Mao, in 1953, went on to devise the first five year plan with the help of Russian advisers. This plan centred on industrial development (1953-1957)- steal, coal, machinery and the like-700 new production plants in central China and Manchuria were developed. Light industry- such as cotton-making and food processing-was neglected in favour of heavy industry. The achievements of the first five year plan was published (refer to table below) and would seem to prove that the plan was successful, however the data could have been biased to keep the people of China happy. Many numbers of workers in the towns and cities meant more mouths to feed. The Five Year Plan also aimed to increase food output from China’s farms by turning them into co-operatives. The Agarian Reform Law of 1950 gave land to about 300 million peasants, About half of whom were able to farm their land by themselves. The rest, whose fields were too small or who did not own farming tools banded together in mutual-aid teams, sharing equipment and animals. The government recognised that farms that were too small could not be farmed efficiently, and therefore could not produce the amount of food needed for the five year plan. Also they were afraid that the land owning peasants would become a new class in society, concerned with only making profits for themselves thereby going against the communist belief.
In 1953 the government and the Party persuaded peasants to join what they called lower-stage co-operatives. Between 30-50 families, usually the people of one village pulled their land and resources to make one bigger, more efficient farm. They still owned their plots of land but the land was on permanent loan to the co-operatives, for which each family was paid a rent.
Peasants were extremely important to Mao because his ideas would benefit and would improve living conditions for the peasants. 80% to 90% of China’s population were peasants and colossal figure of approximately 700 000000 peasants lived in China in 1958. Obviously Mao knew he had great muscle power from the population. The First Five Year Plan encouraged the lower stage co-operatives to join together to make bigger, higher-stage co-operatives, these consisted of 200-300 families from a group of villages. The big difference between the higher and the lower-stage co-operatives was that the families were not paid rent, they received only wages for their labour. They had to surrender the title to their land, their equipment and their animals to the co-operatives. Thusly in 1956, 95% of the three hundred million peasants were landless again.
In 1956, Chinese society was under a great strain, the cities were over crowded creating food shortages and housing problems. The peasants from the newer higher stage co-operatives were also complaining and the Communist party was loosing popularity with people criticising leaders. It needed to build on it’s early success with land reform and the 1st 5 year plan.
In 1958 Mao Zedong, introduced the second Five-Year Plan to make China into one the world’s leading industrial nations at the same time improving her agriculture. Mao intended that the Chinese economy would overtake that of Britain within fifteen years and that of America in twenty to thirty years. He called the plan the “Great Leap Forward”. The aims of the “Great Leap Forward” were to develop agriculture as well as industry, both heavy and light, all at the same time. Mao intended to reorganise the Chinese people into communes. Communes were groups of villages which varied in size from a few kilometres to that of a British county with the average commune containing 5000 families. These people gave up their land, their animals and their equipment to common ownership.
The purpose of the communes was to release what Mao called “the tremendous energy of the masses” ensuring that the best possible use could be made of the time and energy of the people. The communes advantage was that they could develop industry, agriculture, commerce, education and military affairs. At first the communes were very organised so that the people worked hard with no distractions. Around four million communal eating halls were set up so that the number of people who spent time cooking meals was reduced. Several million children were put into nurseries and schools so that both parents were free to work. Old and infirm people were moved into “houses of happiness” so their families would not take time off work to look after them.
Communes controlled almost every activity in a person’s life because they combined several different functions. First, a commune was a unit of local government, with a committee made up of peasants, Party members, eating halls, entertainment and other public services. Second, a commune was a unit of work organisation, with the work of the commune divided among work teams of a dozen families, and grouped into work brigades of a dozen work teams. Thirdly, the commune was a unit of the Communist Party, with a Party committee making sure that the commune always followed Party decisions. By the end of 1958 700 million people (roughly 90% of the population) were in communes. This not only astounded the Chinese people but the rest of the world as well.
