Unit 4: Social and Cultural Changes Flashcards
1
Q
What were the ‘three obediences’? Who were women expected to obey?
A
A woman should obey her father before marriage, obey her husband once married, and, after her husband dies, obey her son. The “obediences” included obeying, agreeing, serving, and following.
2
Q
What was marriage like for: Poor women? Rich women?
A
- Many women were forced into arranged marriages
- Poor women would marry poor men to have another labourer in the household
- Rich women would often have to share their husbands with concubines.
3
Q
What was foot-binding? Why was it practiced? When was it officially banned?
A
- Foot binding was the Chinese custom of breaking and tightly binding the feet of young girls in order to change the shape and size of their feet; during the time it was practiced, bound feet were considered a status symbol and a mark of beauty.
- After the Nationalist Revolution in 1911, foot binding was outlawed in 1912. However, the practice did not truly end until the creation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.
4
Q
What was a dowry? Why was it such a financial burden? What did some families resort to?
A
A dowry is a transfer of parental property, gifts or money upon the marriage of a daughter. A dowry is the money or goods that a bride’s family gives to her new husband and/or his family when they are married. Was a financial burden as it benefited the groom.
Some families resorted to infanticide (intentional killing of infants) if a woman gave birth to a daughter and if there was a burden of finding a dowry.
5
Q
What was a bride-price? How did it influence the relationship between husband and wife?
A
- The groom’s family would provide gifts for the bride’s family
- This reinforced the sense of the bride being property that had been purchased
- Many husbands treated their wives as private property and expected them to carry out domestic duties
6
Q
What treatment did many wives get from their mother-in-laws?
A
- Mother-in-laws would be very close to their sons as their sons would look after them in old age. This meant that they were jealous of their son’s wife and would be petty
- New brides would be given the most backbreaking chores by mother-in-laws; mistakes often resulted in beatings
7
Q
What level of education did girls receive? Could they own property?
A
- Girls were not provided with educational opportunities
- One survey in the 1930s suggested that 45.2% of males and just 2.2% of females had received schooling
- Women could not own property.
8
Q
What was Mao’s attitude towards the traditional role?
A
- Mao had been critical of the attitudes held
- Mao stated how ‘women hold up half the sky’
9
Q
What were the terms of the new marriage law 1950?
A
- Legal equality: women could hold property and seek divorce
- The paying of dowries and bride-prices was forbidden
- Child marriage was forbidden (women had to be 18)
- Free will was required for marriage
10
Q
What evidence is there that the New Marriage Law was effective?
A
Between 1946-1949, in 18.6% of marriages the bride was aged 16-17. By 1958-65 this had dropped to 2.4%
11
Q
What were the problems with enforcing the New Marriage Law?
A
- Men who paid bride-prices were angered (they lost what they had perceived as a financial investment)
- Widespread violence broke out as armed mobs attempted to violently reclaim their divorced wives
- Husbands would attack their wives in divorce court proceedings
- Many cadres were hostile to the reform. They feared chaos and feared that only rich men would be able to find wives - many cadres refused to uphold the law in their local areas
- Traditional Muslim communities greatly resented the challenge to their long held customs
12
Q
What was Mao’s vision for women on the communes? Think about their contribution to work, childcare and household chores.
A
- Mao claimed that enabling women to work would bring them ‘liberation through labour’ and argued that this was a form of equality
- Childcare would be centralised by the creation of Party kindergarten, while the burden of food preparation was alleviated by communal canteens
13
Q
What was the reality of work for women on the communes?
A
- Quality of life was not improved
- Although more women now worked they would still take on domestic responsibilities such as childcare and cleaning
- Forced to carry out backbreaking labour
14
Q
What was the reality of the Kindergartners?
A
- Children could be separated from their mothers for weeks at a time
- There was an appalling level of care for children
- Kindergartens were often housed in ramshackle buildings
- Kindergartens were staffed with hurriedly trained elderly or very young women
- Disease spread rapidly in the poorly maintained kindergartens
- Food supplies for children were stolen by starving adults.
15
Q
What was the reality of the Canteens?
A
- Women were likely to get less food than men due to food being allocated on the basis of the amount of physical labour performed
- When food supply was low, it was often women who were neglected on the grounds that men needed to have strength to go out and search for food for the family
16
Q
How did family life change on the communes?
