The plan's targets, successes and failures

what was the overall aim of the first Five-Year Plan?

to make the PRC as self-sufficient in food and manufactured goods as possible, in order to protect China in a potentially hostile capitalist world

by what year were principles already in place for the first Five-Year plan?

1952

where would targets be set from?

above by economic planners, rather than in response to consumer demand

what aspect of industry would come first?

heavy industry

what made up heavy industry?

iron and steel, transport and communications, energy supply, industrial machinery and chemicals

what was added for their propaganda value?

several spectacular public works projects, like new bridges across the Yangtze and Nanjing

where were the basic ideas of the first Five-Year plan given a preliminary dry-run in?

Manchuria, where heavy industry was already well established, before being applied to the entire nation

what was an aim regarding heavy industries in the first Five-Year plan?

to channel resources into these heavy industries, away from consumer goods, which were regarded as less important

what was hoped people would be more willing to invest in?

patriotic savings schemes

what did the government want to use the patriotic savings schemes for?

to direct spending into industrial investment, if there were few consumer goods to tempt them into spending on alternatives

why were collective farms forced to sell food at low prices to the government?

it was hoped to keep industrial workers' wages low, because cheap food would be readily available in the urban areas

initially, what industries were nationalised?

only those belonging to foreigners

what industries were nationalised in 1949?

those in the banking, gas, electricity and transport sectors of the economy

what did the fear generated by the 'five antis' campaign make possible?

in early 1956 to bring an end to private ownership entirely

for business owners, why was it easier to accept compensation from the state for their enterprises?

it was better than to run the risk of being denounced as 'rightists' and suffer the inevitable punishment that would have incurred

how was the first Five-Year plan to be financed?

by higher levels of taxation in the cities and loans from the USSR as well as by food requisitioning from the APCs and patriotic savings schemes

according to the official statistics, what did most sectors of the economy succeed in?

reaching their targets

what was the annual growth rate per year during the first Five-Year plan?

about 9%

why was the 9% annual growth rate a favourable figure?

it compared favourable with the Russian experience in the 1930s, particularly when it is remembered that the war in Korea disrupted long-term planning early on

how did Urban living standards improve?

in terms of wages and job security

what was the improvement of wages and job security at the expense of?

a loss of freedom to change jobs or travel

where did many people migrate to during the first Five-Year plan?

to the cities

how much did the population grow from in 1949 to 1957?

from 57 million in 1949 to 100 million by 1957

despite the overall success of the first Five-Year plan, why were the figures unlikely to be completely reliable?

because officials had an obvious vested interest in exaggerating levels of production in order to please their superiors, in the same ways as cadres in the communes covered up the true state of affairs

what did the emphasis on reaching targets put the emphasis on?

quantity over quality

what was the negative aspect to the first Five-Year plan regarding Soviet guidance?

while Soviet guidance was invaluable, it exposed the shortcomings in the skill and literacy levels of Chinese workers that would only improve when the education system was updated

what was education like by the time the first Five-Year plan ended?

less than half the children under 16 were in full-time education

which economic planners had remained in place after 1949?

many of the economic planners who worked for the Nationalists

why did the standard of bureaucratic administration suffer by the time the plan began?

the 'anti' campaigns of 1951-52 had driven out many of the economic planners who worked for the Nationalists previously, which was many of of them

what was there a competition for resources between?

private and state-owned enterprises

when did the competition between private and state-owned enterprises resolve?

until the ending of private ownership in 1956

in the countryside, how successful was the first Five-Year plan?

it had more negative than positive influences

why were the peasants in the communes going short of food?

because it was being exported to Russia to pay for the Soviet advice, and sold cheaply to the cities to feed the urban workers

what was the ironic twist of Soviet advice?

that Lysenkoism, which formed part of the Soviet advice that they were paying for, was actually making peasants' lives much worse