China Since the 1949 Revolution

Introductory Remarks

Since the communists took power China may be divided into two main phases:
a)a revolutionary phase, which lasted until the death f Mao Zedong in 1976.
b) a pragmatic phase, which extended to the death of Deng Xiaoping in 1997.
In the first phase Mao Zedong attempted to put the revolutionary commitment into practice.
This led to a sequences of policies referred to as
a) the Soviet period 1952-8.
b) Great Leap Forward & its aftermath - 1958-65
c) the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to Mao's death decade later.
These divisions obscure major continuities throughout the period
But they do not provide a convenient framework within which to examine developments.

The Period of Consolidation

Until 1952 the main effort of the new government was expended on consolidating its control.
No resistance remained in China Proper after the Guomindang's departure from the mainland.
There was a real danger of subversion and to guard against this.
In September 1949 the country was divided into
a) 6 military region much remained
b) a joint military and administrative commissions.
The CCP referred to the border regions as the "old liberated areas" and
The rest of China was called the "new liberated areas."
In toehold liberated areas the Communist leadership was already established
In the new areas much remained to be done.
Guangzhou was not occupied until 2 weeks after the establishment of the PRC.
In the new liberated areas most senior Guomindang
The first task was to find people with skill and political reliability to take over their posts.
The task was also to keep essential services functioning.
In this the student body played an important role.
Four tasks needed to be addressed immediately.
1) the first was to define the political characteristics of the new state.
In September 1949, a People's Political Consultative conference was convened.
An Organic Law and Common Programme were adopted.
The former established a "democratic dictatorship" led by the CCP.
The Organic Law & Common Programme guaranteed
a) basic human rights
b) equality for women.
c) the continuation of revolutionary land reform
d) the development of heavy industry
e) safeguards of the rights of minority people.