A
- Family time was limited due to the excessive amount of work people had to perform
- Children would be separated from their parents
- The giant mess halls meant that families couldn’t eat together
17
Q
How did the work points system reinforce women’s social inferiority?
A
- Women received less ‘work points’ than men regardless of their productivity or skill
- The realities of physical strength meant that men could reach ten points whereas women were limited to eight points
- The lower earning power of wives meant that it made sense for them to sacrifice their paid labour in favour of domestic chores
18
Q
Find some examples of abuse and discrimination women suffered at the hands of party cadres.
A
- Expectant mothers were forced to work leading to miscarriage
- Pregnant mothers who refused to work were forced to undress and break ice in the middle of winter
- As women were separated from their husbands, they became victims of advances from cadres
- In one commune in Guangzhou, two party secretaries of a commune forced themselves upon 34 women
- In Hunan, local factory bosses forced women to work naked
- In Zhejiang, women accused of crimes were forced to parade through their village unclothed
19
Q
Why were some women forced into prostitution?
A
Due to the famine. They would trade sex for food.
20
Q
What was the role of the Women’s Associations? How many women became members?
A
- To encourage political activism and mobilise the population behind the regime
- 76 million members
21
Q
How did the women in the associations support education? The PLA? The Campaigns?
A
- They organised classes to improve literacy and for the study of political ideas
- Women would weave uniforms and make shoes for the PLA
- Wives and mothers were urged to encourage their husbands and sons to enlist for social benefit and economic progression
22
Q
What successes did these Women’s Associations have?
A
Provided women with an avenue for social and political progression, as well as assisting in the campaigns against issues relevant to them, like prostitution
23
Q
What % of women became party cadres by 1976?
A
21%
24
Q
What limitations did women face if they tried to pursue national political careers? Find an example.
A
Glass Ceiling
25
What role did women play in the Cultural Revolution? How was family life attacked during the CR?
- Many women and girls led Red Guards in their violent denunciations
- Women were exalted as revolutionary heroes in ballets like ‘Red Detachment of Women’ that described female soldiers fighting against the Nationalists in the Civil war
26
How did education for girls improve between 1949 and 1976? Give some statistics.
One sample of rural girls who started school between 1929 and 1949 showed that only 38% completed their primary education whereas 100% did so for those starting after 1959. By 1978, 45% of primary school children were girls.
27
What career opportunities became available for women? Give some examples.
- Military service - In autumn 1949 the PLA enlisted unmarried, educated female students aged 18-19 for it's military academies, specifically to be sent to the border region of Xinjiang in order to become wives for the soldiers stationed there
- In February 1951 an advertisement in the New Hunan Daily aimed to recruit female students to form a female work team to go to Xinjiang to exploit it's valuable natural resources
- The advertisement offered a range of formerly unattainable incentives such as paid study in the Soviet Union, teaching advanced technology or becoming an actress in PLA entertainment troupes.
28
Distinguish between the ‘role’ of women and the ‘status’ of women. How do these terms differ?
The role of women is the work they were able to attain in society
Status is their place in society and the views placed on them
29
How far did the role of women in China change between 1949 and 1976?
The role of women changed significantly as Mao gave young Chinese women a sense of personal identity and emancipation and equality. Their involvement in politics improved their self-esteem.
30
What hindered bringing change to the status of women?
Long held attitudes and traditions. In Non-Han Chinese areas such as Xinjiang which was prodemoninately Muslim, life for women in many rural communities continued largely unchallenged and unchanged. Opposition was at such a high level that the party launched a second campaign in 1953 to try to promote it.
31
Where was change more successful? Where was it least successful? (Role and Status of Women).
Most successful in the cities as women were provided with more food and a better lifestyle - women were poorly treated in communes while women in the city had room for opportunity.
32
How far were Mao’s attempts at reform successful?
- Mao gave young women a sense of personal identity and emancipation and equality.
- Even though his reforms had problems it did start a change for women’s future.
- Not the victims of policy or targets of propaganda.
- Improvement in equality (better than before).
33
What traditional medical techniques were frequently used?
Acupuncture and herbalism
34
When had Western medicine been introduced to China? How widespread was it?
- 1920s and 30s
| - Rural areas of China had practically no healthcare
35
What was healthcare like in rural areas compared to urban areas?
Healthcare in rural China was practically non existent and public health spending was not a priority for the regime
36
What % of the state budget was spent on healthcare between 1949 and 1956?
2.6%
37
What was the focus of healthcare policy in the 1950s?
