Agriculture and Industry 1949-65 Flashcards

1
Q

why did Mao want to reform agriculture?

A
  • 1949: Mao told the world the “Chinese people had stood up” and they would no longer be the “Sick Man of Asia”, he wanted China to be a modern superpower
  • ideological: Mao believed modern industry was needed to create a truly socialist nation so food supplies needed to e increased to feed the growing urban population working in factories
  • collectivisation of farmland would bring the creation of true communism because everyone would have to share everything
  • Mao’s unorthodox Marxist view that peasants, not workers could be “vanguards of the revolution” as their desperation to escape poverty made them useful reforming agriculture = more support from peasants
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2
Q

how did Mao reform agriculture?

A
  • Agrarian Reform Law
  • attack on landlords
  • MATs
  • APCs
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3
Q

what was the Agrarian Reform Law?

A

1950: land reform to destroy “gentry landlord” class who exploited the poor peasant renters
- many landlords sentenced to death, land redistributed to the tiller to “set free the rural productive forces”

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4
Q

why was the Agrarian Reform Law problematic?

A
  • in the north: land reform already begun since communists in control, before 1949 and only 10-15 percent of farmers rented land so exploitation by landlords low
  • in south: GMD had retained control before fleeing to Taiwan so land reform hadn’t begun
  • often land ownership organised by clans based on family ties so “class conflict” with greedy landlords had little meaning and many didn’t want to seize the land of family members
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5
Q

how were landlords attacked to reform agriculture?

A
  • peasants round up landlords, subject them to public struggle meetings where they admit to being “class enemies” and then often sentenced to death
  • use of violence ranged: Mao sometimes urged caution and stated to adhere to the social unity outlined in the Common Program
  • peasants used meetings to settle family feuds and seize land from a rich landlord to improve their own living standard
  • landlords (couldn’t flee to Taiwan, their asset of land couldn’t be transferred) scapegoated by CCP to invoke a sense of class consciousness vital to sustain revolution
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6
Q

impact of land reform by 1952

A

“land to the tiller” movement mostly complete
-between 1950 and 1952 agricultural output increased at a rate of 15 percent per annum
- “gentry landlord” class destroyed with 1-2M dead

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7
Q

in what ways did CCP and the peasants have different expectations from land reform policy?

A

peasants: support for land reform wasn’t always ideological they wanted a greater living standard with less landlord exploitation and food security

CCP: land reform as a ideological stepping stone for creating a socialist, industrialised economy
- collectivise agriculture to create a surplus of food to feed industrial workers in factories
- Mao: “the peasants want freedom, but we want socialism”
- some cadres had a personal interest in collectivisation as it was easier for them to extract grain from APCs than individual farmers

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8
Q

what were Mutual Aid Teams (MATs)?

A
  • Dec 1951: CCP introduce co operative ownership of land
  • animals, labour, tools shared between 10 or fewer households (richer peasants excluded)
  • popular: mirrored common practises in villages and by 1952 roughly 40 percent of all peasant households belonged to an MAT
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9
Q

what were Voluntary Agricultural Producers Co operatives (APCs)?

A
  • 1953: reduce economic freedoms of MATs and furthers collectivisation
  • 3-5 MATs joined together: land reorganised into a single unit and peasants compensated using a points system according to the land/ labour they contribute
  • only 14 percent joined: less popular than MATs
  • rich peasants resistant: slaughter their animals rather than be forced to give them to APC
  • bad economic output: First Five Year Plan assumed a 23 percent increase in economic production, actually had risen less than 2 percent
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10
Q

why did some CCP members disagree with collectivisation?

A
  • gradualists such as Shaoqi claimed China wasn’t ready for large scale farming
  • Mao disagreed in 1955 he demanded an end to all private property
  • argued grassroots enthusiasm could make up for shortfall in mechanical equipment
  • feared slow agricultural growth could jeopardise industrialisation as food exports were how he paid for imports of advanced tech from Soviet Union
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11
Q

how did APCs grow and why was in significant?

A
  • with Mao’s encouragement, 96 percent of peasant farmers in APCs by Dec 1956 with the majority in higher level ones (200-300 households)
  • Mao was convinced peasant support meant agricultural mechanisation wasn’t necessary for large scale production and announced it was “possible socialism will be realised in 1959”
  • change from Feb 1953 Party’s Central Committee when he declared “the peasants’ individual economy will exist… for a considerable length of time”
  • pragmatism abandoned: private ownership abolished and only labour of peasants compensated for, equipment and land taken over by state
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12
Q

why did Mao want to create communes?

A
  • Mao’s unorthodox Marxist view that peasants, not workers could be “vanguards of the revolution” meant he built communism in the countryside first by forcing them to live in communes
  • communes were to be big and incorporate both agricultural and industrial production “Walking on Two Legs” - Mao
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13
Q

how were communes created?

