Edexcel GCSE History · Option 32

Mao’s China, 1945–76

Exam-style questions with answers for Option 32 Mao’s China, 1945–76 in Edexcel GCSE History (spec 1HI0). Practise with flashcards, a topic quiz, a random quiz across the course, 5 crosswords, or read every question and answer below.

All questions and answers

Question 1 · Option 32, Key topic 1.1
State two strengths of the Guomindang at the start of the Civil War in 1946. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: a much larger army (about 3 million soldiers) (1); control of most cities and industry (1); American money and weapons (1); international recognition as China's government (1).
Question 2 · Option 32, Key topic 1.1
State two weaknesses of the Guomindang in 1946. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: corruption among officials (1); runaway inflation in the cities (1); poorly paid, low-morale conscript troops (1); unpopular with peasants (1).
Question 3 · Option 32, Key topic 1.1
State two reasons for Communist victory in the Civil War. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: GMD corruption and inflation (1); Communist land reform won peasant support (1); effective PLA tactics (1); GMD military mistakes (1).
Question 4 · Option 32, Key topic 1.1
Explain why unrest in the towns helped the CCP win the Civil War. [2 marks]
Answer:
Hyperinflation under the Guomindang wiped out savings and wages (1); so workers and the middle class lost faith in Jiang and offered little resistance to the communists (1).
Question 5 · Option 32, Key topic 1.1
When was the PRC proclaimed? [1 mark]
Answer:
1 October 1949.
Question 6 · Option 32, Key topic 1.2
Explain why Mao held a dominant position in China after 1949. [2 marks]
Answer:
He was seen as the hero of the Long March and the victory in the Civil War (1); he controlled the Party and the PLA, and his ideas were treated as official ideology (1).
Question 7 · Option 32, Key topic 1.2
Define the term 'democratic centralism'. [1 mark]
Answer:
Party members could discuss policy, but once the leadership decided, everyone had to obey without question.
Question 8 · Option 32, Key topic 1.2
Describe the role of the CCP in governing China. [2 marks]
Answer:
The CCP controlled every level of government, from the Politburo down to villages (1); party members held all the key posts and membership grew rapidly to about 10 million by 1956 (1).
Question 9 · Option 32, Key topic 1.3
Describe the use of terror against opponents of communist rule in 1951. [2 marks]
Answer:
The Campaign to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries targeted former Guomindang supporters, landlords and 'bandits' (1); hundreds of thousands, perhaps up to 2 million, were executed after mass public trials (1).
Question 10 · Option 32, Key topic 1.3
What were the Three Antis and Five Antis campaigns? [1 mark]
Answer:
Campaigns against corruption, waste and bureaucracy, and against the business class.
Question 11 · Option 32, Key topic 1.4
State two reasons why Mao launched the Hundred Flowers campaign. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: to get ideas from intellectuals to improve government (1); to show confidence after de-Stalinisation in the USSR (1); to expose critics of the Party (1).
Question 12 · Option 32, Key topic 1.4
Describe the criticism that emerged in the Hundred Flowers campaign. [2 marks]
Answer:
Intellectuals criticised corruption and privileges of Party officials (1); some even attacked one-party rule and Mao himself (1).
Question 13 · Option 32, Key topic 1.4
What was the Anti-Rightist campaign (1957)? [2 marks]
Answer:
Mao's response to the criticism of the Hundred Flowers campaign (1); about 550,000 critics were labelled 'rightists' and sent to labour camps or lost their jobs (1).
Question 14 · Option 32, Key topic 2.1
What was the Agrarian Reform Law (1950)? [1 mark]
Answer:
It redistributed land from landlords to peasants.
Question 15 · Option 32, Key topic 2.1
Describe the attacks on landlords after 1949. [2 marks]
Answer:
Peasants were encouraged to accuse landlords at 'speak bitterness' meetings (1); up to 2 million landlords were killed and their land shared out among the peasants (1).
Question 16 · Option 32, Key topic 2.1
Describe the move towards agricultural cooperation in the 1950s. [2 marks]
Answer:
First, mutual aid teams shared tools and animals (1); then larger cooperatives pooled land, with families paid by work done (1).
Question 17 · Option 32, Key topic 2.1
Why did Mao change from voluntary to enforced collectivisation? [2 marks]
Answer:
Grain production was not growing fast enough to feed the cities and pay for industry (1); richer peasants were refusing to join, so in 1955 Mao ordered rapid collectivisation (1).
Question 18 · Option 32, Key topic 2.2
What was the First Five Year Plan (1953–1957)? [1 mark]
Answer:
A Soviet-style plan for heavy industry.
Question 19 · Option 32, Key topic 2.2
Explain why Soviet support was significant for the first Five-Year Plan. [2 marks]
Answer:
The USSR lent China money (1); about 10,000 Soviet experts and engineers helped design and build new factories (1).
Question 20 · Option 32, Key topic 2.2
State two successes of the first Five-Year Plan. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: steel production rose from 1.3 million to 5.3 million tons (1); coal output doubled (1); new bridges, railways and factories were built (1); targets were mostly met (1).
Question 21 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
What was the Great Leap Forward (1958–1962)? [1 mark]
Answer:
A campaign for rapid industrial and agricultural growth through communes.
Question 22 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
What were backyard furnaces? [1 mark]
Answer:
Small furnaces used in the Great Leap Forward, producing poor-quality steel.
Question 23 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
