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Section II (National Study): China 1927-1949
Quick questions on The founding of the People's Republic of China 1 October 1949: HSC Modern History National Study China
13short Q&A pairs drawn directly from our worked dot-point answer. For full context and worked exam questions, read the parent dot-point page.
What is the road to 1 October 1949?Show answer
By September 1949 the PLA controlled most of north and central China. Major cities had fallen: Beiping (31 January), Nanjing (23 April), Shanghai (27 May), Wuhan (16 May). Mao moved to Beiping (renamed Beijing) in March 1949 and made the Forbidden City's western complex (Zhongnanhai) his residence.
What is the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference?Show answer
The CPPCC's first plenary session met from 21 to 30 September 1949 in Beijing. Around 662 delegates represented the CCP (16 per cent), eight "democratic parties" (Revolutionary Committee of the KMT, China Democratic League, etc), the PLA, mass organisations, regions, ethnic minorities, and overseas Chinese.
What is the Common Programme?Show answer
The Common Programme of the CPPCC (29 September 1949) had 60 articles in seven chapters. Its key provisions:
What is the Tiananmen ceremony?Show answer
On 1 October 1949 at 3 p.m. Mao Zedong stood on the rostrum above the Tiananmen Gate and proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic. The reported phrase "the Chinese people have stood up" was actually delivered earlier at the CPPCC opening on 21 September, but became associated with the 1 October ceremony.
What is immediate state structure?Show answer
The country was divided into six military-administrative regions (North-West under Peng Dehuai, North-East under Gao Gang, etc) that retained military authority until 1954.
What is the CCP and the state?Show answer
The Common Programme did not formally designate the CCP as the leading party (that came in 1954). In practice the CCP Politburo decided all major policy, and parallel CCP committees ran every level of government. The CCP membership of around 4.5 million in 1949 grew to around 6.6 million by 1953.
What is mao's "Lean to One Side"?Show answer
Mao's article "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship" (30 June 1949) committed the PRC to align with the Soviet bloc. He wrote: "Sit on the fence? That won't do; we shall lean to one side." The article rejected a "third road" between capitalism and socialism.
What is foreign recognition?Show answer
Recognition came in three waves:
What is immediate consolidation tasks?Show answer
The PRC's first three years (1949-1952) consolidated control:
What is historiography?Show answer
Maurice Meisner (Mao's China and After, 3rd edn 1999) treats 1949 as a genuine social revolution.
What is treating 1 October 1949 as the end of the story?Show answer
Major fighting continued in the south-west until December 1949; Hainan until April 1950; Tibet until October 1950. Consolidation killed perhaps 1-2 million people through 1953.
What is underweighting the CPPCC?Show answer
It is the multi-party founding convention; it set the Common Programme as provisional constitution; it embodied the rhetoric of inclusive "new democracy" that the post-1953 socialist transformation would override.
What is ignoring the Sino-Soviet Treaty as semi-colonial?Show answer
Joint stock companies in Xinjiang and Soviet rights in the north-east humiliated Chinese sensibilities; the USSR's eventual concession (Port Arthur 1955) shaped the climate for the Sino-Soviet split.