: New Democracy Period : First 5 Year Plan/Soviet Model : Great Leap Forward

: Honeymoon or State Terror? Early 1950s ‘Honeymoon’: Stability, Rebuilding, Inclusive rhetoric of ‘new Democracy’ ‘State Terror’: : Anti-prostitution, anti-drug campaigns in major cities 1950: Campaign to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries 1951: Three Antis Campaign (campaign to eliminate corruption, waste, obstructionist bureaucracy among party members and factory managers 1952: Five Antis Campaign ( campaign attacking those industrialists and capitalists that had stayed in China after 1949)

The Soviet Model and the First Five Year Plan This is a development model that stresses technology and organization, not ideology --prioritizes industry over agriculture—main source of capital accumulation taken from agriculture to serve industry (to feed it) --Stress on large-scale units—integrated production plants—factory as community and work unit --Emphasis on Material incentives for workers (as opposed to moral/ideological) --City prioritized over countryside

The Hundred Flowers Campaign 1957: Mao encourages ‘one hundred flowers to bloom, one hundred schools of though to contend’ A period of liberalization in which criticism of the Chinese Communist Party was encouraged Mao hoped that the criticisms would match his own distaste of the Soviet model Intellectual’s criticisms go far beyond this and Mao orders an ‘anti-rightist’ crackdown against those who put for criticism

Collectivization in the Countryside : Land Reform, “Honeymoon” Period Removes traditional rural elites Restoration of markets Distributes land to all individuals Does not: Increase agricultural production

Mutual Aid Teams Mutual Aid Teams (MAT) A voluntary policy Farmers encouraged to pool resources— tools, labor, farm animals—to increase production Land still privately owned Typically involve 5-15 families

Small Agricultural Producer Cooperatives (APC) Land Still Privately Owned, but pooled and collectively farmed. Distribution of harvest (profit) based on combination of your land contribution and labor contribution families Hope was that by 1957, 1/3 of agricultural households would be in small APC

Large Agricultural Producer Cooperatives NOT voluntary abolished land ownership rewards for labor input, not land input Highly unpopular

Towards Disaster: Carrying out the “Great Leap Forward” Return to the core qualities of revolution loved by Mao—speed, rural focus, mass action China= “poor and blank”—this is powerful, not negative People power, not industrial/bureaucratic expertise will propel China to a utopian future

People’s Communes Highest stage of collectivization in the countryside=communes Comprise many villages, tens of thousands of people Elimination of ALL private property, destruction of ALL rural markets, elimination of money. “to each according to their needs”—the state provides for all—no matter what you do!

Furnaces and Communal Dining Backyard furnaces—we don’t need expertise or large factories to make steel—farmers can do it! Eat all you want, for free, abundant harvest is just around the corner Communal mess halls—no more cooking for your family

The Consequences: THE WORST FAMINE IN RECORDED HUMAN HISTORY Communes have unprecedented power to mobilize people—but do so recklessly, exhausting people on pointless projects Nobody farming enough Communes inflating harvest figures to look good to the state No tools or fuel—burned up in furnaces

Famine No food= 30 MILLION DEATHS between 1959 and 1961 No relief—a nationwide catastrophe People forced to eat bark, grass, finally dirt, and even other people