Communist China. Mao. Reforms

Transcription

1 - Mst infrastructure destryed by fighting left the industrial sectr hardly develped - Trade came t a halt when freign traders left China fllwing the Cmmunist victry - Inflatin was high, great unemplyment and scarcity f fd (Life expectancy nly abut 40 years) - Opium addictin, crime and prstitutin were rampant - Gvernment was crrupt and in disarray - Cuntryside: Great damage t dams, irrigatin systems and canals Badly affected agriculture Mre than 80% f China were peasants and they were starving and pr Mst were in the hands f their landlrds wh ppressed and explited them Diseases were rampant, medical facilities were nt available Ma - Frm his 30 years trying t spread Cmmunist ideas amng the peasants, he knew they disliked change. - He knew they were willing & hardwrking & if he culd keep their lyalty then he culd achieve anything. Refrms Administrative - China was divided int 6 regins, subdivided which Chinese Cmmunist Party fficials headed. Military - Cmmanders frm the army were als represented in the Cuncils t enable the Cmmunists t gain firm cntrl ver the cuntry. Financial - Natinalized the cuntry s majr banks, railways and heavy industries - Established Peple s Bank t cntrl mnetary matters e.g. issue f ntes - Successful inflatin was brught under cntrl Agriculture - Agrarian Refrm Law - Shared ut land between the peasants - Peasants gt t put the landlrds n trial Landlrds were accused f charging high rents r mistreating their tenants Sme were imprisned r executed Increased supprt fr Ma The C-peratives - T avid fame, Ma frmed Mutual Aid Teams Peasants wrked n each ther s lands s that all lands wuld becme mre prductive Gvernment supplied extra fertilizer and tls t reward families wh grew mre fd It helped increase prductin but nt fast enugh - Ma encuraged peasants t frm c-peratives Land was jintly wned s ne large crp culd be grwn efficiently Resurces culd be pled t buy equipment, fertilisers and seeds Many peasants ppsed as they did nt want t give up the private land

2 Lcal Cmmunist wrkers put pressure n them t jin c-peratives By 1957, ver 90% f China s peasants belnged t c-peratives Industrial - China was greatly dependent n the Sviet Unin fr its industrial develpment Lan $300 millin Sviet engineers sent t help 8000 Chinese sent there fr technical training - Pririty was given t heavy industries such as steel and cal Light industries neglected Living standards sacrificed in rder t make the industrializatin prgramme succeed - Ordered prices and wages t be fixed at a lw rate. - Punished black marketers severely. Within a year, inflatin has ended - Rebuilt railway links s that cal culd be brught t Chinese industries Scial and Educatin - Opium dens and brthels were clsed - Crrupt businessmen and pliticians were punished - Public health campaigns were undertaken t bring diseases under cntrl - Many schls were pened t reduce the high 80% illiteracy rate Hwever, he was nly interested in basic educatin. He regarded peple with a university educatin as enemies f Cmmunism. Psitin f Wmen Marriage Law gave wmen rights equal t men Arranged marriages, child marriages, female infanticide were made illegal Divrce was nly pssible thrugh mutual cnsent The right t jintly wn land with men Full wages equal t that f men Idelgy - Thught refrm Get peple t cntribute the best f their ability but accept an equal share f the benefits Struggle meetings were held t change the Chinese s mindsets and accept the thught refrm Scialist teachings replaced centuries f Cnfucianism teachings Enemies f the State - The gvernment executed millins. Mass trials fllwed by quick executins were ften held. - Cntrl Ma did nt want peple t think independently. The Chinese sciety was clsely cntrlled. - Prpagandists Ma had 1.5 millin f them in 1951 They put up wall psters, ran discussin, accusatins grups, memry meetings, radside ludspeakers, etc. Peple had t attend these meetings, sme fr mre re-educatin All newspapers were cntrlled by the Cmmunist Party.

