china second half

Question 1

What is the major principle of the First Five-year Plan?

Answer 1

One transformation (socialist industrialisation) and three changes (in industry, agriculture and handicraft, and private industry and commerce).

Question 2

What are the reforms and its respective goals in industry?

Answer 2

To prioritise heavy industry before light industry and agriculture, to initiate key construction projects (690) with USSR aid and inspiration, and develop new industries like car to meet the high production targets and promote industrialisation.

Question 3

How was its impact? Was it successful?

Answer 3

It successfully promoted economic growth and all targets were reached, basically completing industrialisation and socialist transformation in China. Total heavy industry output grew 120% and steel output grew 98%. Planned economy was also promoted as the government decided the production direction and set targets.

Question 4

What are the reforms in agriculture and handicraft?

Answer 4

Cooperatives were set up with 100-300 households each. They shared all materials like raw materials, land and farming tools, and produced together. The “work more, gain more” approach was adopted to distribute wages.

Question 5

How was its impact? Was it successful?

Answer 5

96% and 92% of the peasants joined them respectively, showing a large scope of collectivisation. It kickstarted the collectivisation development of China, and socialist transformation was basically completed.

Question 6

What are the reforms in private industry and commerce?

Answer 6

Private ownership was abolished replaced with state-owned enterprises and transport.

Question 7

How was its impact? Was it successful?

Answer 7

99% of privately owned resources became state-owned, showing a large scope of public ownership. Socialist transformation was basically complete.

Question 8

What are the negative impacts of the plan?

Answer 8

First, it created false optimism due to its economic success, causing the downfall of the Great Leap Forward where a serious famine occurred. The leaders were too ambitious and made rash decisions to carry out socialism in the economy too quickly while disregarding the actual situation. Secondly, socialist transformation was too hurried and done with reckless haste. Cadres couldn’t manage large cooperatives easily which led to inefficiency in agricultural production. Thirdly, there was an imbalance in agricultural and industrial development. Since the reform emphasised heavy industry, agriculture was neglected. It led to a lack of raw materials for industry as well. The growth rate of industry was four times that of agriculture, showing serious imbalance.

Question 9

What is the Hundred Flowers Campaign? What happened, why was it initiated, and what was its consequence?

Answer 9

Mao Zedong proposed this to promote the flourishing of arts and sciences, allowing freedom of speech where people can express their opinions freely. However, people began to criticise Mao and his ruling, such as advocating the release of prisoners imprisoned because of the Three Antis, Five Antis Movement. Hence, to preserve his reputation, he ended the movement and criticised them for being rightists, so China never had freedom of speech again.

Question 10

What is the major principle of the Great Leap Forward?

Answer 10

The Three Red Banners (General Line for Socialist Construction, Great Leap Forward in Industry and Agriculture, and People’s Communes).

Question 11

What was the quote for the General Line for Socialist Construction?

Answer 11

Aim high, achieve greater, better, faster and more economical results in building socialism.

Question 12

What were Mao’s principles regarding the Great Leap Forward?

Answer 12

He believed that China would be able to become a modernised economy quickly as long as there was mass mobilisation of the people, without needing to rely on foreign support nor technology and expertise. He aimed to surpass Britain and catch up with the US in 15 years.

Question 13

What happened in the industry aspect? What was its impact?

Answer 13

600,000 backyard steel furnaces were set up, where people smelt iron and steel everyday. They used their household utensils to make them, and they had to reach high production targets, double the previous amount. However, only 1/4 ended up in good quality due to the lack of technology in the production process and being too rushed in meeting the ambitious targets, causing a waste of resources. However, it successfully promoted collectivisation through large-scale joint production, and showed the nature of a planned economy.

Question 14

What happened in the agriculture aspect? What was its impact?

Answer 14

People were encouraged to make satellite fields and plough deep, plant close in order to increase yields. However, due to the high production targets and fierce competition across the country due to the winds of exaggeration, where the People’s Daily reported exaggerated numbers, people overestimated the food supply which caused a lack of food planning, so people kept eating without realising that food supply was insufficient, so a famine happened eventually, causing 30 million deaths. However, it shows the nature of a planned economy.

