Cruelties all around. Neither the Nationalists nor the communists can claim in these pages to be great humanitarians. In fact Prof Pickowicz at UCSD claims that the land reform struggles against the land lords that often resulted in murder, orgy like feasts, and then murderous redemption, almost lead to the collapse of the CCP. Had the CCP not pulled back on the reins of the frustrated peasants in that time, then their support might have collapsed.
Bonus question. What do the stars stand for? Extra secret double bonus question. How do you reconcile the answer to the first question with your understanding of Marxism?
Terms in this chapter that I count;
Guomindang CCP Chiang Kai Shek
Mao Zedong George Marshall Lin Biao fabi
Deng Xiaoping PRC Liu Shaoqi Zhou Enlai
So ask yourself, what did Lin Biao do here? What about Deng Xiaoping and George Marshall? Keep focused on the terms and their relation to the chapter and you’ll be fine. Good luck!
According to Wikipedia the stars on the flag represent the unity of the Chinese people under the Communist Party of China against a red background which represents revolution. The big star represents the Communist party and the 4 smaller stars represent the different classes : the working class, the peasantry, the urban petit bourgeoisie, and the national bourgeoisie. It’s creator Zeng Liansong was inspired by the Chines proverb ” longing for the stars, longing for the moon”.
How does Marxism come into play? Mao is a variant of Marxism-Leninism. To be honest I read through Marxism and all its variations and I don’t really get it. In Maoism, it is believed that the peasantry, working class are lead revolutionaries who can turn capitalist societies into socialist ones. I guess that’s why those two classes are represented on the flag.
“Lin Bao built up the People’s Liberation Army as a conventional–not guerrilla–fighting force” (497). Lin was also able to regroup and isolate the key Nationalist-held cities by destroying the railway lines that connected them. After these attacks it became apparent of Chiang Kai Shek’s mistake. Ultimately, Chiang miscalculated in sending troops to Manchuria…” (497).
George Marshall went to China in order to be some type of mediator. Although it was quite clear we leaned towards the Nationalist party (since we funded their army and sent in our own troops), Marshall wanted to try and keep a balance between both parties in hopes to “prevent civil war from breaking out in China and guarantee at least some measure of democracy” (486). Unfortunately, in 1947, Marshall declared his mission a failure and left China.
The war between the communists and nationalists in China is more of a horror movie: sacrifices, large casualties, rebelling by the peasants to beat and steal from their evil land lord. This war lasted for a long time especially seeing it is only a civil war, there was a comparison to the past chinas battles and even a comparison to carpetbaggers.
After the communists won, chaing Kai shek was no longer president so along with his followers decided to move to the economically active area of Taiwan. The idea that the Chinese currency was officially called renminbi. Inflation was taking over the economy and all the peasants were suffering.
According to Spence china had an infestation of the bubonic plague but the communists did an extremely well job at protecting and quarantine.
The flag like Sophie explained above is the same way spence mentioned it on page 512 and the emphasis on the large star being the CCP, this was the national flag.
I kept imagining wallets overflowing with bills when reading about China’s inflation. I had no idea that China had huge amounts of inflation. It seems pretty crazy to me that Fabi went from 100 to 3000. I did not realize how much war messes with the economy. I knew that after world war I the US went into a depression, but that is something different from inflation, or at least my understanding of it is. Then I know that Mexico went through a lot of inflation. While I was reading, every time I would read the government’s new plan to control inflation I would think that it would work. Of course, they all did not work and so inflation continued. I don’t really understand what happened in the end to stop the inflation. Was the problem ever completely solved? Even today, a Yuan is worth much less than a dollar.
The red on the flag represents the blood that ws shed during the Chinese revolution. The big star on the flag represents the government of China that leads and controls the four smaller stars which represent the four different social classes of China, as mentioned by Sophie.
This ties into Marxism because his ideas were that the people of Russia would all unite together under a single socialist government. This understanding can be seen on the former U.S.S.R. flag where there is a star that is over the hammer and sickel. This represents the working class people and the farmers of Russia uniting under a single socialist government.
It seems like the Chinese Peasants have been royally cheated out since the 1800s all the way up to the present. Every new movement that comes in to liberate them, whether it be the nationalists or CCP, has basically just lapsed back into a state of dictatorship and abuse. Honnestly, I kept feeling a sense of disappointment as I read about the abuses and failings of the Nationalist Party and Chiang Kai-Shek. It seems like the nationalists really had the opportunity to turn China around. They just wasted it by ignoring the rights of the peasantry, giving rise to the CCP opposition.
I actually understood this chapter! While reading, it was so much easier to comprehend because of my Econ knowledge. I don’t think I’ve ever been happy to be in Econ, but while reading this I was! I had no idea that China had gone through so much economic trouble, and had such an unstable monetary system. The value of their money would fluctuate out of control, thus leaving the Chinese people with a chaotic lifestyle trying to keep up with the changing fabi. The fabi had fallen so far under, making life nearly impossible for some, which left the government with no other option but to change the currency completely. Although they saw some positive growth after the change, the new money eventually took the same route as the old, and led China into a horrid cycle of inflation.
It’s too bad that Marshall “failed” in mission in China even though he was successful at getting both parties in China to agree to a cease-fire once then again in Manchuria. I feel as though whenever we tried to help out countries in Asia, we always create more problems than we solve. Although, I’m a wee bit confused as to why we became so involved in China, I assume it was because we wanted stability in the Chinese government. China at the time seems as though it was a mess. There was not a centralized government, instead there was fighting between the Nationalist and Communist Party and the civilians were living in a country with a government full of turmoil. I can’t imagine what it was like to live in China in those times before the Communists took complete control of China. Heck I can’t even imagine what it is like to live there now.