3 The gvernment made prpaganda films. During the Krean War, prpagandists cmpeted with each ther t get the mst peple t see the gvernment s anti-american film Resist-America Aid-Krea One aim: T expse anyne wh might ppse Cmmunist rule First five-year plan - Cmmunist aims: Self-sufficient - Fcused n increasing the capacity f heavy industry: prductin f irn and steel, energy, transprt and cmmunicatins, industrial machinery and chemicals - Prductin f cnsumer gds had a lw pririty in the allcatin f scarce resurces and mney - Fr greater saving, patritic savings campaigns exhrted citizens t save mney in State banks and deliberately limiting the supply f cnsumer gds t help finance industrial investment. - Gvernment tk a prprtin f the fd prduced by the peasants in the frm f gvernment prcurement qutas Paid fr at artificially lw prices Enabled the gvernment t feed the grwing urban ppulatin while keeping the wages f industrial wrkers dwn Results f the First Five Year Plan Prblems - Many wrkers were illiterate and nt trained fr industrial wrk Expensive mdern equipment ruined because nt installed prperly and lack f maintenance Dn t have the necessary skills and unable t read instructins - Emphasis n quantity rather than quality - State planners ignrant f basic prcedures Bureaucratic delays, leading t bttlenecks in prductin, distributin and supply - Officials inflated the prductin figures t please their plitical masters (Figures nt reliable) Large-scale cnspiracy - Cmpetitin fr scarce resurces between industries and between State and private enterprises Scial and ecnmic cnsequences - Wrkers gained greater jb security and stable incmes. Lss f persnal freedm as there were strict cntrls n mvement between jbs and the right t travel. - Living standards in cities risen. Peasants SOL still deliverately held dwn in rder t finance industrial investment. - Shift f ppulatin frm cuntryside t twns - Brrwed mney frm Sviet Unin, high rate f interest repaid mainly thrugh fd exprts there The Hundred Flwers Campaign - Slgan: Let a hundred flwers blm, let a hundred schls f thught cntend - Invited peple t state their criticisms penly Pinting ut mistakes they ve made, crruptin, inefficiency Ma called a halt t the campaign and China entered int a time f fierce repressin.

4 Anti-rightist mvement - Thse wh had been fremst with criticisms were nw frced t retract their statements - Many f the best minds and mst able public servants e.g. teachers, scientists were bliged t make abject cnfessins and submit t re-educatin - Party was purged f members wh had been t free with criticisms Zhu En Lai, Maa s mst lyal supprters, bliged t make a humiliating self-criticism Ma was trying t shw that n psitin was beynd investigatin and criticism - The nly way t avid suspicin was t cnfirm t Ma s wishes. Great Leap Frward Ma tured China and witnessed the great energy f the peple which was pssible t accmplish anything. - Decentralizatin f cntrl t lgical Party cadres t mbilize masses Believe t achieve rapid and sustained ecnmic grwth Belief that cmmunist rule culd unlck China s vast ptential and transfrm the cuntry int the wrld s leading ecnmic pwer Reasns fr the Great Leap Frward Ecnmic Prblems - Needed a system that made use China s huge resurces f labur as effectively as pssible Reduce unemplyment and create mre jbs - Ma believed that the masses needed t be mbilized, under the directin f the CCP, int increasing industrial and agricultural utput The need fr Chinese cmmunism - China was relying n the Sviet Unin fr aid but he believed that it was nt suitable fr China - Sviet-style cncentrated n heavy industry and a twn-based labur frce - Chinese cmmunist shuld act fr China s benefit Increase prestige f cmmunist China - Slgans: Catch up with Britain and surpass America The Great Leap Frward - Peple s Cmmunes: Gruping f agricultural cperatives (cllective farms) int even larger units Arund 20,000 peple T ablish the private, family sphere f peasant life Peasants private plts f lands were taken ver by the cmmune, and all wrk was rganized in a cmmunal, military style Children were cared fr in kindergartens run by the cmmune (wmen culd wrk) Meals were prvided in mess halls Family ties were dismissed as burgeis emtinal attachments Slgan: Walking n tw legs Cmmunes were t becme centres f industrial and agricultural prductin Backyard furnaces were established t prduce irn and steel All metal items were melted dwn int pig irn, wden things were used as fuel

