2) Agriculture and Industry, 1949-65

Why did Agriculture matter so much to Mao and CCP

To abolish private property.

To feed urban workers and the PLA.

To increase the CCP's control in the countryside.

To increase peasant support for the revolution.

To repay the heavy debts to the USSR.

To fund industrialisation through grain sales.

To transform China into a superpower

To create a more communistic way of life.

When was the Agarian Reform Law launched?(Land to the Tiller)

June 1950

What was the aim of the Agarian Reform Law? (Land to the Tiller)

The aim was to replace exploitative landlords with peasant land ownership.

What were the problems with the Agarian Reform Law?

Problem 1 = The CCP was trying to impose a simplistic, rigid plan onto a complex reality, as patterns of land ownership and use vary by region.

Problem 2 = Land was organised by family clans, not by class

How did the Agarian Reform Law lead to the Attack on Landlords?

Traditional clan loyalties made it difficult to convince peasants to oppose local landlords or wealthier peasants.

Work teams of Party Cadres were sent to rural areas to organise reform and spread propaganda.

Organised peasantry into Poor Peasants’ Associations.

After classification, landlords were subjected to struggle meetings. (Red, White or Black types)

Campaigns helped spread class consciousness among peasants.

What was the impact of the Land Reform?

Summer 1952 - An estimated 88% of households had taken part.

43% of the land had been redistributed to 60% of the population.

During 1950-2, agricultural output increased by 15%.

An estimated 1-2 million landlords had been executed.

When was Gradual Collectivisation?

1952 - 6

What were the Steps to gradual collectivisation, 1952-6?

1) Peasants Land Ownership, 1950-1

2) Mutual Aid Teams (MATS), 1952-3

3) Voluntary Agricultural Producers Cooperatives, 1953-5

4) Forced Agricultural Producers Cooperatives (APCs), 1955-6

What was the 1st stage of Collectivisation of Agriculture in China, 1952-6?

Peasant Land Ownership 1950-1.

= Poorer peasants thought they could now own their land.

= Yet the CCP wanted to create a, communal agriculture which would aid industry.

What was the 2nd stage of Collectivisation of Agriculture in China, 1952-6?

Mutual Aid Teams (MATs) 1952-3

Voluntary teams in which peasants pooled resources such as tools and animals.

• Involved 10 households or fewer, excluding the richest peasants.

• By 1952, 40% of peasants’ households belonged to a MAT.

What was the 3rd stage of Collectivisation of Agriculture in China, 1952-6?

Voluntary Agricultural Producers Cooperatives (APC) 1953-5.

= Land would be shared. Land was reorganised as a single unit & peasants were compensated using point systems.

• Involved 30-50 households (3-5 MATs).

• 14% of peasants joined the new units.

What was the 4th stage of Collectivisation of Agriculture in China, 1952-6?

Forced APCs - The ‘socialist high tide’ 1955-6.

= Marked full-scale collectivisation of agriculture 1953-4: agri output had risen by less than 2%. July 1955 Mao demanded an increased pace of collectivization which was carried out by local party cadres.

• Higher-level APCs contained 200-300 households.

• End of 1956: 96% of peasants in APCs; 88% in higher ones.

When was the People’s Commune introduced?

1958

What problems did the CCP believe communes would be able to help with from 1958?

Lack of industrial workers to build Communism

Disappointing agricultural output = grain production had risen only 1% in 1957

Experts are now not trusted as much due to the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957

Slow pace of industrial growth and output

How were Communes meant to help the issue of lacking industrial workers?

Problem = Lack of Industrial workers to build Communism

Thought communes would help build Communism in the countryside first - ‘the socialisation of agriculture’

Outcomes = Communal eating took place in mess halls; communal creches and schools were set up.

How were Communes meant to help the issue of low agricultural output?

Problem

Disappointing agricultural output-grain production had risen only 1% in 1957

Communes would help as peasants would work together in brigades & production units of platoons.

Outcome

An estimated 90% of women laboured in agriculture, 1958-9, but output didn’t rise enough.

How were Communes meant to help with the issue of lacking experts?

Problems

Experts are now not trusted as much due to the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957

Communes were meant to help overcome this by creating self-sufficient communities that would acquire new skills.

Outcome

Force had to be used via the commune militias to discipline those who did not follow commune rules.