2) the second task was to gain control of the economy which meant curbing inflation.
This was achieved by increasing government revenue
They did this by creating a unified fiscal system and by selling bonds
Various strategies were employed to keep government expenditure under control.
3) the new government was intent on asserting control over all territory deemed to be part of China.
The three provinces of Manchuria were now fully integrated into China.
Tibet, autonomous since 1913 was "liberated" by the People's Liberation Army in 1950.
It later became the Xiang Autonomous Region.
Outer Mongolia had become the Mongolian People's Reut failedpublic in 1924.
It remained independent.
In Oct. 1949, a Communist force tried but failed to seize the island of Jinmen (Quemoy)
Their rebuttalff showed that an invasion of Taiwan would be a major operation.
The matter was postponed.
4) the fourth priority task concerned foreign relations.
During World War II China had treated flatteringly by the United States as a great power
In the post-war period and the civil war, China's international status had declined.
It had declined to that of a client state.
The CCP aspired to present China as an independent and unaligned power.
In 1949, in the atmosphere of the Cold War, it seemed that China must "lean to one side."
This meant seeking an alliance with the Soviet Union.
In Dec. 1949 Mao Zedong left China for the first time in his life.
He went to Moscow to negotiate with Stalin.
There was a show of cordiality between the two.
But neither man fully trusted the other.
The negotiation were difficult and prolonged.s most important
The outcome was thew Sino-Soviet Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance.
Its most important provisions were a promise of mutual support.
This would be in the advent of an attack by Japan.
The provision also included a soviet advance of $300 million in credits to China.
The implications of the alliance with the Soviet Union soon became apparent.
In June 1950, a civil war broke out between North and South Korea.
After the North Korean troops had overrun the south, the United Nations sent forces.
This was to assist South Korea.
At the same time the United States interposed its Seventh Fleet in the Taiwan Straits.
This was to prevent China using the opportunity to invade the island.
By Nov. 1950, the United Nations' forces had invaded North Korea.
They were also within 50 miles of the Yalu River, the frontier with China.
At that point China intervene on a massive scale.They drove the United Nations' forces back to the 38th parallel.
This was the boundary between the North and South of Korea.
The war then stalemated and a truce was signed in June 1953.
China intervened in the war because of the collapse of the North Korean army.
Also China felt the threat of a United Nations force, in effect a United States force.
This was because it was becoming poised on its north east frontier.d
China's participation in the war was significant in a variety of ways:
a) the Chinese forces, led by Peng Dehuai, achieved remarkable success.
b) the war exposed serious military weaknesses.
c) a decision was taken to modernize the PLA and to develop the Air Force.
The war cost over 700,000 Chinese casualties, among them Mao Zedong's son and China insured very heavy debts to the Soviet Union for the purchase of arms.
China's involvement also deepened the rift with the United States.
The USA now became committed to the support of theNationalists on Taiwan
In China, the threat of war was used to whip up support for the regime.
This was done through the "ResistAmerica, Aid Korea" campaign.
It was used to justify a hard line against people suspected of not supporting the regime.
During these years the programme of revolutionary land reform wags completed.
The Agrarian Reform Land Law of 1950 extended land reform to the new liberated areas.
Its purpose was to end the feudal exploitation of the landlord class.
It was also to preserve a rich peasant economy.
This was to enable the revival of agricultural production.
Land reform had been completed by 1952 except in areas occupied by national minorities.
These were exempted.
Then about 43% of China's cultivated land had been confiscated and redistributed.
About 60% of the rural population benefitted from this.
Many poor peasants who owned littler no land had survived by selling their labour.
They now became middle peasants.
but the reform was achieved at a high cost.
The importance of this measure was to consolidate peasant support behind the regime.
The number of landlords and rural power holders who died ranged from 200,000 to 2 million.
The redistribution on average gave a poor peasant just over a quarter of an acre of land.
This did little to solve the problem of land shortage.
Between 1949 and 1952 output rose by 12.6%.
This may reflect the post war recovery.
It may reflect greater effort from peasants.
They did not have to surrender much of their crop to landlords.
The rise in output could not be sustained - it needed more measures.
During these years several other measures helped to consolidate the CCP position.
In 1950 a Marriage Law was introduced.
This replaced the feudal marriage system with the New Democratic marriage system.
a) women were allowed to freely choose their partner
b) women were given equal rights relating to divorce.
c) they were given custody of children & property.
After the law had been passed, women's associations led to a mass campaign.lize
This was to publicize the changes.
Then divorces increased dramatically.
But in rural areas many features of the traditional marriage continued.
Steps were taken immediately to increase education opportunities.
Those whose schooling had been interrupted by the war wee offered accelerated programmes,
Millions of adults attended winter study classes & spare timer schooling.
Teachers were re-educated
School texts were revised.
Political study classes were held.
Missionary educators left the country.
Their schools and universities were nationalized.
By 1952 62% of children wee in primary school
increases in high school and universities were impressive.
The new government needed to gain the confidence of businesses & industries
Economic activity in the cities were at a standstill.at the end of the civil war.
Public utilities were out of commission.
The Traditional sector of the economy wold not be reformed.
Strikes were discouraged by the government
They encouraged the negotiations of modest salary claims.
The modern economic sector was immediately affected by
a) the departure of most foreigners
b) the departure of Chinese industrialists who had close links with the Guomindang.
Their enterprises were taken over by the state,
Three major campaigns were initiated
a)against suspected counter-revolutionaries
b) against corrupt cadres
c) against capitalists in the Five Antis campaign
The campaign against counter-revolutionaries began with
a) mass rallies
b) denunciations
This was followed by arrests and executions
In the Guangzhou region alone more than 28,000 people were executed.
In the country as many as 500,000 to 800, 000 people may have been killed.
The campaig against corrupt cadres originated with a shortage of them.
This was when the CCP came to power.
Recruiting cadres who were not satisfactory in class or commitment.
10% of party cadres were weeded out.
The Five Antis campaign was attack on the wealthy capitalists.
It was claimed that they were defrauding the public through various crimes.
Capitalists who were found guilty were forced to pay heavy fines.
They were made to accept state control of their enterprises.
Mass campaigns mobilized the population.

The Soviet Period: 1953-8.

