PICTURES REFORMED TAKE 5 ANSWER

The last in the series was Lin Biao!

More facts:
Lin commanded the 115th division of the Red Army during the second United Front and achieved national fame for his victory along the Great Wall. He scored yet another victory ambushing the Japanese convoy, killing and imprisoning almost all of the thousand over men. He forged a strong Communist force that was able to defeat the GMD in Manchuria, a major factor that led to Chiang's fall later on. He was always Mao's man and suceeded in making himself the successor to Mao after the Cultural Revolution. Too impatient to wait for natural succession to Mao's leadership, he planned an assassination of Mao which failed, leading to his flight out of the coutry with his family. He was mysteriously killed in a plane crash, and the incident is now known and the Lin Biao affair.

-LORNA/CHIAN

The Three-Anti/Five-Anti Campaigns

Posters showing Jiang Qing and her political presence

The Mao era was a turbulent period in the history of the People’s Republic of China. In these first few decades of the People’s Republic, China’s leaders struggled to achieve political stability, to consolidate central power, to reduce corruption, to develop economic growth and to create a successful socialist society free from the inequalities of capitalism. The leaders of China, including the Chinese Communist Party’s patron, Mao Zedong, the first chairman of the CCP faced the incomparable challenge of creating social equality in a nation as populous as China characterized by centuries of social stratification.

The Three-anti/five-anti campaigns ( 三反五反 )was the result of Chairman Mao’s attempts to create a stable socialist society free of corruption and those who threatened the stability of the People’s Republic also called, the enemies of the state.

The three antis imposed were corruption, waste and bureaucracy.This campaign launched in Manchuria at the end of 1951 came to target members of the Communist Party and the bureaucracy who were guilty of any of the three antis and former Kuomintang members who were found to threaten the stability of the state.

The five anti campaign was launched in January 1952 and was targeted at the capitalist class and was part of the CCP’s effort to create social equality. The five antis imposed were: bribery, theft of state property, tax evasion, cheating on government contracts and stealing state economic information.

The five anti campaign became an all out war against capitalist elements and the bourgeoisie while the three anti campaign charged communist cadres who had become too close to the capitalist class as corrupt and enemies of the state. Both campaigns were designed and coordinated to eliminate capitalist elements in Chinese society. The campaigns also brought the revolutionary essence of the CCP home to key urban groups.

These massive campaigns to reform a nation like China had involved thousands of communist cadres who began spying on business affairs of fellow citizens and tens of thousands of propagandists and the mainstream media which was in complete support of government actions. Hundred thousands of employees’ complaints letters and thousands of corporate apologies characterized the campaigns.

Among those found guilty, the majority of them were humiliated, some were sent to labor camps due to the seriousness of their offences and some were even killed. Many were also fined by the state.

At the end of the campaign, Mao Zedong had consolidated his power base and political opposition and wealthy capitalists were nearly annihilated.

The impact of the campaign on contemporary Chinese society is subject to various interpretations. It has been pointed out that the campaign had no long term success as during the era of reconstruction (1976-1989) or the Deng era, capitalism was revived in China and China today has moved to be a free market capitalist economy. Also, China still suffers from high levels of corruption which questions the long term effectiveness of the campaigns to reduce corruption and bribery.

Yet, the importance of the campaign in the time is widely recognized. In the young socialist state that China was then, the Mao Zedong initiated campaign helped cement his reputation as a revolutionary leader and strengthened central authority, it also increased public faith in the revolutionary state (critical for a socialist society to have worker support in its measures), weakened the bureaucracy and helped the Chinese state to strengthen its hold of the economy – which has served to be a strong catalyst for China’s breathtaking progress in recent years. Thus, the campaign was indeed necessary at the time.


A poster saying "Destroy the old world! Make a new one!


Author: Aivan Raj


Credits:
Wiki Page for The Three-Anti/Five-Anti Campaigns
Source for Poster of Jiang Qing
Source of "Destroy" Poster
Britannica Encyclopedia

The Hundred Flowers Campaign

“Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land.” That was the slogan for the Hundred Flowers Campaign launched in the People’s Republic of China by Chairman Mao from 1956 to 1957. Initially launched as a small campaign led by Premier Zhou Enlai, it was aimed at intellectuals who had been previously denied of the right to speak up against the government and its policies, to allow for more balanced governance. However, the first campaign failed as very few intellectuals dared to speak out openly.

