Reading the basic set this week seemed to be characterized by many of the same themes that we have been reading about all semester with the turmoil the country was going through being clearly present. This made me want to explore in this blog post the what ifs that I have come to mind whilst reading in frustration the chaotic nature of Chinese politics and the struggle for power.
Before I do delve into what my what ifs are, I think a small recap of chapters 21 and 22 are important to contextualize my questions. In chapter 21 we read briefly about the ‘Great Leap Forward’ were due to the pressures of the state and the incrassation of those that were considered to hold capitalist tendencies farmers were almost compelled to inflate the number of crops they had produced to the state. This seemingly was done out of fear that they would be accused of withholding amounts for themselves and their own interests. This resulted in a great famine that was felt across almost the entirety of the nation. In addition to this we see in chapter 22 the decreasing popularity of Mao and his threats to ignite another revolution as well as the culture revolution. Both of these again illustrated the instability of China again and the countries unease about the direction in which it was moving.
http://www.thatsmags.com/china/post/12214/stalin-used-secret-laboratory-analyze-mao-poo
After reading these two chapters as mentioned previously, I began thinking about potential what if scenarios and what they would have meant for China. The first of which was that if during this time what if Mao was left without the help of Lin Baio, who played a significant role in the aiding of Mao’s returning popularity. Would Mao’s continued decrease in popularity actually have led him to starting another revolution? I think that this would probably would not have been the case but at the same time I am not sure what would have succeeded Mao and maybe even his entire party. The next hypothetical that I entertained was if Mao and his party were being threatened with a serious potential of being overthrown by a system of democracy then would Russia have, considering that the relationship between the two countries had deteriorated significantly during this time, come to help the Chinese Communist Party maintain control? If I were to have to answer this question, I would think that Russia would provide help to China as they are one of the only states operating under a Communist government.
Sources:
Spence, Jonathan D. The Search for Modern China. Third ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013.
- Chapters 21 (Deepening the Revolution) and 22 (The Cultural Revolution)