In 1953 the Communist leaders began to implement its policy.
It was the policy of socialist transformation & economic development
This meant
a) the transfer of ownership from private to public hands
b) the introduction of centralized economic planning.er
In September the First Five Year Plan was introduced.
So the collectivization of agriculture began.
The influence of Soviet Russia on China was already apparent in a variety of forms.
With the adoption of state planning the Chinese debt to Russia was noticeable.
They selected a developmental model which gave priority to heavy industry.
This meant large scale, capital intensive & technically advanced plants.
This assumed the institutionalized transformation of the agricultural sector.
This was to supply much of the capital needed.
In this way china was following the path recommended by Lenin and implemented by Stalin.
China seemed to be so dependent on a foreign power.contribute
Only the Soviet Union was willing to this heavy industry.
The Chinese leadership believed that this was an essential element in its transition to socialism.
China now received soviet assistance in the form of
a) advice
b) extensive economic aid
c) the introduction of soviet method
At first 156 major industrial enterprises were supplied
This included 7 iron & steel plants, 245 power stations & 63 machinery plants.
Many were in kit form to be assembled In China.
Later another 125 projects were approved.
Then 11,000 Soviet specialists were sent to China.
They were to supervise the installation & operation of plants.
They would also provide technical assistance.
28,000 Chinese students were sent to Russia to study.
The period of the First Five Year Plan saw a number of other important initiatives.
Most of China's modern industry was concentrated in the coastal cities & the north east.
Industrial complexes were sited in the interior.
Major steel complexes were constructed at Wuhan & Inner Mongolia.
An oil refinery was built at Lanzhou in Gansu.
To service these plants a large investment was made in new railways.
This included a line constructed from Xi'an to Xinjiang oil-fields.
The Soviet model of "one-management" was introduced.
This replaced the management committee & worker representation of China.
Workers in the Yan'an period had responded to ideological incentives, now they did piecework.
Or, they were graded on salary scales.
The soviet influence was also apparent in education, especially in colleges & universities.
They were reorganized on Soviet line.
Russian academic advisers assisted in the planning of courses.
Russian textbooks were widely used.
Expenditure on higher education tripled between 1952 and 1957.
The number of students, a third of them studied engineering & it rose quickly.
Students from poor families received free tuition & maintenance grants.
in return the students had to maintain the 8:1:50 schedule.
Eight hours of sleep, 1 hour of exercise, & 50 hours of work.

The socialist transformation of society also implied the collectivization of agriculture.
The arguments of this step were both economic and political.
Revolutionary land reform led to greater fragmentation of agricultural holdings
Peasants farming small, scattered holding could not accumulate capital for investments.
They could not maintain the sustained rise in output & productivity.
This was needed to feed the growing population and release surplus labour for industry.
The Soviet Union had collectivized agriculture in the 1930s.
It was capital that came from the agricultural sector which provided investment in industry.
Since land reform poor peasant had to sell their land they had been given.
In 1955 Mao complained of the capitalist element in the rural areas.
In the Yan'an period co-operatives had been encouraged - this was mutual aid team
They had pooled their resources & from 1954 they were encouraged to amalgamate
This was to form agricultural producers' co-operatives
In these families got to retain their land; they were farmed co-operatively.
Crops were divided according to the amount of land & labour was supplied by each family
.China's rich peasants were not as numerous as the kulaks.
Nor were they as established.
Collectivization in China was better timed.
It was only a short period that had elapsed since land reform.
The capitalist tendencies in the countryside had not become firmly established.
Collectivization appealed. to the rational self-interest of peasants.
It was carried through by local cadres who had a clear grasp of the situation.
On July 31st 1955 Mao Zedong called for a sharp increase in the rate of collectivization.
In the winter of 1955-56 co-operative began to be merged into Advanced Producers' Co-operatives.
These were collective farms
This is where private ownership was abolished.
Members were renumerated on the basis of their labour.
By the end of1956 the socialist transformation of agriculture was virtually completed.
China's collectivizing agriculture was compared favourably with the Soviet Union.
But there it was opposed by rich peasants or kulaks - several million lost their lives.

The Great Leap Forward & the Sino-Soviet Split

In 1958 China embarked on a radical, Evan utopian programme.
This was to complete the building of socialism ahead of time.
It was meant to carry out the gradual transition to communism.
Behind this rapid change & direction lay a complex set of interactions within
a) the Party
b) the economy
c) industrial management
d) educational strategy.
e) international relations.
One indication of the strain imposed by change was the disillusionment of the intellectuals.
These were the educational elites.
Most of them had welcomed the Communist victory in 1949
At first the CCP had tolerated what was seen as the intellectual bourgeoisie individualism.
In 1955 a harder line was adopted.
A mass campaign was launched against the poet Hu Feng.
He had criticized the Party's insistence that culture should be proletarian.
The campaign was used to warn intellectuals not to oppose the first five Year Plan
They were also not to oppose the collectivization of agriculture.