Taking interest and seeing the usefulness of it, Chairman Mao took over the campaign in 1956. He also saw it as a chance to promote socialism. When the campaign was publicly launched in late 1956, the government received little criticism. The intellectuals were afraid of the consequences that would arise if they were to voice up against the government. The government had demonstrated their power to change policies in the blink of an eye many times before. When Premier Zhou Enlai and Chairman Mao realized that the campaign was not getting as much response as they had intended, Mao announced that criticism of the government was preferred and started to pressurize the intellectuals for healthy criticism of the government. The intellectuals immediately responded and within months, criticism of the government came pouring in from various channels, in the form of letters, rallies, posters and many more. Chairman Mao saw the criticisms that were voiced as harmful and uncontrollable, and by July 1957, the campaign was ordered to a halt and the Anti-Rightist Movement was implemented instead.

Then arises the question, was the intent of the Hundred Flowers Campaign purely to allow the people to voice their opinions in order to have more balanced governance? Or was it an entrapment from the very beginning?

For over a decade, Chairman Mao and the CCP have been known for their socialist stand. They were not tolerant of intellectuals and have been suppressing them ever since they came into power. Believing in equality for all, they relied more on the support of the peasants and were more in favour of them. Only a few months before the campaign was implemented, Mao had condemned them as counter-revolutionaries. So why the sudden warmth towards the intellectuals, allowing them to speak up for once? The implementation of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, and the fact that it was closely followed by the Anti-Rightist Movement, aroused suspicions about the original intent of the Campaign.

There have also been viewpoints which speculate otherwise. Some say that he was too overconfident that after his many reforms, the intellectuals had come to realize the advantages of a socialist country, and when criticisms of the government became too much to handle, he had to stop the campaign at once. Mao despised the intellectuals, but at the same time they were valuable to China’s development and Mao was not ignorant of that. He would not have wanted to completely eradicate the intellectuals, not when they played an important role in shaping public opinion. Besides that, Mao had seen the fall of Stalin in Russia and realized that China would not stand such dictatorship and totalitarian regime. The Hundred Flowers Campaign was said to be a step to introduce some freedom of speech into China and to prevent the fall of Mao as Stalin had fallen.

Nevertheless, the abrupt halt of the Hundred Flowers Campaign, followed by the implementation of the Anti-Rightist Movement, where many of the intellectuals were persecuted, tortured and executed, discouraged the intellectuals from criticizing Mao and the CCP. Without contributions from the intellectuals, who might have had valuable opinions in the development of China, the development of China might have been slowed down. The failure of the Hundred Flowers Campaign also made the CCP realize the level of resentment the people had against the government. As a result, the government turned back to peasantry support and this remained so until the last decade or so. The failure of the campaign also saw the implementation of many CCP policies which might have played a part in hindering the development of China.


One of the many Hundred Flowers Campaign Posters


Author: Nur Hafizah

Credits:
Article on the Hundred Flowers Campaign by John M. Jackson
Wiki Page on The Hundred Flowers Campaign
General Information on The Hundred Flowers Campaign
Hundred Flowers Campaign Cartoon
Hundred Flowers Campaign Poster

The Anti-Rightist Movement

In 1957, National Day marchers brandished a sign that said "Struggle against the Rightists resolutely"


The Anti-Rightist Movement was established as a measure against the critics from The Hundred Flowers Campaign. Mao Zedong spearheaded the project and oppressed those whom had criticized his decisions for the Hundred Flowers Campaign. Mao could not accept the opinion of the other people and is dogma became conspicuous. The campaign was to rid China of the intellects as they were a threat to Mao’s vision. An estimated 550,000 people were labelled as “rightists” and were punished. Because of the movement and also because of Mao’s strong overthrowing presence, the intellectuals were shunned by the masses and purged from their villages or cities. Many also turned others in for questioning and some were held captive in labour camps for the majority of the movement’s years.

