Economic Reforms

Question 1

Targets of 1st FYP

Answer 1

1952-56.
Increase heavy industry, extensive growth.
China to be self-sufficient.
Industrial plants supply PLA with weapons.

Question 2

1st FYP Success

Answer 2

Annual growth = +9%.
Production targets surpassed.
Coal: 1952 = 68.5m metric tonnes –> 1957 = 130m metric tonnes, 115% of target.
Steel: 1952 = 436m metric tonnes –> 1957 = 1460m metric tonnes, 73% of target.
Increased incentives, better SOL, guaranteed job security.
Population of towns + cities doubled, >100m.

Question 3

1st FYP Failure

Answer 3

Quantity > quality to meet output targets.
Low skill + literacy lvls of workers held back SR/LR economic growth.
Bottleneck in production, lack of co-operation between industry + central planners.

Question 4

USSRs Support

Answer 4

Modeled to Stalin’s command economy.
Didn’t adapt it to Chinese circumstances.
USSR only ally, relied on due to Western grain embargo for involvement in Korea.
02/1950, Sino-Soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty.
Support was extensive + essential.
$300m loan over 5yrs, helped with extensive growth.
11k USSR experts from USSR provided training, advice, technical support.
80k Chinese students to Moscow for training + education.

Question 5

Reasons for 2nd FYP, 1958-62

Answer 5

GLF, Walking on Two Legs, agriculture + industry simultaneously.
Aimed to overtake Britain in 15yrs.
Mass mobilization + revolutionary spirit > intellectual + experts.

Question 6

State Ownership Enterprises

Answer 6

Great Leap Forward, industries nationalized.
Party dictated prices, set wages + production targets. Social optimum > profit.
Workers given home + health care insurance + education.
No incentive, same pay no matter the effort = inefficient.
Managers not rewarded, surplus taken by state.

Question 7

Great Leap Forward

Answer 7

1958-1962.
Thought that China should “walk on two legs”.
Poor planning and inefficiency hampered growth.
Crop failures = Great Famine (30m -50m)

Question 8

2nd FYP Success

Answer 8

Crucial small scale irrigation projects.
Tiananmen Square remodelled, propaganda campaign.
Ideological success. Closer to full communism, private property banned, peasants lived communally.

Question 9

2nd FYP Failure

Answer 9

Unrealistic targets = famine.
Mao overconfident + optimistic.
Environmentally damaging projects (3-Gate Gorge Dam) not shown to foreign visitors didn’t want unfavorable rumors to spread on their return home.
Backyard furnaces = shortage of materials in factories + poor quality steel.
1962, industrial production 60% of 1959 lvls.
Fields neglected, peasants focused more on steel furnaces.