Great Leap Forward Flashcards
State Mao’s beliefs underpinning the GLF.
Mao was convinced by the idea that to leap over the normal stages of economic development, the Chinese solution should be expenditure of extraordinary effort by the whole of society for a concentrated period of time for several years, allowing China to outperform other economies of the world.
Crucially, there was great emphasis on the role of the masses (mass line), idea of economic development (which was in hindsight quite naive) fuelled by the masses who possess enormous dormant productive power, and can, through organisation and joint efforts, transform their labour into capital. Mao’s emphasis on this was based on the belief that the power of knowledge was invaluable compared to force.
Mao also had to deal with the shortage of capital for China at the time as a poor and developing country, economy not in a good state after years of fighting Japanese, and hesitant aid from Moscow due to worsening relationships with the Soviet-union, the masses could compensate for these losses/deficits.
Important was also the idea of anti-intellectualism, as Mao valued the contributions of peasants and other illiterate workers more than the scientific methods that intellectuals could provide/develop.
List the initiatives of the GLF.
Quote from Mao.
Chinese farmers were mobilised to provide food, industrial crops and steel for the urban economy. Steel and grain were given equal priority, described as ‘walking on two legs’.
Farmers required to increase irrigation, develop education, produce farm machinery and feed themselves without new investment from national budget, showing the push for self-reliance.
People’s Communes were established in spring 1958 with thousands living together. Peasants engaged in agricultural work but were also working on many manufacturing projects, which led to agricultural labour shortage late 1958 as they were allocated to other jobs. These communes took responsibility for providing local services eg education, public healthcare, policing and militia, and women were freed from domestic responsibilities to be deployed in civil engineering schemes and water conservancy projects.
The aim was that after all the efforts made ‘the industry of the fatherland develops by leaps and bounds and frightens England was that it trembles with fear’. To Mao, this was simple to achieve, as he believed wholeheartedly that the ends justified the means and convincing the rest of the world of China’s success was more important that the lives of millions of expendable peasants.
What were the outcomes of the GLF?
Crucially, the famine resulted in countless deaths, and according to some accounts the population fell by around 10 million. It also affected the general health of the population due to malnutrition and the deterioration of health care provisions, with the next generation also being affected by poor maternal health.
Communes were too large to link rewards with labour so the idea of a collective operation didn’t work. This meant that productivity was low due to the demotivating effect on peasants of losing their land and knowing the reward would be minimal no matter how hard they worked.
Mao unable to get the GLF project to generate the capital needed for industrialisation.
Low quality of steel outputs as the farmers involved in steel production didn’t have sufficient metallurgy knowledge or experience.
This period involved the eradication of intellectuals, technocrats and engineers, reflecting mao’s embrace of anti-intellectualism.
Economic depression was a major repercussion and his ideas about economic development became ridiculed and criticised by Khrushchev which further enflamed tensions between the two countries.
What are the conflicting explanations as to why the GLF failed?
Mao’s flawed economic logic - excessive labour doesn’t necessarily result in capital accumulation, and lack of incentive mechanism in communes shows they don’t lead to economic growth.
Role of Mao - his supreme political power and paranoia, as leader of the country he wasn’t able to take criticism against his initial initiatives of the GLF, especially from Peng Dehuai. After the Lushan Conference, the GLF continued apace, Mao was previously considering moderating aspects of the plan such as the backyard furnace scheme but was now confident enough to embark on a ‘second leap’.
Local officials had incentives to lie about production outputs due to constantly raising targets. They were constantly in competition with neighbouring communes to outproduce them, but efforts couldn’t possibly be maintained so they would often do as little as possible while keeping up appearances.
It was simply impossible to achieve everything that Mao demanded with the GLF due to his rejection of scientific method and intellectualism. He tried to develop the commune system at the same time as launching 2nd FYP for industry and mobilising masses to work on engineering projects which was too much. Peasants couldn’t produce food, supervise furnaces and work on projects miles from the communes all at the same time especially when communal facilities weren’t always in place. Manpower couldn’t be allocated efficiently enough to increase production. Peasants had always been subsistence farmers and Mao was expecting them to generate huge surpluses because they lived on communes. Transport and communications systems weren’t sufficient to transport any surpluses generated to where it needed to be.
There was also poor weather during 1961-62 and a series of natural disasters.
There was also the external factor of the SU withdrawing the badly needed foreign aid which exacerbated the economic conditions.
What are the legacies of the GLF?
In terms of politics it was previously assumed that any leading comrade could express themselves but it was now clear that only Mao could criticise his policies. Party officials were now more guarded about their views and Mao was more dictatorial in his approach. From then on, criticism of Mao for the GLF was in later years viewed as a direct challenge to the CCP’s ‘symbolic power’.
The Chinese economy was severely weaked, and there are scholars who contribute issues with China’s economy in the present day due to failures of the GLF.
