Mao: Economic Policies

Mao Zedong is an important figures in modern world history and till now is still quite a controversial figure... So here's a look at his economic policies...

From 1949, Mao implemented economic policies after coming into power to prove that Chinese communism would be a success in bringing about economic growth. In agriculture, changes were made in 3 levels. First stage, land reform was introduced in 1950. It aimed to... take land from land owners and redistribute them among poor peasants, and to increase produce to help industrial development in China. But as average holdings of land of peasants was less than 1 acre, mechanization and new farming methods were not utilized and China remained poor. Though peasant support increased, productivity level dropped. Therefore, collectives were introduced to increase agricultural produce by pooling of land, tools and labour. Peasants were allowed to work in teams to use mechanization and new farming techniques with bigger land. This resulted in 200 million collectives and increase in production but shortages of food and raw materials remained. Overall support for Mao and the CCP increased. Industry-wise, the first five year plan was introduced in 1953, which aimed to develop backward China into an industrial power. Its features included nationalization of industries, centralization on heavy industries and soviet style of centralised planning was adopted. These resulted in increased production of coal steel and iron. However, the economy also became under strain and problems such as housing shortage and unemployment emerged. The government lost support and in 1956, soviet style of planning had to be dropped as it was unsuitable for China, which was largely agrarian. The Great Leap Forward aimed to solve the problems of the first five year plan, develop Chinese style of economic planning with peasants as agents of growth and to develop China into the world’s leading industrial nation by overtaking USA and Britain in 15 years, and to increase agricultural production and use it to spearhead development. In agricultural sector, communes were organized. They aimed to ensure self-sufficiency, prevent people from getting distracted from work, and to use agricultural surplus to fund industrial development. Each commune was a unit of local government with a committee made up of peasants, party members and soldiers. The commune ran schools, clinics, nurseries, theatre halls, entertainment and other public services. It was also a unit of work organisation with work dived among work brigades or a dozen teams of a dozen families. By 1958, there were 26578 communes throughout China, each having 40000-50000 workers in it. Communes were constantly checked to be following CCP’s decisions. Communes had brought industrial development to rural areas and there was irrigation, drainage, hydroelectric schemes and small scale industries built. However, life had also become too regimented and impersonal. Communes were too big to be efficient and there were poor harvests from 1959-1961 due to inferior leadership and weather. In the industrial sector, the Backyard Steel Campaign aimed to bring about rural development through infrastructural development and to increase production of metals, tools for machinery and farming. Particular emphasis was placed on making of steel so that backyard steel furnaces could be set up in villages. Communes were expected to contribute to Great Leap Forward in infrastructural projects. Small commune factories were set up to make all kinds of industrial products especially steel. Due to the backyard steel campaign, there was increase in production of steel, coal, timber, cement and fertilizers. Oil production also increased from 0.4 million to 50 million tones. However, quality of steel produced was poor due to over emphasis on targets and infrastructural projects were uncompleted. Besides, agriculture had become neglected, resulting in famine from 1959-1961, known as the 3 bitter years. Overall, Great Leap Forward was a failure to a large extent. Mao had to step down as Head of State after failing to deliver promises.