Prevention over cures
38
What was the Patriotic Health Campaign? What methods were used?
- Teams of party workers were sent into the countryside to educate illiterate peasants
- Lectures, films, posters and radio broadcasts were used
39
What types of diseases were reduced as a result of the Patriotic Health campaigns?
- Smallpox, cholera, typhus, typhoid fever, plague and leprosy
- Cases of tuberculosis and parasitic diseases were greatly reduced
40
How were the number of drug addicts lowered?
Through terror campaigns
41
How did healthcare improve on the communes?
Communes established medical clinics
42
How did healthcare improve in urban areas?
- 800 western type hospitals were built
| - The number of doctors trained in modern techniques rose from 40,000 in 1949 to 150,000 in 1965
43
How many more doctors were there by the 1960s?
Medical schools were graduating 25,000 new doctors per year
44
What was the impact of the healthcare changes? Find some statistics.
In 1949 life expectancy was 36 years; by 1957 it was 57 years.
45
Why was the work of doctors disrupted during the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution?
Many doctors were labelled as bourgeois while many others were denounced during the CR.
46
Who were the Barefoot Doctors? How did they get this name?
- Young people who were sent by villages to receive medical training
- They got this name because they went to live with peasants so poor that shoes were too valuable to wear in the muddy fields
47
What were the CCP’s ideological and economic reasons for launching this scheme?*
Ideology: Long academic study detached doctors from the people and encouraged their bourgeois ways therefore they got short 6 month periods of intensive study with practical focus.
- Barefoot doctors were a practical solution to China’s shortage of doctors.
- Knew what a boost for the regime it would be if access to medical treatment could be made a basic right of the Chinese people under communism.
- ‘Propaganda Scheme’ not enough training (Jung Chang).
Economic: To keep health on a low budget. One of Mao’s political manoeuvres to win more support -> without directing funds from Mao’s ambitious economic and military priorities.
48
How much training did Barefoot doctors get? What skills did they gain as a result of this training?
- They hardly had any formal training and learned through practice
- They could only provide rudimentary healthcare and the village clinic had little equipment and low supplies of medicine
49
How many barefoot doctors were trained by 1973?
Over a million new doctors had been trained
50
How successful was the barefoot doctors scheme? Think medically and politically?
- It provided the best healthcare for many rural peasants
- They played a part in challenging the traditional practices and spreading modern
medical knowledge and basic care to rural areas
51
What % of the population were educated before 1949?
45.2% of men and 2.2% women
52
What type of people gained an education before 1949?
- Privileged population of China (landlords)
| - Peasants did not have any education
53
What subjects were they taught before 1949?
- Arithmetic and science were not taught
- Within higher education humanities studies dominated (59% of students enrolled in a full time degree programme studied law, politics or the liberal arts)
- Just 10% studied natural sciences, 11.5% engineering and only 3% agriculture
54
What were the teaching methods before 1949?
Rote learning
55
What was Mao’s attitude towards traditional Chinese education?
- Angry by the inequality of educational opportunities.
- Only had education from ‘foreign style schools’ which did not serve the needs of the workers and peasants.
- Didn’t like how the attitude of the teachers ‘towards the peasants were very bad, and far from being helpful to the peasants’
56
What political motivation was there for educational reform?
Education allowed for the creation of commitment to communism. Attributes such as self-sacrifice for the nation, obedience and discipline were instilled.
57
What different types of schools did the CCP introduce? What were min-pan schools? (Education in the 1950s)
- Min pan was a ‘run by the people’ primary school, financially supported and managed by the local village
- Winter schools provided short courses for adult peasants (42million peasants attended in the winter of 1951-52)
58
What was pinyin? When was it introduced? How did it help to improve literacy in China?
- A new standardised alphabet
- 1955
- Instead of symbols, the letters meant that words in Mandarin, the main language, could be pronounced phonetically. This greatly improved communication.
59
How did the literacy rate improve in the 1950s?
Between 1949 and 1957 the number of primary school students increased from 26 million to 64 million.
60
What % of the budget was spent on education?
6.4%
61
What was the teaching like in rural areas?
- Min-pan schools -> Improved access but conditions were poor
- Many rural children still didn’t receive an education
- Primary teaching was left to barely educated cadres
- Winter Schools
- Still used Rote Learning
62
How many more people attended university? (Education in the 1950s)
University enrolments almost quadrupled from 117.000 to 441,000.
