The Great Leap Forward took place from 1958 to 1961 and was a social and economic campaign to move China from a primarily agrarian economy to a modern industrial economy. This movement was led by Mao Zedong on the basis of the Theory of Productive Forces. The combination of grain shortages and the Mao’s philosophy greatly changed the lives of rural Chinese citizens. As a result strict rules were incrementally created; such rules included the prohibition of private farming. Anyone who broke these rules was labeled as a counter-revolutionary and persecuted.
People’s Republic of China leading up to the Great Leap Forward
On October 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of China was formally established, with its national capital at Beijing. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao as he announced the creation of a “people’s democratic dictatorship.” The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie, and the national-capitalists.
In the first year of Communist administration, moderate social and economic policies were implemented with skill and effectiveness. The leadership realized that the overwhelming and multitudinous task of economic reconstruction and achievement of political and social stability required the goodwill and cooperation of all classes of people. Results were impressive by any standard, and popular support was widespread.
By 1950 international recognition of the Communist government had increased considerably, but it was slowed by China’s involvement in the Korean War. After China entered the Korean War, the initial moderation in Chinese domestic policies gave way to a massive campaign against the “enemies of the state,” actual and potential. These enemies consisted of “war criminals, traitors, bureaucratic capitalists, and counterrevolutionaries.” The 1951-52 drive against political enemies was accompanied by land reform, which had actually begun under the Agrarian Reform Law of June 28, 1950. The redistribution of land was accelerated, and a class struggle landlords and wealthy peasants was launched.The number of people affected by the various punitive or reform campaigns was estimated in the millions.
The Transition to Socialism, 1953-57:
The period of officially designated “transition to socialism” corresponded to China’s First Five-Year Plan (1953-57). The period was characterized by efforts to achieve industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and political centralization.
Elections were held in 1953 for delegates to the First National People’s Congress, China’s national legislature, which met in 1954. The congress promulgated the state constitution of 1954 and formally elected Mao chairman (or president) of the People’s Republic. As part of the effort to encourage the participation of intellectuals in the new regime, in mid-1956 there began an official effort to liberalize the political climate. Cultural and intellectual figures were encouraged to speak their minds on the state of CCP rule and programs. Mao personally took the lead in the movement, which was launched under the classical slogan “Let a hundred flowers bloom, let the hundred schools of thought contend.”
Mao Zedong’s Vision, Goals, and Motivation for the Great Leap Forward
Beginning in 1957, Mao Zedong aimed to aggressively raise China to the height of economic development, leading an organic industrial revolution without the influence of Western powers. His five year plan, the Great Leap Forward, envisioned a utopian society in which all land would be shared, food would be free and communal, and China would soon outproduce all other nations as a new superpower. By 1958, about 700 million citizens were reorganized into 26,578 communes, all focused on working solely for the China to meet these goals. To achieve his vision, Mao Zedong ordered that China double both its steel production and grain production within the year. First, the redistributed farm land (divided among the peasants that worked it during the revolution) was collectivized. To achieve his goal of 375 million tons of grain from 195 million tons in 1957, Mao and his advisors promoted aggressive, but unsustainable agricultural practices and competitions. Theories such as close planting, conveniently founded in Communist ideals of strength in sharing, demonstrated initial success with first sprouts, but left the soil infertile for future crop growth. Second, backyard furnaces popped up across the countryside so that rural workers could contribute to the steel production.
To motivate the Chinese working class to surpass these wild goals, propaganda posters and motivational speeches produced by Chairman Mao’s party portrayed colorful, hopeful images of abundance and prosperity. Adopting the motto, “it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever,” Mao mobilized the Chinese people at full speed towards lofty goals, often based on misguided assumptions. As depicted in the Chinese film “To Live,” the movement succeeded in creating a great fervor that mobilized the masses to sacrifice their property and livelihoods in pursuit of shared progress.
Below are several propaganda posters highlighting the proud, productive, and unrealistic promises underlying the Great Leap Forward:
Mao Zedong’s mobilizes China for Great Leap Forward
Conceptually the Great Leap Forward had good intentions but its execution was lacking and as a result many of its goals were not met. Mao believed that if he could attain agricultural productivity he could then move his sights to improving China’s steel production. In order for Mao to meet his goal he formed countywide communes that consisted of thousands of Chinese peasants. Mao’s lack of knowledge of industry prevented him from maximizing the productivity of the communes. During the course of the Great Leap Forward about 80% of all businesses and enterprises were decentralized in an effort to achieve Mao’s goal of national economic success. Mao strongly believed that the sheer manpower China had at its disposal would replace the need of having skilled workers and advanced technology.
With such manpower Mao went on to urge peasants to create backyard furnaces where they would melt any metals they had into useful tools and utensils. But in actuality, due to the pressure put on the Chinese people by officials to meet quota, many useful metal tools were melted with less valuable metals which produced metal that was too brittle and couldn’t be used to build anything useful. One might say that the destruction of useful objects was due to enthusiasm but it was probably more than likely a result of the quotas local Communist leaders had to meet. The ramification of not meeting such quotas included removal from office and in some cases imprisonment.
The Great Leap Forward initially planned to further develop China’s agriculture and industry sectors but due to political instability and poor farming conditions many people were wrongly arrested and starved. The political instability stemmed from party officials making unmanageable orders that the communes could not fulfill and if anyone spoke out of term about the difficulty of the assignment they would be sent to prison. This created a great deal of tension between the Communist Party and the laypeople. In addition to political instability farming conditions were greatly affected by floods and droughts which resulted in record low harvests. During the period of 1959 and 1962 it is estimated that 20 million people died of starvation or illnesses related to starvation.
The famine and aftermath of the Great Leap Forward
Although the Great Leap Forward was a well-intentioned strategy, it led to some disastrous results for the Chinese economy and its people. The shift from self-exploitation to feudal exploitation resulted in a sharp fall in rural productivity. The farmers were not happy with the new way of doing things. These factors resulted in a contraction of supply, and therefore there was a food shortage. People did not have enough to feed their families, and the risk of social unrest emerged. Throughout the Chinese history, food shortages have acted as a catalyst in peasant rebellions against the regime, and this time was not any different. This new system did not make the pie (food) larger by creating more value, rather it redistributed the existing pie to those with more money, like the urban dwellers. Thus, instead of having many people with relatively little but enough to keep them from starving, some would have eaten relatively well while more would starve.
In the end, it was inevitable for Mao to be removed from his position. The CPC modernists quickly moved to displace Mao and his party after the failure of the Great Leap Forward. In addition, Mao’s foot soldiers were dismissed in favor of the new authority’s operatives. The bureaucracy was restored to prominence and the Soviet-style planning system was put back into operation.
Written by:
Suvd Tsolmon
Carrie Bevis
Solomon Hailu
Silvester Godolja
Sources:
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/great_leap_forward.htm
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/greatleap.htm
http://chineseposters.net/themes/great-leap-forward.php
http://www.chaos.umd.edu/history/prc2.html
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/courses/sgabriel/economics/china-essays/5.html
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