China: conflict, crisis and change, 1900–89

The Section B (b) question on Deng was NOT well answered - candidates wrote vaguely that Deng 'wanted to suppress opposition'. Be precise: he pursued economic reform but upheld Party leadership (the 'Four Cardinal Principles', 1979), not democracy. Gorbachev's May 1989 visit was embarrassing because the Tiananmen occupation forced his welcome to be re-routed.

Examiners praised knowledge of Mao's China but stressed top marks need THREE aspects plus a supported judgement, not description of two. Two traps: asserting something was 'more significant' without criteria, and covering only two areas. Fix both: state a criterion, test each factor against it, and add a third aspect - women, or education and culture.

Section B (a) 'explain two ways' wants each way PLUS a specific detail, and you must give TWO. On 'ways Deng changed education', do not just say 'he reformed education'; develop it - priority to research and technical training, and study in the West. Add a distinct second way with its own detail; signpost 'One way... a second...'.

Keep Mao's two upheavals apart. The Great Leap Forward (1958-62) was an ECONOMIC drive - farms merged into communes and backyard steel - disrupting farming and causing a massive famine. The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) was a POLITICAL purge using Red Guards to attack 'old' ideas and officials. Swapping their dates or aims loses marks.

Section B (b) wants TWO causes, each EXPLAINED - say WHY it brought change, not narrate. On 'two causes of the 1949 Communist victory', a weak answer retells the civil war; a strong one isolates two: Communist land reform won mass peasant support, and Nationalist rule collapsed under corruption and inflation. Signpost 'One cause... A second...'.

Deng's reforms from 1978 were economic, not political. He created Special Economic Zones (Shenzhen) and let farmers sell surplus - but kept the Party's monopoly. The 'Four Cardinal Principles' (1979) upheld Party leadership, and Deng backed clearing the Tiananmen protests by force in June 1989. Reform meant economic opening, not democracy.

Students assume the Long March (1934-35) was a victory. In fact it was a retreat: Chiang's encirclement had trapped the Communists in Jiangxi, and the March was a year-long breakout of thousands of miles to Yan'an, with huge losses. Its significance was survival against the odds, Mao's rise to leadership, and a legend that won peasant support.