50 or so years have passed since the reform and many have come out trying to speak of the harsh life they had endured during those turbulent times but majority have been silenced. The China government as we see it is largely capitalistic but still retains their socialist view on censorship. It has also been recorded that Chinese officials have ordered recollections of the past to be destroyed and those that aren’t are not allowed into the public eye. Interviews of the survivors from the Anti-Rightist Movement can be conducted but could be severely censored when in China. Many books have also been published regarding the author’s person accounts of how they felt about the reform and what they were ordered to do if they were labelled as anti-rightist.


Zhang Bojun, the then transport minister, was denounced by his colleagues during the Anti-Rightist Movement.



Many intellectuals were "pidou", or criticised and struggled against.


In 1988, a retiree journalist Dai Huang published a biography which included the 21 years he spent in labour camps after he was labelled as a “rightist”. His crime was criticizing Mao’s cult of personality. However, it has subsequently been banned from all libraries in China and publishing authorities have banned him from reprinting the book again. A Beijing Court has also rejected Dai’s lawsuit against the publishers, where he challenged the ban of his book.
The CCP’s Central Propaganda Department convened a meeting in the beginning of 2007. They laid out the ground rules on China’s media and publications censorship issues. The Anti-Rightist campaign was brought up and was subsequently listed as taboo as it is a threat to the leaders of today. Below is a long excerpt containing the decisions made for the censorship of history in China:

-This year is the 50th anniversary of the anti-right movement. As events over the past few years demonstrate, many people bearing dissatisfaction with The Party have, through various guises, depicted and glamorized the "anti-right" period of history. Of these people, many are well-known scholars, but they have but one purpose: to smear the name of the Communist Party. For this reason, no memoirs or books regarding the "anti-right" period of history are allowed to be published, and any articles regarding "the anti-right movement" may not be printed.

-Based on practical experience from the past few years, some people in society are "breaking through" the Cultural Revolution, wholly disavowing Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought, attempting and then achieving their comprehensive goal of disavowing the Communist Party of China. For this reason, not only must this kind of article not be published, but vigilance must also be increased.

-Starting today, all historical problems must be in accordance with: "The Resolution on a Number of The Party's Historical Problems Since the Founding of the Country" (hereafter, "The Historical Resolution"), review treatises from the older generation of revolutionaries like Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun, as well as embodying the principles of "Looking Ahead in Solidarity". Criticism of historical events must adhere to "The Historical Resolution", and no so-called "first-hand material" or previously published articles, including those from People's Daily that violate The Historical Resolution may not be used as justification. Starting today, all books and articles that violate the spirit of The Historical Resolution may not be published.

-Starting today all specialized accounts published by current and past Central Government leaders must be in accordance with The Historical Resolution.
-Except for The Central Government Document Publishing House, all unauthorized specialized accounts and information regarding Central Government Leaders may not be quoted, compiled or distributed within the country.

-Articles regarding memoirs by current and former Central Government leaders, including those written by the authors in question, their families, secretaries and friends must be applied for by the person in question themselves through the Press and Publication Administration. Those not approved for publication must not be privately printed in any form, or transmitted via electronic means, and especially must not be published overseas.

Here are some links to which I find summarises the Anti-Rightist Campaign:

An abstract of A Narrow Escape from Death: My Journey as a 'Rightist' by Dai Huang.
A petition for the redress over the Anti-Rightist Campaign
China since the “Gang of Four”, Chapter 5 pg 174 onwards.
An opposition viewpoint which supports Mao's movement

The Anti-Rightist Movement I feel became a crutch for the Chinese politicians to be supported on when they feel threatened or insecure about their political abilities. Time and time again, they have disregarded intellectuals and consistently abuse their power to censor anything that they find defamatory or politically incorrect. Although China is becoming a global superpower which is on the borderline of overthrowing America economically, there is a vast space for improvement from the Chinese government. It is my personal opinion that I find China to be relentless in her pursuit for power and Chinese officials must be gentler in the pursuit of control. Otherwise, they certainly do not learn from past mistakes and I expect a great upheaval down the road and that may very well lead to another reform which could result in a chain reaction and this cycle might never stop.

