China: Agriculture & Industry, 1949-65
- Created by: HarryAustin
- Created on: 23-04-18 16:46
Early changes in agriculture 1949-57
- Mao needed to increase the food supply for industrial workers
- He needed to increase popularity in the countryside
- Chinese landowners were feudal class enemies
- Work teams of cadres sent Landlords to struggle meetings
Agrarian Land Reform 1950:
- "Land to be redistributed to the Tiller"
- Summer 1952 43% of the land had been redistributed to 60% of the population
- 1950-52 Ag production increased by 15% p.a.
- 1-2million landlords executed
- GMD still retained influence within the South, preventing land reform
Move towards agricultural co-operation
- 1951 Mutual Aid Teams introduced (MATs):
- Peasants households into teams of 10 or fewer,
- effective and popular.
- Private ownership
- 1954 Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives 1954 (APCs):
- 30-50 households
- Landholdings collective
- State takes a small share
- 1953-54 Ag production grew by less than 2%
Lui Shaoqi & Zhou Enlai claimed China was not ready
July 1955 Full collectivisation. By end of 1956, almost 88% of peasants were in Advanced APCs (150-200 person collectives, membership compulsory and pragmatism abandoned)
Communes
1956 Mao believed everyone was ready for the next stage of collectivisation, Communes:
- 5,500 households average size
- First was introduced in July 1958, named Sputnik
- Vision: self-sufficient, women burden free
- Reality: Disaster, food poor and diets worsened, women forced to long harsh labour
- Mao blamed poor production on vermin
- Launched Four Pests Campaign, wasting time on sparrow killing
- Plagues of locusts ruined harvest as result
By 1958 99% of peasants were in communes, private ownership abolished.
- Lysenkoism, soviet agrobiologist,
- encouraged close planting and deep ploughing.
- Resulted in crop yields falling dramatically and helped produce famine
The Great Famine 1958-62
False reporting arose from terror from Hundred Flowers Campaign, leading to a spiral of unreachable production quotas.
- 8million starved to death in Henan, 9million in Sichuan
- 15-30million died due to famine
- Food consumption dropped by 25% rural, 8% urban
- Outbreaks of cannibalism
- Birth rates plummeted
Luism 1962-65
- Lysenkoism dropped
- PLA on farms to allow privatisation
- Backyard furnaces removed
- Importation of food (short-term)
- By 1965 Ag production had returned to the rate of 1957
The First Five Year Plan, 1952-56
- Closely modelled the USSR plans for industry. (1953 USSR fastest growing economy)
- Ideological and Practical, USSR one of few trading partners after Korean War
- Sino-soviet Mutual Assistance Treaty of February 1950
- a loan of $300 million
- 11,000 experts for technical help
Targets: Quickly increase China's Heavy Industry, to also supply PLA with modern weapons
- Successes: Annual growth of over 9%
- Bridge over Yangtze River
- Living standards and job security achieved
- The population of towns doubles to over 100million
- CCP established control over people
- 115% of coal target production achieved
- 129% of steel target production achieved
- Failures: Many factories sacrificed quality for quantity
- Low levels of literacy and basic skill (held back Growth long term)
- China's administration lacked managerial experience (bottlenecks)
The Second Five Year Plan (GLF), 1958-62
- Reasons: Agricultural production was still low
- Mao wanted China to be the leading communist power in Asia
- Success of Industry in the FFYP gave him confidence
- Optimistic of communism, "East wind is prevailing over the West Wind"-1957 Moscow
- Wanted to be "Walking on two legs"
- After the anti-rightist campaign, no political opponents
State-owned enterprise, nationalisation of firms- inefficient, little incentive to be productive.
- Successes: Small-scale irrigation, steel and oil
- Tiananmen Square remodelled, propaganda success
- Ideologically, communal living was the closest China had been to communism
- Failures: Unrealistic targets
- Three-gate gorge & Yellow River projects poorly planned, environmental destruction
- Backyard furnaces: produced poor steel, destroyed consumer goods
- By 1962 industrial production had dropped by 40% from the 58-9 level.
- by 1962 grain production had reduced from 200miltons 1958 to 160miltons 1962
Lushan Conference 1959
Lushan Conference 1959-
- Minister of Defence Peng Duhai voiced doubts about grain harvests
- Wrote a personal letter to Mao, believed status would protect him
- Mao made letter public, accused as rightist and replaced by Lin Biao
- No criticisms of Mao were welcome
Liu, Deng economic reforms 1962-65:
- Mao forced to take a step back
- Liu and Deng pragmatists
- Restored central control
- Factories told to make tools to help agriculture
- By 1965 Industrial production was almost double that of 1957
- Light Industry grew at 27% per year
- Heavy industry grew at 17%
- Experts released from Laogai
- Communes reduced in size and given greater freedom
- Private work improved incentives, by mid-1960s private production made up 1/3 of incomes
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