The Impact on Agriculture
The Impact on the peasantry
The Impact on Foreign Allies
Impact on Internal Opponents of Mao
"Widespread drought and flooding" - Horn
"Mao taught that agriculture must be the foundation of the economy" - Horn
"Starvation was worse in the countryside" - Jung Chang
"Cities were prioritised for food supply by the CCP" - Jung Chang
"Requisitioning squads took food by force" - J. Spence
Famine claimed 20 million and lives - P. Short
"Worst human disaster ever to befall China" - P. Short
Birthrate declined due to malnutrition - P. Short
Neglect: calorie intake declined enormously - Jung Chang
"This was the greatest famine of the twentieth century - and all recorded human history." - Jung Chang
Grain (7 million tons) exported to USSR to pay debts, as USSR had funded the GLF in the first place
"That winter (1960) cannibalism became common." - J. Becker
"-cannibalism was not punished...because it was not considered as severe crime as destroying State property and the means of production." - J. Becker
People were desperate for food: parents sold their children, husbands sold their wives for food.
Mao stepped down as Chairman, admitting failings for the first time
“Any mistakes that the centre has made ought to be my direct responsibility and I also have an indirect share of the blame…” - Chairman Mao, 1962
Purge of Peng Dehuai: his fall from power was evidence that no one could speak their mind freely against Mao
Mao still wanted to pursue methods of mass mobilisation to ensure that ideological purity remained.
"-properly educate our youth, otherwise a country like ours may yet move towards its opposite." - Mao, May 1962
Wanted to prevent socialism from taking ahold of China.
"Party of Marxism-Leninism would turn into a party of revisionism, of fascism." - Mao, May 1963
"The whole of China would change colour." - Chairman Mao, May 1963
"We must nip the counter-revolution in the bud." - Mao, May 1963
The Third Year Plan: 1961, communal canteens were abandoned, peasants allowed to feed themselves at home.
June 1961: peasants allowed to cultivate their own private plots, financial incentives introduced
25 million peasants returned to villages
1961: Zhou and Liu led the way in rehabilitating many of the ‘rightists’ purged in 1957-8
1965: Oil production increased by 1,000%, natural gas by 4,000% - freeing China from dependence on USSR for energy supplies.
Ideological divide emerging: Liu and Deng were pragmatic
“It doesn’t matter if the cat is black or white; so long as it catches the mouse, it is a good cat.” - Deng Xiaoping, June 1962
Essentially believed that mass mobilisation was not an effective approach to economic development
Divide with Mao lay in the fact his priority was ideological purity → feared bourgeoisie would reemerge
1962: Mao returned to political fray, China was recovering from failures of GLF
“Are we going to take the socialist road or the capitalist road? Do we want rural cooperation or don’t we?”
“Oppose revisionism (abroad), prevent revisionism (at home)”
1964-The Socialist Education Movement: program reintroducing socialist values into society.
“Four clean ups”: remove corruption in countryside for accounting, grain supplies and allocating work points for workers.
Thousands of cadres relocated to the countryside
Mass mobilisation campaign against Party officials
Thousands executed and many more committed suicide
Late 1964:Mao accused Liu of ‘taking the capitalist road”
Emergence of Lin Biao: Published the “little Red Book”, issued to al PLA recruitsa book of Mao’s quotations
By end of 1965: PLA had become highly politicised organisation, committed to supporting Mao
Emergence of radical intellectuals
Jiang Qing attacked intellectuals - wanted to restore socialist values and discipline.
Split in leadership created an unstable political situation: set the scene for Cultural Revolution (1966)
