What impact has Mao had on the lives of the Chinese people from 1949 in the following areas: economic, social and political?
Question 1
What impact has Mao had on the lives of the Chinese people from 1949 in the following areas: economic, social and political?
1949 saw the rise of Communism in China. On the 29th September a "Common Programme" was draw up by the leaders of the Communist Party saying they wanted to bring democracy, independence and freedom of thought, speech, publication and religion (among other things) to China. China, however, was in a state of chaos at the time: inflation and unemployment had rocketed and the government was slow and inefficient. There was also a threat that Chiang Kaishek, the former leader of China, would make a comeback.
However, Mao Zedong, the leader of the Communist party, who had taken over power in 1949 made many changes to the economy, in agriculture and industry.
Economic Changes
On 30th June 1950, an Agrarian Reform Law was introduced by the Communists to help the peasants determine the social class of everyone in the community. These classes were:
. Landlords
2. Rich peasants (employed others to work for them)
3. Middle/poor peasants
Land was then taken from those who had more than they needed and divided among those who had less. Within two years, 40 percent of all cultivated land had been divided amongst 300 million poor peasants.
The poor peasants were encouraged to hold "speak bitterness" meetings, where they could share their anger about their landlords who had mistreated them. These meetings often lead to the execution of landlords.
Although these peasants now had their own land, they did not have the equipment to cultivate it, so they formed mutual aid teams, where a group of families would share animals and equipment.
As an improvement to the Mutual Aid Teams and as part of the first Five Year Plan, co-operative farms were set up. This was so that more food was available for the increasing numbers of people working in the cities.
In 1953, lower-stage cooperatives were set up, where all of the families in a village (about 30 - 50 families) put all of their land and equipment together to make one, large, efficient farm. Each peasant still owned his own land, and the cooperative paid rent to the owners.
This changed, however, with the introduction of higher-stage cooperatives. These were made up of around 200-300 families, and rather than being paid rent, each person was paid for their labour. They were only allowed a few square metres for their own use, and they had to give up all of their land, equipment and animals to the cooperative.
After the Five Year Plan, a new plan was set up called the "Great Leap Forward", in which Mao hoped China would overtake Britain and the USA economically within the next twenty years.
Communes were set up where roughly 5000 families lived together, sharing land, equipment and animals. In 1960 the communes were abolished because of a farming crisis, and the peasants got their land back and were allowed to sell their own produce at a profit.
As well as these changes made to agriculture, Mao also made several alterations to China's industry.
In ...
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After the Five Year Plan, a new plan was set up called the "Great Leap Forward", in which Mao hoped China would overtake Britain and the USA economically within the next twenty years.
Communes were set up where roughly 5000 families lived together, sharing land, equipment and animals. In 1960 the communes were abolished because of a farming crisis, and the peasants got their land back and were allowed to sell their own produce at a profit.
As well as these changes made to agriculture, Mao also made several alterations to China's industry.
In 1951, a new bank was opened called the People's Bank that replaced the privately owned banks and where designed to reduce inflation. Privately owned companies, such as railway networks and factories, were also taken over by the State. The profits from these companies were paid to the State Treasury. A Five Year Plan was drawn up in 1953, which put the emphasis on heavy industry, like coal and steel, and took it off light industry, like cotton making. Coal and cement output increased by almost 50 percent, and pig iron, steel and oil output increased even more dramatically. This table shows the output in millions of tonnes of several different products:
952
957
Coal
63.5
24.0
Pig Iron
.9
5.8
Steel
.3
5.2
Oil
0.4
.4
Cement
2.6
4.6
Chemical fertiliser
0.2
0.7
Then came the "Great Leap Forward", where everybody was organised into communes. Everyone was made to work together, sharing whatever tools they had.
Within the communes small factories were set up to make cement, ball bearings and other industrial products. 600, 000 steel furnaces were set up in towns and villages throughout China. Soon steel production had increased by 65 percent since 1957. This was known as the "backyard steel campaign".
However, things were not all they seemed in the Great Leap Forward. The need for a faster and higher production rate meant that older machines could not take the strain and many broke down. The steel industry also put a big strain on the economy. There was so many factories that people left other jobs to work there; the furnaces required so much of the countries coal that there was not enough for the railway locomotives to run on.
Social Changes
Many of these agricultural and industrial changes also had an affect on the people of China, as well as the economy.
