1. One of my UVI spotted this great video montage about the most recent Five Year Plan in China – could be useful as a good starter, but certainly funny to watch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m91zBt94Ll0

2. Industry and the first 5 Year Plan, 1953- 57 LO: To understand the aims, methods and results, and consequences of the first 5YP

3. Background Although it was mainly a rural society China had seen some considerable industrial development from around 1890 to 1949 Much of this development was initially in cities controlled by Western powers and the Japanese in the final years of the Qing dynasty. This development continued under GMD leadership from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s Development slowed after the Japanese invasion and there was a lot of damage to China’s industrial areas between the mid- 1930s and 1949. But there were still some major industrial centres in China in 1949, including Shanghai (E China), Beijing (NE) and Guangzhou (SE)

4. Map of important industrial projects in our nation under the 1 st 5 Year Plan

5. 1 st 5 Year Plan 1953-1957 What? Why? When? a programme to boost China’s industry and set China on track for world power status economic planning was a central feature of communist ideology & China was following in footsteps of USSR industrial planning… … as soon as Mao was able… implementation of the plan was slowed down by the Korean War 1949-50: consolidate power / get inflation under control from 1000% in 1949 1950-53: Korean War

6. The steel industry is the basis of all industries - 1956

7. Coal feeds industry - 1956

8. Petroleum is the lifeblood of industry - 1956

9. Producing industrial machinery is at the heart of heavy industry - 1956

10. Using the Soviet Model & Soviet help By 1951 inflation = down to 15% (by tax UP, spending DOWN & new currency) Despite previous difficulties, USSR was still an inspiration to China… and pretty much the only country prepared to help it… USSR centrally planned system had also defeated Nazi Germany The Sino-Soviet treaty of 1950 included 10K Soviet advisors going to China to teach Chinese how to run a socialist state … but… advisors wages were high & $300m USSR loan to China was not a gift… China had to hand over much of its gold reserves as a security and interest rates were high

11. Research task… You have the rest of today’s lesson and next lesson to complete the research task. Use your textbook, the AQA book and the internet to complete your research

12. CCP accounting and the pressure to achieve quotas… “The problem of quality control was summarized in a Chinese newspaper article of 1955, which reported on a certain senior manager who ordered his inspector, Li, to approve substandard products so that the company could meet its quotas. When Li angrily refused the manager promoted him to assistant manager. Li thereafter bullied his former fellow inspectors to approve substandard products, since it was now he who had to meet the quotas.” – Spence, The Search for Modern China

13. Article http://gbtimes.com/life/chinas-first-five-year-plan- achievement-expense-generation http://gbtimes.com/life/chinas-first-five-year-plan- achievement-expense-generation

14. Consolidation Successes & Failures? Were Chinese workers better off as a result of industrialisation during this period? Which groups ‘won’ and which groups ‘lost’ under this process?

15. However, most investment was concentrated in 150 large projects, which meant that much of Chinese industry was left untouched. Significantly, however, the success of the First Five Year Plan was to some extent due to the presence of 10,000 advisers from Soviet Russia. These had been sent by Stalin and remained after his death in 1953. These were almost the last examples of Soviet influence in China. Mao believed that Chinese communism should be based on agricultural communes and not on the urban workers, as Marx and Lenin had stated. In addition, Mao had a deep suspicion of ‘technology experts and scientists’ and believed that the Chinese people could triumph because of their sheer numerical strength. Mao’s determination to put these ideas into practice and to reject other alternatives for modernisation was to prove disastrous in the later 1950s and 1960s. “In almost all respects the First Five Year Plan was a success. Economic growth ran at 9% per annum during the five years. Most targets were achieved, with the notable exceptions of oil and merchant ships. National expenditure rose from 6,810 million yuan in 1952 to 29,020 million yuan in 1957.”

16. Explain why Mao introduced the First Five-Year Plan in China in 1953. (20 marks) China was predominantly a rural society in which the majority of the population depended on agriculture for their livelihoods. Although there had been some industrial development in the previous half-century, China had imported many of the consumer goods on sale during the period of GMD rule. The Communists aimed for China to be self-sufficient economically and this depended on large-scale industrialisation. The First Five Year Plan was the first stage in the Communists’ efforts to industrialise China. Economic planning was a central feature of Communist ideology and China was following in the footsteps of the Soviet Union where industrialisation through a series of Five Year Plans had begun in the 1920s. The priority in the early stages of this economic planning was to develop heavy industry. Although the Communists took power in 1949, it was not until 1953 that their control was sufficiently secure and the economy sufficiently stable to enable them to embark upon large scale economic planning. To reach higher levels, candidates will need to show the inter-relationship of the reasons given: For example, they might argue that economic planning and industrial development was central to Communist ideology but that the Chinese Communist government did not make this a priority when they first came to power in 1949. Only when the conditions were favourable, in 1953, did the Communists embark upon this radical policy.