Aspects of an institutionalizing political system: China, 1958-1965

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 188, 2006, Pages 933-958

  Bachman, David ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ELITE POLITICS; FEDERAL SYSTEM; MILITARY GOVERNMENT; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL SYSTEM; STATE BUILDING;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 33847395970     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0305741006000506     Document Type: Article

References (114)

1. André Malraux, Antimemoirs (trans. Terence Kilmartin) (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1968), p. 375.
2. Roderick MacFarquhar, The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Vol. 1: Contradictions among the People, 1956 1957; Vol 2: The Great Leap Forward, 1958-1960; and Vol. 3: The Coming of the Cataclysm, 1961-1965 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1974, 1983 and 1997, respectively)
3. Frederick C. Teiwes, Politics and Purges in China (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 1979; 2nd ed., 1993)
4. and Frederick C. Teiwes with Warren Sun, China's Road to Disaster (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1999).
5. Earlier, important works covering the 1958 to 1965 period included: Peter R. Moody, Jr., The Politics of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Hamden: Shoestring Press, 1973)
6. Parris H. Chang, Power and Policy in China (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974)
7. Byung-joon Ahn, Chinese Politics and the Cultural Revolution (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976)
8. and Kenneth Lieberthal, "The Great Leap Forward and the split in the Yenan leadership," in Roderick MacFarquhar and John K. Fairbank (eds.), The Cambridge History of China, Vol. 14: The People's Republic, Part I: The Emergence of Revolutionary China, 1949-1965 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 293-359.
9. On the famine, see Dali L. Yang, Calamity and Reform in China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996)
10. and Jasper Becker, Hungary Ghosts (London: J. Murray, 1996).
11. On other aspects of the history of this period, see Alfred L. Chan, Mao's Crusade (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
12. Neil Diamant, Revolutionizing the Family (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000)
13. Edward Friedman, Paul G. Pickowicz and Mark Selden with Kay Ann Johnson, Chinese Village, Socialist State (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991)
14. and Friedman, Pickowicz and Selden, Revolution, Resistance, and Reform in Village China (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005).
15. Some particularly important examples of these new materials include: Pang Xianzhi and Jin Chongji (chief eds.), Mao Zedong zhuan (1949-1976) (Biography of Mao Zedong), 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2003)
16. Zhou Enlai nianpu, 1949-1976 (Chronology of Zhou Enlai, 1949-1976), 3 vols. (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1997)
17. Bo Yibo, Ruogan zhongda juece yu shijiande huigu (Recollections of Some Major Policies and Events), 2 vols. (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1991, 1993)
18. Jianguo yilai Mao Zedong wengao (Manuscripts of Mao Zedong since the Founding of the Country), 13 vols. (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 1987-98)
19. Chen Donglin, San xian jianshe (Third Front Construction) (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 2003). The most useful Party and PRC history journals include Dangdai Zhongguo shi yanjiu (Research on the History of Contemporary China), Dangde wenxian (Party Documents) and Zhonggong dangshi ziliao (Materials on CCP History).
20. For example, Victor H. Li, Law Without Lawyers (Boulder: Westview Press, 1978)
21. Stanley B. Lubman, "Mao and mediation," California Law Review, Vol. 55, No. 5 (1967), pp. 1284-1359
22. and Jerome Alan Cohen, The Criminal Process in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1963 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968).
23. Diamant, Revolutionizing the Family.
24. Quanguo renmin fayuan sifa tonjii lishi ziliao huibian, 1949-1998: minshi bu fen; xing shi bufen (Compendia of Historical Material on the Administration of Justice by the People's Courts of the Whole Nation: Civil and Criminal Volumes) (Beijing: Renmin fayuan chubanshe, 2000). Hereafter these sources will be cited as Criminal Stats and Civil Stats for the appropriate volume.
25. Civil Stats, p. 1
26. Criminal Stats, p. 1.
27. Calculated on Civil Stats, p. 1
28. and Criminal Stats, p. 1.
