The PRC — Mao's China, 1949–1976
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Question
When was the People's Republic of China founded, and by whom?
Answer
1 October 1949, declared by Mao Zedong from Tiananmen Gate, after the CCP's victory in the civil war.
Question
What happened during land reform (1950–52)?
Answer
Peasants were mobilised in 'speak bitterness' meetings to accuse landlords, whose land was seized and redistributed; an estimated 1–2 million landlords were killed.
Question
What was the Campaign against Counter-Revolutionaries (1950–51)?
Answer
A mass terror campaign against spies, Guomindang loyalists, and wider 'class enemies', often driven by execution quotas set in advance by local officials.
Question
What rights did the 1950 Marriage Law give Chinese women?
Answer
The right to choose their own spouse, divorce, and own property; it banned arranged marriage, child betrothal, and buying/selling brides — though enforcement was weaker in rural areas.
Question
What was collectivisation (1953–56)?
Answer
Peasants' private land (recently granted in land reform) was pooled into agricultural cooperatives and then large collective farms, in theory to raise output.
Question
What was the Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956–57)?
Answer
Mao invited open criticism of the Communist Party from intellectuals and officials, encouraging honest feedback to 'let a hundred flowers bloom'.
Question
What was the Anti-Rightist Campaign (from 1957)?
Answer
A sudden crackdown on the very critics encouraged by Hundred Flowers; 400,000–550,000+ people were branded 'Rightists' and sent to labour camps or lost their jobs.
Question
Compare: Hundred Flowers Campaign vs Anti-Rightist Campaign.
Answer
Hundred Flowers (early 1957) invited open criticism of the Party; the Anti-Rightist Campaign (from mid-1957) punished that same criticism, silencing honest feedback for years.
Question
What was the Great Leap Forward (1958–62)?
Answer
Mao's campaign to rapidly industrialise China, merging collectives into giant People's Communes and pushing peasants into 'backyard furnace' steel production alongside farming.
Question
How many people died in the Great Famine of 1959–61?
Answer
Most historians estimate between 15 and 45 million deaths from starvation and related causes — one of the deadliest famines in history.
Question
What is the main historical debate about the cause of the Great Famine?
Answer
Whether it was mainly natural disaster and honest mistakes, or mainly man-made political failure — inflated harvest reports from a fear culture created by the Anti-Rightist Campaign, worsened by Mao purging critics like Peng Dehuai.
Question
What happened to Peng Dehuai at the 1959 Lushan Conference?
Answer
He criticised the Great Leap Forward's failures; Mao responded by purging him from power rather than reversing the policy.
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The People's Republic of China (1949–2020)
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