Propaganda played a role in the “Great Leap Forward. Everywhere that people worked, there were loudspeakers playing revolutionary music and rousing speeches, encouraging the people to work harder to exceed the Plan’s targets. As a result many impressive construction projects were completed in record time. One of these was the dam built by the inhabitants of Beijing. The dam was built by hundreds of thousands of Beijingers, civil servants, doctors, students, etc. all worked eight-hour shifts day and night without a break. They worked with very primitive tools, not enough machines and very few resources, sometimes using their fingertips to scratch away at the earth. They were urged on by Party members with megaphones. The only problem at this time was that he had to feed the millions of people working in these communes and this introduced a huge problem for Mao.
Mao, towards the end of the first five year plan and approaching the second, was determined to introduce improvements in China. He also wanted to compete with the USA and other communist opponents. The USA feared greatly that the communist party would defeat and take control of other countries. In 1949 Mao’s communist government was new but not secure. The GMD forces in Taliwan threatened to re-invade the mainland and topple the government. Mao feared that the USA would help GMD because the USA feared the spread of communism to other countries in Asia. This was one aspect that hugely influenced Mao’s decision to introduce his second five year plan. Mao naturally wanted to build on the first five year plan and wanted to expand his country and make it superior. More aspects affected Mao’s decision, for example in 1950 the USA sent troops to South Korea against Chinese backed North Koreans. In 1953 the USA conspired to block China’s application to the United Nations. The USA and China obviously had a bad relationship with one another.
To begin with the China and the Soviet Union seemed natural allies against the Western powers as they were both communists. Since the early days of the Chinese communist Party the Soviet Union had given Chinese communities advice and assistance. As an extension of their good relationship, in February of 1950 Mao signed The Treaty Of Friendship with the USSR: an agreement based on respect for the principle of equality, state independence and national sovereignty. He signed this because China would have credits and advisers.
For a while relations with the Russia and China were stable, however when we entered the mid 1950’s their relationship gradually deteriorated and was not as successful as everyone thought. Their relationship gradually deteriorated for many reasons; in Mao’s view, the Soviet Union should not dominate Chinese revolution and as he put it once himself: “ If the Russians break wind, we don’t have to pretend it smells nice”. The soviet view was that he was a nationalist. As one soviet member put it: “he was bursting with an impatient desire to rule the world. His plan was to rule first China, then Asia, then ...what?”
The USSR began to argue about atomic weapons. They then began to have border disputes with India. The Soviet Union sent two helicopters, dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles, and several hundred armed troops to intrude into the border area. They penetrated a depth of two kilometres, unwarrantedly fired at the Chinese frontier wards on normal patrol duty, killing and wounding many of them on the spot, and closed on them. Driven beyond the limits of forbearance, the Chinese frontier guards were compelled to fight back in self-defence. In 1960 the Soviet Union support was withdrawn. The break with the Soviet Union left China very isolated and made Mao even more determined to push through reforms embodied in the second five year plan.
Although evidence is sketchy, Mao's decision to embark on the Great Leap Forward was based in part on his uncertainty about the Soviet policy of economic, financial, and technical assistance to China. That policy, in Mao's view, not only fell far short of his expectations and needs but also made him wary of the political and economic dependence in which China might find itself.
Only months after Mao launched the Great Leap forward, things began to go wrong. Factories were urged to produce more and more and to produce it faster. Machinery broke down and exhausted workers fell asleep at their benches and suffered accidents through carelessness.
The Great Leap Forward centred on a new socio-economic and political system created in the countryside and in a few urban areas--the people's communes . By the fall of 1958, some 750,000 agricultural producers' co-operatives, now designated as production brigades, had been amalgamated into about 23,500 communes, each averaging 5,000 households, or 22,000 people. The individual commune was placed in control of all the means of production and was to operate as the sole accounting unit; it was subdivided into production brigades (generally coterminous with traditional villages) and production teams. Each commune was planned as a self-supporting community for agriculture, small-scale local industry (for example, the famous backyard pig-iron furnaces), schooling, marketing, administration, and local security (maintained by militia organisations). Organised along paramilitary and labour saving lines, the commune had communal kitchens, mess halls, and nurseries. In a way, the people's communes constituted a fundamental attack on the institution of the family, especially in a few model areas where radical experiments in communal living--large dormitories in place of the traditional nuclear family housing-- occurred. (These were quickly dropped.) The system also was based on the assumption that it would release additional manpower for such major projects as irrigation works and hydroelectric dams, which were seen as integral parts of the plan for the simultaneous development of industry and agriculture.
