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Summary Modern Chinese history (short video summaries)
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This summary shows a number of key events in Chinese modern history from short videos.
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Modern Chinese History1949: the Chinese communist party had emerged victorious after a brutal
& bitter Civil war.
Chinese (rural) society was very traditional based on family & deference to
the elderly. Peasants would work in small family groups, keeping most of
their harvest & selling on small amounts.
Land reform:
o Estates had been taken from rich landowners & redistributed to the
peasants;
o Collectivization > peasants lost their own pieces of land > worked
for wages on land owned by the state.
Modernization
1 5-year plan (1952) by emulating the SU-model of industrialization.
st
Increasing production > extensive investment heavy industry within
cities;
o Difficulties: 4/5th lived in rural areas & rate of agricultural food
production wasn’t high enough.
Therefore, Mao turned to the countryside.
The Great Leap Forward (1958-1962)
2nd 5-year plan
Goal
Labours in the countryside working at full capacity & find a method to
organize rural workers to directly contribute to industrial production.
Slogan: ‘walking on 2 legs’ > agricultural workers had to change jobs in
the
countryside factories.
Gave great power away and to influence to local officials in the
countryside, who managed their communes.
The SU-model of development was now rejected;
Agricultural & political decisions were decentralized;
Technical expertise within the state bureaucracy were now distrusted
with political ideology emphasized.
Childcare, Happy homes for elderly, freeing workers to do their job;
Mass propaganda to back the GLP;
Backyard furnaces were established for the production of iron & steel;
o Everything that was useful would be melted down, while wooden
furniture & trees became fuel.
Establishments of communes on a vast scale;
o Ending small individual holdings;
o Communes responsible for collective performance of China;
At first (towards the autumn of 1958), millions of citizens show their
support, because it also meant readily available food in the commune
kitchens regardless of how much work an individual had done.
, Modern Chinese History
Turning point started when the weather was very good which led to high
level of agricultural production.
This caused rural workers to eat too much of the harvest, which lead to
low stockpiles for the winter & spring;
Furthermore, workers didn’t have the ability to work in such a large
group, transport & supply problems were causing issued;
The steel was also found to be unusable and was left to rust.
Shortage of labours on the farms;
Seeds were planted wrongly & too close to each other;
Imbalanced ecosystem by killing sparrows, causing an explosion in the
vermin population;
o Crops eating insects with no enemy & deep plowing also harmed
them.
Therefore, Mao wanted to scale back the GLF & purged everyone against
his policy.
Agricultural production had not expanded, though large proportions of the
grain continued being shipped to cities.
This led to terrible starvation in the countryside, which became worse
with bad droughts and floods in the harvests of ’59 & ’60;
The communal kitchen was severely rationed in what people received.
o Labours who didn’t meet their quotas wouldn’t receive their food
rations.
The great famine started, in which people would eat animals,
trees, and even murder & eat each other.
Mao continued to export grain worldwide and refused any foreign aid to
maintain face & convinced people that his plans were working.
Food supply to cities began to dwindle, causing famine to also hit urban
areas.
Mao Zedong was held responsible for this catastrophe by many people
within the CCP.
Estimated death toll: 18-45 million;
He continued being chairman, though economic & political decisions
were made by others by ‘62;
As a result, communes were scaled back, individual farming was once
again permitted, and industrial workers were given greater incentives to
work hard.
Mao remained a powerful figure, launching the Cultural Revolution (1966).
The Cultural Revolution movement
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