29. Based on Civil Stats, pp. 4-33.
30. Diamant, Revolutionizing the Family.
31. Based on Criminal Stats, pp. 1, 6, 10, 19, 26, 33, 39, 44, 52, 60, 65, 68-69, 73, 80, 84, 92 and 100.
32. My thanks to Michael Schoenhals and especially Julia Strauss for heightening my appreciation of this point.
33. For some support for this position, see Michael Dutton, Policing Chinese Politics (Durham: Duke University Press, 2005), pp. 205-217.
34. Calculated from Criminal Stats, pp. 6-107.
35. Calculated from Criminal Stats, pp. 6-107. Categories changed over time. I have aggregated various categories as follows. For 1950, I treated poor and middle peasants, military personnel, workers and urban poor as "good"; landlord, bureaucratic capitalist, puppet troops as "bad"; and rich peasant, petit bourgeoisies, minorities and others as "other." For 1956-58, worker, staff, collective peasants and poor were "good"; landlords, rich peasants, capitalists and floating individuals (vagabonds, liumin) "bad"; and individual peasants, collective handicraft workers, individual handicraft workers and others as "other." For 1959-65, office workers and state bureaucrats, students, peasants, workers, workers who became degenerate elements, and cadres as "good"; landlords and rich peasants, counter-revolutionary elements, bad elements, rightists, capitalists, escapees from labour reform who commit additional crimes, opponents of the revolution, hooligans, capitalists and former puppet soldiers as "bad"; and vagabonds, small business owners, idle individuals,and others as "other."
36. Richard Curt Kraus, Class Conflict in Chinese Socialism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981) provides a thorough discussion of class categories and statuses. But he does not provide percentages of the population in each category. The 1964 Chinese census did ask about class status.
37. Kenneth Lieberthal, Governing China, 2nd Edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2004), p. 304, states that there might have been about 50 million people who suffered from forms of class category discrimination. But no definitive figures exist publicly, and as a result of the Cultural Revolution decade, large numbers of people who had previously not been in negative class/status categories were labelled as enemies of the regime (to varying degrees).
38. Calculated from Criminal Stats, pp. 2-3.
39. Michael J. Hindelang, Michael R. Gottfredson, and Timothy Flanigan (eds.), Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Staistics 1980 (Washington: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1981), p. 429. On p. 389, this source notes that "although the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Prisoner Statistics program provide nationwide data on specific law enforcement and correctional activities, no comparable uniform nationwide data exist for the collection and dissemination of state and local judicial processing statistics." In 1975, there were 1.8 million criminal cases disposed of in the US. Less than 50,000 of them were federal criminal trials. The vast majority of criminal cases thus are state and local matters, but there is no standard reference for accessing data for state and local trials.
40. Biographical Dictionary of All Members of the CCP Central Committee, 1921-2003 (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 2004). Hereafter CC Bio Dictionary.
41. Information on CC members in this paragraph from ibid.
42. Those purged or demoted are: Deng Hua, Deng Zihui, Feng Baiju, Gu Dacun, Hong Xuezhi, Huang Kecheng, Jia Tuofu, Li Fuchun, Li Lisan, Luo Ruiqing, Pan Fusheng, Peng Dehuai, Shu Tong, Su Yu, Tan Qilong, Wan Yi, Wang Heshou, Wang Jiaxiang, Wang Shusheng, Wu Zhipu, Xi Zhongxun, Xiao Ke, Yang Shangkun, Yang Xianzhen, Zeng Xisheng, Zhang Wentian, Zhang Zhongliang, Zhao Jianmin and Zhou Xiaozhou. Of these, six cases are potentially ambiguous. Li Lisan was generally inactive after 1957, though still holding relatively important positions; Li Fuchun had much of his power and authority as head of the State Planning Commission stripped from him with the establishment of the "Small Planning Committee" under Yu Qiuli in 1965; Wang Heshou was moved from being Minister of Metallurgy to being Party secretary of Anshan, Liaoning, and the Party secretary for the Anshan Iron and Steel Works; Wang Jiaxiang was criticized for advocating moderation in Chinese foreign policy, became ill and was inactive, but was never formally removed from his positions prior to 1966; Wang Shusheng was transferred from heading the People's Liberation Army's Armaments Department to becoming a vice-chairman of the Academy of Military Science in 1959, and Yang Xianzhen was severely criticized in 1964 for philosophical "mistakes" but was never formally removed from his positions prior to the CR.
