Soviet advisers with Chinese workers

What is the message of this propaganda poster? Refer to details in the poster to support your answer.

The Chinese economy was largely dependent on agriculture, but this was backwards and inefficient. Mao wanted China to develop as quickly as possible and this meant giving priority to economic policies. Such a goal was driven not just by the economic aim of making China a strong country but also the ideological aim of creating a socialist nation; increasing food supplies would feed the growing urban population who would provide labour for the new factories. Similarly, collectivisation of farmland would force the peasants to live together and thus to see the benefits of communism.

Following the Agrarian Land Reform, the CCP decided to introduce co-operative ownership of land. Voluntary Mutual Aid Teams (MATS) were set up in which peasants pooled their resources. This reflected the kind of co-operation that was already going on in villages and so was enthusiastically supported by the peasants. However, it was felt that these did not go far enough in promoting socialist ideals as capitalist actions such as buying and selling of land were still continuing. Thus in the second stage towards collectivisation, Agricultural Producers Co-operatives were established. There were arguments within the party as to how fast the pace of collectivisation should go but in 1956, the final phase was introduced by which private ownership was ended and larger-scale co-operatives introduced.

Meanwhile, with regard to industry all private businesses and commercial enterprises were nationalised under state control. The Soviet-style Five Year Plan was introduced in 1953 with coal, steel and petro-chemicals targeted. A number of spectacular civilian engineering projects were undertaken. Soviet technical and financial aid was used to meet Mao's aims of industrialising as soon as possible.

Starter:

What is the message of this poster promoting the Great Leap Forward?

The Great Leap Forward (GLF) was initiated by Mao at a meeting in January 1958. The key idea behind the GLF was to develop rapidly China’s agricultural and industrial sectors simultaneously. Mao hoped to harness the energy of the vast population of China and by so doing dispose of the need for Soviet aid. He believed that sheer force of will would get around the necessity of importing heavy machinery. In the process, Mao would also create the ‘proletarian class’ required by the Marxist model. He anchored the GLF in the development of two key areas – grain and steel production. His predictions were very ambitious, suggesting that China could outproduce the UK in steel in just 15 years.

In order to achieve both increased grain and steel production, Mao promoted the construction of small backyard steel furnaces in every commune and in each urban neighbourhood. Peasants and workers set about attempting to produce steel from scrap metal, stripping their local areas of all potential fuel sources to burn in the furnaces. Suspicious of the academic ‘intellectuals’, Mao ignored their concerns about the economic value of the poor-quality ‘pig iron’ that these furnaces produced. China’s harvests rotted in the fields as peasants focused on making the worthless metal, often out of basic essentials, such as their own pots and pans.

Despite the fact that Mao had seen for himself that high-quality steel could only be produced in proper factories, he continued with the ‘backyard furnaces’ plan for most of 1959. It is said that behind Mao’s reasoning was a desire not to crush the ‘revolutionary spirit’ of the peasants and workers.

Public works launched during the GLF were also generally unsuccessful, due to the deliberate lack of experienced and expert leadership. As for the broader agricultural picture, on the communes, some ‘revolutionary’ techniques were experimented with. For example, there was ‘close cropping’, where seeds were planted very close together (following the false idea that the same crop would not compete with itself ), and also the idea of leaving an area of each field fallow to improve fertility.

Failure and starvation

At the Lushan Conference in July 1959, Marshal Peng Dehuai spoke out against the disastrous impact of the GLF. Mao had Peng removed from his post, and used his denunciation to launch a nationwide campaign against the ‘rightists’ (right-wing elements). From 1959, China experienced a widespread famine. Even though millions were starving in China, Mao insisted that China continue to export grain – he did not want the humiliation of the outside world knowing the results of his great economic plan. Chinese government sources record horrendous weather conditions affecting China from 1958 to 1962, and there is clear evidence of droughts and floods. But the impact of the GLF exacerbated the problems caused by the weather. As a direct result of the GLF policies, millions of Chinese died. In January 1961, the PRC finally decided to end the GLF revolution. No more grain was exported, and Canadian and Australian grain was imported.

The consequence of the Great Leap Forward was total economic disaster for China. Using recently opened Chinese archives, historian Frank Dikötter in his book Mao’s Great Famine (2010) estimates that there were "at least" 45 million premature deaths in China during the famine years. Mao stepped down as State Chairman of the PRC in 1959, realizing that he would be held responsible for the disaster that was emerging; he did, however, keep his position as Chairman of the CCP

When the CCP took power in 1949, up to 85% of the population was illiterate. Education was the preserve of the elites and education was based on the need to prepare students for the imperial examinations which enabled the applicants to become bureaucrats. These examinations were based on study of classical works; practical subjects, such as science and mathematics, required by a modern economy were not studied. Teaching was also based on rote learning.

Problems remained in education; the village min-pan schools were of poor quality and, in terms of higher education, only 1% workers had degrees by 1982. Indeed, elitism remained with the establishment of 'key point' schools which received the best funding and the best teaching. The peasants were largely excluded from such schools which mainly took the children of CCP families. This failure to create educational equality led Mao to accuse 'capitalist roaders' of taking over the Party and it set the stage for the Cultural Revolution and the attack on intellectuals. The May 1966 Central Committee's 'Decision on the Cultural Revolution' announced that 'The task of the Cultural Revolution is to reform the old educational system and educational philosophy and methodology'.

