17. The Great Leaps Forward (Changes in Industry)

What pushed Mao to do the First Five Year Plan?

• Mao wanted to develop China’s industry and modernise the country.

• The Soviet Union had demonstrated that this could be achieved through a communist system and central planning. Hundreds of Soviet advisers and specialists were welcomed into China to provide the knowledge and expertise needed for Mao to launch his industrialisation programme.

• By 1952, the land reforms had begun to push up agricultural output and to provide food for an urban workforce, and so Mao felt confident that he could follow his plans for industry.

What did the First Five Year Plan (1952-57) want to accomplish??

rapid expansion of heavy industry, coal, iron, steel and petroleum

What was achieved with the first 5 Year Plan?

• building of a road and rail bridge across the Yangzi River at Nanjing

• coal production doubled

• Electric power production increased by three times the previous level.

• Steel production increased by four times the previous level.

Why did Mao think a second 5 Year Plan was needed?

• It was claimed that the rapid improvement in industrial production showed that the communist system was better than the capitalist system it had replaced. Central planning had been accompanied by the gradual removal of private businesses as businessmen were brought into partnership with the state or taken over completely.

• The results were certainly impressive enough for Mao to feel confident that China could begin a new, more ambitious programme, with the announcement of the second Five Year Plan in 1958.

What is the Second Five Year Plan also called?

The Great Leap Forward (1958-1962)

What were the Reasons for the Great Leap Forward?

• Mao believed that anything could be achieved by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) if it just had the will to succeed (thought they could overtake England in just 15 years)

• He was convinced that communism was better than capitalism and that this had been proved by the Soviet Union’s success in being the first country to launch a satellite into space.

• He believed that the policy of collectivisation would produce sufficient food to feed the expanding industrial workforce and have enough left over to sell abroad and buy machinery.

• Mao also wanted to reduce China’s dependence on the Soviet Union, and he believed the Great Leap Forward would provide the rapid industrialisation that would make this possible.

What did Mao hope to achieve with the Great Leap Forward?

• Mao had come to power with the support of the peasants, but he believed that real progress would come through industrialisation. He was convinced that China could ‘leap’ from a rural economy to an industrial one without the disadvantages that affected a capitalist country as it moved towards a modern economy.

• The Great Leap Forward would happen under the slogan of ‘walking on two legs’. Mao believed that China would be able to increase its agricultural production and industrial production at the same time.

• Soon China would be able to end its dependence on the Soviet Union, which had provided experts and loans at very high rates of interest to fund the first Five Year Plan. Mao believed that China would soon be able to use her own experts.

What were Key Features of the Great Leap forward?

• The involvement of the whole population to achieve the targets. One way in which the enthusiasm of the workers was demonstrated was by the decision to use the manual labour of workers who dug out the soil by hand instead of using mechanical diggers.

• The collectivisation of agriculture – the change from APCs to collectives was an essential ingredient in increasing the supply of food for the urban workers (see pages 43–44).

• Backyard furnaces – the whole of China was involved in the campaign to produce steel. As many as 600,000 furnaces were set up in backyards in the towns and villages, and families melted down their metal implements. On the collective farms, men left the fields to work at the furnaces. They even melted down their farming tools and equipment.

• Privately owning businesses came to an end and all businesses were taken over by the state. This allowed the CCP to control exactly what was produced by industry and to achieve another step towards a communist system by removing private property and profits.

• Massive projects – giant bridges, canals and dams were constructed. The Chinese newspapers praised the economic achievements of communism.

What were the positives of the Great Leap Forward?

In 1958, 11 million tonnes of steel were produced, and there were huge rises in the production of coal, wood, cement and fertiliser in that year.

What were the many negatives of the Great Leap Forwards?

• Collectivisation failed and 50 million died in the famine.

• The steel produced in the backyard furnaces was of poor quality and had to be thrown away by the officials who collected it. Only steel produced in the large factories could be used in industrial production.

• Production in businesses decreased, as without the profit motive there was no reason to work hard.

• The Soviet experts left China in 1960, but the Chinese were not yet sufficiently trained to manage without them (see page 79).

• As early as 1959, even Mao admitted that the Great Leap Forward had failed, when he commented on his own limitations as an economic planner and instructed party members to reflect on their own failings. The Great Leap Forward seriously damaged Mao politically. He resigned as head of state and for the next few years was rarely seen in public.