AGRICULTURE & INDUSTRY, 1949-65 Flashcards
In 1949, Mao stood up and told the world that the Chinese would no longer be the…
Sick man of Asia
What was Mao’s unorthodox Marxist view on peasants?
They’re the vanguards of the revolution
When was Agrarian Reform Law introduced?
June 1950
What was the main aim of Agrarian Reform Law?
Destroy the gentry-landlord class
What were landlords subject to after land seizure?
Struggle meetings
How much households had taken part in Land Reform?
88%
How much did total agricultural production increase annually between 1950-52?
15%
How many landlords were executed during Land Reform?
2 million
When were MAT’s introduced
December 1951
What were MAT’s?
- Mutual Aid Teams
- Consisted of 10 or fewer households.
- Peasants pool their resources (tools, ploughs, own labour).
How many households belonged to an MAT in 1952?
40%
When did the 2nd stage of collectivisation begin?
1953
What were APCs?
- Agricultural Producers Co-Operatives.
- Land reorganised into a single unit and compensated using a point system according to how much they contributed.
- APC’s were 3-5 MAT’s joint together.
How many households in APC’s by 1955?
16.9 million out of 110 million.
What were the disagreements over collectivisation?
Gradualists like Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai claim that china was not yet ready for large-scale farming.
How many peasant farmers in APC’s in 1956?
96%
When was the Sino-Soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty signed?
February 1950
What did Soviet support include?
- Constructution of 156 major industrial enterprises.
- 11,000 Soviet and Eastern European industrial experts.
- 28,000 Chinese technicians to study in Russia.
- $300 million loan
What was the 1st FYP’s targets?
- High rate of growth in heavy industry.
- Investment in advanced technology.
- Construction of modern industrial plants.
- Self-sufficiency.
- High level of grain procurement at fixed prices.
- Stimulate the transformation towards a socialist society.
What were the 1st FYP’s successes?
- Annual growth rate 16%.
- Industrial output grew to 15.5% a year.
- Heavy industry output tripled.
- Industrial WC grew from 6 to 10 million.
- Standard of living for industrial workers improved.
- Workers organised into Danwei.
What were the 1st FYP’s failures?
- Plan dependant on loans from SU which had high interest rates.
- Value of agricultural output grew only 2.1% a year.
- Supply of consumer goods were low.
- Chinese still lacked organisational and management experience.
- Little investment in improving healthcare and education.
Why did Mao launch the Great Leap Forward?
- Desperate to tranform China into a great economic power.
- Optimism.
- ‘Walk on 2 legs’.
What were the successes of the 2nd FYP?
- Irrigation terracing helped make agricultural land more fertile.
- Construction projects changed the face of Chinese cities.
- Ideologically, communes meant communism.
What were the failures of the 2nd FYP?
- Targets were absurd.
- Overconfident.
- No intellectuals to offer advice or rational.
- Encouraged backyard furnaces.
- Insufficient raw materials.
By 1962, industrial production declined by…
40%
When was the Great Famine?
1958-62
What caused the Great Famine?
- Fear of being labelled rightist cadres refused to reveal real conditions of the communes.
- Exaggerated production reports.
How many died in Tibet and Henan during the Great Famine?
Tibet : 1 million
Henan : 7.8 million
How many people died all together during the Great Famine?
30 to 50 million.
When did Khrushchev recall Soviet and scientific advisers in China?
1960
When was the Lushan Conference?
July 1959
What was the Lushan conference?
- Peng voiced doubts about reports of a record grain harvest.
- Wrote a private letter to Mao.
- Mao felt betrayed by Peng and accused him of forming a ‘right opportunist clique’.
- Peng recently had been to the SU.
- Mao accused him of passing negative reports about the communes to the Soviets and denounced him.
- Replaced him with Lin Biao.
Who took over as policy makers after Mao withdrew from politics?
Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping
What were some of the reforms Liu and Deng brought forward?
- Communes scaled back so peasants can produce what they want on private plots.
- Trade on free market.
- Emergency aid to countryside.
- Industrial production changed to support agriculture.
- Role of low-level rural cadres downgraded.
- Those who possessed technical knowledge or administrative expertise were promoted.
- Urban cadres sent to countryside to replace Maoist cadres.
- Prisoners put to work to make utensils to replace ones melted in backyard furnaces.
Why were the reforms that Liu and Deng brought about successful?
- Agricultural production same level as 1957.
- Private plots improved lives.
- Light industry grew 27% per year, heavy industry 17%.
- Consumer goods double 1957 level.
What was the first commune called?
Sputnik Commune
How many of the peasant population lived in communes?
99%
What did the communes organise?
- Industrial and agricultural production.
- Healthcare & education.
- Produce own food.
- Own industrial goods.
What did the communes do for women?
- Creches and boarding schools provided.
- Mess halls enabled food.
Why was the reality of the communes bad?
- Family meals replaced by canteen.
- Parents lost influence over raising children.
- Women had to carry out physical labour.
- Diets worse, bad quality food.
- Production did not rise enough.
What was the Four Pests campaign?
- 1958.
- Aimed to get rid of sparrows, rats, fleas and mosquitoes.
- Make noise by banging drums or pounding pots and pans.
- Reduced birds who ate caterpillars and these ate the crops.
Why was Lysenkoism fraudulent?
- Manipulated research in order to gain political influence in SU.
- Drop in agricultural production.
- Cadres lied about production quotas.