5 Large-scale civil engineering prjects such as bridges etc. were built by mbilizing many laburers t dig by hand - The speed which cmmunes were established and exaggerated prductin figures lgcal fficials reprted t the gvernment cnfirmed Ma in his belief that he had set China n the right curse - His cnfidence grew and s did the targets he set Results f GLF - Appeared successful: Steel prductin dubled in a year - Disastrus failure In 1960, Ma quarreled with the new Sviet leader Khrushchev wh then withdrew his advisers frm China Chinese peple were willing but did nt have the technical expertise t make the plan wrk The massive amunt f irn turned ut t be brittle, impure and almst unusable Backyard furnaces - The nly steel suitable fr industrial use came frm the large fundries. - Steel ended up mstly in hard, large blbs - Ma had a naïve belief that simply by prducing masses f steel, China wuld slve all ist ecnmic prblems. - The authrities knew this but dare nt let n. - Many trees were felled t supply the backyard furnaces with wd Heavy envirnmental price China s Great Famine Cllectivizatin prgramme (1956) - Discuraged the individual peasants frm prducing fd beynd their wn immediate needs - Ma s belief that Chinese agrnmists had made a series f discveries abut crp grwing that wuld revlutinize fd prductin Lysenkism - Trfim Lysenk, a Sviet researched Stalin had regarded as the vice f scientific truth - He claimed t have develped techniques that resulted in crps like rice, barley and wheat yielding up t 16 times mre fd - It was later admitted that his ideas were wrthless. - A generatin f Chinese researchers was trained that Lysenk culd d n wrng and was infallible. - Change textbks and rename things in Lysenk s hnur Sparrwcide - Unthinking applicatin f killing wild birds which ate crp seeds - Everyne was called n t make as much nise t prevent the birds frm landing s that they eventually drpped exhausted frm the sky - Thusands f dead birds were publicly displayed as trphies - Catastrphic utcme: With n birds t thin their numbers, insects and small creatures grged themselves n grains and plants. - The larger birds that wuld have fed ff the smaller nes were n lnger arund t prey - Vermin multiplied and destryed stcks f grain. - N ne dared say a critical wrd thugh starving as ding s wuld be challenging Ma s wisdm Starvatin

6 - Peasants wh tried t ignre the new regulatins and carry n with their ld ways f farming were runded up and imprisned as rightists - China s gals and frced labur camps expanded t take in great numbers f starving peasants wh fell ful f the authrities. - Millins starved t death here A cnspiracy f silence - The gvernment advisers were well aware f the facts that Lysenkism was nnsense and peple were dying but they dared nt speak up. - They reprted that prductin targets were met and GLF was n curse - Officials lked after themselves with n thught fr thers The plan s underlying weakness - China lacked the fllwing: - Technical skills - Managerial knw-hw - Efficiently run factries and plants - An adequate transprt system The utput f industrially prduced gds fell. GLF was ver ambitius and has failed. In December 1958, Ma stepped dwn as Chairman f the PRC. - Liu Shaqi tk ver - Ma still relinquished his pwer as Chairman f the CPC and Military Affairs Cmmissin (MAC) - Merely relieving himself f the day-t-day duties and giving himself mre time t cncentrate n idelgical matters, n which is authrity was supreme - Peng Dehuai returned t Henan and learned abut the real effects f GLF. The peple were in a md f rebellin against cmmunal life and critical f the Party plicies. He wrte a private letter t Ma t praise achievements and raise criticisms n specific failures. Ma published it and used it t destry Peng s career. - Peng had a high status and reputatin as a Cmmunist but Ma charged Peng fr having deviated frm the party s general line and denunced as a rightist. Peng was dismissed as Defence Minister and placed under virtual huse arrest. - Befre this it had been assumed that any leading cmrade culd express his views freely as lng as the final decisin was accepted by all. - In 1959, Ma launched the secnd GLF thinking that he had been crrect all alng. - T rt ut ppsitin within CPC, anther purge was launched against party members 6 millin peple were subjected t struggle meetings and frced t make self-criticism Reasns fr the failure f the Great Leap Frward - Small-scale factries prduced pr quality gds which were useless Backyard steel furnaces - Fd prductin suffered Harvests rtted as peasants wrked - Plitical interference made the plan impssible t manage purely as an ecnmic enterprise. - Officials issued demands and threats Hardly any detailed instructins given - Sviet Unin and China fell ut in 1960 Stpped sending aid and prviding technical assistance

