theme 2: Agricultural And Industrial Change

Question 1

Agrarian reform law

Answer 1

1950

Redistributed land and established landlords as ruling class

Question 2

MAT

Answer 2

Mutual aid teams.
Introduced 1951
10+ families pool together land and resources
Voluntary but those not in a MAT were disadvantaged

Question 3

APC

Answer 3

Agricultural producers cooperatives
Introduced 1952
40-50 families pooled land and resources together

Question 4

Grain production under APCs

Answer 4

Rose by only 2%

Question 5

Reaction to APC

Answer 5

Some richer peasants didn’t want to join and slaughtered their animals

Question 6

What did work teams do?

Answer 6

Taxed people based on land ownership

Everyone classed from landlord down to labourer

Question 7

What happened to land lords?

Answer 7

Subjected to humiliation

Land redistributed

Question 8

Zhou Enlai and Lou Shaoqi view on collectivisation

Answer 8

Favoured slow collectivisation

Question 9

Collectivisation stats (1955 vs 1956)

Answer 9

1955: 63%
1956: 80%

Question 10

High level APCs

Answer 10

300-500 households

Private land ownership abolished

Question 11

Aims of communal living

Answer 11

Fix supply shortages
Make life easier
Increase production rates

Question 12

Reality of communal living

Answer 12

Badly organised childcare
Communal eating broke traditional family unit
Grain production didn’t rise

Question 13

Abolition of Private farming

Answer 13

Animals couldn’t be owned
Selling produce was labelled rural capitalism
By 1958 party claimed 99% of the population was in communes

Question 14

Lysenkoism

Answer 14

Theory that seeds should be exposed to cold, damp conditions before being planted deep and close together

Question 15

Cause of Great Famine

Answer 15

Agricultural policy
Fear of Mao
Too many focuses
Mao was prepared to sacrifice lives

Question 16

consequences of the Great Famine

Answer 16

30 - 50 million died
birthrates dropped
Children and elderly more likely to die
Women sold into prostitution
Frogs, Bark and worms eaten

Question 17

Why did Deng and Lui take over?

Answer 17

The Famine embarrassed Mao

He stepped back from the daily running of the country

Question 18

Targets of the first 5 year plan

Answer 18

Quickly increase heavy industry

make China self sufficient

Question 19

successes of the first 5 year plan

Answer 19

annual growth of 9%
population in cities doubled
Living standards and job security guaranteed
Engineering projects like the bridge over the Yangtze River

Question 20

failures of the first five year plans

Answer 20

Quality sacrificed over quantity
Low literacy held back the economy long term
factory managers lacked experience
Exaggerated output levels

Question 21

Reasons for launching the second five year plan

Answer 21

Agricultural rates low
Mass mobilisation
Mao wanted China to become an economic superpower
Mao wanted to overtake Britain in 15 years or less

Question 22

Why was Mao optimistic about the second five year plan?

Answer 22

Communists winning the Cold War

Industrial growth in First five year plan

Question 23

State owned enterprises

Answer 23

Party took over industrial firms
Dictated wages and pay
No incentive to work efficiently
Workers given a home and healthcare

Question 24

Successes of the second five year plan

Answer 24

Tiannamen square remodelled

Private property abolished (ideological success)

Question 25

Second five year plan failures

Answer 25

Backyard furnaces
Three gate gorge dam caused environmental damage - no foreign visitors
Experts purged - no-one to challenge Mao
Belief in mass mobilisation misplaced

Question 26

What happened at the Lushan conference?

Answer 26

Peng Duhai expressed concerns about Mao’s policies
Mao accused him of colluding with the USSR
Peng replaced by Lin Biao

Question 27

Deng and Lui’s reforms

Answer 27

Reintroduced private farming
Encouraged selling produce at market
Reduced size of communes

Question 28

Successes of Deng and Lui’s reforms

Answer 28

by 1965 agricultural production rates returned to those from 1957
consumer goods increased by 27%
heavy industrial increased by 17%