Question 15

What were the People’s Communes? What happened?

Answer 15

They were large-scale production units promoting collectivisation. Their principle was “first, big, and second, publicly owned”, with 5000 households each and over 99% of the people joining. Everything was publicly owned from resources to materials to land, and they advocated “eating from the big pot”. It shows planned economy and collectivisation, as well as public ownership, and the extent of collectivisation was increased with more people participating and a larger extent of collaboration from just economic aspects to administrative ones too, like building and running schools and the communal canteens. However, since they ate as much as they wanted and earned equal amounts of remuneration regardless of amount of work put in, they were lazy and slacked off, so food supply was dire, causing serious famine.

Question 16

How did the Great Leap Forward contribute to the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 16

Since Mao caused serious damage due to the Great Leap Forward, he stepped down and apologised. Liu Xiaoqi replaced him instead. He promoted “three freedoms and one fixed quota” in the economy, which involved capitalist elements of market economy. This led to Mao’s discontent, so he was eager to regain power and save his reputation to get mass support again. Hence, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao helped him build a cult of personality and promote his words through the Quotations from Chairman Mao.

Question 17

What were the major principles of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 17

“Class struggle should be promoted everyday…” and the proletariats should overthrow the bourgeoisie class. People should all join hands to purge the capitalist roaders and revisionists. The May 16 Notice and January Storm showed these, where Red Guards purged, beat up and humiliated revolutionaries.

Question 18

What was the political impact of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 18

It led to the Three Beliefs Crisis, namely loss of faith in the CCP, communism and socialism. Due to irrational killing and loss of capable leaders like Lin Biao, paralysing the government, people no longer supported the government and were concerned about its efficiency.

Question 19

What was the economic impact of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 19

It led to economic stagnation, as people stopped production activities due to being preoccupied with purging activity. Production declined significantly due to “redness at the expense of expertise”, and since many scientists and intellectuals were killed, economic modernisation couldn’t be promoted at all without relevant skills and knowledge. 500 billion Yuan were lost just during this event.

Question 20

What was the social impact of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 20

It raised women’s status and promoted gender equality. Both men and women could participate in purging, and Mao advocated “women hold up half of the sky” which asserts their capabilities and strength. He also banned polygamy and concubinage to safeguard women’s rights. However, it led to moral decline because people believed “parents may love me, but not as much as Chairman Mao”. They purged their elders like family and teachers, and Bo Xilai purged his own father. People no longer respected their elders. Moreover, cultural development declined due to the “Destroy the four olds, create the four news” movement, where people irrationally destroyed antiques and monuments, hindering cultural development of China.

Question 21

What was the educational impact of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 21

Educational level declined greatly, creating a generation lacking education. Knowledge was deemed useless and “the more knowledge, the more reactionary”, so scientists and intellectuals were purged. People were also too preoccupied with purging and didn’t go to school, while schools closed down. The “up to the mountains, down to the countryside” movement was also promoted where students were sent down to go farming instead of study.

Question 22

What was the diplomatic impact of the Cultural Revolution?

Answer 22

Due to the anti-foreign sentiment, people purged foreigners, attacked embassies and foreign legations. This worsened China’s relationship with foreign countries, causing a lack of diplomatic connections and isolation on the international stage.

Question 23

What were the goals of Reform and Opening-up?

Answer 23

To achieve Four Modernisations in agriculture, industry, national defence and technology, through education as the basis.

Common prosperity by allowing some people to get rich first.

Through methods of capitalism to achieve socialism (“It doesn’t matter if a cat is black or white as long as it catches mice”).

Three-step development goal of first doubling the GNP in 1990 and 2000 respectively, then having all basic necessities settled, moderate prosperity and reaching the level of certain developed countries by 2050.

Question 24

What is the responsibility system?