The Hundred Flowers Movement

In 1956 Zhou Enlai commented that the Party needed the support of the intellectuals.
They were needed to promote the economy & to reform the bureaucracy.
In May, Mao Zedong was engaged in a Party debate over the pace of co-operatization.
He announced "Let a hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend."
After some hesitation intellectuals began to criticize the competence of cadres.
Mao heard of the Hungerian uprising of November 1956 & offered a reason for its cause.
It was the isolation of the Hungarian Communist Parry from the masses & the intellectuals.
In Feb.1957 Mao gave a speech
It was entitled "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People."
He argued that "non-antagonistic contradictions" could exist in a communist society.
He also said that their resolution by discussion would speed up progress to socialism.
He encouraged intellectuals to believe that open expression of opinions would be welcomed.
Many articles critical of the Party, of educational policies were published.
These articles even criticized Mao Zedong as well.

Students from Beijing University began to put up posters.
These posters were criticizing officials on the"democracy wall"
This was a stretch of wall near the Forbidden City.
In June the CCP counter-attacked with an anti-Rightist campaign,
The most outspoken critics of the Hundred flowers Movement were singled out.
They were singled out to be punished.
Other intellectuals were forced to participate in their denunciations.
One of the most famous victims was the writer Deng Lin.
She was accused of having opposed the Party leadership inher literary work.
She refused to admit her faults.
She was sent to redeem herself through labour on a farm near the Soviet border.
There First Five Year Plan, as an economic strategy had serious shortcomings
Investment had been concentrated on heavy industry.
It had grown at the rate five times faster than that of agriculture.
The increase in agricultural output had done little more than feed the growing population.
The industrial sector had grown.
But it had not created the large numbers of jobs needed traduce unemployment in the cities.
more jobs would be created if the consumer industries were expanded.
But they were restricted by shortages of raw material.
Mao gave a speech entitled "On the Ten Great Relationships" given in 1956.
He had expounded a theory of relationships.
He defined it as "contradictions" in economic development.
The first was between industry & agriculture and between heavy industry and light industry.
He admitted that heavy industry must continue to be given priority.
his conclusion was that agriculture & light industry must also be developed.
This was a strategy which came to be called "walking on two legs."
Other dissatisfactions included a reaction against the one-man management system.
This system had been associated with Gao Gang
He was the chairman f the State Planning Commission.
In 1954, he had been accused of plotting against Liu Shaoqi and had committed suicide.
At the 8th Party Congress (Sept. 1956) the "one-man management system was criticized.
It was replaced by a system of collective leadership with the Party in command.
The extensive Russian influence on education was also challenged.
From 1956 attampts were made to speed up the expansion of education.
Relations with the Soviet Union had improved after Stalin's death in 1953.
When Khrushchev & Bulganin visited China in 1954 and thengs had appeared OK.
It seemed the two countries had achieved a relationship of equality and mutual respect
But in Feb.1956 Krushchev delivered his secret speech denouncing Stalin.
Mao Zedong resented Khrushchev's failure to give him warning of the speech.
Mao believed the speech was liable to cause dissension in the Communist world.
This was a time when unity was essential.
Disagreement on the issue exposed ideological differences.
This was true over the inevitability of war with capitalist powers.
Khrushchev denied this
The attack on Stalin's personality cult may may have also caused Mao to be concerned.
This was about his own posthumous reputation.
Despite these differences, Mao Zedong visited Moscow for the second time.
This was in Nov.1957, soon after the Soviet Union had launched Sputnik.
This event led Mao to praise the achievements of theSoviet Union.
He also declared that "The East Wind is prevailing over the Western Wind."
In late 1957, a Second Five-Year Plan was being considered.
Indications began to multiply that something was about to change.
The conservative economic strategy was about to be replaced by a radical programme.
In the countryside a massive programme of irrigation was rushed through.
It used the labour of 100 million peasants.
