until the atomic bomb destroy Japan did they surrender from china. The Americans
made the Japanese surrender Manchuria over to the Nationalists and not the
Communists. The Communists later stormed Manchuria taking control, and slowly
the communist army swept over the nation forcing the nationalists to evacuate the
county to the small island off Chinas coast, known as Taiwan.
Now China was united under one banner, and with all the support of the peasants and
villagers Mao had come across on his journeys, the government take over was quick
and easy.
Russia had never been fond of the Chinese Communist movement in case of having
the US-allied forces draw their attention to soviet movements and influence. However
when the cold war heated up Stalin knew full well that an alliance with china would
prove to be very wise indeed. Along with this newly signed treaty soviet Russia aided
Mao in establishing a firm and growing economy to boost Chinas greatly needed
wealth. A five year plan was established and between 1953-57 china was building up
a heavy industry. A major shift between agriculture and industry was to be done so
that a more efficient production can be achieved. Historians say that official Chinese
statistics were very in accurate although china did experience a major boost in
industry despite it being far from the target growth.
The communists wanted to strengthen their control in china and so major rallies were
organized to encourage people to bring forth their ‘enemies’ and ‘reactionaries’. These
were mostly collaborators with the Japanese or GMD soldiers. At these ‘People’s
Courts’ over 1 million people were condemned to death. Mao also organized mass
campaigns to rid the government of all corruption. By 1956 Mao decided that enough
of the reforms had been carried out that his people could now have a greater freedom
so he announced that the government would allow “a hundred flowers to bloom and a
hundred schools of thought to contend”. Although after the five year plan Mao had
lost his popularity and people began to criticise him. These critics were sent off
‘thought reform’ camps to be sentenced to death.
With this unsuccessful campaign of the hundred flowers, mao saw it only fit to have a
second five year plan with many of the holes that he saw in the first one to be fixed. In
particular he wanted to spend a lot more mone y on agriculture and the production of
its machinery. As well as developing china’s light industries. Mao had hoped that all
the work that could be achieved in 20 years could be done in 5. and so began the great
leap forward. To make this plan effective Mao thought that by dividing china into
‘communes’ then the villages can be totally self sufficient and beneficial for the
government. So communes of about 5000 families were established and by the end of
’58 the vast majority of people, 700 million, were organized into 26000 communes.
Much emphasis was in the production of steel in what was called the ‘backyard steel
campaign’ that involved the set up of 600,000 furnaces in towns and villages. Most
were so small that they could only produce a few tones of steel.
Although china’s steel production increased by 50 percent much of this steel was of a
very poor quality. And many of the communes had set up dams and irrigation of very
basic technology leading to the neglect of agriculture as more time was spent on
building projects than on growing food and fertalising. 70 percent of the spending
went towards industry and only 7 percent to agriculture. With bad weather in 1959
there was a major shortage in food production and much starvation in many areas as a
results food rationing had to be introduced. The weather was even worse in 1960 and
starvation lasted till 1961 estimations of 20 million Chinese died from starvation or
disease related to malnutrition. The Three Bitter Years. As result Mao and his supports
had much fo their power stripped from them. Mao was allowed to remain as chairman
of the party. Struggle for power in the CCP was a major issue and Mao being as
influencial as he always is still managed to hold a dominant position with help from
Lin Biao.
Mao with limited power but with great support launched the Great Proletarian
Cultural Revolution in 1966. School and Universtiy Students formed themselves into
red guard units and put up large posters criticizing the capitalist movement in the
CCP. Schools were closed down for six months while the curriculum was was drawn
up with more emphasis on communist education and values. This long weekend
allowed students to focus on Mao’s political campaign. Huge demonstrations took
place and in many cases violence broke out against those who criticized. Mao granted
these students free travel so that they could spread their demonstrations all across
china and by 1969 750 million copies of ‘the little red book’ were printed and
distributed. The Red Guard conducted the Four Olds campaign against old ideas, old
culture, old customs and old habits. The Red Guards became rampant and out of
control, breaking into factories, offices, homes and even local headquarters of the
Communist party. Books, art and even technology was considered ‘bourgeois’ and
was destroyed. Thousands of innocent people was accused of being ‘capitalist
roaders’ and were often beaten, sent to prison and even murdered.
With much of the nation in anarchy and with the current government being critisied
by the Red Guard it was easy for Mao to expel members. Now the nation need
someone who could deal with this disorder and so Mao was given more power than he
expected.
The currant prime minister Zhou Enlai died in 1976 and was then replaced by Hua
Kuofeng. an obscure communist. Then in September of that year Mao Zedong died
and although he thought his party was secure in government after he had died they
were outmaneuvered by Hua who quickly made him self more powerful than Mao
could ever have been with total control over the Party, the Government and the Army.
Maoism had various aspects of Totalitarianism like many political partys but not
enough to class him as anything other than a socialist communist.