43. Respectively, Luo Ronghuan, Peng Dehuai, Liu Bocheng, Zhu De, Xu Xiangqian and Lin Biao.
44. Again, respectively, Chen Geng, Su Yu, Huang Kechang, Tan Zheng, Luo Ruiqing and Wang Shusheng.
45. John Wilson Lewis and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988),
46. China's Strategic Seapower (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994),
47. and "China's search for a modern air force," International Security, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1999), pp. 64-94
48. John Wilson Lewis and Hua Di, "China's ballistic missiles program," International Security, Vol. 17, No. 2 (1992)
49. Evan A. Feigenbaum, "Soldiers, weapons and Chinese development Strategy," The China Quarterly, No. 158 (1999), pp. 285-313,
50. and China's Techno-Warriors (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003)
51. Barry Naughton, "The Third Front," The China Quarterly, No. 115 (1988), pp. 351-386
52. and "Industrial policy during the Cultural Revolution," in William A. Joseph et al. (eds.), New Perspectives on the Cultural Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991), pp. 153-181.
53. One fine, and totally unexpected, example of the long-term impact of war, war preparation, and defence industrialization on the Chinese body politic is found in Susan Greenhalgh, "Population science, missile Science," The China Quarterly, No. 182 (2005), pp. 253-276.
54. William C. Kirby, "The internationalization of China," The China Quarterly, No. 150 (1997), pp. 433-458. The quotation is the first sentence of the article.
55. Bo Yibo, Recollections of Some Major Policies and Events, Vol. 1, pp. 296-301
56. and Chen Ping et al. (eds.), Xin Zhongguode jiben jianshe - guogfang gongye juan (New China's Capital Construction - Defence Industry Volume) (Beijing (?): Guofang gongye chubanshe, 1987), passim.
57. E. Negin and Iu. Smirnov, "Did the USSR share its atomic secrets with China?" in Science and Society. History of the Soviet Atomic Project (40s-50s), Vol. 1 (in Russian), pp. 310-11
58. as quoted in Viktor M. Gobarev, "Soviet policy towards China: developing nuclear weapons 1949-1969," Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4 (1999), pp. 1-53, on p. 25. While there may be some exaggeration or hazy recollections after many years, colleagues in Soviet studies have assured me that Negin and Smirnov are authoritative figures.
59. Duan Zijun (chief ed.), Dangdai Zhongguo de hangkong gongve (The Aviation Industry of Contemporary China) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1988), p. 139
60. and the entry for Qian Shaojun in CC Bio Dictionary, p. 579.
61. Lin Hu (chief ed.), Dangdai Zhongguo kongjun (The Air Force of Contemporary China) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1989), p. 302
62. Duan Zijun, The Aviation Industry, pp. 46-47
63. and Yu Yongbo (chief ed.), Dangdai Zhongguo de guofang keji shiye, xia (The Defence Science and Technology Endeavours of Contemporary China, Vol. 2) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1992), pp. 181-83.
64. Zhang Yu and Cai Guangang, "Luo Ruiqing yu guofang gongye" ("Luo Ruiqing and national defence industry"), Research on the History of Contemporary China, No. 5, pp. 54-64; see pp. 54-55.
65. For example, He Long junshi wenxuan (Selected Writings of He Long on Military Affairs) (Beijing: Jiefang jun chubanshe, 1989), pp. 577-81,
66. and Zhou Enlai junshi wenxuan, di si juan (Selected Writings of Zhou Enlai on Military Affairs, Vol. 4) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1997), pp. 421-37.
67. Liao Guoliang et al. (eds.), Mao Zedong junshi sixiang fazhan shi (A History of the Development of Mao Zedong's Military Thought) (Beijing: Jiefang jun chubanshe, 1991), p. 460
68. and Han Huaizhi and Tan Jingqiao (chief eds.), Dangdai Zhongguo jundui de junshi gongzuo, shang (The Military Affairs of Contemporary China's Armed Forces, Vol. 1) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1989), pp. 594-609.
