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MAO ’ S RED CHINA

MAO ’ S RED CHINA. China Under Communist Rule The Great Leap Forward, 1958 & The Crisis of 1959-1961. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD. During this trip I have witnessed the tremendous energy of the masses. On this foundation it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever. - Mao

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MAO ’ S RED CHINA

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  1. MAO’S RED CHINA China Under Communist Rule The Great Leap Forward, 1958 & The Crisis of 1959-1961

  2. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD During this trip I have witnessed the tremendous energy of the masses. On this foundation it is possible to accomplish any task whatsoever. - Mao • Mao’s Goal: Making China an Industrial Powerhouse • Second 5-Year Plan: The Great Leap Forward

  3. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD - THE COMMUNES • Develop Agriculture as well as Industry • Chinese Commune System - All Encompassing Collective Farm & Work Units • Purpose: Releasing the Worker’s Tremendous Energy

  4. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD - THE COMMUNES The advantage of People’s Communes lies in the fact that they combine industry, agriculture, commerce, education, and military affairs. - Mao • People’s Time Managed Effectively for Work • Commune in Control of All Activities - Hierarchy • Commune Creation Extremely Speedy - More than 25,000 at end of 1958

  5. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD - PROPAGANDA & ENTHUSIASM • Propaganda a Key Element • Goal to Inspire Workers to Overachieve Goals • Impressive Construction Projects Completed

  6. There were not enough machines, there was no cement, no mortar and other building materials. Beijingers were summoned to build this dam with their bare hands and feet by voluntary shift work. Hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of Beijing, including all the civil servants and university professors, doctors, students, etc. set out to execute the order. In 8 hours shifts, they worked day and night without a break. They scratched away the earth from the surrounding hills often with no more than their fingernails, they split stones with primitive tools, and carried earth and stone in little baskets carrying poles to the river bed, where more thousands stood and stamped the stones and earth flat with their feet, urged on by the Party…men with megaphones…Mao Zedong himself and all the members of the Politburo and the government came and joined in the work of building the dam…In six months the dam was built. It is 2088 feet high and 38 feet wide at its base. - Eyewitness, Hugo Portisch

  7. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD - THE BACKYARD STEEL CAMPAIGN • Small Commune Factories Set Up • Emphasis on Steel Production • Backyard Steel Furnaces Set Up • 1958 a Good Year For Overall Production

  8. THE CRISIS YEARS, 1959-1961 Ours is the only chemical factory of its kind and the boiler is 70 years old. But one day a Party official arrived and told me to increase the pressure in the boiler from a hundred to a hundred and fifty pounds per square inch so that the reactor process could be completed 9 times a day instead of 6. When I told him he was turning it into a bomb, he accused me of being a bourgeois reactionary. So what was I to do? Great Leap? The connecting pipe burst when the pressure reached 120 pounds, and we were out of production for a week while repairs were made.

  9. THE CRISIS YEARS, 1959-1961 • Things Begin Going Wrong in 1959 • Unrealistic Demands for More Production From the Party • Backyard Steel Campaign Fails • Too Little Agricultural Production

  10. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD FAILURE Coal and iron cannot walk by themselves. They need vehicles to transport them. This I did not foresee. I and the Premier did not concern ourselves with this point. You could say we were ignorant of it…I am a complete outsider when it comes to economic construction. I understand nothing about industrial planning. Comrades, in 1958 and 1959, the main responsibility was mine, and you should take me to task…The chaos caused was on a grand scale, and I take responsibility. Comrades, you must analyze your own responsibility…If you have to fart, fart! You will feel much better for it. - Mao, 1959

  11. THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD FAILURE - THE FARMING CRISIS • Failure in the Countryside and Towns • Not Enough People Working in Farming • Over-reporting of Grain Harvests • Good Weather Turns to Bad…Famine Intensifies • 20 Million Die Due to Famine & Malnutrition

  12. The Rise of the Moderates • “The 3 Bitter Years” Caused by Mao • Party Leaders Blame Mao for the Damage The disaster was 70% manmade and 30% due to natural causes. - Liu Shaoqi • More Moderate Leaders Assume Power…Mao Loses Power. Enter Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, & Deng Xiaoping

  13. THE WANING OF MAO? • Mao’s Power Gone? • Still Extremely Popular and the Face of the Revolution • Mao Reaction to the Moderates…The Cultural Revolution Peasants have dirty hands and cowshit-sodden feet, but they are much cleaner than intellectuals. - Mao

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