China During the Mao Years Questions

World History Honors

Unit 14: East Asia in the 19th and 20th Centuries

China during the Mao Years Questions

Answer the following questions in complete sentences using your notes from the film China: A Century of Revolution and p. 669-671 of the text.

1. How did the Chinese people view the Communist Revolution? What vision did Mao and the Communist leaders have for China?

2. Describe the new political structure of the Communists. What the Communists say this new government would do for the people?

3. How did the Communist Revolution change the role/status of women in China?

4. How did the Communist Party change the status of the peasantry?

5. Why did Mao want to establish a diplomatic relationship with the Soviet Union?

6. Why did Chinese troops enter Korea and the Korean War? What was the impact of Chinese military intervention on the United States and on China?

7. How did Communist leaders define “enemies without guns”? How did they seek to stamp out these “enemies” in China?

8. Why did the Communists socialize agriculture and encourage the establishment of farming cooperatives? What impact did these cooperatives have on the life of the peasants?

9. How was collectivization different than the creation of cooperatives? What was the reaction of the peasantry to this new movement? How did collectivization give the Communist party more power?

10. What were the major criticisms that came out of the One Hundred Flowers policy? How did this lead to the anti-Rightist movement?

11. What was the impact of the anti-Rightist movement?

12. What were the repercussions of the 1958 Communist attack on the remaining Chinese nationalists?

13. Why did the Communists launch the Great Leap Forward in 1958? What methods did they use to achieve this?

14. How did “people’s communes” develop? How did a people’s commune operate? What was the chief focus on the people’s communes?

15. How did the effort to increase farm output during the Great Leap Forward lead to corruption in the party and famine among the peasants?

16. Why did the party not deal with the obvious failures of the Great Leap Forward?

17. How did Li Shaoqi seek to rebuild the country after the Great Leap Forward?

18. How did the Chinese people view Mao in the 1960s? How did the other party leaders view Mao in the 1960s?

19. How did Mao feel about the actions and policies of the other party leaders in the first part of the 1960s?

20. Why did Mao initiate the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of 1966?

21. Who were the main supporters of the Cultural Revolution? Why did these Red Guards so eagerly participate?

22. Who were the targets of the Cultural Revolution? How were many treated by the Red Guards?

23. Why did factional conflict develop within the Cultural Revolution?

24. How did Mao respond to the increasing violence among students? What impact did this have on China?

25. What was the impact of the Cultural Revolution on China?

26. How did Chinese foreign policy change in 1969? How did Nixon’s visit to China bolster this new policy?

27. What were the varying responses to Mao’s death among the Chinese people?