7 Clsure f half the 300 industrial plants Sviet Unin had spnsred in China Ma s weakness as an ecnmic planner - It was all a set f plitically inspired slgans instead f addressing real ecnmic prblems. - Plitics always gt in the way f prper industrial management. Ma s unwillingness t accept respnsibility fr failure - He interpreted the lack f ecnmic achievement nt as a failure f Cmmunist planning but as the result f sabtage by burgeis elements and backsliders. - He denied the bad results and when he culd n lnger d s, searches fr the culprits respnsible fr administering the plicies wrngly, thrugh either incmpetence r deliberate sabtage. Ma s basic misunderstanding f ecnmic prcesses - His ecnmic strategy was flawed and miscnceived - He believed that by relying n China s unlimited manpwer he culd bring China n par with the wrld s majr industrial pwers - Lacked the knwledge f agricultural science t understand the cuntryside reprts - Limited understanding f industrial prcess Ma s reliance n intuitin - Nt qualified as an ecnmic planner, just a revlutinary - Results were calamitus - Cllectivizatin prgramme prduced nt additinal fd but famine - 5 year plans wasted rather than successful expliting China s vast natural & human resurces Effects f the Great Leap Frward Martial law impsed - Demnstratins against authrities began t spread - One key demands was cmmunes t be dne away with - By 1962, Liu Shaqi was wrried f a civil war and impsed martial law t suppress rebellin - 2 factrs prevented the crisis Famine was at its wrst where peple lacked knwledge and skills t munt an effective antigvernment rising The plicies Liu and Deng intrduced in 1962 eased the famine Challenges t Ma s psitin - Deng and Liu intrduced measures which reversed sme f Ma s refrms Family farming and private markets were peasants culd sell surplus fd and earn benefits Cash bnuses paid t encurage hard wrk - Fd and industrial prductin increased. - T Ma and his fllwers thugh, this was the Capitalist Rad. - Hwever fr the mment, he did nt have the authrity t deal with these Rightists, f whse plicies he s disapprved. Prblems with the Split in the CCP: Ma s disastrus plicies led a divisin in the CCP, the Rightists and Leftists

8 Leftists (Led by Ma) - Saw Rightists as taking the Capitalist Rad - Feared the return f different classes in sciety - Ma was still very ppular with the masses. Rightists (Led by Liu and Deng wanted the cuntry t be less Scialist) - High-scale industrializatin and well-educated prfessinal class t lead the thers - Cash bnuses fr wrkers t encurage them - Demanded quarrels with Sviet Unin be patched up - Put pressure n Ma t step dwn frm pwer - New leadership under Liu intrduced mre realistic ecnmic plicies and abandned mst GLF plicies Cmmunes reduced in size and peasants were allwed t cncentrate n crps, n lnger invlved in cnstructin wrk Own private plts and sell excess crps fr prfit Incentives resulted in an increase in utput The Great Prletarian Cultural Revlutin Reasns fr the Cultural Revlutin Transfrm Sciety - There was still a wide ecnmic gap between the cuntryside and the twns. - Scial change was nt taking place fast enugh and China was a lng way frm the scialist gal f an equal sciety - A prcess f cultural purificatin leading t a transfrmed sciety was needed. Refrm the CCP - Purify the party idelgically, bring it back t the Cmmunist rad and d away with ranks S members culd nt use ranks t get special privileges Crrect the thinking f intellectuals and prfessinal wrkers - Many put their wrk abve cmmunist ideas and gals f the party Remve Ma s plitical enemies - Putting the blame fr China s trubles n the capitalists in the CCP - This wuld punish thse wh had criticized the Leap - Divert blame away frm himself fr the disastrus cnsequences f the experiment Regain prestige f the CCP - The dismal failure f GLF had diminished prestige f CCP in the eyes f the ppulatin The Cultural Revlutin in actin - Urged students t rebel against anyne in authrity - Theme: Reds are better than experts - In August 1966, ne millin Red Guards marched past Ma in a rally and went arund destryed buildings, bks, anything assciated with traditinal r freign values - In 1967, the Red Guards became mre vilent and by 1969, they had gne t far. - The regular army was used t disband the Red Guards and send them back t schl and university. - But China had dearly changed and the effects f the revlutin were far-reaching. Effects f the Cultural Revlutin