The Great Leap Forward was an economic failure. In early 1959, amid signs of rising popular restiveness, the CCP admitted that the favourable production report for 1958 had been exaggerated. Among the Great Leap Forward's economic consequences were a shortage of food (in which natural disasters also played a part); shortages of raw materials for industry; overproduction of poor-quality goods; deterioration of industrial plants through mismanagement; and exhaustion and demoralisation of the peasantry and of the intellectuals, not to mention the party and government cadres at all levels. Throughout 1959 efforts to modify the administration of the communes got under way; these were intended partly to restore some material incentives to the production brigades and teams, partly to decentralise control, and partly to house families that had been reunited as household units.
The ‘backyard steel’ campaign also failed. Three million of the eleven million tonnes of steel made in backyard furnaces were too impure for industrial use and had to be scraped. So many furnaces were built that, eventually, one person in ten was employed in making steel.. This took people away from the fields, reducing the amount of food being produced. The furnaces used so much coal that railway locomotives had no fuel to run on and with no trains the steel could not be moved to where it was needed. Three bitter years followed.
The Great Leap Forward failed as badly in the countryside. Although the weather was good in 1958 two problems prevented the harvest being a good one. First so many peasants were working in industry and there were too few people to harvest the crops properly. Secondly, the Party officials ignored this fact and falsely claimed a record crop of 260 tonnes. As a result many of the communal eating halls started giving out generous meals, using up valuable food stocks.
None of this would have mattered, if the next two year’s harvest had been good. Unfortunately in 1959 the weather was bad, causing floods in some parts and droughts in others, resulting in a harvest of only 170 million tonnes. Before long people began to starve.
In 1960 the weather was even worse and with the chaos caused by the Great Leap Forward the harvest was reduced to 144 million tonnes. This lead to a major famine, killing around 9 million people in 1960 alone. In 1960 Russia with drew all her aid from China. Rationing was introduced but the death toll continued to rise. Between 1959 and 1962, 20 million Chinese died of starvation.
The “three bitter years” as the Chinese refereed to the famine years of 1959-61, were partly the result of Mao’s Great Leap Forward policies. The disaster was seventy per cent man-made and thirty per cent natural courses. Some Party leaders blamed Mao and demanded his resignations. Mao was still popular among masses of the Chinese people and it was difficult to get rid of him. The Party leaders persuaded I to hand over the post of Head of State to Lui Shaoqi, leaving him with only one post, that of Party Chairman. Mao was no longer involved in the routine running of the country. That was now done by a group of moderate leaders - Head of State Shaoqi, Prime Minister Zhou Enlai and Party Secretary Deng Xiaoping. Now that the moderates were in control, the Great Leap Forward was abandoned and more realistic policies were adopted. Communes were reduced in size, peasants working in back-yard steel production were sent back to the fields. Peasants were allowed to own private plot again, and to sell part of what they grew at market for their own profit.. Town workers’ wages were increased.
Although the moderates were now in charge this did not mean that Mao had lost his grip, he was still regarded as a revolutionary hero. The moderates did not allow him to have a say in the running of the country but he continued to have a great influence over the Chinese people. He used his influence in 1966 to get rid of the moderates by starting a new political revolution that would soon be known throughout the world as the Cultural Revolution.
How much of Mao’s China still exists today?
When Deng came to power he immediately began to reverse what Mao had done, he wanted to change he direction that china was headed. The type of communism that Deng practised was very different from Maoist China. Deng wanted to reverse the damage caused by Mao during the Cultural Revolution and the great leap forward without ruining the reputation of Mao.
