Secondary 6 Chinese History Practice Paper (Set 2): Late Qing Reform And The 1911 Revolution, Early Republic And The May Fourth Movement, CCP-KMT Relations, The War Of Resistance, Civil War And The Founding Of The PRC, Reform And Opening Plus Historical Method

Secondary 6 Chinese History Practice Paper (Set 2): late Qing reform and the 1911 Revolution, early republic and the May Fourth movement, CCP-KMT relations, the War of Resistance, civil war and the founding of the PRC, reform and opening plus historical method

2026-11-15

Chinese History – S6

S6 Chinese History practice paper set 2: 24 questions with mark schemes on late Qing reform, 1911, May Fourth, CCP-KMT ties, the war, civil war and reform.

Paper details　S6 Chinese History practice paper set 2 with 24 document and essay questions, mark schemes, and data-based items on modern China from 1842 to the reform era.

Section A Late Qing reform and the 1911 Revolution

Four questions, 4 marks each. Cite historical facts and compare where asked.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	Compare the Self-Strengthening Movement (from about 1861) with the Hundred Days Reform of 1898 on two points of aim and method. (4 marks)	Similarities: both aimed at national survival and accepted China was behind in military and technical terms, and both looked to the West (2 marks). Differences: Self-Strengthening stayed at the material level with government-supervised merchant enterprises and arsenals led by provincial governors; the 1898 reform touched institutions, seeking a constitutional monarchy and reform of the examination and official systems through the emperor (2 marks).
2	State three measures of the late Qing New Policies and explain two reasons why they failed to save the dynasty. (4 marks)	Measures (any three, 3 marks): abolition of the imperial examinations, modern schools, new army units, a board of commerce and encouragement of industry, preparations for a constitution, students sent abroad. Reasons for failure (1 mark): reform led by conservatives holding real power, lack of funds, the royal cabinet alienating constitutionalists, and heavier burdens on the people that fuelled unrest.
3	How many years passed between the Treaty of Nanking (1842) and the 1911 Revolution (1911)? Use this to explain two stages in the maturing of revolutionary thought. (4 marks)	Number of years: 69 (2 marks). Stages (2 marks): in the Taiping and Self-Strengthening period criticism targeted Qing corruption without a republican programme; after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 the Tongmenghui, the Three Principles and the debate with the constitutionalists turned revolution from a minority view into a mass movement.
4	What were the features of the Provisional Constitution of the Republic of China, and how far did it serve the republic? (4 marks)	Features: a responsible cabinet, sovereignty vested in the people, enumerated rights and duties, and a senate holding legislative power (2 marks). Significance: it repudiated absolute monarchy in fundamental-law form and set a republican legal tradition (1 mark). Limits: it left land and social structure untouched and lacked military backing, so Yuan Shikai quickly neutralised it (1 mark).

Section B Early republic, May Fourth and the New Culture movement

Four questions, 4 marks each; question 4 is data-based and must show working.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	Explain three causes of warlord division in the early republic. (4 marks)	Any three, about 1 mark each plus 1 for overall argument: provincial military power grew out of late Qing new army building; central authority collapsed without institutional transfer of power; foreign powers backed regional clients; military commanders captured local revenue, creating a cycle of self-financing armies.
6	What were the background and demands of the May Fourth movement, and why is it a turning point in modern Chinese nationalism? (4 marks)	Background: the Paris Peace Conference transferred German rights in Shandong to Japan, the New Culture enlightenment, and the rise of students and merchants (1 mark). Demands: recover sovereignty, remove traitors in office, refuse to sign the treaty (1 mark). Turning point: the movement spread from intellectuals to workers and shopkeepers with nationwide strikes and boycotts, linking anti-imperialism with anti-warlord politics so that mass mobilisation became the main engine of change (2 marks).
7	State three main tenets of the New Culture movement and explain its influence on later political movements. (4 marks)	Tenets (any three, 3 marks): democracy and science, rejection of old rites and the family system, vernacular writing and literary revolution, women’s emancipation, criticism of Confucian learning. Influence (1 mark): it gave young intellectuals a language and method for criticising tradition, letting the party founded 2 years after 1919 recruit them quickly, while wholesale anti-traditionalism provoked later conservative reappraisal.
8	Simulated figures for a city: vernacular newspapers circulated 12,000 copies in 1915 and 45,000 in 1923. Work out the percentage increase to one decimal place and draw two inferences about the spread of the New Culture movement. (4 marks)	Increase = (45,000 minus 12,000) divided by 12,000 times 100% = 275.0% (2 marks). Inferences (2 marks): a fast-growing vernacular readership made literate youth the main audience; publishing, postal and railway networks carried new ideas across regions; the rise also reflects periods of looser censorship.