9 Twards the Scialist Rad - Highly educated peple were frced t wrk as laburers They were nt very gd laburers Thse wh replaced them as dctrs were nt as qualified Impact n the ecnmy - Made t sell whatever they prduced t the state, markets were nt allwed - Ecnmic cperatin with western cuntries was frbidden (self-reliance) Ma s authrity restred - Ma s enemies were defeated and his authrity clearly restred Lss f supprt fr the CCP - Ma s influence was enhanced but CCP lst its prestige A lst generatin - China s scientific and technical educatin suffered a tremendus setback Many imprtant bks and writings were destryed Prminent scientists and intellectuals were sent t d manual labur Others died frm abuse at the hands f Red Guards - Either had their educatin disrupted r missed ut n the chance. Thse years ld during the Cultural Revlutin Schls were clsed Death f Ma - After a struggle fr pwer between the Rightists and Leftists, Deng wn - The China that he inherited was in chas Impact f the Cultural Revlutin - An entire generatin f yuth emerged with limited educatin, skills and little respect fr authrity - Adversely affected the ecnmy and weakened China s cmmercial links with ther cuntries Deng s Early Years in pwer - In 1981, he acknwledged Ma s cntributins t China - Cleared thusands f peple accused f crimes - By 1982, all ther Maists had been remved frm pwer and Deng cncentrated fully n ecnmic refrms Deng s Refrms Mdernizatin Prgrammes - Agriculture, industry, science, technlgy and defence Administrative Refrms - Mdernize the gvernment

10 - Pr-Maists were gradually remved frm their psitins f pwer - Gvernment was streamlined by remving unnecessary fficials Ppulatin Cntrl (One-child plicy) Agricultural Refrms - Respnsibility System Every family culd lease an area f land frm the gvernment After giving the gvernment an agreed quta, they culd earn prfits by selling surplus Sideline businesses such as rearing animals were allwed Peasants mrale and incme increased significantly The success increased Deng s ppularity and it became easier fr him t intrduce his ther refrms Industrial Refrms - Set up Special Ecnmic Znes t encurage freign investrs t set up industrial ventures in China - Assured f cheap labur, lw rent and gd prfits They wuld gain access t the wrld s largest cnsumer market - China benefited frm the capital and technlgy brught in - Deng als wed the verseas Chinese wh had been treated with cntempt by Ma Gave them special cncessins as business cnnectins and capital these Chinese had wuld be crucial t the success f his mdernizatin prgramme - Unemplyment greatly reduced - China s industrial utput grew significantly Other Refrms - Educatin plicy t create a literate ppulatin Training skills - Intellectuals rehabilitated and reputatins and salaries restred - Ban n Western classical music lifted - Peple were given the right t wrship (religius) Standards f Living - Overall, SOL imprved significantly - Peple culd affrd bigger and better hmes with mdern appliances Tiananmen Square - Students gathered there calling fr plitical refrms - Deng was t fcused n ecnmic refrms and nt plitical refrms - He called in his army which used vilence n the unarmed students - The cmmunity was shcked that he was capable f using such vilence t achieve his aims - Despite this, he cntinued with his mdernizatin prgramme int the 1990s - He stepped dwn because f his age and health.