What were people’s communes? [1 mark]
Answer:
Large collective units combining farming, industry and local government.
Question 24 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
What happened at the Lushan Conference (1959)? [1 mark]
Answer:
Peng Dehuai criticised the Great Leap and was purged.
Question 25 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
What was Lysenkoism? [2 marks]
Answer:
Fake Soviet farming science, such as close planting and deep ploughing (1); it was forced on the communes and cut harvests (1).
Question 26 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
State two causes of the Great Famine, 1958–62. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: peasants taken off the land to make steel (1); Lysenkoist farming methods (1); officials exaggerating harvests, so grain was taken from starving villages (1); bad weather (1).
Question 27 · Option 32, Key topic 2.3
What was the impact of the Great Famine? [1 mark]
Answer:
Between 20 and 40 million people died.
Question 28 · Option 32, Key topic 2.4
Why did Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping restore private farming? [2 marks]
Answer:
The Great Leap Forward had caused famine and wrecked farming (1); allowing private plots and selling surplus produce gave peasants an incentive to grow more (1).
Question 29 · Option 32, Key topic 3.1
Who were Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping? [1 mark]
Answer:
Pragmatic leaders who restored the economy after the Great Leap.
Question 30 · Option 32, Key topic 3.1
What was the Socialist Education Movement (1963)? [1 mark]
Answer:
Mao’s campaign against revisionism in the countryside.
Question 31 · Option 32, Key topic 3.1
What were the aims of the Cultural Revolution? [2 marks]
Answer:
To remove Mao’s rivals (1); to renew revolutionary spirit among the young (1).
Question 32 · Option 32, Key topic 3.2
Who were the Red Guards? [1 mark]
Answer:
Students mobilised to attack ‘the four olds’ and party officials.
Question 33 · Option 32, Key topic 3.2
What was the Little Red Book? [1 mark]
Answer:
Quotations from Mao, published by Lin Biao for the PLA.
Question 34 · Option 32, Key topic 3.2
What were the ‘four olds’? [1 mark]
Answer:
Old customs, culture, habits and ideas.
Question 35 · Option 32, Key topic 3.2
Who was Jiang Qing? [1 mark]
Answer:
Mao's wife, a former actress, who led the Cultural Revolution's attack on culture and later the Gang of Four.
Question 36 · Option 32, Key topic 3.3
Who was Lin Biao? [1 mark]
Answer:
Mao’s designated successor who died in a plane crash in 1971 after an alleged coup plot.
Question 37 · Option 32, Key topic 3.3
State two economic effects of the Cultural Revolution. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: industrial output fell in 1967–68 (1); experts and technicians were removed (1); transport was disrupted by Red Guards (1).
Question 38 · Option 32, Key topic 3.4
What was the Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages campaign? [1 mark]
Answer:
Sending millions of urban youths to the countryside.
Question 39 · Option 32, Key topic 3.4
Explain why Mao ended the Red Guard movement. [2 marks]
Answer:
Red Guard factions were fighting each other, causing chaos (1); so in 1968 Mao used the PLA to restore order (1).
Question 40 · Option 32, Key topic 3.4
Who were the Gang of Four? [1 mark]
Answer:
Radicals including Jiang Qing, arrested in 1976.
Question 41 · Option 32, Key topic 4.1
Describe the 'cult of Mao'. [2 marks]
Answer:
Mao's portrait was everywhere and people sang songs praising him (1); people were expected to study and quote his Little Red Book (1).
Question 42 · Option 32, Key topic 4.1
What was the 'Reform Through Labour' system (laogai)? [2 marks]
Answer:
A system of labour camps for those seen as enemies (1); prisoners did hard labour and had to study communist thought to 'reform' (1).
Question 43 · Option 32, Key topic 4.2
What did the Marriage Law of 1950 do? [2 marks]
Answer:
It banned arranged marriages, child marriage and concubines (1); it allowed women to divorce and own property (1).
Question 44 · Option 32, Key topic 4.2
Explain why the end of foot binding was significant. [2 marks]
Answer:
Foot binding was a symbol of women's inferior position in traditional China (1); ending it showed communist commitment to equality and let women work in the fields and factories (1).
Question 45 · Option 32, Key topic 4.2
Describe the impact of communes on family life. [2 marks]
Answer:
Families ate in communal canteens and children were looked after in nurseries (1); this weakened the traditional family and the power of the father (1).
Question 46 · Option 32, Key topic 4.3
What was Pinyin? [2 marks]
Answer:
A system for writing Chinese using the Roman alphabet, introduced in 1958 (1); it made it easier to learn to read, helping literacy rise (1).
Question 47 · Option 32, Key topic 4.3
Who were the barefoot doctors? [2 marks]
Answer:
Peasants given basic medical training (1); they gave simple treatment, vaccinations and health advice in villages without doctors (1).
Question 48 · Option 32, Key topic 4.4
Why did the communists attack religion? [2 marks]
Answer:
Religion was seen as superstition holding people back (1); and as a rival loyalty to the Party (1).
Question 49 · Option 32, Key topic 4.4
Why was Confucianism attacked under Mao? [2 marks]
Answer:
It taught respect for elders, family and tradition (1); which communists saw as a support for the old feudal order (1).
Question 50 · Option 32, Key topic 4.4
Describe revolutionary art and culture under Jiang Qing. [2 marks]
Answer:
Only eight 'model operas' and ballets were allowed (1); they showed heroic workers, peasants and soldiers fighting class enemies (1).

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Mao’s China, 1945–76

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