1. 100 Flowers Movement

2. 100 Flowers Movement
Under the slogan “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom and a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend,” Mao actively encourages the opinions and criticisms from all walks of society, including intellectuals
(the name is a reference to the Hundred Schools of Thought period of the Warring States Period-Confucius, Lao Tze, etc).

3. Idea of 100 Flowers (or so Mao claimed)
Constructive criticism will make the CCP and China stronger
CCP leaders will learn from and be responsive to the masses

4. Too much criticism?
However, in 1957 the Party/Mao cracked down. Began an ‘Anti-Rightist” campaign.
Many who had spoken out were arrested, lost jobs, were sent to camps for “thought reform”

5. First & Last time Free Speech Encouraged
Uncertain:
A plot to determine who opposed the Party?

6. Lecture 2: Great Leap Forward 1958-1961
China’s Second 5-Year Plan

7. Questions
What led to the starvation of over over 20 million people? What were the political effects on China?

8. GLF Goal: Overcome China’s backwardness
Make China strong
Catch-up to the West
Insure China will remain independent

9. How to accomplish?
Mass mobilization of the country side: Increase agricultural production: Combine farms into COMMUNES Industrialize: Iron & steel production increased through backyard furnaces

10. Mao’s belief
“If you have the will, I am convinced all things can be successfully accomplished”

11. The strength of people working together

12. For Mao, battle as important as ultimate success
Political part: Increase allegiance to communist ideology. Masses will be a critical part of the ongoing communist revolution

13. Increase Agriculture: Communes Live & Work Together
Commune leaders controlled almost every aspect of a person's life
Communal eating halls
Nurseries for children
“Houses of Happiness” for old people
By 1958, 90% of Chinese were living in communes

16. By 1960 there were over 26,000 communes, with 5,000 to 20,000 people each

19. Industrialize: Backyard furnaces

21. Over 600,000 steel furnaces set up throughout China

22. Propaganda was everywhere
The communes are big, the people numerous, the natural resources are plenty.
It is easy to develop a strong economy
People's communes are good

25. Problems soon became apparent
Industrial:
Old and overworked machines fell apart under the pressure of increased production demands
Much of the steel produced was terrible quality

26. Problems soon became apparent
Agricultural:
So many people were working in steel production that there weren't enough people to farm
Communes over-reported the amounts they were growing: Government took food based on false reports

27. Over-reporting Commune grew 50 tons of grain.
Need 25 tons for food for commune

28. Over-reporting BUT reported they grew 70 tons.
Gov’t would take 45 tons- gov’t believing they were leaving 25 tons for food.
Reality: Only 5 tons of food left for commune

29. Add to these problems draught

30. …and in other places floods

31. Result: Disaster on a Grand Scale

32. Mass Starvation: “3 Bitter Years” 1959-1961

33. Between 1959 and 1962 at least 20 million Chinese died of starvation and related diseases

34. Political Impact of GLF: Rise of the ‘Moderates’

35. Moderate’s Economic Policies: Practical
The moderates abandoned the Great Leap Forward
Communes were reduced in size
Backyard steel factories were shut down
Peasants were returned to the fields
Some were given their own plots of land & were
allowed to sell their surplus
LED TO A POWER STRUGGLE AND MAO’S RETURN TO POWER A FEW YEARS LATER WHEN HE STARTED THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION

36. A casualty of the GLF: Peng Dehuai
Mao’s longtime contemporary
Long March
Fought Guomingdang
Fought Japanese
Fought in Civil War
Korean War hero
Head of the People’s Liberation Army
Peng complained about GLF problems….

37. As a result…. Lost his position Branded a rightist/ anti-revolutionary
Ultimately purged during Cultural Revolution
Tortured and died in prison

38. Poem by Peng Dehuai about GLF
Grain scattered on the ground, potato leaves withered; Strong young people have left to make steel; Only children and old women reap the crops; How can they pass the coming year? Allow me to raise my voice for the people!