First And Second Plan

Question 1

What was the problem with the Soviet advice given in the first plan?

Answer 1

High salaries paid by Chinese for 10,000 advisers and $300 mil loan had to be repaid with interest

Question 2

What was another problem with Soviet interference?

Answer 2

Office blocks & contruction projects built in ‘Soviet brutalist’ style
R penetrated education (only foreign lng taight in schools)
TASS official Soviet news agency main source from which the Chinese newspapers gathered their info

Question 3

However, what was the advice considered?

Answer 3

Invaluable

Question 4

A further problem of first plan

Answer 4

Quantity over quality

Question 5

Success of first plan: how much did the output of steel increase on avg a year?

Answer 5

31.2%

BUT FIGURes unreliable as officials exaggerated

Question 6

Success of first plan: most sectors of eceonomy suceeded in reaching their targets, what was target and actual of coal

Answer 6

1957
Target: 113
Actual: 130 millions of tonnes

Question 7

Success of First plan: annual growth rate per year

Answer 7

9%

Question 8

How did urban living standards rise in first plan?

Answer 8

In terms of wages & job security BUT LOSS OF FREEDOM TO CHANGE JOBS OR TRAVEL

Question 9

How many people migrated to city 1949-1957

Answer 9

1949, 57 mil

1957- 100 mil

Question 10

Another failure of Soviet guidance

Answer 10

Exposed short-comings in the skill and literacy levels of Chinese workers
And into of Lysenkoism

Question 11

What happened in countryside and why?

Answer 11

Peasants in communes going short of food (exported to Russia to pay for Soviet advice and sold cheaply to cities to feed urban population)

Question 12

Success of First Plan for Mao?

Answer 12

Hold over population tightened

Question 13

Second plan success- increase in the output of raw materials- oil

Answer 13

3.7 mil of barrels 1958, 5.3 mil 1962

Question 14

Figure to show 2nd plan unsuccessful in terms if industrial output

Answer 14

1962- China only producing half the amount of heavy industrial goods & 3/4 the amount of light industrial goods that were being made 1957 (start of plan)

Question 15

What was a good propaganda success?

Answer 15

Construction of Tiananmen Square in Beijing

Question 16

Backyard furnaces- what happened to night sky?

Answer 16

Turned red by the fires& by day smoke blotted out the sun

Question 17

In 1958, how much of China’s steel came from local furnaces?

Answer 17

48%

Question 18

At its peak, how much of the population had abandoned their normal activities to take part in backyard furnaces?

Answer 18

A quarter of the population

Question 19

What did this high participation lead to?

Answer 19

Unsustainable strain on food production, which led to school closures to make shock brigades to get in the harvests

Question 20

Why were the backyard furnaces not abandoned in 1959 when it was discovered they didn’t work?

Answer 20

Fear of losing face

Carried on making ppl do it but took it and buried out of sight

Question 21

Two main consequences of backyard furnaces

Answer 21

Economically damaging (people deployed on futile activity to the detriment of producing food)
Negative ecological consequences- destruction of vast swathes of woodland to supply fuel for furnaces, led to faster soil erosion and worse flooding

Question 22

Yes, second a failure: construction projects- what was used?

Answer 22

No machinery, rudimentary equip like shovels

Question 23

Yes, second a failure: construction projects- example of disastrous irrigation schemes

Answer 23

The Three Gate Gorge Dam to control flow of the Yellow River too ambitious and had to be rebuilt within a year
1961- 2x as much mud was being deposited downstream & foreign visitors banned from going near the dam

Question 24

Though some of smaller projects relatively successful, what shows cost colossal?

Answer 24

Lives lost and labour taken away from fatming

Question 25

What prevented productivity in agriculture?

Answer 25

New irrigation schemes led to increased salinisation (excessive build-up of salt in soil which reduces its fertility)

Question 26

Check the things about communes to include also

Answer 26

Ye