Answer 24

It allows sellers and producers to keep their profits after meeting government targets. “Work more, gain more” is promoted where workers who do better receive more income, and those who perform badly may be laid off to minimise production costs. They are fully responsible for all losses and gains, and to make all production decisions with limited intervention only. This greatly raised production incentive in both agricultural and industrial sectors, causing rapid economic growth. Individualism was adopted rather than collectivisation.

Question 25

What are the results of its implementation?

Answer 25

Agriculturally, output increased 50% and food production reached 500 million tons, eliminating food shortage. Industrially, China became the world’s factory and GNP per capita growth rate was around 20 times.

Question 26

How was business ownership different from before?

Answer 26

The norm became state-private joint enterprises or joint ventures, with a diversified form of business ownership. Private ownership became more common instead of enterprises being fully state-owned.

Question 27

How did the government open itself up to foreign investment, capital and skills?

Answer 27

It opened up four Special Economic Zones like Shenzhen and Zhuhai and 14 coastal cities like Shanghai, then riverside ones like Wuhan and lastly inland ones like Tibet. The SEZs had special tax concessions for foreign businesses and allowed a large extent of freedom for them to develop in China, encouraging foreign investment and inflow of valuable labour, capital, entrepreneurship, machinery and skills which modernised China’s economy.

Question 28

What were the educational reforms during this period?

Answer 28

There were over 1000 universities, with 60 key universities like the University of Beijing, improving the quality and quantity of tertiary educational institutions in China and raising educational attainment levels. 9-year free and compulsory education was promoted, with a 99% enrolment rate, raising literacy rate of China.

Question 29

What were the social impacts of the reform?

Answer 29

Living standards improved, with an increase of nearly 20 times for per capita net annual income. However, serious unemployment occurred as low-skilled workers were laid off, so 95 million people became unemployed. Moreover, there was serious environmental damage due to the rapid urbanisation, such as sewage and deforestation, causing air and water pollution. A nearly 60 billion Yuan loss was incurred.

Question 30

What were the negative economic impacts of the reform?

Answer 30

The Three Rural Issues occurred. Agriculturally, there was low mechanisation as peasants couldn’t afford machinery. Village-wise, there was a lack of infrastructure like lack of water and electricity supply as reform was focused on the urban aspect. Peasants-wise, they had low income and suffered from poverty as the low mechanisation led to low productivity and profits, making it hard to earn a good income through farming.

There was also wide disparity between regions. Since the government developed some regions first and neglected others, Western regions like Tibet were still suffering in poverty.

Question 31

What were the diplomatic impacts?

Answer 31

China developed multilateral relations with both capitalist and communist countries, like normalising relations with South Korea and China. It also played an active, important and respected role in international affairs like being a member of the UN peacekeeping forces and mediating in the North Korean Nuclear Crisis. This raised China’s diplomatic status and it began having diversification diplomacy with a wide range of countries.

Question 32

What were the political impacts?

Answer 32

Corruption among cadres became common, as they abused the dual-track price system by buying in raw materials at low prices then selling them at high ones. Chen Xitong was arrested for corruption. This led to government inefficiency.

There was also no change in the political system of China. It was still a one-party dictatorship solely ruled by the CCP, with no separation of powers nor representation. There was also no democracy nor freedom of speech, as people were suppressed like during the June Fourth Incident.

Question 33

Mao vs Deng politically

Answer 33

Similarity: Both advocated communism, one-party dictatorship and suppressed expression.

Difference: One advocated class struggle, while the other advocated class unity.

Question 34

Mao vs Deng economically

Answer 34

Similarity: Both advocated planned economy as the government had a certain level of control.

Differences: One advocated collectivisation, the other individualism. One advocated public ownership as the norm, the other private ownership.

Question 35

Mao vs Deng educationally

Answer 35

Difference: One neglected and deemed it as useless, the other prioritised it and put high levels of emphasis on it

Question 36

Mao vs Deng diplomatically

Answer 36

Difference: One adopted a leaning to one side foreign policy, while the other implemented multilateral relations