The Urban Scene – Consolidation (1949 to 1952)

Firstly I want to consider the political structure of the party and state and the consolidation of power in the cities before getting to what happened with the industrialisation project. This was what was being set up and managed while collectivisation was rapidly happening in the countryside and women (there especially) were being told to wait for further liberation from their red-necked men. Industrialisation really had to wait to some extent for the reforms in the countryside to bear their as yet prospective fruits.

There were four levels of both the party and the state set up with an additional fifth very localised and committeefied level of the party (and still are): the Centre (there is 1); the Provinces (30); the Counties or Cities (2,500); the Town or District (40,000); and the Rural Collectives, Urban Work Units and Residents’ Committees (600,000).

At the Centre, running of the party was formally by the National Party Congress, the Party Chairman (Mao), a 200 person Central Committee, a Standing Committee of from 5 to 7 members and a 20 person Politburo with a General Secretariat.

The party was mainly responsible for deciding broad issues of policy and the National Congress was ostensibly the supreme decider. At first (in the 1920s before the PRC was formed) it was anticipated that the Congress would meet annually but it later came to meet less frequently to the point where from 1977 onwards it has met five-yearly (so far without fail). The next Congress (expected in 2012) will be the 18^th. The 17^th occurred in 2007 and still has the following English language website: http://www.china.org.cn/english/congress/225438.htm. The congress formally appoints the central party leadership group. In Mao’s time he was given the role of Chairman and also Supreme Leader. The above Standing Committee (ostensibly appointed by the Congress) is formally a standing committee of the Politburo and is the next most important congressional leadership group after the Chairman and his advisors.

The corresponding central arms of government from 1949 on were the State Council and Premier (Zhou Enlai until his death in 1976 – for virtually all of Mao’s time) and 20 to 30 Central Ministries. The state then extended its control outwards via most of the ministries in the form of Provincial Departments, County/City Bureaux and Town/District Offices for each ministry.

The government was mainly given the role of implementation of party policy (decided formally by the Congress and Central Committee of the party but informally by Mao and the Standing Committee of the Politburo). The main difference when compared with the party structure was that the Premier formally ruled over the State Council whereas the Congress was formally supreme in the party (i.e. over the Chairman).

So how did the CCP consolidate its power from 1949 to 1952 using this dual structure? Mao had stressed to the party just before his 1949 victory that the cities would need to be a real focus of reform and engaged socialist learning immediately following the victory. The principles of ‘New Democracy’ were still applied in the cities for the time being, however. Only foreign and unrepentant GMD-sympathiser-owned industrial properties were immediately nationalised (especially if they were large properties). Other businesses were allowed to remain in private hands. The major unrepentant GMD sympathisers had already mainly fled to either Taiwan or the US.

The first priority for Mao was getting industry working again after the mismanagement and corruption that were partly the results of the long war of independence and then civil war. Socialism and class war could wait. The first five-year plan was set to begin in 1953 but in the meantime Mao sought to produce a good base from which to build in the plan period.

The CCP re-established itself in the trade union movement as early as possible. The movement was made a party link and a socialist educational structure (for businesses and workers). The workers were immediately given the role of supervising their bosses (where they remained private employers) in anticipation of them later becoming the bosses once socialism got fully underway (and also for party purposes). Workplaces were made social, political, economic and welfare units of the party structure and of urban society.

The other social and political unit set up was the neighbourhood via the formation of street committees. In part this was to enable the regulation of people like street vendors (and really anyone) who didn’t have workplaces and so would otherwise not have come under immediate party control. These committees would be notified by the party of bad elements (usually people with some connection at some time with the GMD) so that their activities could be monitored and reported on by the committees back to relevant officials.