Preceden

UNIT 4. The Mao's years.

Main

Japanese invasion

1937 - 1945

Chinese Civil War

1945 - 1949

Chiang Kai-shek controlled the major urban areas in China, while Mao Zedong and the CCP dominated the northeast of China (Manchuria), where a guerrilla resistance existed (thanks to which they will win the war)

Japanese surrender

1945

This led to the struggle for power between the Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party, which during this war were joined together in a bitter and uneasy alliance (more marked by suspicious and betrayal than cooperation)

Renminbi (RMB), People's Currency

May, 1949

Creation of the People's Republic of China by Mao Zedong and the CCP

October 1, 1949

PRC defined as a "democratic dictatorship".
On the other hand, Chiang Kai-shek established in Taiwan, the island will remain nationalist.

Agrarian Reform Law

1950

Redistribution of land from landlords to peasants. It was a violent process in which landlords were denounced, beaten, and sometimes killed.

Marriage Law

1950

It gave men and women equal rights to enter into marriage.
It banned arranged marriages.
And it allowed either partner to ask for divorce.

Urban Economic Reform Law

1950

Until 1952.
It carried more problems to PRC leaders, because production had almost stopped, and drugs and prostitution were widespread.

First Five-Year Plan

1953 - 1957

Using the Soviet Union as a model.
Industrial output boost between 1953 and 1957.

The Hundred Flowers Campaign

1956

A campaign of "criticism and self-criticism" to keep the revolution alive.
The CCP encouraged its citizens to openly express their opinions about the communist regime. After this brief period of liberization, Mao changed course...

Anti Rightist Campaign

1957

against those who were critical of the regime and its ideology.
More than half of China's intellectuals lost their jobs, and were sent to jail or to the countryside for re-education.

The Great Leap Forward

1958 - 1961

Economic and social campaign that aimed to transform the country from an agrarian economy into a communist society through rapid industrialization and collectivization (communes).
Private farming was prohibited, and those engaged to it were labelled as counter revolutionaries and persecuted.
This campaign caused the Great Chinese Famine (because forecasts of grain were exagerated, so the farming families kept little)

Little Red Book

1963

Lin Biao ordered everyone in the armed forces to read it.

Schools and Universities shut down

1966

The Cultural Revolution

1966 - 1977

Mao wanted to re-establish his authority, to revitalize the youth, and to combat old Customs, old Culture, old Habits, and old Thinking (the "Four Olds")

Red Guards violence

August 1966

Ten appearences on Tiananmen Squeare of Mao and Lin Biao.

August, 1966

to address the Red Guards and encourage them to undo China's "Four Olds"

Massive earthquake shook Hebei Province

July 28, 1976

Many saw the disaster as a signal that Mao had lost the Mandate of Heaven

Mao Zedong dies

September 9, 1976

The "Gang of Four" was arrested so END OF THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

October 1976