Running parallel with Mao’s agricultural reforms were his attempts to revolutionize Chinese industry. He had to do this to make China self sufficient in its key materials as, before it had been relying on foreign allies for such provisions and years of war had prevented it from recovering. All banks, railways and one third of private heavy industry were taken from their owners and made into state property. Profits went straight to the government and made up around two thirds of its annual income. The government also received 20% of all grain produced in China. These reforms were a huge change from before because the government was becoming increasingly rich. The production of basic goods had now returned to pre-war levels however, Mao wanted to further this, and so produced a set of planned development programs. These were spread over a twenty-year period and tackled problems across the board.
The first five-year plan focused on heavy industry and improving food yield on farms. The second five-year plan set up the communes, and targets were pushed to extremes, so much so that some peasants worked through the night. Propaganda was also introduced to promote the communist ideas and encourage hard work. Such support and influence from the government had never been seen before by the people of China, and so most of the peasants welcomed it, however the targets set began to become increasingly hard to meet. Machines began to break down. Workers became ill and disease spread rapidly due to close work with others. This occurred because Mao’s ideas became too ambitious. This was a huge change from the laid back attitude taken by the people and government of China previously.
The third five-year plan approached the problems faced in light industry, however this plan was never fully completed because of the Cultural Revolution, which took over China near the approach of this action. The fourth five year plan, however was very successful and ended up providing consumer goods for many people. By 1476 China was a modern industrial nation to compete with the west.
The government obviously experienced a lot of change throughout, because the communist principles were so different to the Guamingdang’s had been. The first change was to reorganize the way the provinces in China were laid out. They were divided into six main regions, each run by a separate communist council, which was run by a leader who controlled the region. Previously there had been one leader who attempted to control the whole of China with a few councillors who aided. The new system proved to be more organised and successful in the long run. The leaders of the new regions formed the communist council with Mao as head of state. The peoples liberation army also played an important part in the new government system. The commanders shared all the tasks of the government with the councils in each region of China. The troops were now being used to their full potential building up the economies of some outlying regions of China and rebuilding bridges, buildings and railways, unlike before, when they were only used in war times. They helped tackle specific problems in each region, which brought a great change to the whole running of China. The government was one area that experienced a great deal of change during Mao’s rule.
Education of the people was vital to the successful running of China. Before Mao’s reign in power education had been kept to a minimum and only the rich were educated and most people were illiterate. Mao addressed this problem by setting up schools, university’s and other centres of education. In all of these, a communist education was provided. Communist texts were studied and the ideas of helping others, co-operating and pride in work were stressed, especially in the cultural revolution when a persons political and work record was looked upon more highly than academic ability when entering universities. A great change was seen in this section of society. Illiteracy did decline rapidly and by 1965 only 15% of the population were illiterate.
At this time most forms of media were being censored, such as television, music and writing. A lot of it was then replaced with propaganda and ‘educational media’ promoting the communist message. Any western media was banned and those who tried to bring any in were imprisoned and sent to education centres to have their ideas reformed. Mao was afraid that these people might impose their ideas on the rest of China. This meant that China became a very closed society. Only uniform ideas were accepted and thus were all that some people knew. There was no influence from other countries and so China became very uncultured.
In 1950 Mao introduced a program of ‘ideological remoulding’ to prepare people for communist utopia. Everyone attended meetings and owned a copy of the ‘Little Red Book’, which contained Mao’s policies and his aims to improve society in China. Many of the lower class people appreciated the extra support and guidance, however intellectuals resented it because they had lost status and wealth in the new system. Personal freedom was severely limited at this time compared to rule under the Guamingdang where China was an economically declining uncontrolled country.
Change was seen in almost all areas of the new reformed China and many of Mao’s ambitious ideas for the future of China became realities. Huge change was especially seen in the education and culture section of society, as people were now being given a chance to learn and become independent. However society was becoming increasingly limited because of the huge amount of control the government were beginning to gain.