In November the People's Daily gave prominence to the slogan"More, better, faster, cheaper."
Mao gave speech at the Supreme State conference on January 28, 1958.
Mao declared that "it is possible to catch up with Britain in 15 years."
Shortly afterward production targets for both agriculture and industry were raised.
This was done in dramatic form.
In the same speech Mao declared "In making revolution ne must strike while the iron is hot - one revolution must follow another, the revolution must continually advance."
This was his theory of a "permanent revolution."
It was a process that embraced both the economic and the social superstructure of society.
The Great Leap Forward would soon follow.
It is connected with Mao's concept of revolutionary change.
In April 1958, 27 Advanced Producers' Co-operatives in Henan decided to amalgamate.
They formed a commune.
this was without formal direction from the centre.
Other co-operatives followed suit.
in August communes received official approval.
Before the end of the year the 700,000 Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives had been re-organized.
They were organized into 24,000 People's Communes.
Each had an average of 5000 families.
In the autumn, communes were also organized into urban areas.
The model for these was the Zhengzhou Spinning and Weaving Machine Plant commune.
This was in Henan, which was centred on the factory but which also farmed some land.
The economic benefit for this was the mobilization of labour.
This was for large scaled labour intensive projects.
To maximize the release of labour, the private plots were abolished.
Peasants had been allowed to keep these plots in the Agricultural Producers' Co-operatives.
Rural markets ceased to function.
To enable women to participate in productive labour, creates and nurseries were introduced.
Collective kitchens were also organized and a free food system was introduced.
The labour thus made available was employed on major construction projects.
One such projects was the Mng Tombs Dam near Beijing.
The labour force was also used to develop rural industry,.
There were reports of an abundant harvest.
So communes were encouraged to prospect for local sources of iron ore.
They were encouraged to construct their own "backyard steel furnaces."
During the Great Leap Forward , vastly-increased targets were set for industrial production.
The target for steel output was fixed in Feb.1958 at 6.2 million metric tons.
This was already a 19% increase on the previous year's production.
In August , Mao endorsed raising it to 10.7 million tons.
A few weeks later he even suggested the figure of 12million tons.
To achieve such targets over a range of industries hundreds of state projects were started.
Between 1957 & 1960 the number of people employed in state industries doubled.
It reached over 50 million.
This placed an immense strain on the system of food procurement from the countryside.
This vast workforce was encouraged by ideological exhortation to work excessively long hours.
There were no plants which were over-used and under-maintained.
The Gereat Leap Forward was more than a leap of economic growth.
In Sept. 1958 a "great leap" in education was announced.
This was partly a matter of rapidly expanding educational opportunity.
This was especially true in the country-side.
Primary school enrolment rose by 20 million.
There were large increases in the number of students at secondary & tertiary level.
Some 30,000 agricultural middle schools & 400 "red & expert" universities were opened.
At the same time important changes took place in the operation of the educational system.
The new schools were run on the minban or run-by-the-people principle.
Productive labour was intro the curriculum in all schools and at all levels.
Students were encouraged to voice their criticism of teachers.
Another feature of the communes was
a) the revival of the people's militia
b) the arming of the peasantry
The need for military preparedness was justified by the crisis of August 1958
This had been caused by the declaration that China intended to "liberate" Taiwan.
It was also a challenge to the professional leadership of the People's Liberation Army.
It was a reminder of the "people's war" fought in the Yan'an days.
The communes also briefly offered women an escape.
This was an escape from the double burden of domesticality & work.
This embrace in urban communes.
This is where women, who in the past had been restricted to the home, took a leading role.
Their main leadership role was organizing child-minding arrangements.
Other features of the commune was the break from the traditional family structure.
The joy of the Great Leap Forward in 1958 was followed by disillusionment and dissension.
In the next year it had become apparent that reports of a bumper harvest had been exaggerated.