How were Communes meant to help with the issue of slow pace Industrial growth/output?

Problem

Slow pace of industrial growth and output

Communes were meant to help by backyard steel furnances which would devlop within the communes, making them self-sufficient.

Outcome

Much of the industrial output proved to be of poor quality during the GLF, 1958-62.

Commune Facts -

They enforced discipline through the commune militia.

They enforced production through production teams/platoons.

• Collective farming

• 30,000 across China

• 99% of peasants were in communes

• 5,500 households in a commune

• 90% of women laboured in agriculture (1958-9)

• Communal mess halls, creches, and schools

Communes were ‘Walking on two legs’ (Industry and agriculture)

When was the Four Pest Campaign?

1958

What was the Four Pest Campaign 1958

Aims - To improve agricultural output by destroying sparrows, rats, flies and mosquitoes.

Methods - mass mobilisation

Outcomes - Killing sparrows simply helped a different pest, caterpillars.

When was Lysenkoism?

1958-

What was Lysenkoism 1958?

Aims - To improve agricultural output by following Pseudo- Scientists belief that production modifications could be inherited by the crops. (Close cropping)

Methods - Pseudo-Science and Ideology

Outcomes -Time was wasted and output failed to increase significantly.

When was the First Five-Year Plan in Industry?

1953 - 7

How did the USSR assist China during the First Five-Year Plan (1953-7)

‘The Soviet Union’s today is our tomorrow’

A trade embargo had been imposed on China by the Western powers due to China’s involvement in the Korean War.

China was no longer just leaning to one side; it heavily relied on the Soviet Union.

Sino-Soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty, Feb. 1950 - grain given to each other.

= Construction of 156 major industrial enterprises.

= 11,000 Soviet experts sent to China to teach engineering, etc.

= 28,000 Chinese technicians go to the Soviet Union to learn.

= Loan of $300 million over 5 years.

Sino-Soviet split 1960s

How was Industry affected during the First Five-Year Plan?

35,000 new steelworkers at Anshan (S)

The annual growth rate average was 18% (S)

Heavy industry nearly tripled (S)

The proletariat increased from 6 million to 10 million (S)

How was Agriculture affected during the First Five-Year Plan?

The value of agricultural output decreased from 14.1% to 2.1%. (1949-52) (F)

Farmers sold crops at low prices (F)

Aim to produce 22m tons of grain at fixed (low) prices. (F)

APCs and collectivisation developed at this time - impact.

How were Living Standards affected during the First Five-Year Plan?

Little is spent on healthcare (max = 2.6% of the budget). (F)

Few consumer goods are available (retail firms have taken over) (F)

Farmers reduced to subsistence levels (grain monopoly, 1953) (F)

Urban workers: Job security and guaranteed work all year. (S)

How were the Power of the CCP & PLA affected during the First Five-Year Plan?

Railway expansion = PLA movement (S)

The private sector was abolished by 1956. (S)

Household registration system, 1955. (S)

Danwei (work units) controlled access to welfare.

What the overall concensus of the First Five-Year Plan?

The First Five-Year Plan in Industry had gone well.

Agricultural output was disappointing but plummeted during the Second Five-Year Plan

When was the Second Five-Year Plan?

1958 - 62

Great Leap Forward

Why did Mao launch the Great Leap Forward?

He wanted to place China as the leading Communist Nation in Asia.

Industrial production had risen by 18% during the First Five-Year Plan. This convinced him that very quick and large improvements in agr. Production could be the same.

Appeared that the Communists were winning the Cold War. Technology appeared to be ascendant over that of the West.

= Sputnik (1957) looked as if they won the Space Race.

= Mao made a speech in Moscow: ‘The East wind is prevailing over the West wind’

Mao wanted to achieve what was termed ‘Walking on Two Legs’ - declared that the economy was under the control of the ‘General Steel’ and ‘General Grain’

What was the Successes of the Second Five-Year Plan, 1958-62?

Only had a few successes.

Extensive irrigation terracing enhanced the fertility of agricultural land.

Tiananmen Square was remodelled into a modern urban space, though many historical buildings had to be levelled to make this possible.

Ideologically believed that people in communes lived closer to a communistic model than before.