63
How did subjects and teaching change at university? (Education in the 1950s)
- Higher education was modelled by closely on the Soviet Union with a separate Ministry of education set up in November 1952 to co-ordinate the introduction of prescribed teaching plans, materials and textbooks
- Between 1952 and 1958, 600 Russians taught in chinese colleges and universities and, by 1959, 38,000 Chinese students had been trained in Russian schools
64
Overall, who benefited most from these educational changes? What changes were not made?
- System remained elitist
- Requirements for education favoured both the children of the old bourgeoisie and the new privileged class; children of party officials
65
What qualifications did teachers need? (Education during the Great Leap Forward)
Political qualifications and practical abilities.
66
What subjects were taught? What was the curriculum like? (Education during the Great Leap Forward)
- Manual labour to prepare students to expand China’s economic power
- The ministry of higher education was banned
- The min-pan school principal was extended to secondary schools
- ‘Half work-half study’ curriculum was introduced
67
What teaching methods were used? (Education during the Great Leap Forward)
Vocational education was used for agricultural techniques.
68
How many schools were there by 1960? How many students had access to education? (Education during the Great Leap Forward)
- 30,000 schools
| - 2.9 million students
69
Why did school attendance decline during the GLF?
Students had to work on backyard furnaces
70
How did education in urban areas differ from rural areas? (Education during the Great Leap Forward)
Rural - Vocational education for agricultural techniques
Urban - elite school system was developed from kindergarten to university. Key point schools gained the highest funding
71
Why did education collapse during the Cultural Revolution? Give both practical and ideological reasons.
- The failure to create educational equality
- Mao’s belief that education was “exceedingly harmful.”
- Politics and class background returning as a ground for admission to schools
72
How were many teachers treated? Give some examples. (Education during the Cultural Revolution)
- They were denounced and attacked
- At Beijing University a wall poster urged students to ‘eliminate all demons and monsters and carry the socialist revolution through to the end’
- Teachers were intimidated by students in struggle meetings, forcing them to kneel for hours with their arms pulled out behind them in what became known as the ‘aeroplane position’
73
How did the Cultural Revolution change attitudes towards education?
- Education was seen as insignificant
| - Zhang Tiesheng garnered national attention when he submitted a blank examination paper for his college admission test
74
Why was control of culture important for Mao?
He believed that culture was inherently political and allowed for control over people.
75
Who was Jiang Qing? Why did Mao appoint her ‘Cultural Tsarina’?
- Mao’s fourth wife and formerly an actress in Shanghai
| - She was appointed cultural Tsarina due to her having a career in the film industry and theatre
76
What political positions did Jiang Qing hold?
- Oversee the cultural aspects of the revolution
| - She oversaw the purification of ‘revisionist, capitalist and feudalist’ influences in chinese culture
77
How did Jiang Qing control theatre?
- Imposed strict censorship, vetting all theatre performances for evidence of revisionist content
- All foreign works were banned
- She interfered with auditions, loudly contradicting the instructions of the directors
78
How did Jiang Qing control opera?
Feudal characters of opera were replaced with heroic peasants, workers and revolutionary soldiers.
79
How many operas, ballets and symphonies were allowed?
| What was the impact of these operas on Chinese artists and their art?
Only 8 official revolutionary ‘performances’ (five operas, two ballets and a symphony) were allowed
Cowed by terror and fear of denunciation, writers, painters and musicians either towed the Party line or stopped producing
80
Which religions were practiced in China before 1949?
Confucianism
Protestant and Catholic Christianity
Islam
Buddhism
81
What is the Marxist/communist view of religion?
‘Opium to the masses’
82
Why was religion seen as a threat to the CCP?
- Religion was seen as feudal superstitions
| - They had opposing ideologies
83
Why was Confucianism and Ancestor Worship seen as a threat to the CCP, particularly during the Cultural Revolution?
Confucianism and Ancestor worship was seen as ‘old culture’ with no relevance in the New China
84
What actions did the CCP take against Confucianism and Ancestor Worship? Give some examples.
- All public ceremonies celebrating confucius were ended in 1949
- At first temples and shrines dedicated to him were not destroyed; they simply became museum pieces. During the CR the temple of confucius’ birthplace was attacked
- Communists condemned the traditions of ancestor worship and encouraging new practices and attitudes
- Old traditions were replaced
85
How successful were these measures? Find an example to illustrate both success and failure to replace old traditional ideas.