A

August 1958: Politburo resolution declares communed to be the “basic social units of communist society”
- “Sputnik Commune” was first to be established, Mao declared “the people’s commune is great”
- Mao’s endorsement accelerates transformation from co operatives to communes
- party claimed 99 percent of peasants lived in communes by the end of the year

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14
Q

Mao’s vision of communes

A

-self reliant: approx 5500 households with agricultural + industrial production, healthcare, education all within it
- mess halls enabled communal eating which builds revolutionary fervour
- women can work fields instead of being side-lined to housework + 90 percent work in 1958-1959
- propaganda celebrates “iron women” for taking equal role in economic production

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15
Q

reality of communes

A
  • communes organised into brigades and divided into platoons
  • commune militia as police force to punish lazy workers
  • destroyed traditional family life: forced to eat in mess halls, parents lose influence over children
  • poor quality of food in mess halls
  • women unused to physical labour were overworked
  • production barely rose, Mao blames sparrows
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16
Q

what was the Four Pests Campaign?

A

1958: rid China of sparrows that ate grain, rats, flies, mosquitos
- peasants bang pots to scare sparrows from landing, reward for bodies of birds
- sparrowcide destroyed food chain, caterpillars increased and devoured harvest
- Lysenkoism: fraudulent research of Soviet scientist followed which led to drop in agricultural production
- cadres don’t report failure (worried they’ll lose job) instead claiming they’d exceeded the quota so party further increases the already ambitious quota

17
Q

when was the First Five Year Plan and why was it enacted?

A

1952-1956
- mirrored Russia’s model for industrialisation with Mao stating “the Communist party of the soviet union is our best teacher” as Soviet Union transformed from backwards agricultural nation to industrialised one capable of defeating Germany in ww2
- CCP considered industrialisation key to becoming independent and respected nation
- USSR also China’s only major ally after trade embargos imposed by West over involvement in Korea

18
Q

How did the USSR support China during the First Five Year Plan?

A

Sino Soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty: Feb 1950
- construction/ reconstruction of 156 major industrial enterprises
- industrial experts to organise centrally planned economy
- loan of 300M dollars over 5 years

19
Q

what were the targets of the First Five Year Plan?

A
  • becoming an autarkic state with high growth in heavy industry
  • high level of grain procurement at fixed prices to fuel industrialisation, 1953 target was 22M tonnes
  • progress towards communism “there’s only one real foundation for a socialist society, and it is large industry” said by Lenin
20
Q

successes of First Five Year Plan

A
  • heavy industrial output nearly tripled
  • industrial working class from 6M to 10M
  • 1956: private sector industry abolished
  • living standard of industrial workers improved, year long work
  • workers organised into Danwei which provided permits for marriage and controlled access to welfare support (success for party, costs workers their freedom)
  • average growth averaged 16%
21
Q

failures of First Five Year Plan

A
  • loans from USSR had high interest rates and to meet repayment schedules farmers had to sell crops to the state at a very low price so peasantry survived at a subsistence level
  • value of agricultural output onto grew 2 percent per year: working class unhealthy due to lack of food imports
  • lack of investment in healthcare and education meant there was a shortage of doctors and poor living standard amongst peasantry
22
Q

when was the Second Five Year Plan/ The Great Leap Forward?

A

1958-62

23
Q

why did the Great Leap Forward occur?

A

-Mao dismissive of “slave mentality” towards experts, sought to modernise China through mass mobilisation to increase both agricultural and industrial production (Walking on Two Legs)
- wanted China to be a great economic power to compete with West, wants to overtake Britain in technology in 15 years
- optimism: industrial success of First Five Year Plan and communist successes during Cold War (1957 Sputnik)

24
Q

successes of the Great Leap Forward

A
  • mass irrigation = more fertile land
  • construction projects modernised Chinese cities and Tiananmen Square urbanised (at cost to historical buildings)
  • true communism: people in communes lack private property and pool labour, food
25
Q

failures of Great Leap Forward

A
  • absurd targets: gov officials advance careers by boasting about economic improvements under policies eg Minister of Metallurgy states he’ll produce 100M tonnes of steel by 1977
  • after 1950s purges, no one dared to tell Mao the truth that mass mobilisation couldn’t overcome China’s lack of industrialisation and China lacked intellectuals with ability to organise industry
  • woks, pots, pans melted in backyard furnaces and steel produced was ultimately of very poor quality and had to be buried
  • by 1962, industrial production declined 40 percent from 1958 due to shortages of raw materials and lack of workers
  • Great Famine
26
Q

why did the Great Famine occur?

A
  • “wind of exaggeration” meant greater quotas were set based off of already inflated figures
  • falsely assuming a surplus of grain, orders were given to leave 1/3 of land fallow
  • grain exports rise to pay USSR and given as free gifts to North Korea and North Vietnam
  • typhoons caused flooding in South China and rivers dried up
  • 1960: Khrushchev recalls Soviet economic advisers due to strained political relationship so party’s ability to deal with catastrophe reduced
  • Mao’s terror meant intellectuals unwilling or unable to provide advice
  • individual Party leaders: as people of Henan starved, party boss build 7 luxurious villas
27
Q

life during the Great Famine

A
  • greatest famine in human history: 9M died in Sichuan alone
  • resort to grinding leaves to make “flour”, birth rates dropped, cases of cannibalism
  • 30-50M died
28
Q

when was the Lushan Conference and why was it important?

A
  • 1959: Duhuai voices doubts over inflated grain procurement levels after his visit to his home village in Hunan where he saw the effects of famine
  • Mao feels its a personal attack: accuses Peng of forming a “right opportunist clique” and strips him of ministerial post and barred from Politburo
  • Mao threatens to return to his life as a guerilla fighter and overthrow the CCP with a new Red Army if Party didn’t become subservient to him