They also realized the industrial targets which had been set were unrealistic.
An early response to this realization was to reorganize the communes.
The made the production brigade.
communal eating was ended.
Steps were taken to restore private plots and to reopen rural markets.
A retreat from the Great Leap Forward began.
The political conflict, which had had simmered under the surface since 1956, had come out in the open.
The Party's Central Committee meeting took place in Wuhan in Dec. 1958.
It was there that Mao agreed to step down as Chairman of the People's Republic.
Mao retained the chairmanship of the Party.
He later claimed that after the Wuhan meeting he was treated like a "dead ancestor."
In July at a conference in Lushan, Mao received a letter from Peng Dehuai.
Peng was a veteran of the Long March who was now minister of defence.
He warned Mao that the achievements of the Great Leap Forward were being exaggerated.
Maio chose to publish the letter and to attack Peng Dehuai openly at the conference.
Peng had recently returned from Moscow.
Mao accused him of having conspired with Krushchev to criticize the communes.
He also accused him of conspiring to cancel the offer of nuclear aid for China.
Subsequently Peng Dehuai was replaced at the Ministry of Defence by Lin Biao.
Lin Biao was a close supporter of Mao.
Critics of the Great Leap Forward were intimidated.
A second Great Leap began in 1960.
A feature of the Second Great Leap was the intensive introduction of urban communes.
This was an attempt to make urban areas more self-sufficient.
The sEcond Great Leap Forward was finally abandoned (by mid-1961) due to a number of factors.
a) mistaken agricultural policies.
b) bad weather
c) the withdrawal of Soviet technicians in July had, by mid-1961 forced the abandonment of the Second Great Leap.
The Great Leap Forward had a disastrous effect on China's population.
There was a decline in food production.
The breakdown in the system of distribution had set off a famine.
The cumulative increase in mortality is estimated as between 16 & 27 million deaths
The famine, which at its height in 1960 was felt more severely in rural areas.
It was more sever in certain provinces.
Anhui alone suffered about 2 million deaths.
These figures may be compared with the loss of life in the Soviet Union.
This would be at the time of the collectivization of agriculture
Here the estimates suggests 5 million deaths.
The Party's response to this tragedy was very inadequate.
This was because of a lack of accurate information.
The system of gathering statistics had collapsed.
It had been replaced by grossly exaggerated claims of increases in output.
Partly it was because many Party leaders remained silent.
The consequences played a significant role in deepening the Sino-Soviet dispute.
The origins of the dispute may be traced back to
a) several incidents in the history of the rise of the CCP
b) the negotiations of the Treaty of Alliance & Mutual Assistance in 1950.
c) the Sino-Soviet relations during the Korean War
d) Krushchev's secret speech denouncing Stalin in 1956.
e) the tensions which had emerged during Mao's visit to the Soviet Union in Nov.1957.
It was the Great Leap Forward which brought these tensions out in the open.
A number of factors threatened to deprive the Soviet Union of making ideological claims:
a) the rejection of Soviet economic methods,
b) the trumpeting of the initial achievements of the Great Leap Forward
c) the hailing of the communes as a short cut to communism.
The Soviets wanted to lay claim to the "ideological and economic leader of the socialist camp."
The tensions were heightened in 1958 & 1959.
This was caused by various international crises.
The first one started with the United States landing in Lebanon
On that day Krushchev arrived in Beijing, his response to this crisis was criticized..
It was criticized in the Red Flag, the Party's journal.
Soon after, the Chinese threat to "liberate" Taiwan was treated cooly by the Soviet Union
Two events were to pose a threat to China:
a) the Tibetan revolt in the spring of 1959.
b) the flight of the Dalai Lama
The Soviet Union did not offer firm support.
The break between both countries followed shortly after.
In June 1959 the Soviet Union rescinded the offer of nuclear assistance.
It was an offer that they made two tears previously.
At the same time, Mao heard about the reports of critical remarks made by Krushchev
These remarks were about the communes.
In April 1960 there'd Flag openly criticized theSoviet Union's policy of peaceful co-existence.
Wth this, and its rejection of China's economic policies the break between them was set.
This led the soviet Union to announce that its technicians would be withdrawn in two months.
The diplomatic estrangement was to last until 1985.