Credits:
Anti-Rightist Movement Photos
Excerpts from Meeting of the CCP CPD

The Great Leap Forward

As a result of the successful economic reconstruction that had taken place in the early 1950s under the First Five Year Plan, Mao Zedong implemented the Great Leap Forward in 1958 which was abruptly stopped in 1961. The aim was the rapid development of the agricultural and industrial sector simultaneously surpassing England and the Soviet Union in 15 years. The effort was a failure, bringing severe famine that resulted in millions of death.

Two major systems were introduced, i.e. the formation of the people’s communes and the backyard furnaces. Details on the Great Leap Forward can be viewed from the videos below.





The Great Leap Forward showed the close-mindedness of Mao Zedong as a result of his ideological perspective. Mao had a deep distrust of intellectuals and faith in the power of the mass mobilization of the peasants. With no knowledge in metallurgy or the supervision of intellectuals, he carried out the backyard furnaces program. He implemented, on a nationwide scale, unproven agricultural innovations. Intellectual who knew the fallacies of such methods or at least doubted them, did not speak up most likely due to the Hundred Flowers Campaign. The Great Sparrow Campaign destroted harvest instead as they were attacked by locusts swarm which flourished without a natural predator. The Great Leap Forward showed how Mao implemented reforms without careful thought and research on the credibility of the methods or opinions from a variety of experts and intellectuals. Millions of people died for the grand experiment of Mao Zedong.

The Great Leap Forward is also one of the many examples of Mao Zedong’s dictatorship and its catastrophic effect. Those who doubted the success of the Great Leap Forward were persecuted, thus closing the door to a detailed and non-biased assessment on the reforms. This also discouraged those who knew of the real situation and wanted to report it. We can’t be certain for sure of the reason of Mao’s insistence on the success of the Great Leap Forward before the damage was evident. Perhaps he simply did not wish to lose his credibility and power or he wanted to convince others and maybe himself that his ideology and methods was correct, perhaps he was scared of being proven wrong.

The Great Leap Forward-Impact and Consequences

The Great Leap Forward was a total failure, even referred as the Great Leap Backward and affected China for many years. The reform ruined China’s economy and resulted in the deaths of millions of people(exact figure is unknown).

During the Great Leap Forward, China’s economy initially grew but then plummeted. Its iron production increase by 45% in 1958 but the plummeted in 1961 and only reached the 1958 level in 1964.

1959 to 1962 was known as “Three Bitter Years”. According to China Statistical Yearbook the population was about 658,590,000 in 1961, about 13,480,000 less than the population of 1959. Birth rate decreased from 2.922% (1958) to 2.086% (1960) and death rate increased from 1.198% (1958) to 2.543% (1960), while the average numbers for 1962-1965 are about 4% and 1%, respectively. However, it was suspected that China understated the death toll and accurate figures were hard to determine.

The failure of the GLF allowed several party members such as Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping to gain more popularity and power especially after their successful economic reforms. If Mao did launched the Cultural Revolution because he felt threatened by them, perhaps, it can be said that the GLF indirectly contributed to the implementation of the Cultural Revolution.

Nevertheless, a silver lining to this failure is perhaps that China learnt the hard way that intellectuals are needed and China need to rely more on education, acquire technical skills and implement capitalist economic system. Experience from the GLF may be one of the reasons of the openness of China’s current economy which is much more capitalist than communist.

Political scientist Meredith Jung-En Woo also argues: "Unquestionably the regime failed to respond in time to save the lives of millions of peasants, but when it did respond, it ultimately transformed the livelihoods of several hundred million peasants (modestly in the early 1960s, but permanently after Deng Xiaoping's reforms subsequent to 1978.)"



Author: Kristacia Kang

PICTURES REFORMED TAKE 5

Answer to the previous picture: Jiang Qing

That was pretty obvious.

