Communist Party took over the main roles in government with Mao Tse-Tung
becoming Head of State, and the People’s Liberation Army helped to rebuild
the country after the war. They also brought the outlying regions under
firm Communist control.
The Communists introduced a Marriage Law in 1950. This helped to end the
injustice suffered by many women at that time. The Law included: -
? Abolition of arranged marriages
? Criminalisation of the killing of unwanted female infants
? Bigamy was made illegal
? Minimum age for marriage was fixed at 20
? Husbands and wives now jointly owned property
? Divorce by mutual consent introduced
? Maternity benefit for mothers for two months after birth
The Communists then decided to reform the land ownership system. They
introduced an Agrarian Reform Law. Communist Party members taught
peasants how to identify the social class of everyone in their community
(landlords, ‘rich’ peasants, ‘middle’ peasants and ‘poor’ peasants). Then the
poor peasants were encouraged to join ‘speak bitterness’ meetings in which
they spoke about their poverty and the way their landlords had treat them,
and often ended with the execution of the landlords. Once the social classes
had been decided, land was taken from those who had more than they needed
and given to the peasants who didn’t have any. 47 million hectares of land
was seized and given to 300 million peasants. However, because the
peasants did not have the equipment or money to farm the land they joined
mutual aid teams. These were groups of around ten families who shared the
land and equipment.
The government knew they had to sort out China’s economy. The first step
was to nationalise all the major banks, the railway network and around a
third of heavy industry. Then a ’People’s Bank’ was opened to replace the
private banks. This achieved total eradication of inflation by the mid
1950’s. To combat food shortages, farmers were made to sell 15-20% of the
grain at a low price to the government and pay an agricultural tax that was
then used to put the Agrarian Reform Law into effect.
Between 1950-1951 the government organised huge rallies where
‘reactionaries’ were tried and often executed. More than 1 million were
killed. In 1951 the Communists began the ’thought reform’ movement. This
involved close study of Mao’s work to re-educate ’reactionaries’. They also
began ’mass campaigns’ to make the people concentrate on specific problems.
In 1951 the ‘Three Antis Campaign’ was launched against: -
? Corruption
? Waste
? Too much ’red tape’
A year later the ’Five Antis Campaign’ was launched. This targeted: -
? Bribery
? Tax evasion
? Fraud
? Theft of government property
? Spying
People found guilty were sent for ’thought reform’.
People were then encouraged to join Party-run interest groups. These
included the Women’s League for Democracy and the China-Russia
Friendship Association, and because the party controlled these
organisations they could easily influence the members to do what the party
wanted.
After Mao’s trip to the USSR for talks with Josef Stalin in 1949, China
drew up the first ‘Five Year Plan’ with help from their Russian
counterparts. The Plan gave priority to heavy industry and also aimed to
increase the output from the farms to feed the increasing number of
workers. This was to be achieved by turning China’s farms into
cooperatives.
The government feared that the peasants would not be able to farm their
land efficiently enough to produce enough food for the targets set by the
Five-Year Plan. They therefore decided to persuade peasants to join lower-
stage cooperatives. These were thirty to fifty families who all pooled their
land to make larger, more efficient farms. They then took this one step
further and introduced higher-stage cooperatives, which took between 200-
300 families and created much larger farms. However, those who joined up
to higher stage cooperatives had to surrender their title deeds, equipment
and animals to the cooperative and were paid only wages for their labour.
By 1957 nearly all peasants had joined higher
stage cooperatives so those who had received land in 1950 had lost it again.
By 1956 China had many problems. The cities had become overcrowded and
there were both food and housing shortages giving the peasants plenty to
complain about. The Communists realised that they were losing popularity so
they decided to give people the opportunity to say what they wanted about
the party without fear of being sent for ’thought reform’. This was called
the ‘Hundred Flowers’ speech and for a while people openly criticised the
party. However, by June 1957 Mao decided that he didn’t want people
criticising him and the party anymore. Many people were arrested and sent
for ‘thought reform’ and the right to speak freely was taken away once
again.
In 1958, Mao announced that he believed China could become one of the
world’s leading industrial nations alongside improving the agricultural
output of the country. This was to be achieved through a second five year
plan that Mao named ‘The Great Leap Forward’.
To achieve improvement in both industry and agriculture, the Communist
Party believed that the people must be organised into communes. These
consisted of about 5000 families who gave up all their land, animals and
equipment to the commune and were believed to be able to release ’the
tremendous energy of the masses’.
The communes were organised so that nothing would distract the people
from their work. There were: -
? Communal eating halls to reduce the amount of people who had to cook
? Nurseries and schools set up so that parents would not have to spend
time looking after children
? ‘Houses of happiness’ set up for old and frail people so that their
families did not have to look after them
Communes became centres of local government with peasants, Communist
Party members and soldiers running public services. They also organised the
work for the members of the communes. The communes were used as
branches of the Communist Party, allowing the government to ensure that
party policy was being fulfilled. By the end of 1958 90% of the population
of China had been placed into communes.
Propaganda played an important role in retaining the people’s enthusiasm.
People were urged to work long hours whatever the weather and
loudspeakers played rousing speeches to encourage the workers. Even with
little equipment, the people still completed astonishing projects in record
time.
There was huge change in China on both a social and an economic level
between 1949-1958. Many private companies were nationalised which
allowed the government to have more control over the economy e.g. they did
away with inflation by the mid 1950’s. Working conditions changed
drastically with the introduction of the communes and major industry. Yet
the most significant change was social; the bridging of the gap between the
rich and poor classes. A lot of the change was extremely difficult for the
people to cope with but through their own belief in the government and the
propaganda used to inspire them, they managed to shape China into a more
developed and prosperous country.
5 David Thompson