Prelude to the Cultural Revolution

The years, following the disaster of the Great Leap Forward, was dominated by two things:
a) economic reconstruction
b) educational & political adjustments.
Steps were taken to restore the agrarian economy
In 1959 the brigade had replaced the commune as the unit of accounting.
Private plots had been restored
Up to 30 million people were relocated from the cities to the countryside.
A large reduction in cereal procurement followed from that.
Under Chen Yun's direction an "agricultural first" economic strategy was developed.
He believed that the mobilization of labour alone could not solve China's problems.
This was agricultural problems.
Chen did a few things.
a) he increased state investments in agriculture,
b) he expanded the production of agriculture machinery & fertilizers.
c) he developed a" high and stable yield" area policy.
This encouraged regions to concentrate on expanding cereal production.
In the industrial sector many state enterprises were closed down.
A partial return was made to the one-man management practices of the First Five Year Plan.
As a result by 1965 agricultural output had returned to the level achieved in 1957.
In the meantime the population had risen by 80 million.

Industrial output recovered even more quickly.
By 1963 a period of sustained growth had begun.
This growth was aided by th development of new industries
One such industry was the petrochemical industry.
The recovery was remarkable for two reasons: it was achieved a time when
a) China was technologically isolated.
b) when the development of nuclear weapons was absorbing high technology sources - China's first nuclear test took place in October 1964.
In education the principle of "walking on two legs" was not abandoned.
But it was modified extensively.
The number of pupils in elementary schools fell from 93 million in 1960 to 69 in 1962.
Most of the agricultural middle schools were closed.
This was where students had studied theChinese language
They had studied practical subjects in the morning
They worked in the fields in the afternoon
Few of the "red & expert" universities survived
One exception was the Jiangxi Communist Labour University
It continued to serve as a model for work-study & agricultural education.
Central authority over education was reasserted
The amount of productive work required of staff and students was limited.
Significantly, "key point schools were retained
They had been introduced at the time of the Great Leap Forward.
In them, talented children were taught by selected teachers in a well-equipped environment.
In the Great Leap Forward period, political leadership was provided by
a) Liu Shaoqi, supported by Deng Xiaoping
b) the economist Chen Yuh (the general secretary of the CCP)
c) Peng Zhen, the mayor of Beijing.
Mao Zedong had largely withdrawn from the day-to-day management of affairs.
His views were represented by
a) his wife, Jiang Qing, who was active in the field of cultural affairs.
b) Lin Biao, the minister of defence.
Zhou Enlai, the premier, remained uncommitted to either side.
The nature of the contest between these two groupings had been interpreted in a few ways.
One is to regard it as a power struggle between Mao Zedong and his critics.
It was only after the disaster of the Great Leap Forward that Mao found himself excluded from political power.
Subsequent events were as follows
a) the Socialist Education movement.
b) the promotion of Mao's personality cult.
c) Lin Biao's reforms of the People's Liberation Army.
d) the Cultural Revolution.
These may all be taken as an assault on Mao's political rivals, Liu Shaoqi & Deng Xiaoping.
Mao's relationship with theCCP had altered dramatically since 1949.
At that time Mao's authority and ideological leadership had been unchallenged.
In 1956 at the Eight Party Congress, the Party's constittuion was revised.
It did this by deleting reference to Mao Zedong's thought.
his thoughts had been part of the CCP's guiding ideology.
It became easier for white-collar workers to become members of the Party.
The Politburo was enlarged and important positions were filled by technocrats.
It was recognized that the government was becoming more bureaucratic.
It was also increasingly divorced from the masses.
A campaign for Party rectification was launched.
The changes it brought about did not satisfy Mao.
Hostility towards the Party was noticed.
This was in his speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictons Among the People."
He gave this speech in Feb. 1957.
Among the contradictions he identified was one between the leadership and the masses.
At the time he described it as a non-antagonistic contradiction.
His hostility increased markedly during this period of recovery after the Great Leap Forward.
At the 7000 cadres' conference in 1962, he made an outspoken attack on Party bureaucrats.
He accused them being arrogant.By now he concluded the relationship between the Party and the masses was problematic.t
He called it an antagonistic contradiction.
For him theParty represented privileged power-holders.
Since a contradiction could not be resolved there was online answer.
The Party would have to be destroyed.
Mao had to persuade many Party leaders to support the launching of the GLF.
In 1962the disaster became apparent.
This is when Deng Xiaoping openly criticized the communes.
He also criticized socialist relations of production.
He also hinted at the abandonment of collective farming.
He spoke at a Communist youth League conference.
He said he favoured any form of production which restored & increased agricultural output.
He quoted a Sichuan proverb: "Yellow or white, a cat that catches mice is good cat."
This and other causes of dispute earned Deng Xiaoping & Liu Zhaoqi condemnation.
They were condemned as "capitalist roaders."
It led to their being accused of following the revisionist course.
This revisionist course had been set by Krushchev in the Soviet Union.

Mao Zedong's loss of confidence in the Party audits leaders let him to look elsewhere.
He looked to the next generation in his search for revolutionary successors.
The first rounds of the struggle were fought in the context of the socialist Education movement.
This was launched in 1963.
Mao shared common ground with other Party leaders in one thing.
It was in believing that apathy & corruption was widespread.
This was among Party cadres in the countryside where it was widespread.
Mao drafted a document, later known as the "Former Ten Points."
Poor and lower middle peasant associations were given a particular job.
This was of investigating cadre corruption & restoring the collective principle in farming.
This was for investigating cadre corruption and restoring the collective principle in farming.
In Sept. Deng Xiaoping himself issued a document.
I t later known as the "Later Ten Points."
He supported many pf the anxieties voiced in th previous document.
But he called for the formation of urban-based work teams to carry out the rectification.
In the winter of 1963-4 Wang Guangmei, Liu Shaqi's wife undertook a mission.
She spent 6 months incognito investigating examples of cadre abuse.
In sept. of the next year Liu Shaoqi used information gathered by his wife.
He produced a third document, the "Revised Later Ten Points."
This document painted a gloomy picture of the situation.
It proposed that
a) late work teams should visit selected communes.
b) investigate them thoroughly,
c) deal severely with cases of cadre corruption.
The dispute separating Mao and Liu Shaoqi was now becoming clear.
Liu regarded the central issue to be cadre corruption.
The appropriate action to the reimposition of Party authority
For Mao the issue was the revisionism which had appeared at all levels of the Party.
In January 1965, Mao convened conference.
He issued another document called "Twenty-three Articles."
He made it clear that the target of the campaign was not the corruption of the local cadres.
In fact, it was the actions of people holding positions of authority in the Party
They were the ones who were taking the capitalist road - they would be the target.

