China: 1949-1976

1. China: 1949-1976

2. Purpose of today’s lecture • Gauge the success of Mao in dealing with China’s problems • Understand the Chinese government system • Understand changes in Agriculture and Industry • Learn details of 3 campaigns & programs under Mao: • 100 Flowers Campaign • Great Leap Forward • Cultural Revolution

3. Problems Facing Mao • Following the Civil War: • Railways, roads, canals, & dams destroyed • Chronic food shortages • Industry was backward • Agriculture inefficient & incapable of feeding the masses • Inflation seemed out of control

4. What Mao needed • Improve conditions to keep support of peasants and the middle class • Control & organization over the masses • Assistance from the USSR • Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance • “Like getting meat out of the mouth of a tiger” • Financial aid & technical advice • Only $300,000,000 over 5 years • 10,000 engineers and planning experts to help build the economy

5. China’s Government • 1950 constitution • National People’s Congress • Final authority for legislation • Members elected for four years • State Council & Chairman of the Republic • Make sure laws were carried out and administration of the country went ahead • Political Bureau (Politburo) • Handled all main decisions • Provided China with a strong central government for the first time in many years

6. Industrial Changes • Nationalization of most businesses • Five Year Plan • 1953-1957: development of heavy industry (iron, steel, chemicals, & coal) • Light industry neglected • Necessity to feed workers led to agrarian reform

7. Agricultural Changes • Goal:transform China from a country of small, inefficient private farms into one of large cooperative farms like those in Russia • Stage 1 • Land taken from large landowners and redistributed among the peasants • Violence? • Reports of as many as 2 million killed • Other historians argue this was handled legally and with a minimum of violence against landlords • Stage 2 • Peasants persuaded to join together in cooperative farms to increase food production • Cooperative farms between 100 & 300 families • Joint ownership of the farm and its equipment • 95% of all peasants were in cooperatives by 1956

9. Agricultural Changes

10. Hundred Flowers Campaign (1957) • Seems to have developed out of industrialization • New class of technicians and engineers seen as a threat to authority of the cadres (organizers of the masses) • Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend. • Call for constructive criticism of the government • Mao got more than he expected: • Attack of the cadres for incompetence and over-enthusiasm • Criticism of the government for over-centralization • Communist Party targeted for being undemocratic; suggestions of opposition parties

11. Hundred Flowers Campaign (1957) • Campaign called off quickly – after only 6 weeks of free speech!!! • Critics targeted – Mao insisted his policies were right • Led to the Great Leap Forward

12. Great Leap Forward • Industrial and agricultural developments meant to increase output and adapt industry to meet Chinese conditions. • Introduction of Communes: • Larger than collective farms, up to 75,000 people • Ran their own collective farms and factories, carried out most functions of a local government • Special local projects • Families received a share of the profits & a small private land plot • Emphasis changed to Industry: • Smaller factories established in the countryside focused on machinery production for agriculture • Organized and managed by communes • Roads, canals, dams, reservoirs and irrigation channels

13. Great Leap Forward • Hardships in the years 1959-63 • Some opposition to the cadres • Series of bad harvests (1959-61) • Famine (1959-60) • Withdrawal of Russian aid • Lack of experience among cadres • 20 million people may have died • Economic crisis

14. Great leap forward • Long term importance • Agricultural and industrial output increased • China managed to feed its population without famine by the mid-1960s • Communes proved successful • Allowed central government to keep in touch with local opinion • Avoided high unemployment of other industrialized countries • Economy was labor intensive, providing jobs for most of the massive population • Spread of education and welfare services • Improvement in the position of women

15. Cultural Revolution (1966-9) • Mao’s attempt to keep the revolution and Great Leap on a pure Marxist-Leninist course, and to maintain his authority. • Right-wing members (including Liu Shao-qui and Deng Xiaoping) opposed the methods of the Great Leap forward • Suggestions about shifting the way of thinking to be more in line with the Soviets • More incentives in the communes, managerial class in industrial sectors • Mao rejected these ideas as ‘revisionist’ and taking the ‘capitalist road’ • Party must avoid emergence of a privileged class who would exploit the workers • Wanted to maintain ideological purity

16. Cultural Revolution (1966-9) • Public debate between rightists and Maoists over which course to follow • Mao roused the youth through the ‘Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution’ to appeal to the masses • Mao was trying to renew revolutionary fervor • Red Guards traveled the country arguing Mao’s cause – purges on the nation’s ‘impure’ elements • Schools and factories were closed down • Authority figures were attacked – not just critics of Mao • Teachers, professionals, local party officials – all were targets • Millions of people were disgraced and ruined Little Red Book

17. Cultural Revolution (1966-9) • Liu Shao-qui was one of the Communist leaders removed from power • He died in prison in 1969 after repeated beatings • Mao had to call in the army under Lin Biao to restore order in 1967 • Privately admitted to mistakes, but publicly blamed his advisors and Red Guard leaders • Many were arrested and executed for their ‘excesses’ • Cultural revolution formally ended in 1969 • Mao declared free of all blame • Mao later blamed Lin Biao for the Red Guard’s over-enthusiasm • Mao did not trust Lin (power grabs, assassination attempts) and was killed in an air crash in 1971 while ‘trying to escape to the USSR’ according to reports • Zhou Enlai took office after Mao rather than Lin

18. Cultural Revolution (1966-69) • Lasting effects • Caused great disruption • Schools and government systems had to be restored – took several years • Ruined millions of lives • Halted China’s economic development by ten years • Some economic recovery in the mid-1970s • 1.5 million were killed, millions more were imprisoned, had their property seized, were tortured or humiliated • Many people moved away from the party – the exact opposite result Mao had aimed for