HW #6

1. Explain three tactics/methods Mao used to conquer China and secure power acording to this source.

1

Starvation: In the city of Changchun, which was held by Nationalists, the Communists imposed a blockade. This led to the deaths of at least 120,000 people from starvation, citizens who were not necessarily Nationalists themselves. The only people allowed to go free were those of value to the Reds, usually rich people, doctors, etc. Mao used the starvation and deprivation to entice Nationalists over to the Reds.

Psychological Warfare: The Reds used loudspeakers to assault starving Nationalist soldiers, taunting them with the fact that they had food -- promising things like pancakes when the Nationalist soldiers were literally reduced to eating their own shoe soles and leather belts.

Class Warfare: Reds used the landlords as scapegoats to incite peasants in their favor. The "land reform" was actually as the source puts it, "violence against the relatively better-off". There were rallies where peasants were forced to watch terrible acts of violence against the landlords. Where there was no violence, obstruction of the land reform movement was cited as the reason.

2. What are three major differences between the way this source portrays the Communists' treatment of the common people with other sources we've read?

This source differs from the other sources we have studied in its basic depiction of the Communists.

1. "China Since 1900" generally depicts the Communists as helpful to and admired by the peasants and commoners, leaving out details of mistreatment. For the most part, the book doesn't mention things such as the starvation of the city of Changchun and all the civilian casualties. According to the chapter "China Conquered", when a direct assault against Changchun failed Mao ordered his armies to starve it into surrender; he banned civilians from leaving the city, so attempts at evacuation were fruitless. Over 5 months, the civilian population had dropped to 170,000 from half a million; even the 'watered-down' estimates of the CCP put the deaths to 120,000 people. The intention of this was to force the defending troops to surrender, and it was a tactic used in multiple cities.

2. Exploitation of civilians is generally not recorded in "China in 1900"; the book claims that the Reds actually won civilians over by including them in the army, but "Mao" claims that civilians were forced. Accroding to the book, in Manchuria the Reds conscripted 1.6 million laborers. These people were used to do "frontline tasks" such as transporting ammunition and the wounded and dismantling fortifications. Women had to care for wounded, mend uniforms, make shoes and cook for troops and laborers. Households had to hand over a designated amount of food, which amounted to 225 million kg of grain just in the Huai-Hai Campaign.

3. The Red use of psychological warfare is not referenced in "China in 1900". Because nationalists were constanstly in short of food, they relied on unreliable methods of getting it, such as supplies brought by railway and airlifts. Nationalist Army members resorted to eating tree bark, killing each other for airlifted food, and eating their belts and shoe soles. To take advantage of this, the Reds used loudspeakers to entice the Nationalists, promising "pancakes" and other food.

3. Explain at least two practices of the Chinese Civil War you learned from this source.

1. Exploitation of peasants: Many peasants in addition to being drafted lost their houses, 'pulled down to provide fuel for cookies and materials for building bridges". I was under the impression that the Reds got the peoples' support through their policies and didn't exploit them.

2. Class Warfare as propaganda: The Reds essentially forced the peasants into "struggle against the landlords". There was organized violence against the relatively better-off, in which targets were made to stand facing crowds which were "psyched up to come forward and pour out their grievances against them...the crowds would then be led to shout slogans while brandishing fists and farm tools". If peasants weren't participating, they were considered reactionaries and would be punished. This also counts as terror as a method to control peasants.

4. The Communists fought a "total war." Cite two pieces of evidence from this passage that support that view.

1. Everyone was a target: The starvation of cities such as Changchun prove that the Communists were fighting a total war, because they didn't limit their targets to Nationalists alone. Civilians who could be uninvolved, nationalists, or even in support of the communists were starved because of their location, in an attempt by the Reds to subdue the Nationalists,

2. Economy/people re-geared towards war: The peasants' lives were changed drastically by the war, because the Communists brought them forcibly into the conflict: peasants in communist-run areas were conscripted as laborers for the army, crops went to the communists, and even houses were pulled down in order to provide for the needs of the communist army.

5. According to this source, what part of land reform really mattered to Mao?

According to this source, the real reason for land reform was to incite violence rather than to improve anybody's lot or redistribute land. The source claims that the appointment of Kang Sheng by Mao, "a man who was an expert not in agrarian reform, but in terror (and who knew nothing about land issues)" proves that Mao was not truly interested in creating land reform that was advantageous for the people.

6. Mao's main aim was to secure power, not to improve the lives of the peasants. To what extent do you agree with that claim?

Based on this source, I do agree with that claim to a great extent. Mao touted the Communist mantra of reform and doing things for the betterment of peoples' lives; however, peasants truly suffered just as much under Mao as they would under the Nationalists. Peasants were conscripted into the Red Army to do dangerous tasks; their supplies were taken to support the Reds, sometimes having their homes torn down for fuel and other needs; and peasants who didn't actively participate in "land reform" were killed just as if they were landowners. If Mao's true aim were to give the peasants better lives, then so many of them wouldn't have suffered in trying to attain that goal.