In the meantime other controversies had arisen.
These controversies widened the gap between Mao and his critics.
Mao had long favoured the use of revolutionary models.
In 1964 he promoted Dazhai Brigade in Shanxi as a model.
This was because its peasants had transformed the barren land & raised its yields five-fold.
This was through their self-reliance and commitment to collective farming.
The slogan coined was "in agriculture learn from Dazhai."
Other brigades were called upon to emulate their selfless commitment.
They were called to adopt their work-point system.
This work-point system rewarded political awareness as well as physical efforts.
Later that year a work team investigated Dazhai.
They concluded that the production figures had been greatly exaggerated.
Yet Mao's influence protected the reputation of their brigade.
The brigade continued to serve as a model until Mao's death.
Mao had greater success in mobilizing support in the People's Liberation Army.
Peng Dehuai had been appointed Minister of Defence after the Korean War.
He had introduced a series of reforms intended to turn the army into a professional force.
He was replaced by Lin Biao in 1959.
Lin Biao continued the modernization programme.
In October 1962 the border dispute between India & China turned into a war.
This was when the People's Liberation Army achieved a rapid & overwhelming victory.
Lin Biao had also supported the nuclear programme
This had resulted in China detonating an atomic device in Oct. 1964.
But Lin was also politically ambitious.
He was determined to make the armed forces an example of revolutionary zeal.
He promoted the case of the model soldier Lei Feng who had died in 1962 at these of 20.
The soldier died when tying to help a comrade.

In 1964 the army's political department produced a version of a compilation of words.
This was to become the Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.
In return for his support Mao endorsed a campaign based on a slogan.
His slogan stated - "Learn from the People's Liberation Army."
In 1965 Lin presented an article entitled "Long live th eVictory of the People's War."
He anticipated a confrontation between the United States and national liberation movements.
He praised Mao Zedong for his leadership in the war of resistance against Japan.
He described it as a genuine "people's war" - there was a reason for this.
It was because it was a war in which the Party had relied on the masses, not on machines.
Two issues were important preceding the launch of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
These issues were to be central to the movement.
The first issue was education with particular reference to access and opportunity.
In the aftermath of the Great Leap Forward, emphasis was placed
a) one educational standards
b) on the use of examinations.
By the early 1960s the educational system was more elitist than it had been a decade earlier.
Mao gave a speech at the Tenth Plenum of the eight Central Committee in Sept. 1962.
Mao had warned "never forget the class struggle."
At the time of the Great Leap Forward it had been forgotten.
A two-track educational system had been established.
It worked to the advantage of urban children.
This was especially the children of the Party cadres.
Mao criticized these developments at the Spring Festival Forum of 1964.
He argued that
a) the current period of schooling was too long,
b) that too much reliance was placed on examinations.
c) that too much deference was paid to teachers.
d) that a stronger link should be established between education & production.
The second issue was culture.
In 1942 Mao dealt with this in his "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature & Art."
Mao adargue that the arts should serve the revolution.
The arts should do so by endorsing proletariat values.
In the early 1960s, a number of novels and plays had appeared.
These works contained implicit comments on political issues.
The most notorious example was an opera written by the historian Wu Han.
It was entitled Hai Rui Dismissed from Office.
Hai Rui, an upright 16th century Ming official, had been dismissed by the emperor.
The opera was widely recognized as a criticism of Mao's actions at the time of the Great Leap.
This was because he had protested against the confiscation of land from peasants.
In response , Mao got his wife Jiang Qing to formulate a policy statement on culture.
She teamed up with Kang Sheng, a former member of the Politburo.
Kang had specialized in issues relating to revisionism & counter-revolution.
She also found allies in the Shanghai Party chief Zhang Chunqiao.
She also found an ally in the literary critic Yao Wenyuan.
These allies were later to achieve notoriety as members of the "Gang of Four."
This political infighting set the stage for the Cultural Revolution.

Asia 210 - Modern China

Sunday, November 21, 2021

China Since the 1949 Revolution

No comments:

Post a Comment