Unit 2: What was the impact of the second five year plan 1958 to 1962? Flashcards
What was the Second Five-Year Plan May 1958?
agriculture was to be modernised by the development of the People’s Communes
ambitious new targets for industrial growth set
In Feb, economic planning responsibility moved from the state to the Party, so it was not planners setting the thought-out targets for specific industrial sectors - it was instead local cadres.
What were Mao’s reasons for launching the second five year plan?
Economically, because industrialisation depended on agriculture becoming more productive and efficient in order to feed the industrial workforce, it would free up peasants, who would migrate to the cities to become urban workers themselves.
The speed with which farming had been collectivised and the encouraging early signs from the new People’s Communes seemed to indicate that agriculture was progressing sufficiently rapidly by 1958 to encourage Mao to accelerate the demands on industry.
On going debate between conservatives like Zhou Enlai and Chen Yun (advocated a carrot approach of rewarding high food producers with material incentives) and radicals (advocated for the punishment of low producers). - Mao saw as too risky as 70% of Party members were peasants and industry was not yet producing large amounts of consumer goods to offer the peasants, and the state could not afford to pay generous prices for the food, so the approach was not yet established.
Mao was confident because collectivisation had been achieved more rapidly than expected, there had been an impressive burst of activity on water conservancy schemes during the winter of 1957-58. Anxious to prove their credentials against the backdrop of the latest anti-rightist campaign, local cadres were eager to demonstrate the revolutionary fervour of the peasants in their locality, all of which helped to convince Mao that more ambitious schemes would be possible.
Politically, Mao had just returned from Moscow determined to show the Soviet Union that he could act independently of them. By moving from socialism to communism along the ‘Chinese road’, rather than following the Russian model, Mao hoped to demonstrate his credentials as the next leader of the communist world. The Great Leap Forward, with its commitment to developing industry and agriculture simultaneously, while also mobilising the peasantry on construction projects, would do just that. This also fitted Mao’s ideology of mass mobilisation.
Describe decentralisation under the second five year plan
Although the central government remained in control in China, a key change from the First Five-Year Plan was the move to decentralise economic activity giving more freedom to the cadres. Mao had become convinced that if state bureaucrats continued to control planning, it would hold back the pace of change.
Describe Backyard furnaces under the second five year plan.
The steel target for 1958 was raised from six to eight million tonnes at the Party Congress in May, and then again to 10.7 million tonnes in September. Yet, these targets could not be met by the existing conventional steel plants so the campaign ordered every family to construct their own backyard furnace and melt down their metal objects to produce steel: it became a national movement immediately to the point where the night sky was turned red by the fires of so many improvised kilns.
September 1958, 14% of China’s steel came from local furnaces, but by October it was 49%; quarter of the population had abandoned their normal activities in order take part putting an unsustainable strain on food production, leading to it the closure of schools and deployment of peasant shock brigade in order to get in the harvest. By end of 1958, the leadership were deluding themselves that the steel being produced would be of usable quality yet, that the home-made variety was useless.
The backyard furnace campaign was cut back, but not abandoned, for fear of losing face, so peasants continued to melt down their pots, pans and other metal household objects which was taken away by the authorities and buried out of sight.
The campaign economically damaging and had negative ecological consequences, since it led to the destruction of woodland to supply fuel for the furnaces which led to faster soil erosion and worse flooding, thereby increasing the need for water conservancy schemes.
Describe State owned enterprises.
The enterprises had been nationalised in 1956 were now known as state-owned enterprises (SOFs). Prices, output targets and wages were set by the state, and there was no longer any bargaining for better conditions between employers and workers. While workers enjoyed guaranteed jobs and wages (‘iron rice bowl’) as well as certain medical and educational benefits, the system as a whole was inefficient because it removed incentives to work harder.
Describe construction projects under the second five year plan.
Mao saw the masses as China’s main asset, and argued that sheer numbers could achieve the desired result without access to advanced machinery. So work brigades were sent out from the communes to construct dams and reservoirs using only the most rudimentary equipment - shovels, baskets and carrying poles.
Some of the new irrigation schemes were total disasters because they were not thought through properly beforehand: The Three Gate Gorge Dam, designed to control the flow of the Yellow River. and reduce the damage caused by silt deposits failed as within a year it was being rebuilt and by 1961, twice as much mud was being deposited downstream.
