10. Economic development of the PRC 1959-62

Question 1

What is collectivisation?
what are the steps of collectivisation?

Answer 1

grouping peasants together to increase output
S1 – mutual aid teams grouped peasants into groups of 10 to increase yields
S2 – first agricultural producers (APCs) were groups of 30-50 households
S3 – higher stage APC 200-300 households

Question 2

What were the results of collectivization?

Answer 2

• CCP controlled countryside was strengthened
• 17 million peasant households belonged to APCs, 63% of population

Question 3

What were the causes for the first 5yr plan?

Answer 3

• Wanted to minimalize foreign trade, make China self-sufficient and nationalise foreign business
• It was based of the USSR in the 1920s as the soviets also made 5yr plans

Question 4

What were the events of the first 5yr plan?

Answer 4

• Targets were set – increasing production of steel, heavy industry and transport
• Financed through patriotic savings where people were exhorted to save money in state banks as they didn’t have much to spend their money on.
• Government procurement quotas was when the government took a proportion of food produced,

Question 5

What were the consequences of the first 5yr plan?

Answer 5

• Industrial sector exceeded targets – in 1952 they had 68.5million metric tonnes of coal and in 1957 they had 130 million.
• Many new workers were illiterate and not trained for industrial work

Question 6

What were the origins of the second five year plan (Great Leap Forward)

Answer 6

• Wanted to transport China into an industrial superpower
• The first 5yr plan hd been successful and collectivisation was ahead of schedule
• Mass mobilisation was key

Question 7

What were the key features of the GLF?

Answer 7

• Walking on 2 legs movement was a slogan used for communes to become centres for industrial and agricultural production
• Ambitious targets that were unachievable meant cadres lied about statistics causing the targets to rise more causing famine
• 8 point agricultural constitution – Trofim Lysenko – increase yields you need to plant seeds deeper and closer together
• 4 noes campaign – eradication of sparrows

Question 8

What was the GLF like in practise?

Answer 8

• In 1959 5 provinces reported they had food shortages
• In 1958 backyard furnaces went from making 14% of China’s steel to 49%
• Only 8million of the 80million tonnes of steel targeted was useable

Question 9

What were the reasons for the failure of the GLF?

Answer 9

• Weather conditions – floods in south, droughts in north
• Ant rightest campaign – people so scared
• Competing demands – men were made to do military time away from fields
• Relations with USSR – withdrawal of soviet technical experts
• Peasant reluctance – hoarding grain for own consumption
• MAOs leadership
• Unrealistic targets – cadres lied about meeting targets