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NSWModern HistoryQuick questions
Section III (Personalities): Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China
Quick questions on Mao and the establishment of the PRC 1949 to 1953: HSC Modern History Personality
8short 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 land reform, 1950 to 1952?Show answer
The Agrarian Reform Law of 30 June 1950 generalised the 1947 Outline Land Law to the newly liberated areas. The campaign proceeded village by village through work teams, classification of households into five categories (landlord, rich peasant, middle peasant, poor peasant, hired labourer), struggle sessions (douzheng), and redistribution.
What is suppression of Counter-Revolutionaries (Zhenfan), 1950 to 1951?Show answer
The Campaign to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries (Zhenya fan geming yundong) ran from October 1950 to October 1951. Targets included ex-KMT officials, the Society of Brothers, religious sects, "bandit" remnants, and political opponents. Mao set a quota of approximately 0.1 percent of the population for execution. Yang Kuisong's research, based on Mao's own confidential telegrams, gives about 712,000 executions and around 1.3 million sent to labour reform.
What is the Sino-Soviet Treaty, 14 February 1950?Show answer
After two months of negotiation in Moscow (December 1949 to February 1950) Mao secured the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance with Stalin. The treaty provided:
What is the First Five-Year Plan, 1953 to 1957?Show answer
The First Five-Year Plan, launched in 1953 under Premier Zhou Enlai and State Planning Commission chair Gao Gang, was Soviet in design: 156 large capital projects, heavy industry priority, gross industrial output target of 14.7 percent annual growth, agricultural output target of 4.3 percent. The plan was largely successful: industrial output rose 128 percent over the plan period (annual growth about 18 percent); steel rose from 1.35 million tonnes (1952) to 5.35 million tonnes (1957). Agriculture lagged at 24 percent total growth.
What is the 1954 Constitution?Show answer
The first formal Constitution of the PRC was adopted on 20 September 1954 by the First National People's Congress. Mao became State Chairman; Zhu De Vice Chairman; Liu Shaoqi Chairman of the NPC Standing Committee. The Constitution formally ended the Common Program era.
What is q1?Show answer
Source A is the Common Programme of the CPPCC (29 September 1949). Using Source A and your own knowledge, explain Mao's consolidation of CCP power 1949 to 1953. [5 marks]
What is q2?Show answer
Evaluate the extent to which Mao's early PRC policy 1949 to 1953 was a continuation of Yan'an or a Stalinist break. [25 marks]
What is q3?Show answer
Compare the views of Maurice Meisner and Andrew Walder on the early PRC. [10 marks]