History 3405 lecture 2
1. Establishing sovereignty
A. CKS and KMT retreated to Taiwan during first half of 1949, where ROC continues down to today
1. Followed upon PLA’s civil war successes in
a. Manchuria sept-nov 1948
b. Battle of huaihai (central china around Xuzhou, Jiangsu)
(nov 1948-jan 1949 commanded by deng Xiaoping)
c. PLA eventually liberated the south, SW and west
d. CKS/KMT held onto small islands off Fujian, Pescadores and Taiwan
B. Oct 1, 1949 at Forbidden City Tiananmen “gate of heavenly peace”. MZD declared PRC with Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Mme Sun Yat-sen, Gao Gang and others.
1. Declaration of new nation showed Mao was not just a theoretician or
academician like Marx, but both a theoretician and an inspirational
revolutionary leader like Lenin
2. Famous statement that “the Chinese people have stood up!” after more
than a century of living on their knees in their own country probably came in
1950.
C. In 1949, 23 non-CCP, “petty Bourgeois” parties joined a constitutional convention called “chinese peoples political consultative conference” that still exists today
1. it provides CCP consultation with non-CCP elites (today there are 8 parties
+CCP)
a. Taiwan today has another 12 but during martial law from 1947-87
allowed only 3 including the KMT
2. PPCC included “revolutionary KMT” led then by Mme Sun Yat-sen, died.
1981
3. All non-CCP parties then and now operate under “guidance” of CCP
4. PPCC wrote 1954 Constitution and established framework of PRC (see
Dietrich, 64)
5. It created PRC as a unitary state, not federal one
a. Much like centralized Chinese precursors but also like Britain,
France, japan, N & S Korea, ROC on Taiwan
b. Federal states included Spain, Mexico, Germany, USA, old USSR, Canada,
Australia, etc.
D. As we read in Mao, “On New Democracy” and “On People’s Democratic Dictatorship”, CCP is the (vanguard) party of proletariat
1. CCP joins with the peasantry, petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie
(but not pro-KMT bureaucratic/ monopoly bourgeoisie) to form new nation
2. Objective was to create mature New Democracy as bridge to the
proletarian-socialist state anticipated in “On New Democracy” and “On
People’s Democratic Dictatorship”
3. Both PRC flag and the national emblem (still) symbolize this new democracy with its multi class, multi party coalition.
E. December 1949, just two months after declaration of PRC, Mao visited Moscow
1. Mao’s first visit to a foreign country and the only foreign country he ever
visited (when you read Ji, “Premier and I Cheat Death”)
2. He negotiated for soviet military and industrial assistance, which...