Section C CCP-KMT relations

Four questions, 4 marks each; mind chronology and causation.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	On what basis did the first CCP-KMT united front (1924) rest, and why did it break up in 1927? (4 marks)	Basis (2 marks): shared opposition to imperialism and warlords, Soviet and Comintern backing, and Sun Yat-sen’s reorganisation of the KMT with policies of alliance with Russia and the communists and support for workers and peasants. Break-up (2 marks): agrarian and labour conflict sharpened as the Northern Expedition advanced, Chiang and Wang Jingwei purged the communists in turn, and the two sides differed fundamentally over revolutionary leadership and land. The 3-year alliance ended.
10	What were the main cause and the historical significance of the Long March? (4 marks)	Cause: defeat in positional warfare during the fifth encirclement forced evacuation of the Central Soviet (2 marks). Significance: it preserved the Red Army and confirmed Mao’s leadership, spread propaganda and peasant organisation so the revolutionary centre of gravity moved from city to countryside, and became a lasting symbol of endurance (2 marks).
11	How did the Xi’an Incident of 1936 bring about the second CCP-KMT united front, and what was one limit of that cooperation? (4 marks)	The incident: Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng detained Chiang demanding an end to civil war and resistance to Japan; the CCP sent Zhou Enlai and pressed for a peaceful settlement, after which Chiang halted the anti-communist campaigns and the two sides cooperated formally after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937 (3 marks). Limit: there was no common programme or unified command, each side keeping its own army and administration amid constant friction (1 mark).
12	How many years ran from the KMT First Congress (1924) to the purges of 1927? What two changes did the CCP make in organisation and strategy meanwhile? (4 marks)	3 years (1 mark). Changes (3 marks): membership shifted from intellectuals to workers and peasants organised in unions and peasant associations; strategy moved from urban labour agitation toward the peasantry and land questions; within the KMT it moved from bloc cooperation to preserving independence and preparing for armed struggle.

Section D The War of Resistance

Four questions, 4 marks each; question 3 is data-based.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	Why did the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937 mark the start of full-scale war? (4 marks)	Japan escalated from local provocation to general offensive, with major battles in north China and at Shanghai (2 marks); the National Government declared armed self-defence and CCP-KMT cooperation took shape, turning a local incident into a national war (2 marks).
14	What two effects did the War of Resistance have on China’s international standing? (4 marks)	China became one of the four major Allied powers and in 1945 helped found the United Nations as a permanent Security Council member (2 marks); some unequal treaty privileges were abolished and concessions recovered, raising diplomatic autonomy (2 marks), though exhaustion and inflation meant status outran real strength.
15	Simulated figures: government expenditure of HK$1,200 hundred million, of which military spending was HK$936 hundred million. Work out military spending as a percentage of expenditure to one decimal place and explain two effects of this structure on wartime society. (4 marks)	Percentage = 936 divided by 1,200 times 100% = 78.0% (2 marks). Effects (2 marks): spending on education, health and construction was squeezed; note issue financed deficits and drove an inflation spiral; conscription and grain levies burdened the countryside and swelled refugee flows.
16	Explain, in military, diplomatic and social terms, why China finally won the War of Resistance. (4 marks)	Military: protracted war trading space for time, guerrilla harassment behind the lines, and cooperation with Allied counter-offensives (2 marks); diplomatic: membership of the Allied coalition brought supplies and air support until Japan surrendered in 1945 (1 mark); social: mass mobilisation and rising national consciousness sustained the long attrition (1 mark).