In 1950 a new marriage law was introduced which ended the practice of bigamy, arranged marriages, marriage of children and the killing of baby girls. The minimum age for marriage was set and the husband and wife owned property mutually. In 1951 a maternity benefit was introduced for pregnant women, so that they could receive wages for two months after the baby had been born.
The Communist party in China was very good at organising the people of China. Mass campaigns were set up, like the "Three Antis Campaign" which was against corruption, waste and too much "red tape", and the "Five Antis Campaign" which was against bribery, tax evasion, fraud, theft of government property and spying. People were also encouraged to join party-run organisations, such as the Women's League for Democracy and the China-Russia Friendship association.
As previously mentioned, the communes played a big part in the lives of people as well as the Great Leap Forward. They ranged from the size of a British county to just a few kilometres, and contained up to 5000 people, all living and working together in order to "release the tremendous energy of the masses", as Mao described it. The sole purpose of the communes was to control the lives of the people, by uniting several different tasks. They were a unit of:
. Local Government - where all public services were ran by Party members and soldiers.
2. Work Organisation - where the work was divided amongst work teams (about 12 families), which were grouped into work brigades (about 12 work teams).
3. The Communist party - where a Party member would make sure that everybody was abiding by the Party rules.
The communes controlled almost every activity of the people, from their eating to the treatment of the old. Children went to nurseries and schools so that both parents could work, old people were sent to "houses of happiness" so that able-bodied workers did not have to take time off to look after them. By the end of 1958, 90 percent of the population were living in communes all over China.
In 1966 China started to change politically and socially. Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, leaders of the communist party and of the moderates, wanted to introduce more ideas to make the people work harder, for example, giving them larger plots of private land. However, Mao thought that these ideas were too capitalist and that people were starting to forget the ideas of the Communist party. In 1962 he set up a Socialist Education Movement, where he hoped to bring people back to the Communist way of thinking.
Most people did not support Mao's policies, but one person did: Lin Biao, the Minister of Defence. In uphold of Mao's beliefs he made every soldier in the People's Liberation Army equal and gave them each a book called "Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong" which they were to study and memorise. This book became famously known as "The Little Red Book". The back up of Lin Biao and the PLA made Mao strong enough to instigate another campaign against capitalism. This was "The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution".
The Cultural Revolution began in 1966 after all schools in Beijing were closed for six months so that the national curriculum could be revised to incorporate more Communist ideas. The students formed military groups called the Red Guards. Their aim was to get rid of any "capitalist" and "bourgeois" influences. They put up thousands of posters expressing their opinions on these subjects and held street marches. They destroyed anything that they viewed as Western or capitalist. Mao encouraged the Red Guards and soon chaos ran riot in many parts of China. In the end, at least 400, 000 people had been killed.
The influence of the Red Guards caused the people to once again support Mao Zedong, kowtowing to pictures of him day and night. They loathed Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and they were excluded from the Communist Party.
In 1967 the schools and colleges in Beijing were reopened and the students returned to their studies. The Red Guards were disarmed and sent to the country for re-education. Order was restored, but the price paid by China was high. Many children, because of their lack of education were illiterate and industrial output and farming had been severely disturbed.
Other Political Changes
Other political changes were made in order to organise the people of China and remind them about the Communist ideas and laws. In 1950 and 1951 a lot of effort went into the abolition of 'reactionaries' and public ' enemies'. It was very important for the Communist party to stay strong and therefore have little or no opposition. In the end one million 'reactionaries' had been killed.
By 1956 people were starting to lose faith in the Communist Party and had many criticisms about it. Mao decided that people should be allowed to express their opinions on the Communist Party and the running of the country. He said, "It is only by using discussion ... that we can ... really settle issues". This became known as the Hundred Flowers.
However many people began to criticise Mao too much for his liking, so in June 1957 he had the critics arrested and people were no longer allowed to speak freely.
Another way that the Communist Party controlled the people was with propaganda. They were encouraged to work long hours in bad conditions by posters and slogans. Loudspeakers in the streets and workplaces played speeches and revolutionary music to boost moral. Often people could be found working in appalling conditions with little more than their bare hands, but tasks were still finished in record time because of the propaganda and enthusiasm set about by the Party members.
It was this propaganda that also made Mao so popular with the public. As a result of the Great Leap Forward China was left in a state of famine, and the other Party members wanted Mao to resign because of this.
However, his popularity among the people was too great. Instead Liu Shaoqi became Head of State, leaving Mao simply as Party Chairman. More moderate leaders, who introduced more practical policies for the economy, now did the work of governing China. This, eventually, was to spark off the Cultural Revolution (see above).
