2- Second Plan Flashcards
Mao’s reasons for launching- economic
- Making China a global power: ‘leaping’ forward to overtake western powers like the UK
- China’s uneven economic development
- Mass mobilisation and ‘peasant power’
- On an economic level, industrialisation depended on agriculture becoming more productive and efficient to feed the industrial workforce. This would free up peasants, who would migrate to the cities to become urban workers themselves.
Mao’s reason for launching- personal and political factors
Personal level, high confidence. Politically, Mao had just returned from Moscow determined to show the Soviet Union that he could act independently of them. By moving from socialism to communism along the ‘Chinese road’, rather than following the Russian model, Mao hoped to demonstrate his credentials as the next leader of the communist world. Ideologically, mass mobilisation (greatest asset) and the greater degree of decentralisation gave more scope for local initiative to thrive.
Nature of the Great Leap
- Small-scale production would be prioritised, e.g. the backyard furnaces
- Rather than relying on Soviet-style central planning, mass mobilisation would connect China’s economic development to the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese people.
Successes- mass mobilisation
Mass mobilisation with backyard furnaces and Water conservancy projects which involved millions of peasant workers by the end of 1957. Work brigades were sent out from the communes to construct dams and reservoirs. All over China, hundreds of smaller projects were instigated and some relatively successful. - Mao able to move away from the Soviet model.
Successes- propaganda
Some eye-catching propaganda successes, notably the construction of Tiananmen Square in Beijing.
Successes- figures
- By the end of 1958, almost 50% of China’s steel was produced by small-scale rural factories, based in the communes.
- Invested in irrigation: providing water to drier farmland so more crops could be grown. The amount of irrigated farmland doubled 1958.
Failures- lack of planning
It did not involve planners announcing carefully thought-out targets. Instead, the organisational details were often left to the initiative of local cadres. Targets were constantly being revised upwards, sometimes by Mao, or by keen officials trying to create a good impression.
Failures- backyard furnaces
The night sky was turned red by the fire of so many improvised kilns, and by day smoke blotted out the sun. October 1958, 49% of China’s steel came from local furnaces. At its peak, it is reckoned that a quarter of the population had abandoned their normal activities to take part. Unsustainable strain on food production. Schools closed and peasants deployed on shock brigades, made up of anyone available, to get in the harvest. When it became clear that it was a failure in 1959, the campaign was cut back, but not abandoned, for fear of losing face. Peasants continued to melt down their pots, pans into worthless steel, which was taken away by the authorities and buried out of sight. Not only was the campaign economically damaging in deploying people on futile activity to the detriment of producing food, it also had negative ecological consequences, since it led to the destruction of vast swathes of woodland to supply fuel for the furnaces. This led to faster soil erosion and wore flooding, increasing the need for water conservancy schemes. Communes left without essential tools and equipment.
Failures- State-owned enterprises. SOEs.
Prices, output targets and wages set by the state and no longer any bargaining for better conditions between employers and workers. Inefficient as it removed incentives to work harder. Demotivation- whether the SOE was efficiently run or not did not matter to workers or management, since any surplus went straight to the state.
Failures- water conservancy
Mao argued that sheer numbers could achieve the desired result without needing access to advanced machinery. Rudimentary equipment like shovels, baskets and carrying poles to construct dams and reservoirs.
Failures- Some of the new irrigation schemes
Some of the new irrigation schemes were total disasters because they were not thought through properly beforehand. The Three Gate Gorge Dam, designed to control the flow of the Yellow River, had to be rebuilt within a year. By 1962, twice as much mud was being deposited downstream, and foreign visitors were banned from going near the dam.
Failures- The smaller projects
The smaller projects- the cost in terms of lives lost and labour taken away from farming was colossal. In many areas, the disruption of existing drainage patterns caused by building new irrigation systems led to an increase in salinisation, which reduced the productivity of the land. (excessive build-up of salt in the soil, which reduces its fertility.)
Failures- Mao’s response to Three Gate Gorge Dam
when doubts arose about the design, he wrote an editorial in the People’s Daily newspaper entitled ‘What is this trash?’. Technical issues that threatened to cause delays brushed aside.
Figures for coal
Coal 1958- 230 millions of tonnes. 1962- 180
Failures- key figures to remember
By 1962, China was only producing half the amount of heavy industrial goods and three-quarters the amount of light industrial goods that were being made in 1958.