69. Ibid. pp. 360-69.
70. Wang Jiaxiang xuanji (Selected Works of Wang Jiaxiang) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1989), pp. 446-460
71. Xu Zehao, Wang Jiaxiang zhuan (Biography of Wang Jiaxiang) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1996), pp. 553-569.
72. Mao, prior to the CR, only criticized the three reductions to foreign visitors, and only starting more than a year after they were presented to him. See Cong Jin, Quzhe fazhan de suiyue (Times of Torturous Advance) (Zhengzhou: Henan renmin chubanshe, 1989), pp. 575-581.
73. Han and Tan, The Military Affairs of Contemporary China's Armed Forces, pp. 376-379
74. and Yu Hui, Wushinian guoshi jiyao: Junshi juan (Outline of 50 Years of National Affairs: Military Affairs Volume) (Changsha: Hunan renmin chubanshe, 1999), pp. 387-406.
75. Ibid. pp. 330-386
76. and Sichuan sheng zhi: Junshi zhi (Sichuan Provincial Gazetteer: Military Affairs Volume) (Chengdu: Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1999), pp. 294-300, 317-19.
77. On this, see Zhang and Cai, "Luo Ruiqing and national defence industry," Selected Writings of He Long on Military Affairs, Selected Writings of Zhou Enlai on Military Affairs, and Nie Rongzhen huiyi lu, xia (Memoirs of Nie Rongzhen, Vol. 2) (Beijing: Renmin chubanshe, 1986), pp. 810-11.
78. Zhang Yutao (chief ed.), Xin Zhongguo junshi dashi jiyao (Outline of Major Military Affairs of New China) (Beijing: Junshi kexue chubanshe, 1998), p. 180.
79. Selected Writings of Zhou Enlai on Military Affairs, pp. 425-27, 433-37.
80. Sichuan sheng zhi: Jixie gongye zhi (Sichuan Provincial Gazetteer: Machinery Industry Volume) (Chengdu: Sichuan cishu chubnashe, 1993), pp. 325, 327.
81. Dangdai Beijing guofang gongye (The National Defence Industry of Contemporary Beijing) (Beijing: Beijing ribao chubanshe, 1990), pp. 14-15, 179-181, 184-86 and 191-94
82. and Wang Lei et al. (chief eds.), Dangdai Zhongguo de bingqi gongye (The Ordnance Industry of Contemporary China) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1993), pp. 373-76.
83. Ibid.
84. for overall figures, and The National Defence Industry of Contemporary Beijing for the Beijing figures.
85. For the Sichuan figures, see Sichuan Provincial Gazetteer.
86. On HebGi, Guangdong and Gansu, see Hebei sheng zhi: Di 34 juan: guofang keji gongye zhi (Hebei Provincial Gazetteer, Vol. 34: National Defence Science, Technology, and Industry Volume) (Beijing: Zhongguo shuji chubanshe, 1995), pp. 155-164
87. Xi Zhiwei (chief ed.), Guangdong jungong shiliao, 1949-1987 (Historical Materials on Military Industry in Guangdong) (n.p., 1990 (?)) pp. 8-10 and 125-130
88. and Gansu sheng zhi: Di sishisan juan. junshi gongye zhi (Gansu Provincial Gazetteer, Vol. 43: Military Industry) (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin chubanshe, 1992), pp. 81-93.
89. Li Jue et al. (chief ed.), Dangdai Zhongguo de he gongye (The Nuclear Industry of Contemporary China) (Beijing: Zhongguo shehui kexue chubanshe, 1987), pp. 413-14
90. and Zhongguo da san xian (China's Big Third Front) (Beijing: Zhongguo huabao chubanshe, 1998), p. 17.
