IB History Regional Study 12: the People's Republic of China Key Definitions

A set of amendments to the Chinese constitution passed by the National People's Congress in March 2018. The most significant change removed the two-term limit on the presidency, allowing Xi Jinping to serve indefinitely. The amendments also enshrined "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" in the constitution, placing Xi alongside Mao Zedong as the only leaders to have their personal ideology written into the founding document during their lifetimes.

The successive stages of collectivisation in rural China between 1952 and 1958. The first stage (Mutual Aid Teams) involved shared tools and labour; the second (Lower APCs) partially pooled land ownership; the third (Higher APCs) fully pooled land into collective farms. By 1956, virtually all of China's rural population had been collectivised into Higher APCs. The APCs were then merged into the larger People's Communes during the Great Leap Forward in 1958.

A mass organisation established by the CCP in 1949 to mobilise women in support of CCP policies and to promote women's rights within the framework of socialist construction. The Federation campaigned for implementation of the Marriage Law, ran literacy programs for women, and recruited women into the workforce. It served simultaneously as a vehicle for genuine women's empowerment and as a CCP-controlled organisation that constrained independent feminist activism.

A mass political campaign launched by Mao Zedong in response to criticism expressed during the Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956–1957). When intellectuals, academics, and party members used the invitation to "let a hundred flowers bloom" to criticise the CCP's policies, Mao abruptly reversed course. An estimated 550,000 people were labelled "rightists", losing their jobs, being sent to labour camps, or suffering public denunciation. The campaign effectively silenced intellectual dissent in China for decades.

Rural health workers given basic medical training from the late 1960s onward to bring healthcare to areas with no doctors, part of Mao's wider effort to extend welfare provision into the countryside.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced by Xi Jinping in 2013, is a global infrastructure investment programme through which China funds and builds roads, railways, ports, pipelines, and power plants across Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Named after the historical Silk Road, the BRI involves loans, equity investments, and construction contracts. Critics argue it creates "debt trap diplomacy," loading borrowing countries with debt that China can leverage for strategic concessions. Supporters argue it fills a genuine infrastructure gap in developing countries.

The force of Chinese troops that intervened in the Korean War in October–November 1950, officially described as "volunteers" to avoid a formal declaration of war against the United States. The CPVA numbered around 300,000 in its initial intervention and eventually exceeded 1 million troops, transforming the military balance in Korea.

A decade-long campaign launched by Mao in 1966 to purge the Communist Party of perceived counter-revolutionaries and reassert his own authority after the failures of the Great Leap Forward. It mobilised millions of Red Guards to attack the "Four Olds", closed schools and universities, and caused widespread social and political chaos until Mao's death in 1976.

Deng Xiaoping (1904-1997) was the paramount leader of China from 1978 to 1992 and the architect of China's economic reform programme. He was twice purged during the Cultural Revolution but returned to power after Mao's death. Deng introduced the Four Modernizations (agriculture, industry, defence, science/technology), Special Economic Zones, and the "opening up" of China to foreign investment, while maintaining CCP political monopoly. He authorised the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989. His reforms produced approximately three decades of ~10% annual GDP growth.

President Truman relieved General Douglas MacArthur of command of UN forces in Korea on 11 April 1951, after MacArthur publicly contradicted the administration's policy of limited war. MacArthur had issued an ultimatum to Chinese commanders and written a letter to a Republican congressman calling for the war to be expanded to China. Truman's dismissal affirmed the principle of civilian control of the military and the strategy of fighting a limited war to avoid escalation to a wider conflict.

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.

The term used in China for rural-to-urban migrants who live and work in cities without formal urban hukou registration. The floating population grew from around 30 million in 1990 to an estimated 290-380 million by 2020, forming the backbone of China's manufacturing and construction workforce. Because they lack urban hukou, floating population migrants are often denied access to public schools, hospitals, and social insurance in their city of residence.

The political framework announced by Deng Xiaoping in 1979, establishing the non-negotiable limits of political reform in China. The four principles are: keeping to the socialist road; upholding the dictatorship of the proletariat; upholding the leadership of the Communist Party; and upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The Four Cardinal Principles allowed economic liberalisation while categorically ruling out political pluralism or challenges to CCP rule.

The Four Modernizations were the reform programme introduced by Deng Xiaoping from 1978, targeting four sectors: agriculture, industry, national defence, and science and technology. They reversed Maoist economic policies, decollectivised agriculture, opened China to foreign investment, and prioritised technological development. The programme is considered the foundation of China's economic transformation from a command economy to a "socialist market economy."

A target of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976): old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas. Red Guards were mobilised to destroy the Four Olds, leading to the ransacking of temples, churches, historic sites, and private homes; the burning of books and religious texts; and the public humiliation and physical assault of teachers, scholars, and religious figures. The campaign caused enormous and irreversible destruction of China's cultural heritage.

The Gang of Four were four senior Communist Party officials (Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, Wang Hongwen, and Yao Wenyuan) who were arrested in October 1976, one month after Mao Zedong's death. They were held responsible for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, was the most prominent. They were convicted at a televised trial in 1980-81. Their arrest ended the Cultural Revolution period and opened the way for Deng Xiaoping's reforms.

A demographic consequence of the One-Child Policy combined with traditional preference for male children. Sex-selective abortions and female infanticide led to a significant imbalance in the male-to-female ratio among births: by 2005, China recorded approximately 120 male births per 100 female births. This produced a generation of surplus males (termed "bare branches") and a shortage of women of marriageable age, with long-term social and economic consequences. The One-Child Policy was relaxed to two children in 2015 and three in 2021.

Mao's second Five-Year Plan, aiming to rapidly transform China into a modern industrial power through mass collectivisation and backyard steel production. It caused catastrophic economic disruption and a famine that killed an estimated tens of millions of people.

Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty on 1 July 1997 under the "one country, two systems" framework negotiated by Deng Xiaoping and Margaret Thatcher in the Sino-British Joint Declaration (1984). Hong Kong was to retain its common law legal system, free press, civil liberties, and separate economic and political institutions for 50 years — until 2047. The handover was a major diplomatic achievement of the Jiang Zemin era.

The Household Responsibility System (also called the "production responsibility system") was the agricultural reform introduced in China from 1978, replacing collectivised commune farming. Individual farm households were allocated plots of land from the commune and allowed to sell surplus production on the market after meeting a state quota. Output rose dramatically in the early 1980s. The system effectively ended collective agriculture in China, though the land itself remained state-owned.

Hua Guofeng was Mao Zedong's chosen successor, who became premier and party chairman after Mao's death in September 1976. He authorised the arrest of the Gang of Four within a month of taking power. His political legitimacy rested on Mao's personal designation, and he defended Mao's policies (the "Two Whatevers": whatever Mao said was correct, and whatever Mao decided must be upheld). He was gradually outmanoeuvred by Deng Xiaoping, who rejected the Two Whatevers. Hua resigned as party chairman in 1981.

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.

Mao's 1956-1957 invitation for intellectuals to openly criticize the Communist Party. When criticism proved sharper than expected, Mao reversed course with the Anti-Rightist Campaign, persecuting over 500,000 people.

The Land Reform Movement was a nationwide campaign in which the Chinese Communist Party redistributed land from landlords and wealthy peasants to poor and landless peasants. Between 1950 and 1952, approximately 43% of China's agricultural land was redistributed to 300 million peasants. The campaign was accompanied by mass "struggle sessions" in which landlords were publicly accused and humiliated. An estimated 1-2 million landlords were executed, and up to 5 million were sent to labour camps.