- Although many temples, shrines and religious statues were destroyed, this did not equate to the destruction of long held beliefs
- A director of a commune health clinic had an image of the God of Wealth in his home and was making offerings to it
86
Why was Christianity seen as a threat to the CCP?
Communists believed that the church was representative of western imperialism ideas
87
How many Protestants lived in China in 1949?
1 million
88
What action did the CCP take against Protestantism? What was the Patriotic Church Movement? How successful was it?
- Schools, universities and hospitals set up by the protestant church were taken over by the government.
- 1949: more than 300 protestant missionaries in China became less than 100 in 1952.
- ‘The patriotic church movement’ was organised for Chinese Protestant churches to support the regime. Leaders of Patriotic churches tried to encourage their congregations to be loyal to the CCP. They argued that the church should be run by the ‘three self principle’ (self ruling, self supporting, self propagating)
89
How many Catholics lived in China in 1949?
3 million
90
What action did the CCP take against Catholicism? How successful was it?
- Catholics were subject to surveillance and forced to attend study meetings to write self-criticism.
- In 1951, there were 3222 catholic missionaries in China but only 364 left in 1953.
Catholic counter-revolutionary clique led to 1500 jailed for Imperialism and spreading non-communist ideas.
- Clergy converted to physical labourers - leaders who resisted were sent to labour camps (Red Guards ultimately destroyed all Christianity in the CR).
- Sacred Heart Home for Children described as a Nazi Prison Camp and rumoured that the sisters starved and tortured the Children - said some were sold into slavery (People’s China Magazine).
- Catholic hospitals were charged with using patients as human guineas pigs to try out new medicines.
- Catholic schools attacked for ‘central aggression’ for providing support for the espionage carried out on behalf of the US Army. In Shanghai, a special exhibition was created to demonstrate ‘Catholic espionage activities’
- Canton: PLA banned the Legion of Mary (international charity organisation) for being an ‘international anti-Communist and anti-people reactionary organisation in the guise of religion and manipulated by imperalism’
Public Christian Worship was ended in China (Catholic and Protestant)
91
What action did the CCP take against Catholicism? What were the limitations?
Limitations:
- Some priests gave services in private homes
- Pilgrims still met to celebrate Easter Sunday
- Vatican refused to accept ‘patriotic churches’ were truly catholic
- Congregation sizes at patriotic churches were low whereas congregations where the priest was independent of the regime increased.
92
Who were the Uighur people? What were they promised in 1949?
- Uighur people were an ethnic group native to Xinjiang in Northwestern China who were Muslim.
- In 1949 welcomed the “Peaceful liberation” by the PLA. They were promised full autonomy by Mao a decade before.
93
Why was Islam seen as a threat to the CCP?
- Their demands for independence were recognised in Xinjiang when it was named the Autonomous Region in Oct 1955 meaning it had a greater local government.
- Religious leaders held great power
94
What actions did the CCP take against those who practiced Islam during the Great Leap Forward? Give some examples.
- GLF activities such as worshipping or reading scripture were reduced to devote more time to economic production.
- The regime encouraged the mass migration of Han people into the region in order to dilute the influence of traditional religious beliefs.
95
What actions did the CCP take against those who practiced Islam during the Cultural Revolution? Give some examples.
Xinjiang
- Attacks on mosques were renewed with many turned into stables or slaughterhouses.
- Religious leaders attacked and were given menial jobs like cleaning sewers.
- Forced to write self-denuinications and swear loyalty to the regime.
- Ordered to raise and eat pigs to make them more Han Chinese (direct challenge to religious sentiment)
Rest of China
- Islamic intellectuals were targeted.
- Ibrahim Mutte'i was tortured by having the heavy volumes of a multilingual dictionary he had edited dropped on his head.
- Men forced to shave beards
96
How successful were these measures? What motivated the CCP’s policy towards Islam?
Policy was motivated by the fear of the Uighur people wanting independence for Xinjiang. GIven that Xingjian bordered other Muslim countries (like Pakistan) and had links with Muslim minorities in the Soviet Union, the CCP were concerned that Xinjiang would ally themselves with them
Successes:
The Imam's judicial authority was removed and they were forced to attend ‘thought reform’ for indoctrination.
Uighurs recited “Long Live Chairman Mao” in Chinese to avoid punishment.
Traditional dress abandoned in favour of ‘Mao suits’ which were drab workers’ overalls.