91. For an idea about the information gathered by aerial and space surveillance and the uses to which it could be put, see William Burr and Jeffrey T. Richelson, "Whether to 'strangle the baby in the cradle'," International Security, Vol. 25, No. 3 (2000-2001), pp. 54-99 (additional material supporting this essay is found on the National Security Archive's website: www.nsarchive.org.
92. See also Tracking the Dragon: National Intelligence Estimate on China during the Era of Mao (n.p.: Government Printing Office, n.d.), pp. 365-374 and NIE 13-2-62 and SNIE 13-2-63 on the CD-Rom that is part of this publication. This material can also be found at www.cia.gov/nic.
93. "Fu: Zongcan zuozhan bu de baogao" ("Supplement: report of the operations department of the General Staff Department"), Dangde wenxian (Party Documents), No. 3 (1995), pp. 34-35.
94. For primary documentary material on the Third Front, see ibid. pp. 33-42.
95. The leading PRC author on the Third Front is Chen Donglin; see his Sanxian jianshe: Beizhan shiqi de xibu kaifa (Third Front Construction: Opening up the West during the Era of Preparing for War) (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 2003).
96. Fang Weizhong and Jin Chongji (chief eds.), Li Fuchun zhuan (Biography of Li Fuchun) (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2001), pp. 618-647.
97. A list of 157 centrally managed ordinance factors is found in Zhongguo bingqi nianjian (1986-1990) (China Ordnance Industry Yearbook, 1986-1990) (Beijing: Bingqi gongye chubanshe, 1991), pp. 911-920.
98. From numerous scattered sources I have been able to find approximate or actual starting dates for all of them. Numbers of factories in the space and aviation industries are found in Zhonghua renmin gongheguo 1985 nian gongye pucha ziliao, di san ce (Material on the 1985 Industrial Census of the PRC, Vol. 3) (hereafter 1985 Ind Census, followed by the volume number) (Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, 1988), pp. 122-25.
99. On Guizhou, see 1985 Ind Census, Vol. 2, (this volume provides data on individual large and medium enterprises), passim.
100. On defence industrialization in Guizhou, see Chen Yongxiao (chief ed.), Guizhou sheng jingii dili (The Economic Geography of Guizhou Province) (Beijing: Xinhua chubanshe, 1992), pp. 264-68.
101. Overall statistics for the number of large and medium enterprises in the 1985 industrial census in 1985 Ind Census, Vol. 1, pp. 8-12.
102. Hu Zhefeng, "Jianguo yilai ruogan junshi zhardue fangzhen tanxi," ("An analysis of some of the guiding principles of military strategy since the founding of the PRC"), Dangdai Zhongguo shi yanjiu (Research on the History of Contemporary China), Vol. 7, No.4 (July 2000), pp. 21-32.
103. The implications of this development are brought out in the major works on the social origins of the CR. See Jonathan Unger, Education under Mao (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982)
104. Susan L. Shirk, Competitive Comrades (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982)
105. and Lynn T. White, III, Policies of Chaos (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989).
106. Dates based on the time of the appointment of the first minister in charge. See Zhongguo gongchan dang zhizheng sishiman (zeng ding ben) (The Chinese Communist Party's 40 Years of Exercising Power, revised edition) (Beijing: Zhonggong dangshi chubanshe, 1991), pp. 599-600.
107. Yu Hui Outline of 50 Years of National Affairs, pp. 411-12
108. and Zhang Aiping (chief ed.), Zhongguo renmin jiefang jun, xia (The Chinese People's Liberation Army, Vol. 2) (Beijing: Dangdai Zhongguo chubanshe, 1994), p. 132.
109. Statistical Yearbook of China, 1986 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 520 and 518.
110. On these activities, see Han and Tan, The Military Affairs of Contemporary China's Armed Forces, Vol. 1
111. Mao Zedong junshi huodong jishi (Record on Mao Zedong's Military Activities) (Beijing: Jiefang jun chubanshe, 1994), p. 938
112. John Kenneth Knaus, Orphans of the Cold War (New York: Public Affairs, 1999)
113. Jay Taylor, China and Southeast Asia (New York: Praeger, 1974),
114. and John W. Garver, Protracted Conflict (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001), pp. 194-204.