What were the Failures of the Second Five-Year Plan? 1958 - 62

The targets of the Plan were absurd. Gov officials knew that to improve their careers was to impress Mao, so they told him his economic policies would achieve unheard-of economic improvements.

Overconfident, as he raised the target for steel production from 6m to 9m then wanted to increase it further to 11m.

The Anti-Rightist Campaign meant no intellectuals or experts left to offer advice or provide rational economic planning.

Peasants were encouraged to set up backyard furnaces to contribute to steel production, but cadres enforced unrealistic goals.

= They melted down everything possible (roofs, doors)

= Yet the steel produced was of extremely poor quality and essentially useless.

= This diversion of labor led to economic breakdown, leaving food to rot in the fields.

Factories were closed or reduced their production due to shortages of raw materials. By 1962, industrial production had declined by 40% from the 1958-59 levels.

What was the Statistical Failures of the 2nd 5-Year Plan, 1958-62?

Grain Output:

1958 = 200 million metric tons

1961 = 147 million metric tons

Steel Production:

1958 = 8.8 million metric tons.

1960 = 18.7 million metric tons.

1962 = 6.6 million metric tons.

Coal Production:

1958 = 270 million metric tons

1960 = 400 million metric tons

1962 = 220 million metric tons

Industrial Total output:

1958 = 121 billion yuan

1960 = 183 billion yuan

1962 = 94 billion yuan

Great Famine (1958-62) Key facts -

The biggest failure of the GLF was by causing the largest man-made famine in human history at worst during 1959-61.

The rural party cadres did not want to be labelled as ‘rightists’ and therefore exaggerated their production reports.

= This led the party to demand even higher results because of a ‘Wind of exaggeration’

Before the famine, the rural death rate was 11 per 1000 inhabitants by 1960 increased to 28 per 1000.

During the Famine, the peasants relied on tree bark to make ‘porridge’ or grind leaves for ‘flour’.

Approximately at least 30-50 million people died.

Number of cases of cannibalism and sex work as an attempt to survive.

Due to mass starvation it affected industry which had fallen by 40% by 1962.

What caused The Great Famine, 1958-62?

The main cause of the famine was the over-optimism of Mao and the CCP about what could be achieved through mass mobilisation.

= Party boss in Sichuan province said that ‘Which dynasty has not witnessed death by Starvation?’

The famine was made worse by typhoons and droughts which hit China during the GLF.

= Drought reduced the flow of the Yellow River by 2/3s

= 8/12 main rivers in Shandong dried up.

= More than 60% of cultivated land was affected by river flood or drought.

= 2 million died through drowning or from starvation due to their crops being destroyed.

Worsening relations with the USSR led Khrushchev to withdraw all Soviet advisers during the GLF in 1960, and these could have helped

Local officials concealed the truth of the famine and peasantry so that more aid could not be sent to the famine-stricken areas.

When was the Lushan Conference?

July 1959

What happened at the Lushan Conference?

The Minister of Defence, Peng Dehuai, voiced doubts about the reports of a record grain harvest.

This was written in a private letter to Mao, and he believed his status in the party would protect him from being tortured and imprisoned. - Sent to a bad area of Beijing

Mao announced a warning that if criticism continued, he threatened to overthrow the government by leading the peasantry and return to his life as a guerrilla fighter.

He replaced Peng with Lin Biao as Defence Minister and leader of the PLA (1959)

Admitted that backyard furnaces had been a ‘great catastrophe’ but encouraged other leaders to take the blame, yet the failure could never be ignored.

Criticism led to Mao chosing to retire from day-to-day politics

What were the reactions to the Great Leap Forward, 1962?

Mao Zedong -

‘The Chaos was on a grand scale, and I take responsibility.’

‘However, Successes outweighed failures by a ratio of 9 to 1’

Liu Shaoqi -

‘Problems were 30% natural disaster and 70% man-made.’

When was Dengs and Liu’s economic reforms?

1962 - 65

Economic reforms of Deng and Liu 1962-5

Communes scaled back; peasants allowed to grow more on private plots.

Factors required to make a profit, not just run a communist line.

Deng = “It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white as long as it catches rats”

Light industry went up by 27% per year

Heavy industry grew by 17% per year

Experts and intellectuals were promoted, replacing low-level cadres.

Peasants were allowed to trade what they wanted on the free market.