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Mao's maintainance of power 1949 - 1976 - Coggle Diagram
Mao's maintainance of power 1949 - 1976
Economic policies
Industrial policies during the The Great Leap Forward
Aim
The Great Leap Forward was a term that Mao used to describe the second Five-Year Plan of 1958-1962. His aim was to turn China into a modern industrial power in the shortest amount and ultimately overtake industrial outputs from western countries. He also wanted China to be self-reliant and independent from the Soviet Union economically.
Measures
Backyard furnaces campaign: Iron and steel was to increase not only in foundries and mills, but also in small family kilts. The Chinese population was galvanized to contribute to steel production. However, little steel was produced and homemade poor-quality steel from pots and pans was unusable. A lot of effort and sacrifice was wasted.
State-owned enterprise: Industry was brought under governmental control: Private firms and companies could no longer exist to make profits on their own. There was little incentiven for the SOEs to become efficient and highly productive. Any surplus given to the state. The skilled force also lacked the expertise to manage new machinery.
Great Projects: a lot of the workforce was deployed for the construction of great projects such as building Great Canals, mining out mountains or enlarging Tiamen square. A lot of accidents caused casualties and a lot of effort was wasted.
Results
Decrease of one fourth in manufactured goods.
Closure of half of China’s new 300 industrial plants
The disastrous results were also partially caused by the Great Famine and the fact the USSR stopped sending investments in China.
Agrarian policies during the The Great Leap Forward
Aim
Mao opted for the collectivization of farms and the introduction of lysenkoist methods which would produce a surplus of food, to be expanded abroad. The profit would then be injected into China’s heavy industry. Mao planned to double agricultural yield income in five years.
Measures
Collectivisaiton
The landlords were wiped out and private agricultural estates were abolished.
Peasants were encouraged to work as ‘mutual aid’ teams, organized into small to large cooperatives, otherwise known as communes.
The household registration system limited peasant movement.
Throughout China, 70,000 communes were established (controlled through armed militia)
Lysenkoist campaigns: According to the Soviet researcher Trofin Lysenko, eradicating sorrow would produce enormous yields of “super-crops”. Mao applied this theory in China and called the population to menace the explosion, which resulted in an explosion of crop-eating insects and vermin population, which ate the grain stocks.
Results
The Great Famine
As many as 45 million people died from starvation.
Parents sold their child and cannibalism was rife.
Mao’s reputation was tarnished and, confronted by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, he withdrew from the political frontline.
Liu and Deng revoked Mao’s reforms and allowed private farms to operate again, which eventually led food supplies to improve.
Other factors also contributed to great famine such as: counterfeit information of yield production from officials (too scared of the reprisals for revealing the truth), severe labor shortage from great projects and local steel production,, unorganized packaging of rice which made it rotten
HP: Frank Dikotter, the Great Leap Forward was “the worst catastrophe in China’s history, and one of the worst anywhere”
Foreign policy
Sino-soviet Pact
The USSR gave a $300 million loan (with interest rates) to the PRC for economic growth.
10,000 Soviet economic and military advisors sent to China
Korean War
Mao sent 1.2 million soldiers into Korea primarily because he feared the US growing influence in east Asia. His decision was also influenced by Stalin who promised to provide air cover and army supplies to the PLA units.
Although the war came to be a defeat for both armies, it was a propaganda victory for Mao. Thousands of leaflets and war bulletins were sent in the country proclaiming that China has shown its superiority and that America has humiliated and has retreated.
In reality, China had over 600,000 casualties compared to only 35,000 for the Americans. The war was also devastating for China’s economy: 55% of government spending went to war, which caused a massive loss of production.
Use of force & Treatment of Opposition
Antis Campaign
Worker’s organization were encouraged to investigate bribery, freud, corruption or tax evasion from their employers; if they denounced them, the executives would undergo public self-criticism and ‘though reforms’ which consisted of:
Facing fines and property confiscations
Forced to go to Labor camps, where many would perish.
2 - 3 million industrialists suicide as a result, whiel many other seeked refuge.
Reunification campaigns
Worker’s organization were encouraged to investigate bribery, freud, corruption or tax evasion from their employers; if they denounced them, the executives would undergo public self-criticism and ‘though reforms’ which consisted of:
Facing fines and property confiscations
Forced to go to Labor camps, where many would perish.
2 - 3 million industrialists suicide as a result, whiel many other seeked refuge.
Agrarian Reforms
Attacks on landlords and the bourgeoisie to acquire full state influence on agriculture working forces
Confiscation of land properties which were relocated to peasants.
Landlords were trialed and publicly humiliated: 2 million were killed and beaten up.
Government gained direct tax revenues from farms
Policing
The government also encouraged neighbor denonciation and established household registration systems to track opponents of the regime.
Legal methods
One-party state, only the CCP was allowed to exist
Major governmental measures were carried out by the Politburo (21 members), which was under the authority of Mao
The Chinese People’s Republic had 6 regional administration Bureaus : each headed by 4 major officials: chairman, party secretary, military commander and political commissar.
Local courts were established for ordinary people to take part in local measure, however these courts remained under the strict control of the CCP.
Propaganda
Mao's little red book, compulsory to study it at shcool
The CPP was portrayed to be the true liberators of Japanese oppression.
Cult of the individual: Mao was portrayed as a god-like figure watching over the goodwill of the peasants.
Targeting specific groups of society: in many posters diffused by the CPP propagandists, many pictured industrial workers, farmers and soldiers united into one communist common force.
Charismatic leadership
Mao swam in the Yangzhi rever in July 1966. This demontrated his physical prowess and good health
Hundred Flowers campaign:
In 1957, Mao encouraged the citizens to openly expresse their opinions on the regims. It was actually a trap, Mao ordered the iprisonment of all of those who critiise the CCP
During the cultural revolution, Mao order the 'great proletariat' to revolt against the four olds: ideas, habbits, culture and customs. During that time Mao was able to show his authority when the situation got out of hand. The increasingly viotant Red guard militias started to fight one anather and stop following order. Mao responded by sending red guards into reduction camps, where they would work for peasants.