U3

• Exploitation of Peasantry:

  • Designed to maximize output for cities and exports by 'squeezing the peasantry'
  • CCP lost peasants' support due to policies of plunder, starvation, and forced labor
  • Peasants opposed loss of land, property, attacks on family life
• Failures of Industrialization during the Great Leap Forward:

  • Soviet technicians withdrawn in 1960 due to declining Sino-Soviet relations
  • Mass mobilization was wasteful: civil servants, doctors, professors achieved nothing
  • Insufficient resources and tools led to dams being built with people's bare hands
  • Targets inflated to nonsensical levels, massive construction projects without proper planning
• Role of USSR:

  • Communes forced peasants to eat as much as possible, exhausting food supplies
  • People survived on under 600 calories a day, losing 20 pounds a month
  • Production figures increased to please Mao, justify more requisitioning and exports
• Backyard Steel during the Great Leap Forward:

  • Steel was the main target, production doubled in one year
  • Every commune and urban neighborhood set up backyard furnaces
  • Population mobilized to make steel out of scrap metal, deforesting areas for fuel
  • Low-quality pig-iron produced, Mao realized large factories needed for steel production
• Communes during the Great Leap Forward:

  • Higher co-operatives merged into large communes of 5,000 peasant households
  • Communes were self-sufficient with schools, clinics, civilian armies
  • Designed to restrict family life, enable peasants to devote entire life to work
• Famine during the Great Leap Forward:

  • Weather in 1958 good, problems caused by Mao's policies
  • Main cause of famine was increased grain taken by state for export
  • Production figures inflated, leaving peasants with nothing
  • Over 40 million peasants died, lasting until January 1961
• Health Initiatives in China:

  • Communists targeted poor hygiene and disease, significant reduction in cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis
  • 'Barefoot doctors' with basic medical skills used to compensate for lack of trained doctors
  • Health care was free, combining Chinese and Western medicine
• Hundred Flowers Campaign:

  • Policy for promoting progress in arts, sciences, socialist culture
  • People criticized terror campaigns, low living standards, corruption, halted by Mao in July 1957
• Anti-Rightist Movement:

  • Targeted CCP members opposing collectivization or favoring capitalism
  • Began after Hundred Flowers Campaign, intensified after condemnation of General Peng De-huai
• 2nd Five Year Plan: The Great Leap Forward (1958-61):

  • Initially aimed to involve intellectuals and non-communist officials
  • Mao may have wanted criticism of over-zealous local officials and industrial waste
• The Great Leap Forward (1958-61) was a campaign initially led by Zhou to involve intellectuals and non-communist officials
• Mao may have genuinely wanted criticism of over-zealous local officials and industrial waste
• The campaign aimed to develop agriculture and heavy industry simultaneously, with higher targets set: industrial production to double, agricultural output to increase by 35%
• The entire population was mobilized to work longer hours, regardless of conditions, with massive propaganda to work harder
• The Great Leap Forward effectively ended in 1961 due to the crisis it created, despite being intended to last 5 years
• Higher Co-operatives (1956) involved larger co-operatives of 100-300 peasant households and full collectivization, abolishing private ownership of land
• Failures of Collectivization included increased food shortages, declining living standards, and mass migration to cities
• Industrialization under Mao involved nationalizing major banks, railways, and about 1/3 of heavy industry immediately
• Peasants were no longer paid rent for their land but received wages from the co-operatives, leading to considerable opposition
• The CCP advocated social changes like equal rights for women, introducing laws against arranged marriages and promoting birth control
• The 1st 5 Year Plan (1953-7) focused on heavy industry like steel, coal, and iron, with the USSR providing economic aid and expertise
• Education was a priority for the Communists, with campaigns to increase literacy rates and indoctrinate students in Marxist-Leninism and Mao's theories
• Zhen Fan in 1950 marked the beginning of Mao's reign of terror, with severe suppression of counter-revolutionary activities and public executions to instill fear
• The Three / Five-anti Campaigns targeted corruption, waste, bureaucracy, bribery, fraud, theft, tax evasion, and sabotage, leading to public confessions, fines, and suicides
• Mutual Aid Teams (1952) encouraged peasant households to form groups to work together and share resources, while the Agrarian Reform Law redistributed land from landlords to poor peasants
• Elementary Co-operatives (1953) saw groups of 20 to 40 households joining individual farms into one large farm, with peasants paid rent for their land and profits shared based on work input