Economically when Deng came to power he wished to turn China away from Maoist policies. Under Mao everything was state controlled and the government kept all the profits there were no incentives to work because everyone was paid the same even if one person did more than another. Deng gave the people the opportunity to do things themselves; they could start their own businesses, private enterprise was encouraged and soon brought about an increase in wealth. The change in economy and industry was shown in ‘Special Economic Zones’, which were set up by Deng to enable China to get more contact with the outside world and benefit from foreign industry. One of these zones was set up next to the colony of Hong Kong, this was to bring China and the colony closer together. These zones and the growing private sector is another example of how China was changing and getting rid of the old Maoist China. Deng believed in trade with overseas countries, this was something Mao would have feared; also he believed that only people of political importance should gain wealth. Under Deng, private sectors were growing and there were new ideas circulating, he welcomed foreigners into the country and people were encouraged to learn new languages. When Mao was in power, he limited contact with people outside china and almost forbade foreign influence.
Agriculturally Mao had introduced the ‘Agrarian Reform Act’ the communes he set up were strictly controlled, people had to work when they were told to and to grow what was given to them. Deng abolished the communes, people were allowed to charge prices and grow crops of their own choice. This meant they could earn more wages and acted as an incentive to work harder. Under Mao some people had to work in places they didn’t want to and students were taken out of education to experience the peasant’s life style. Deng returned these people to school and college, which resulted in a wealthy and successful group of people. How politically inclined you were no longer mattered, with Mao it did, success was down to the individual.
In Industry Mao had every thing state controlled or owned he made sure that communists rather than businessmen ran businesses. Under Deng this changed and he applied a managerial responsibility system in 1984. Managers were given much greater responsibility and could even sell abroad to capitalist countries. Capitalist enterprise was being accepted in Chinese industry. They could set up workshops, hire people and profit from the work of their employees. This open engagement in what Marx called exploitation, would never have been allowed in Maoist China.
In education, only 80,000 out of one billion peop from coursework.info le received university education, Mao had decided the future of young intellectuals and made sure they would never become to powerful, they were no longer in a position to judge or denounce his policies. Mao was more concerned with the physical side of teaching people. Under Deng more encouragement was given to progress in education. Once education was complete the people had a choice of jobs, they could now go for technical or skilled jobs with large pay. Deng promised that everyone should have at least a primary school education, he recognised that there were to many illiterate people.
Socially, Deng wanted China to remain communist, but he also wanted China to change its view of other countries and how they saw China. He made China more accessible through buying and selling. China became more up to date and began to allow other political parties, but only those that didn’t threaten communism. With Mao anyone suspected of not being a fully-fledged communist was sent away, tortured or even killed. Secret meetings were held for any rebels of the system. A select group discussed with Deng the possible changes to china, often these were based on more developed countries like America, ideas were then published in papers or on television for discussion. Mao would never have tolerated this, he deemed the people not worthy of this knowledge.
In the media under Mao everything was strictly controlled. Under Deng however, the introduction of televisions meant the people were more aware of news and affairs abroad. China became part of the modern world, as westerners knew it. Pop concerts, dancers and other western entertainment became more popular, there were more bikes, cars and motorbikes and there was more time for recreational activities. The people were more relaxed and the standard of living greatly improved. This would certainly not have been allowed in Mao’s time.
In tourism, Mao had no idea how to treat foreigners and never allowed. Deng realised that tourism would bring big business and outside influences this would help China to become more modern.
In conclusion there have been so many changes that virtually none of Maoist china exists today. The economy was revamped and made more modern, there was a greater capacity to become wealthy and afford new things. People were given more responsibility in the workplace and were free to make their own decisions. The younger generations were helped to educate themselves and given a free choice as to what they wanted to do with their lives. Peoples social life was improved, they had more time and they were happier. Because of the change in the economy they had more money to spend. Politically China had changed, communism was still there but the beliefs had lessened a bit to allow people to be able to live in the world comfortably, however the main points are still in focus. The people’s army is still running as it was in Mao’s day but it is now much less of a force. China Still had a long way to go to become a democracy. These changes maybe a long time coming but at least they escaped Mao’s restrictive control.