Chinese Communism DBQ

Matt Byram
Mr. Meyer B6
AP World History
January 15, 2015
Chinese
Communism DBQ
Communism in China from 1925 to 1950 was a very interesting period in China, especially in terms of relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and Chinese peasants.
Communism in China survived through the Japanese invasion and control of China during the
Second World War. Based on evidence provided in the documents, the Chinese Communists and peasants both disliked and fought against landlords, the communists supported peasants in their fight against the Japanese, and made the lives of peasants over all better.
One obvious relationship and similarity between peasants and communists is their hatred toward landlords. Direct evidence including instructions to local party officials (Doc 5) and a photo from Xinhua news agency (Doc 9) show the communists obvious bias to the peasants. The communists even created laws to overthrow the landlords, like the Agrarian Reform Law (Doc
8). The peasant’s hatred was so strong, in fact, that they violently threatened the landlords to get back all grievances (Doc 6). The communists were also confident and excited with the peasant movement that would overthrow landlords (Doc 1). The communists organized struggle meetings shown in a photo where peasants humiliated former landlords (Doc 9). This photo, however, was shown only because it was allowed by the Chinese government, which at the time was communist.

The Communist Party in China also assisted the peasants greatly in the war against the
Japanese. They provided constant support to the peasants during the fighting and organized local
“guerrilla units” (or independent fighting groups) to fight back against the Japanese (Doc 3).
They constantly fueled the peasants fighting by giving reports on the Japanese military actions in
Northern China (Doc 4). However, this document was written by the Communist Party and they wanted to emphasize the extreme acts of the Japanese. The communists realized and responded to the fact that the peasants were most important in the war by commanding local party officials to assist, support, and improve the living conditions of the peasants (Doc 5). Essentially the peasants fought, and eventually defeated, the Japanese because of assistance they received from the Chinese Communist Party.
Simply put the communists made life for the Chinese peasants better. As mentioned above they helped the peasants defeat Japan in the Second World War, and assisted in the overthrowing of landlords in China. There were even more acts however, that bettered the lives of peasants including the introduction of new marriage laws allowing for free marriage (Doc 7). They also gave peasants free school, world news, food, and more (Doc 2). This document however, may be biased toward the communists because the teenager may not remember very well the time before communism and this may be all he knows. Another document which would help shed light on the relationship of peasants and the communist party is a journal entry from a landlord recounting a struggle meeting. This source may offer a different view on the relationship, and explain in more detail what occurred at these gatherings.

Therefore the documents support that peasants and communists both disliked landlords, that communists assisted the peasants in the Japanese war, and overall gave the peasants a better life.