U569 Modern Inner Mongolia
Lecture, Tuesday, Week 13

 

  1. Roots of the Cultural Revolution
    1. Environment of violence:  campaigns, the work units, class struggle
      1. Campaigns>>winners/losers>>legacy of suppressed hatred
      2. Chinese work unit system:  units control housing, records, transfers
        1. Moving out of work units very difficult
        2. Former campaign opponents like "scorpions in a jar"
      3. Class struggle rhetoric:  encouraged ruthless destruction of enemies
        1. Question:  who is part of the people, who is not
        2. Call for intra-party class struggle>>anything goes
    2. Educational tensions
      1. Revolution brought un-intellectual rurals into high position
      2. Educational system highly competitive (1 out of 20-40 to college)
      3. Question:  would un-intellectual cadres be able to hand on their positions?
      4. "Red" vs. "Expert":  how much inefficiency tolerated for class solidarity?
    3. Leadership tensions:  Mao vs. Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping
      1. Liu built up Mao cult in 1940s Rectification Campaign
      2. 1960:  Liu replaces Mao as Head of State (Mao still party chair)
        1. Wulanfu allied with Liu Shaoqi and his deputy Deng Xiaoping
      3. 1966:  CR group:  Lin Biao (PLA), Kang Sheng (Security), Jiang Qing (wife)
  2. Ideology and Minority Policy:  why Maoists hated minority autonomy
    1. Mao's views:  anti-intellectual agrarian anarchism (Daoist?)
    2. Leftist/Maoist position intensely hostile to cultural diversity & hierarchy
      1. Campaigns build on small-group uniformity
      2. Utopian achievement of "great unity"
      3. Minority cadres generally of bad class background
        1. Minority policy>>limits on Han cadre promotion
        2. Minority students favored in college, hurt Han cadre children
    3. Leftist line associated with intense Chinese nationalism
      1. Sino-Soviet polemics extremely intense:  "Soviet revisionists"
        1. MPR on Soviet side, attacks "Maoist chauvinism"
      2. Minority autonomy associated with legacy of Soviet imitation
      3. Minority cadres in IM and Xinjiang had strong Soviet ties
        1. Conflict over terms:  Chinese or Russian
        2. Criticism of "Flowers in the Snow":  not harsh enough
  3. Wulanfu holds on
    1. Cultural revolution beings early 1966:  red guards set up
      1. Wave of systematic vandalism; encouraged by targets as diversion
      2. Wulanfu is IM's main target, resigns in May, 1966
    2. Wulanfu's crony's survive in power to January 1967
      1. Supported by Mongol cadre/intellectual alliance
      2. Wulanfu supporters>>"conservative faction"
      3. Opponents:  recent immigrants, Han "red" classes>>"rebel faction"
      4. Due to Wulanfu's strength, "conservative," "rebel" opposite to rest of China
  4. Shanghai commune, rebellion, and almost civil war, 1967
    1. In Shanghai, "bad class" red guards challenge "good class" red guards, "rebels" start
    2. In IM, exactly opposite, "good class" red guards overthrow "bad class" red guards
    3. Through 1967-1968 develops into red guard civil war, PLA involved
    4. Finally, Mao cans it, sends all red guards to countryside
      1. Revolutionary Committees formed; heavy PLA influence
      2. IM:  new chief, Teng Haiqing, new PLA commander, Revcom head
  5. Decapitating the Mongols:  New Nei-Ren-Dang case and "redrawing class lines"
    1. New winners pursue vengeance against Mongols who had blocked them
      1. Some Mongol allies, e.g. writer Ulaanbagana, new poor cadres
    2. Nei Nei-Ren-Dang case:  Wulanfu was secret PRPIM supporter
      1. Served to wipe out Mongol cadres, virtually all labeled counter-rev
      2. Struggle avoided "dead tigers," looked for hidden cases
    3. Redrawing class lines
      1. In Shili-yin Gool, Hulun Buir, had been no class struggle>>communes
      2. Here, class lines drawn retrospectively
      3. Elsewhere past compromises rejected, aim to make Mongols landlords
    4. Throughout, titular autonomy policy retained
      1. Mao's works, newspapers in Mongolian language
      2. Mongolian schooling removed where it could be elsewhere left alone
        1. Preferential policy for Mongols hurt Han cadres
  6. Redrawing Inner Mongolia's borders:  1969-1979
    1. 1969:  Height of Sino-Soviet war scare
    2. Inner Mongolia (and military regions) shrunk, only center left to IMAR
      1. Increased military control, strategic depth, in case of Soviet invasion
      2. Eased immigration in areas given to provinces
      3. Reduced percentage of Mongols in IM (~7%)