More facts:
Jiang Qing was not her birth name, but the name supposedly given to her by Mao. She was orphaned as a child and her grandfather raised her as Li Yunhe. Her stage name was Lan Ping. She joined the CCAP in 1933 through the introduction of a lover who deserted her late, and was later on active in leftist circles. Jiang Qing also once served as Mao's personal secretary, being unable to participate in politics due to her shady background.

OK, here's the last in the series! :D I made him look like a vampire!




Who knows?! He might be the next Edward Cullen! :D

CLUE: He was killed in an alleged coup coup d'état attempt.

-LORNA/CHIAN

PICTURES REFORMED TAKE 4

The previous picture was of Zhou Enlai, also known as the people's premier..

More facts:
It was said that Zhou was so skilled in surviving in changing environments because of his past. As a child, he never had a stable life. He lived with different uncles and aunts while his parents were unable to take care or him. He had to learn how to please and prove his own worth to different people, and this left him with skills that helped him through his political and diplomatic careers. Zhou was also studying in France when he became a communist, and was the leader of the European Branch of the CCP. He, like Deng, escaped the GMD to join He CCP underground. Because of his socialising skills, Zhou was he main contact person between the GMD and CCP during the second United Front. He was appointed by Chiang Kaishek to a high position in the GMD government. His dipomatic talents and mild manners won sympathy and respect for himself and his Party from the Westerners. After the founding of the People's Republic, Zhou became premier and foreign minister for a short while. In domestic politics, Zhiu usually emerged on the winning side. The keys to his political survival lay in flexibility and pragmatism, as well as his lack of personal ambition for supreme leadership.





This was a poster from way back when showing a classic Chinese Beauty. Can you guess who she is?

CLUE: She rose to considerable political power during the Cultural Revolution.

-LORNA/CHIAN

PICTURES REFORMED TAKE 3

Our second leader in Pictures Reformed is none other than Deng Xiaoping! Hope you managed to guess it.

More facts:
Deng was born in Sichuan. While studying in France, he become exposed to Communism and became Zhou Enlai's trusted right-hand man in the European branch of the CCP. Deng participated in the GMD and CCP first United Front against the warlords as an organiser-infiltrator in the GMD, rioting after the split in 1927. He then joined Mao's forces in Jiangxi province. He was faithful and loyal but did not rise to prominence until World War II. However in the early 1970s, he became a purge victim of Mao, and spent his time deciding how to approach the chaos that Mao and his radical followers had caused, for a peaceful China. He was purged again after the Tiananmen Incident, and returned to power for the third time after the death of Mao and Zhou.

Here's another revolutionary leader than built China to what it is today! Can you guess who this is?




CLUE: He was widely recognised as a pariotic revolutionary and a skilled negotiator.


-LORNA/CHIAN

PICTURES REFORMED TAKE 2

Have you guessed the first leader yet? I'm sure it was easy!

It was none other than Chairman Mao!

More facts:
He was born in Hunan in the year 1893. by April 1918, Mao had already organised a student organisation named Xinmin Xuehui (New People's Study Society) to discuss social issues, and was further exposed to debates on liberalism, democratic reformism, utopian socialism and anarchism when he worked in Beijing University. He had many publications, including the weekly Xiangjiang Review, to spread revolutionary ideas like Marxism.


Here's the next leader for you to guess with a funky do!



CLUE: He was blamed for the majority of the Tiananmen Square Killings but propelled China into economic paradise with his reforms.


Credits:
Original Picture of Chairman Mao

-LORNA/CHIAN

Red Guards and the Little Red Book

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) was said to have partially resulted from Mao's insecurity after putting his successor Liu Shaoqi in power. Mao, having kept close tabs on the Russian USSR, was afraid of Liu repeating what Khrushchev did to Stalin after he assumed power, and abandon Mao. It was perceived by Lin Biao, who was then very close to Mao himself, that Mao did try to regain his control over the party, but failed. Hence at the party meeting on January 25, 1965, Mao decided that Liu should be taken down and the party had to be reconstructed from scratch.