New regime controlled by Beijing, compelled Muslim children to leave mosque schools and attend government schools instead.
Marxism (not the Qur’an) was on the curriculum.
Zakat (Religious Tithe) was abolished and redistributed to the poor.
97
What limitations did the CCP's policy towards Islam have?
Followers of Islam fought back - over a thousand people killed in Gansu. In response, the regime ordered that cadres be more respectful of Islamic customs. -> Islamic association of China to encourage cooperation.
Muslim religious leaders (Imams) held real authority in their communities and therefore represented a clear challenge to communist rule.
98
Why was Buddhism a threat to the CCP?
- Rival belief system
| - Less organised than Christianity, easier to attack
99
How were Buddhist monks in China (outside Tibet) attacked in the 1950s?
Give some examples.
- Monks denounced as “parasites”
- Ordered to work
- Some forcibly enlisted in military academies.
- Others denounced as counter-revolutionaries and killed at struggle meetings.
During the “Resist America, Aid Korea” campaign:
- The Buddhist Association exhorted members to undergo ‘thought reform’ and to abandon their ‘feudal ideology’.
- Ancient temples were converted into barracks, prisons, schools and hospitals for wounded soldiers from Korea (Yonghegong Temple in Beijing restored at great cost in case foreigners visited).
- Buddhist landholdings were redistributed (Agrarian Land Reform 1950).
- Organised a Chinese Buddhist Association in 1953 to speak up for buddhists (method of government control like the Patriotic Church Movement)
100
How were the Buddhists in Tibet attacked during the Reunification Campaign 1950? How did they resist? (Cross-reference with the Reunification Campaign in Unit 1: Establishing Communist Rule)
- Propaganda units such as Newspapers and Magazines that spread communist ideas.
- Dances and dramas told tales of peasants liberating themselves from the control of Buddhism.
- Promoted the migration of the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group (Building of the highway)
- Mandarin official language
101
How were the Buddhists in Tibet attacked during the Great Leap Forward? Find some examples.
- GLF heralded a renewed attack on Buddhist monks.
- Regime focused on productivity therefore monks were converted into physical labourers and forced into communes.
- Lamas (Tibet’s religious leaders), were stripped of their traditional sources of income: providing shelter for travellers, medical care and organising ceremonies and festivals.
- Temple Land added to communes.
- Often forced to work the worst quality land - many starved.
- Many joined the PLA out of desperation.
102
What did the Dalai Lama do in 1959?
- Was ordered to report to communist officials.
| - Fearing he would be imprisoned, the Tibetan people helped smuggle him out to safety in India.
103
How were Buddhists (inside and outside Tibet) attacked during the Cultural Revolution? Find some examples.
- Denounced as one of the ‘Four olds’ during CR.
- Monasteries were burned, religious relics destroyed and monks beaten or arrested and sent to the laogai for ‘labour reform’.
104
How successful were these measures against Buddhism?
- By the end of the CR, few temples or shrines remained.
- Lamas forced into labour.
- Religious schools were closed and were no longer able to spread Buddhist ideas.
- Entire generation of monks, nuns and Buddhist followers had been wiped out.
- Due to the Reunification Campaign 1950: The Tibetan people resisted with sabotage and guerilla warfare. - -
- The resistance was so committed that Tibet was targeted during the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1958 when an intense anti-Buddhist propaganda campaign was launched.
- Dalai Lama forced to merge Tibet into PRC
105
How did China benefit from Mao’s rule?
- China became a unified country
- China became a great power. China acquired nuclear weapons and entered the space race
- There was progress towards greater equality for women
- China’s population became better educated and more healthy
- Food production, particularly grain, kept pace with the rapid increase in population; apart from the GLF
- Improved communications enabled food to be moved from regions where there was a surplus to regions where there were shortages
- China experienced significant industrial development. - Steel production tripled between the 1950s and the 1970s
- The net output of industry grew at an annual average of 10.2% between 1957 and 1979
106
What were the costs of Mao’s rule?
- 10s of millions of deaths, either from famine or political attacks
- ‘Ends justify the means’
- Human rights abuses; imprisonment without charge or trial, no right to appeal, no protection from the law
- No freedom of speech, conscience, assembly and protest
- Cruel and unusual punishments, labour camps and torture
- Policies of mass mobilisation and continuing the revolution meant China could not progress any further in its economic development
- Policy of self-reliance increased China’s isolation cutting them off from new ideas
- Destruction of historic buildings