Health care before 1949 was also very basic and almost non-existent in rural areas. The CCP lacked funds for health care and focused on preventative solutions to health problems. Through the use of mass campaigns like the ‘Patriotic Health Movements’, street and neighbour committees were mobilised on sanitation projects like building sewers, draining swamps and eradicating pests that carried disease. Emphasis was also put on clean drinking water and disposal of human sewage. Films, posters, lectures and radio broadcasts were all used to educate peasants in these areas.

Successes:

• Diseases such as smallpox,cholera, typhus and leprosy were eliminated and others such as TB greatly reduced
• Attacks on drug suppliers and criminal gangs lowered numbers of drug addicts
• Communes established medical clinics
• 800 Western-style hospitals were built
• Trained doctors rose from 40,000 in 1949 to 150,000 in 1965
• The barefoot doctors, set up during the Cultural Revolution, did help provide basic care to rural areas
• Life expectancy rose

Failures/problems

• The Antis campaigns of the 1950s and the Cultural Revolution attacked the medical profession as bourgeois and many doctors were denounced
• Inequalities remained between rural and urban China
• The Great Leap Forward led to malnutrition and starvation
• The 'barefoot' doctors could only provide rudimentary health care
• There was under investment in hospitals; only 1.3% of GDP was ever spent on healthcare

The Communist government also attacked religion in society. Communist propaganda denounced Christianity, Buddhism and Confucianism and attacked the ‘old’ superstitions that had to be destroyed to create the new state.

For Mao, culture was inherently political and he was determined that art and literature should 'further the proletarian cause'. Culture was a key target in the Cultural Revolution. Mao appointed Jiang Qing, his fourth wife who had previously been an actress, to be 'Cultural Tsarina' during the Cultural Revolution and to oversee the destruction of 'revisionist, capitalist and feudalist' influences in China. She did this with great enthusiasm though historians are divided as to how far she acted under her own genuine commitment to the regime and how far she used the position to destroy anyone who might know about her earlier 'bourgeois' connections as an actress in Shanghai in the 1920s and thus further her own political career. Historical and religious buildings were destroyed; old art, literature and drama were attacked, along with many of the skilled people who had helped create them.

Women had held a low status in traditional Chinese society. They were subject to the three obediences:

• to their father when young
• to their husband when married
• to their son in old age

Foot binding was still widespread by the early 20th Century and arranged marriages were common. Rich and powerful men kept concubines (mistresses) as well as wives. The lives of peasant women were particularly harsh. As well as bearing the burden of child rearing and household work, they were expected to labour in the fields and carry on handicraft work at home. Very few also gained an education; in 1922 women accounted for a only 2.5 per cent of the total numbers of students receiving university education.

Under the GMD there was some social progress in the cities but in the countryside social change was slow or non-existent.

The Great Leap Forward relied not just on the mass mobilisation of men but also on the mobilisation of women. China's women were, said Mao, a vast reserve of labour power', that must be 'tapped in the struggle to build a great socialist country'.

Mao claimed that enabling women to work would bring them 'liberation through labour'. Those who matched men in productivity were called 'Iron Women' in the communist propaganda. To enable women to work, kindergartens were made part of the new Communes and communal canteens reduced the burden of food preparation.

Nevertheless, although more women now worked, they still largely took responsibility for the domestic chores such as childcare and cleaning. Historian Rebecca Karl declares that as a result of collectivisation, women faced a 'double burden' making life 'intolerably difficult'. (see also the article from the New York Times below)

Many were also distressed at leaving their children in the communal kindergarten. They could be separated from their children for weeks at a time and care in the kindergartens - which were overwhelmed by the numbers of children and staffed by untrained women in ramshackle buildings -  could be very poor. When the famine started, the food supplies meant for the children were stolen by starving adults meaning death rates were high.

By the end of the Great Leap Forward, the kindergartens had collapsed forcing starving villages (mainly the women) to care for their children as well as work and forage for food. The communal canteens were also unsatisfactory; the quality of food was poor, were situated a long way from the work areas and - as food was allocated on the basis of how much work had been performed - women often received less than men.

Although there was a public commitment to equal pay, in fact women received fewer 'work points' than men regardless of their productivity and skill. 'The result of this system', writes historian Mark Selden, 'rooted in traditional notions of male superiority', was the reinforcing of the notion of women's inferiority'.

In his analysis of the Party archives, Frank Dikkoter found overwhelming evidence of discrimination against women in the communes. Expectant women forced to work during pregnancy often had miscarriages. In one commune pregnant mothers who refused to work were forced to undress and break ice in the middle of winter. Sexual abuse was rife. As families disintegrated during the Great Leap Forward, women were separated from husbands and became victims of the advances from cadres. Dikotter observes that 'rape spread like a contagion through a distressed moral landscape.' Many women were also forced into prostitution in order to trade food for sex.

Mass organisations such as the All-China Women’s Federation were created in order to encourage political activism in women; the organisation set up ploughing lessons for women, organised classes to improve literacy and for the study of political ideas. Women were encouraged to make greater efforts for the Communist cause and with an official membership of 76 million, there is no doubt that women provided women with an avenues for social and political progression.

In the Cultural Revolution women also played the same political role as men as members of the Red Guards (see next page)

Nevertheless, at the top of the Party, women retained the majority of key roles. Most women at national government level owed their influence in large part to their husbands.

The number of girls attending schools improved dramatically; after 1959, 100% of girls were attending primary school (as opposed to only 38% between 1929 and 1949). By 1978, 45% of primary school children were girls.

There were also more employment opportunities for women. Military service in the PLA was now an option where they had opportunities for technical education, travel, leadership.