Mao's main goal for the GPCR was to re-establish his authority and his policy for the party, by using the masses, especially the young. He wanted to purge China of the old customs, old habits, old culture, and old thinking. Criticisms were not tolerated. To carry out his plans, Mao, with the aid of Lin Biao, created the Red Army to help him win this fight. The Red Army mostly consisted of the 'next generation', young graduates and workers, who were eager to please Mao. They destroyed anything that had to do with the four 'olds' that Mao was so against.

Boy among Red Guards relaying speech from script prepared by others

Buddha classics burnt outside Johkang Temple

Tibetian women 'revolutionalised'

Eventually, Mao was successful in his plans and managed to bring his rivals down. The Maoists claimed that the GPCR was a great victory as it brought Mao and his ideology back, and these were considered important for China to progress. However, not everyone felt the same of the GPCR.

For others, it was considered a major catastrophe. During the GPCR, literally almost everyone was affected. The economy was disrupted while people had to be preoccupied with revolutionary activities, and even the railway was thrown into uproar. Meanwhile, countless artefacts were destroyed and lost in the chaos, buildings were torn down, and many were killed. The education system was stalled as schools and teachers were attacked by the Red Army. There was a period of illiteracy as education was targeted, exams were suspended, and anyone considered slightly better educated than the average were brought down. The young were forced to move to the countryside, abandoning standard education and learning from the propaganda of the Party instead.

Historians who have studied China commented that the artefacts destroyed during the GPCR were probably worth thousands of years of history. There were no official records, hence it is unclear exactly how much damage there was to the history of China during the purge of the GPCR.

During the Cultural Revolution, human rights and civilisation were trampled upon. People were maltreated, tortured even, and many innocents were killed. Others, who could not withstand the cruelty they were facing, lost all hope and commuted suicide. Some, like Deng Xiaoping's son, attempted suicide but failed, resulting in permanent injury. The true death toll was never reported as police and authorities all tried to cover up as much as they could.

Was the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution a campaign really for the greater good of China, or was it just an opportunity for Mao to rid himself of his opponents in the Party and secure his authority?

Regardless, in my opinion, the GPCR has stalled the development of China. What China is now could have been achieved much earlier had there been more considerations to the consequences of this revolution. A generation of young people was ‘lost’ too as they fought to survive in the streets instead of receiving proper schooling. They had no childhood to speak of, and had no more family. The GPCR had a negative impact on their lives. Was restoring ‘Mao’s thought’ really worth sacrificing this much? I believe Mao was too rash in his decision to start such a movement, and although making use of the youths was beneficial to his cause, it was not fair to manipulate them before they were fully matured and were able to consider their own futures. It might have been argued that it was the army of Red Guards from the GPCR who formed the ‘backbone of Chinese society’, there could have been a less violent method to introduce independent thinking to the younger generations.


Author: Chua Yi Chian

Credits:
Cultural Revolution - The End
Picture Source 1
Picture Source 2
Modern Nations of the World: China by Robert Green
The Rise of Modern China by Immanuel C. Y. Hsu
Modern China - An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Nationalism by Wang Ke-wen (GPCR Article by Craig Dietrich)
A Concise History of China by J. A. G. Roberts

Videos from the Anti-Rightist Movement.

These are a series of videos on YouTube broadcasting the opinions of the civilians who were mistreated by Mao Ze Dong's Anti-Rightist Movement Campaign.






-LORNA

GPCR Video

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) in 1966 was initiated by Mao Zedong with support from his wife, Jiang Qing, the Defence Minister Lin Biao, and other prominent party members. This group of people were dissatisfied with the revision of the Party constitution and the current policies under the leadership of Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and Mao established the Great Cultural Revolutionary Committee to compete against the government. Well-built students and workers came together in answer to Mao's calls, and soon competing coalitions were found everywhere.

In the video, the Red Guards are filmed attacking almost everything that had reference to the past, going as far as to destroy the temples in Tibet as an act of destroying religion. Old statues like the Virgin Mary and posters were taken down and replaced with Mao's own potraits. Violent confrontations were widespread, and everyone was making accusations - students were even attacking their schools, tearing down the signboards or putting up accusing posters of their principals or teachers.



-YI CHIAN