ECONOMY

Question 1

what were Mao’s aims for Agriculture?

Answer 1

• Mao needed to increase food supplies in the cities for the factories
• he needed an agricultural policy that would increase supplies and enhance popularity for the Communists

Question 2

what did party Cadres encourage the peasants to do?

Answer 2

drag their local landlords to ‘struggle meetings’ to be denounced

Question 3

what did the Agrarian/Land Reform do?

Answer 3

1950 - it stated a ‘system of peasant land ownership shall be introduced’ - this removed the legal protection of landlords

Question 4

how much land was redistributed?

Answer 4

by Summer 1952 43% of the land had been redistributed to 60% of the population

Question 5

how much did rural production increase from redistribution?

Answer 5

between 1950 & 1952 total production increased by at 15% per annum

Question 6

how many landlords were killed?

Answer 6

1-2 million

Question 7

what were Mutual Aid Teams?

Answer 7

1951 - the teams organised peasants into teams of 10 or fewer households - they shared resources like food and tools

Question 8

what were Agricultural Producers’ Co-operatives?

Answer 8

the next stage - made up of 30-50 households - local parties reorganised land into larger units that could be farmed more efficiently - the state took took a share and the peasants received money or grain in return

Question 9

what were the results of the APC’s?

Answer 9

in 1953 and 54 grain production increased by less than 2%

Question 10

what did Mao do to collectivisation in July 1955?

Answer 10

demanded an increase in pace of collectivisation - by December 1955 63.3% of peasants were in an APC - by January 1956 80.3% were in an APC - by the end of 1956 88% were in high-level APC

Question 11

what were communes?

Answer 11

the step after collectivisation - the were around 5,500 households per commune

Question 12

when was the first commune established?

Answer 12

July 1958 in the Henan province

Question 13

who/what did Mao think the communes would aid?

Answer 13

• the standard of living for peasants (food halls and shared assets)
• childcare & childcare
• women (less burden of children)
• grandparents

Question 14

what was the actual result of the communes?

Answer 14

• children were left in poorly organised creches
• parents were forced to work long hours
• food halls destroyed tradition of family eating together (food was poor)
• women were expected to undertake harsh physical labour
• sparrowcide led to locusts plaguing the harvest

Question 15

how many peasants were moved to communes?

Answer 15

99% of peasants by 1958 - almost half a billion

Question 16

what happened to private land ownership?

Answer 16

it was outlawed - livestock could not be owned (were shared) - private selling of produce was banned (‘rural capitalism’)

Question 17

what was Lysenkoism?

Answer 17

a farming technique developed by Lysenko and adopted by Mao - if seeds were exposed to moisture and low temps then planted low they would increase yields

Question 18

what was the result of Lysenkoism?

Answer 18

crop yields fell dramatically and helped unleash the disastrous famine of 1968-62

Question 19

how did Deng Xiaoping and Liu Shaoqi reform after the Great Famine?

Answer 19

• Replaced the ‘Walking on 2 legs’ with the motto ‘Agriculture as the foundation of the economy
• Communes were reduced in size and peasants were allowed to farm small private plots
• They could choose what to grow on unused land
• They could trade food at markets

Question 20

what happened to production after Deng and Lui’s reforms?

Answer 20

returned to normal (1957) levels by 1965

Question 21

how many people starved in the Great Famine?

Answer 21

• worst recorded famine of 20th century
• 30-50 million died
• 8 million starved in the Anhui province
• 7.8 million starved in Henan
• 9 million starved in Sichuan
• 1 million died in Tibet
• people ate: frogs, tree bark, worms and other people (cannibalism)

Question 22

what was a result in life during the Great Famine?

Answer 22

• Peasants launched attacks on food stores
• anyone trying to steal food was sentenced to death
• birth rates plummeted
• mostly children and elderly died from disease they couldn’t fight due to malnourishment
• wives were sold into sex for work

Question 23

when was the 1st five year plan?

Answer 23

1962-56 - it was modelled closely off the Soviet model

Question 24

what were the aims of the first 5 year plan?

Answer 24

• to quickly increase China’s heavy industries like coal and steel
• constructing industrial plants with modern machine
• wanted China to be self sufficient

Question 25

what were the successes of the first plan?

Answer 25

• They experienced an annual growth rate of 9%
• Spectacular works of engineering works were undertaken
• Living standards and job security were both guaranteed
• Population of towns and cities doubled to over 100 million
• The CCP established greater control over the people

Question 26

what were the plans failures?

Answer 26

• In order to reach targets many factories sacrificed quality for quantity
• most Chinese workers had low levels of literacy and basic skill which held back economic growth
• China’s administration lacked organisation and managerial experience

Question 27

what were Mao’s reasons for the second 5 year plan?

Answer 27

• Mao was desperate to transform China into a great economic power
• Wanted to place China as the leading Communist nation in Asia
• wanted to make rapid improvements in agricultural production
• Mao wanted China to be ‘walking on two legs’ (increase agricultural and industrial production at the same time)

Question 28

what happened with State-owned enterprise in the Great Leap Forwards?

Answer 28

industrial firms were taken over to create state owned enterprise
- the party dictated the prices the businesses could charge
- wages were set at a guaranteed level
- workers were given a home, healthcare and education

Question 29

what were the successes of the Second plan?

Answer 29

• there was an increase in production of raw materials
• Beijing was reconstructed (old buildings destroyed)
• private property was banned (Ideological success for Mao)

Question 30

what were the failures of the Second plan?

Answer 30

• Mao set targets that were completely unrealistic (millions worked to death and died of starvation)
• Huge projects were so badly planned they caused environmental damage that made farming more difficult
• Backyard furnaces were built to increase steel production steel production (this wasted huge amounts of raw materials and industrial production had declined from 1952 by 40%)

Question 31

what happened at the Lushan conference?

Answer 31

Peng Dehuai voiced his doubts about the reports of the grain harvests - he wrote a private letter to Mao about his concern - he was purged from any major position in the party by Mao

Question 32

when was the Lushan conference?

Answer 32

July 1959

Question 33

what economic reforms did Lui Shaoqi and Deng Shaoping introduce after the Second 5 Year Plan?

Answer 33

• Factories were told to make a profit
• Factories were told to make products to help agriculture (steel, wood & bamboo)
• By 1965 industrial output was nearly double that of 1957
• Light industry grew at a rate of 27% per year
• Heavy industry was growing at a rate of 17%
• Experts sent to the Laogai were released to management roles

Question 34

what were the main causes of the Great famine?

Answer 34

• Sparrowcide (lead to insects destroying the harvest)
• productivity dropped due to a lack of incentive to work
• due to lower incentive Mao started the ‘Launch a Sputnik Campiagn’ (lead to people lying about output causing Cadres to take extra crops)
• No government officials would speak out about the issues and reported all objectives were being met
• Lysenkoism
• Bad weather