The hundreds of smaller projects instigated in China were relatively successful but had a large cost in terms of lives lost and labour taken away from farming. In many areas, the disruption of existing drainage patterns caused by building new irrigation systems led to an increase in salinisation, which reduced the productivity of the land.
Flood control and irrigation schemes to ease drought needed prioritisation if Chinese agriculture was to become more productive. Expert advice (which the Soviet specialists offered) was welcomed when it speeded things up, but technical issues that threatened to cause delays were often ignored. Mao’s response when doubts arose about the design of the Three Gate Gorge Dam was to write an editorial in the People’s Daily newspaper, entitled ‘What is this trash?’ Implying that the fact that the cubic tonnage of soil had been shifted, it was hardly a true reflection of a projects worth.
What were the successes?
Some increase in output of raw materials: coal was 131mill tonnes 1957 to 270mill 1960.
The construction of Tiananmen Square in Beijing and 1964, the development of nuclear weapons
What were the failures?
Plan failed to produce manufactured goods: by 1962, China was producing half the amount of heavy industrial goods and three quarters the amount of light industrial goods that were being made in 1958.
Soviet experts provided some much-needed guidance during the First Five- Year Plan, but Khrushchev withdrew them altogether in 1960, when the Sino-Soviet split worsened.
Lack of clear planning: Mao lacked scientific and technical knowledge so relied on intuition and assumed that the massive deployment of manpower was an adequate substitute for informed planning and direction from above. While
China continued to lack the necessary levels of technical and managerial knowledge to move forward at the speed the leadership wanted so cut corners to fulfil targets on time. Quality control was inadequate causing major problems with export orders, which frequently had to be replaced when complaints threatened to ruin China’s reputation as a trading partner.
Describe the Lushan Conference, July 1959
Called by Mao to assess the progress of the Great Leap Forward.
Peng Dehuai stood up to Mao and became isolated as a troublemaker when other leaders failed to endorse his revelations of the famine.
The conference had important consequences at both economic and political levels: the Great Leap Forward would continue. Before Lushan, there had been signs that Mao was considering moderating aspects of the Second Five-Year Plan for example, by stopping the backyard furnaces - but afterwards, China embarked on what is called the second leap and the agricultural policies were pushed.
Politically the conference was significant. Whereas beforehand it was assumed that any leading party comrade could express their views freely at a Party conference, it had now become clear that the only person who could criticise Mao was Mao himself. Party leaders were much more guarded out their views in future, and Mao was able to become even more dictatorial in his approach.
What were Liu and Deng economic reform 1962-65?
Allowed the communes to be broken up
Closed down thousands of inefficient projects that had been set up in the GLF
Anounced more realistic coal and steel targets.
Relaxed the persecution of scientists and intellectuals, previously attacked as rightists, but whose contribution was now desirable.
Shift back to centralised control, with production targets being reviewed annually and made more realistic.
Experts were back in favour and financial incentives were restored to encourage workers to greater efforts.
What were the results of Lui and Deng’s economic reforms?
The results were positive across all sectors of the economy: agricultural production recovered to 1957 levels, oil and natural gas production rocketed, and manufactured goods were produced in much greater quantities.
It was during this period (1964) that Chinese scientists succeeded in exploding China’s own atom bomb.
Describe the 7000 cadres.
Although Mao welcomed the economic improvements of the early 1960s, he was reluctant to attribute them to the retreat from the Great Leap Forward, which he described as dangerous revisionism.
In an attempt to prevent any further drift away from strict communist principles, Mao had summoned a conference of 7,000 cadres in January 1962. However, the result had not been as he had hoped, because Liu Shaoqi, while praising Mao for his correct leadership, had gone on to imply that Mao should share some of the blame with the other leaders at the centre of government for China’s past mistakes: Mao accepted responsibility as chairman of the Party and withdrew from public life, leaving Liu, Deng and Zhou in charge.
A clear difference-of views over how the economy should be run was now becoming apparent. The right of the Party (Liu, Deng and Chen Yun) were pragmatic: mass mobilisation was no substitute for expertise and planning. The left, Mao was arguing that continuing revolution should be the key: without mass mobilisation, there would always be the danger of a new bourgeoisie emerging inside the Party and destroying the gains of the revolution.
1962 at the annual Party conference, Mao condemned the revisionism of Liu and Deng. Liu and Deng’s pragmatic economic approach continued for the time being, but a political power struggle inside the Party was building up, which would explode in the Cultural Revolution from 1966.