Section E Civil war and the founding of the PRC

Four questions marked 4, 4, 5, 5. Argue from evidence and institutional change.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	Why did the balance in the civil war (1946 to 1949) reverse within three years? Give three reasons. (4 marks)	Any three: inflation and corruption cost the National Government urban middle-class support; land reform mobilised peasants and secured manpower and grain for the liberated areas; Nationalist forces were pinned to cities and rail lines with few mobile reserves; the three decisive campaigns destroyed the main forces and left no bargaining power. The war lasted 3 years.
18	How did land reform supply the CCP with war resources, and what one change did it make to rural social structure? (4 marks)	Resources (3 marks): landlord land was redistributed for peasant support in the form of recruitment, stretcher teams and grain levies; village government passed to peasant associations, raising the efficiency of tax and conscription. Structural change (1 mark): landlord political dominance in the village gave way to poor and middle peasants.
19	What was the foreign policy line of the early PRC, and what were the costs and effects of intervening in the Korean War? (5 marks)	Line (2 marks): lean to one side toward the USSR, start anew, and clean the house before inviting guests, sealed by the treaty of alliance with Moscow. Effects (2 marks): the advance toward the Yalu was halted, Soviet industrial and military aid followed, and the new regime’s standing rose. Costs (1 mark): heavy casualties and military spending, blocked UN representation, and two decades of Western embargo.
20	How did the First Five-Year Plan (1953-1957) and socialist transformation change the economy? Using simulated index numbers (industrial output 1952 = 100, 1957 = 185), work out total and average annual growth and make two evaluative points. (5 marks)	Total growth = (185 minus 100) divided by 100 times 100% = 85.0%; average annual growth = 85.0% divided by 5 = 17.0% (2 marks). Structural change (1 mark): heavy industry first, state and collective ownership replacing private firms, and cooperativisation of farming. Evaluation (2 marks): it built an industrial base and technical workforce, but light industry and agriculture were starved of investment and escalating targets stored up later imbalances.

Section F Reform and opening, and historical method

Four questions marked 4, 4, 5, 5; the last requires source criticism.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	What were three main causes of the Cultural Revolution? (4 marks)	Any three: a mistaken reading of class struggle combined with a personality cult; weak inner-party democracy and collective leadership with no institutional check; the post-Great Leap policy dispute recast as an antagonistic contradiction; a tense international setting and anti-revisionist rhetoric mobilising youth. About 1 mark each plus 1 for synthesis.
22	Reform and opening began in 1978. What were its main measures in agriculture, the urban economy and external opening? (4 marks)	Agriculture: household responsibility contracts replaced the communes and compulsory procurement ended (1-2 marks); urban economy: enterprise autonomy, dual-track pricing, legal private business (1-2 marks); external opening: special economic zones, foreign investment and technology, wider coastal opening after 2001 (1 mark). By 2018 the reform had run 40 years.
23	Compare the value and limits of primary and secondary sources, giving one example of each for the study of twentieth-century China. (5 marks)	Primary sources (2 marks), such as diaries, archives, newspapers and oral records, are close to events and actors but limited by standpoint, censorship and memory, so authenticity and context must be tested. Secondary sources (2 marks), such as monographs and articles, supply organisation, comparison and explanation but reflect the author’s questions and the mood of the time. Use (1 mark): cross-check both ways, test interpretation against documents, and attend to the institutional setting in which a source was produced.
24	Drawing on twentieth-century Chinese history, discuss continuity and rupture in modernisation across institutions, thought and society, and assess the explanatory power of a revolutionary narrative against a modernisation narrative. (5 marks)	Continuity (2 marks): modern schooling and a professional bureaucracy after the examinations were abolished, an industrialising drive dating from the late Qing, and recurring nationalist mobilisation. Rupture (1 mark): dynasty to republic, plan to market, and class discourse to development discourse were sharp breaks. Assessment (2 marks): the revolutionary narrative explains transfers of power and mass mobilisation but understates institutional continuity and everyday economic change; the modernisation narrative suits long-run structural analysis but can underrate conflict, violence and political choice. Best practice is to combine both and test them against sources.

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