IB History Mao: How Was Authoritarian Rule Maintained? Key Definitions

A system introduced under Mao that formally classified every Chinese family according to its pre-1949 economic and social status, such as landlord, rich peasant, or poor peasant, determining access to education, employment, and political rights, often for generations.

China's first major economic planning program, modelled on Soviet central planning. It prioritised heavy industry (steel, coal, machinery) over agriculture and consumer goods, following Soviet advice and with substantial Soviet technical assistance. The First Five-Year Plan achieved strong industrial growth — steel output more than tripled — but the emphasis on heavy industry at the expense of agriculture laid the groundwork for the famine caused by the Great Leap Forward.

China's household registration system, introduced in 1958, which ties citizens' access to public services (schools, hospitals, welfare benefits) to their registered place of birth. Citizens registered as rural residents who migrate to cities receive only limited access to urban public services, creating a two-tier system. As of 2020, an estimated 290 million "floating population" migrants lived in cities without full urban hukou status, unable to access healthcare, education, or social security benefits on equal terms with registered urban residents.

The system of forced labour camps in China, used to detain and "re-educate" political prisoners, criminals, and class enemies. Estimates suggest millions passed through the laogai system under Mao.

The common name for Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, a compilation of Mao's sayings distributed in hundreds of millions of copies, especially during the Cultural Revolution, as a central tool of propaganda and the cult of personality.

The PRC's first major social reform, which abolished arranged marriage, concubinage, and dowry payments, permitted divorce, and required all marriages to be registered with the state.

A systematic programme of ideological re-education, involving self-criticism sessions, study of Mao's writings, and public confession, used to remake the political consciousness of intellectuals, former Guomindang officials, and other suspect groups under CCP rule.

The Three-Anti Campaign (san fan, 1951) targeted corruption, waste, and bureaucratism within the Communist Party and government. The Five-Anti Campaign (wu fan, 1952) targeted bribery, tax evasion, fraud, theft of state property, and leaking of state economic secrets, aimed primarily at urban capitalists and business owners. Together they allowed the CCP to extend political control over cities, eliminating the bourgeoisie as a class and redistributing private business wealth to the state.