Reaching the Sky in a Single Step—the Amdo Rebellion

This chapter surveys events leading up to the Amdo Rebellion, its devastating course, and its immediate consequences. Both contemporary and secondary Chinese-language sources describe the Amdo Rebellion as a principally pastoral affair prompted by elite resistance to collectivization. Some even refer to the uprising as “Qinghai's pastoral region armed rebellion.” However, it is important to note that under a policy referred to as Strike and Reform (Bianda Biangai), in most pastoral regions it would be during the pacification of the rebellion that “democratic reforms” were finally fully implemented and socialist transformation completed. In fact, at the time, Qinghai's leadership claimed that the rebellion was most ferocious in places where pastoral cooperatives had yet to be established and the power of “feudal” elites therefore was still largely intact. Rather than a response to the implementation of cooperatives, as both Chinese sources and popular memory frequently suggest, it appears that the rebellion began as an attempt to preempt collectivization in pastoral areas.