CCP Power Structure: Who Controlled China? (Edexcel A Level History: Route E: Communist states in the twentieth century): Revision Note

Summary

• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) created a new political system and power structure to replace the one created by Chiang and the Nationalists.

• This happened at the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which took place in September 1949

  • This established a temporary constitution known as the Common Programme, which set out China's new political system.

• The CPPCC helped consolidate the Communists' control over China

  • Communists were placed in key roles in the government, the bureaucracy and the People's Liberation Army (PLA)

• Mao became China's Head of State and significantly strengthened his personal power

  • This power was not absolute, however, and the decisions of the Chinese Government were officially reached through collective leadership

CCP, Government, Bureaucracy and the PLA: Roles and Relationships

The CCP

• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influenced every aspect of China's post-Civil War power structure

  • The CCP had over 5.8 million members by 1950, and nearly all key posts were held by CCP members

  • In some cases, the same CCP member held key positions in different parts of China's power structure, for example, Peng Dehaui was:

    • A member of the CCP

    • The commander-in-chief of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) in the Korean War (1950-53)

    • Defacto Commander of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) - 1954

    • Minister of Defence in the Government - 1954

• The 5.8 million CCP members helped introduce and enforce CCP policies at every level of society

  • The CCP controlled the education and legal systems

  • The CCP closely monitored the civil service and the PLA

  • The CCP controlled travel, marriage and housing permits

• The CCP broke China's workforce down into individual work units known as Danwei

  • Most urban workers had to belong to a Danwei

  • It was through the Danwei that each worker gained access to permits and rations

The Government

• The government was largely an extension of the CCP

  • It was formed during the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in September 1949, which was organised by the CCP

  • The CPPCC chose the ministers who formed the new Central People's Government

• The CPPCC also created a temporary constitution called the Common Programme

  • This formally established the CCP's position of power

  • It enabled the PLA to destroy any political opposition and declared Mao, as Chairman of the Central People's Government, to be Head of State

The Bureaucracy

• Bureaucrats were the people needed to apply and impose the changes and policies devised by the CCP

  • With so many new policies and with a centrally planned economy to establish, there was a need for huge numbers of new bureaucrats

  • The number of bureaucrats employed by the government increased from 720,000 in 1949 to 7.9 million in 1959

The People's Liberation Army (PLA)

• The military power of the PLA was key in enabling the CCP to establish itself in power

  • Any political opponents knew they could be suppressed by the PLA

• The PLA also helped to win support for the CCP by arresting criminal gangs who had terrorised people in the countryside

  • The soldiers of the PLA helped to rebuild China's infrastructure by repairing railways, roads, canals and bridges

Mao Zedong's dominance within the CCP government

• In 1949, Mao was officially appointed as China's Head of State as well as leader of the Chinese Communist Party

  • His role as a wartime leader who had led the Communists to victory meant he was held in very high regard by members of the CCP

  • His personal teachings and ideas became the basis of the new government's principles

• However, Mao did not single-handedly control the government

  • There were many disputes and disagreements over policy but these were behind closed doors and never leaked to the public

  • This helped create the impression that every decision made was Mao's alone

Democratic centralism: how the CCP concentrated political power

• Democratic centralism was the name given by the CCP to its new system of government

  • This involved villages and town councils electing their own representatives

    • These representatives would then travel to regional congresses to represent the views of their councils and the electorate

    • The regional representatives would then take the views to the government in Beijing

    • It was not possible, however, to elect a representative who was not a member of the CCP

  • The whole process was controlled by the CCP

    • This system allowed the CCP to claim it was a democratic process, as the representatives were elected

To what extent did Mao Zedong dominate the new Communist government from the outset?

• Some historians argue that Mao's grip on power was immediate and all-encompassing

• Others argue this has been overstated and that there were limits to Mao's power

Total Power

• Some argue that Mao learned from Stalin in the Soviet Union and began creating a totalitarian state with himself as its absolute ruler as soon as the Nationalists were defeated

Key historians

Behind the façade of New Democracy, a very harsh communist order was being put into place, modelled on the USSR. The only kind of socialism Mao knew was that laid out in The History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Short Course. He looked upon Stalin as his teacher and the Soviet Union, which inspired fear throughout the world, as a model to imitate. This is why he tried to implant Stalinism in his country, understanding full well that this sociopolitical system meant strictly centralized and hierarchical totalitarian control by the Communist Party, an unlimited, nationwide cult of the party leader, all-encompassing control of the political and intellectual life of the citizens by the security organs, nationalization of private property, strict centralized planning, priority development for heavy industry, and enormous expenditures on national defence.

Alexander V. Pantsov, Mao: The Real Story, 2012

Limits to Mao's Power

• Others argue that his power has been overstated

In many of the books and articles written about China in the 1950s and 1960s, there was a tendency to depict everything that happened as a result of Mao’s own initiatives. Such a ‘Mao-centric’ view of Chinese politics made things easier to understand. It was also excusable given the limited amount of reliable information that came out of China at the time. The CCP kept its internal disputes firmly behind closed doors and presented an image of unity to the outside world, with Mao as the Great Helmsman and the supreme power. Furthermore, perceptions of how Stalin managed a totalitarian system in the Soviet Union provided an established framework that some scholars assumed could simply be transferred to analyses of other communist party states. We are in many ways entirely correct to talk in terms of ‘Mao’s China’ (he was the single most important figure in the country’s evolution after 1949) and to take a Mao-centric approach (he was the central figure to whom all other political actors referred in defining their own approaches and strategies). But China never was a totally totalitarian state, and Mao was never an all-powerful figure who could single-handedly shape the entire country and its destiny. There were considerable limits to Mao’s power, and the way that he tried to overcome these limits was an important determinant of the evolution of Chinese politics while he was alive.

S.G. Breslin, Mao, 2014