Mao's Great Leap Forward Policy example essay topic

Introduction The Great Leap Forward, the Communes and the Sino-Soviet Split created a division in party leadership and a power struggle between the Rightist and Radical Factions in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The political and social structure during the mid 20th Century underwent dramatic change due to the revolutionary leadership of Mao Zedong. Mao felt that he could no longer depend on the formal Party Organization because it had been permeated with men pushing the capitalist agenda. The cataclysmic events that preceded the Revolution were the agents that made the situation ripe for conflict.

The outcomes of these events created a shift to the right in the thoughts and actions of party leaders. Mao launched the revolution with the intent to counteract the influence of the bourgeois. The domestic turmoil that characterized the movement began in 1966 and ended in 1976 at Mao Zedong's death. The Great Leap Forward was a campaign launched in 1958 in attempt to both communize and militarize Chinese society. As a result of the successful economic reconstruction that had taken place in the early 1950's, the Party leadership believed the economy was ready for a movement to increase economic stability. The Great Leap Forward took two forms: the formation of the people's communes and a mass steel campaign.

The people's communes were referred to as "the basic social units of Communist society; it called for actively using the form of peoples communes to explore the practical... transition to communism". 4 It was Mao Zedong's belief that if the majority of people were able to participate in production then their "energies would be marshaled" and production would increase. It was his belief that communes should develop industries in which the people could contribute. The commune consisted of about 5,500 households; it became the governments primary governmental unit and socioeconomic organization.

The communes were in charge of agricultural production, industry, commerce, health, social services, and education. Various forms of rural cooperatives were merged into huge people's communes. Rural life was completely collectivized, including mess halls where meals were provided. The commune mess hall was a system that forced people to eat in dining halls with large numbers of people rather than with family at home. Officials and leaders of the communes were more decisive in production than family heads. The communes redefined Chinese life; they took over all the functions once done by independently farmers or small villages.

2 All people in the country were organized to embark on the steelmaking venue. Life was militarized for a battle for steel. Quotas for the collection of used iron had to be met, pots and pans were donated, door handles were melted down; anything metal was given in order to meet the production demands. It later became apparent that the quality of this mass-produced steel was so poor that no use could be found for it. "Useful iron products, in many cases necessary for daily tasks, had been turned into something without value". 4 The militarization of Chinese society also took on the commune structure.

The communes were organized into military units and divided into production teams or platoons. Every citizen between the ages of fifteen and fifty was in the ordinary militia and those aged sixteen to thirty were in the "hard-core" militia. "Although most hard-core militia members never fired a gun, they were psychologically mobilized by the training of two to three hours per day. Leaders insisted that militia members adhere to rising, eating, sleeping, setting out to work, and returning from work at the same times. This greatly strengthened the collectivization of life and organizational discipline, and nurtured fighting style in production and work". 5 By January 1959,220 million men and women were militia members.

By the end of 1958 the Great Leap Forward had failed. The steelmaking venue and the collectivization of agriculture damaged the economy and were an agricultural tragedy. "The state's levy of grain, based upon the estimates of the harvest, took most of what was produced, leaving little for the masses". 4 The decline of grain harvest was compounded in 1960 when natural disasters damaged more than 60 percent of farmed land. This created a famine and approximately thirty million people starved to death. The Great Leap Forward was an economic failure.

In 1959, the CCP admitted that the favorable production report for 1958 had been exaggerated. Among the Great Leap Forward's economic consequences were a shortage of food, shortages of raw materials for industry; overproduction of poor-quality goods, and deterioration of industrial plants through mismanagement. In April 1959, Mao lost the presidency of the Peoples Republic of China. The National People's Congress elected Liu Shaoqi as Mao's successor but Mao remained chairman of the CCP. Mao's Great Leap Forward policy came under open criticism at a party conference at Lushan, Jiangxi Province.

The attack was led by Minister of National Defense Peng Dehuai, who had become troubled by the potentially adverse effect Mao's policies would have on the modernization of the armed forces. Peng argued that politics was no substitute for economic laws and a realistic economic policy. After Lushan, Peng Dehuai, who allegedly had been encouraged by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to oppose Mao, was dismissed. Lin Biao, a Mao supporter, replaced Peng.

The new defense minister initiated a systematic replacement of Peng's supporters from the military. After The Great Leap Forward many leading officials began to doubt Mao's politics and claim that it was not the implementation of the policy but its very conception that was responsible for its failures. Mao understood that the Great Leap was a failure but he still continued to push the Communist agenda and his belief in motivating people through moral incentives. It was Mao's belief that people would work hard for the goals of communism and building a strong China. Bureaucratic party cadres and experts of any kind angered Mao. He thought one must be ideologically correct rather than have actual knowledge.

According to Mao the masses in any case had more abilities and common sense than "experts" did. Mao's entire approach caused a division in the party leadership. President of the Peoples Republic of China Liu Shaoqi, and CCP secretary-general Deng Xiaoping began to disagree with Mao's approach. Liu and Deng believed the failure of the Great Leap was a disaster that must not be repeated and the party state could motivate the masses with material incentives. The Liu-Deng line projected that incentives such as higher wages for those who produced better work and provide technical expertise would be more meaningful for people than moral encouragement, and propaganda. Other leaders of the Rightist faction were Chen Yi (Foreign Minister), Peng Dehuai (Defense Minister), and Peng Chen (Mayor of Beijing).

The Sino-Soviet dispute of the late 1950's was the most important development in Chinese foreign relations. The Soviet Union had been China's principle ally, but ties between the two began to severe. The Soviet agreement in late 1957 to help China produce its own nuclear weapons and missiles was terminated by mid-1959. The Soviets recalled all of their technicians and advisers from China and reduced or canceled any economic and technical aid to China.

The two communist powers disagreed on doctrinal matters. The Chinese accused the Soviets of "revisionism"; the latter countered with charges of "dogmatism". Rivalry within the international communist movement also exacerbated Sino-Soviet relations. An additional complication was the history of suspicion each side had toward the other, especially the Chinese, who had lost a substantial part of territory to Russia in the mid-nineteenth century. The Soviet suspension of aid was a blow to the Chinese scheme for developing industrial and nuclear technology. 2 In attempt to end the capitalistic trend Mao launched the Socialist Education Movement (1962-65).

The emphasis of this movement was to restore ideological purity, and intensify class struggle. Mao directed this movement to young people. He wanted the youth especially in rural areas to be indoctrinated with his ideas. Many of these youth later made up the Red Guard.

These were rebellious student groups who supported Mao's agenda. Opposition to the movement came from members of the Rightist Faction that were unsympathetic to Mao's policies. Liu and Deng openly criticized Mao by rewriting directives for the movement de-emphasizing class struggle. Mao's opposition posed a threat and he became convinced that Chinese revolution was in danger. "Seeing himself and the revolution as one and the same, he felt compelled to destroy the party that he had spent his life building but that now, in his estimation, had gone wrong". 4 In 1966, Mao was ready to act.

He gathered his radicals to aid him in his attack on the leadership of the Communist Party. These radicals included, Jiang Qing, Mao's wife, Lin Biao, the Minister of Defense, Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, and Wang Donging. Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in August of 1966 when he urges Red Guards to "Bombard the Headquarters". A call for Red Guards to challenge Communist Party officials for their bourgeois's and lack of revolutionary zeal. Mao first engineered the ousting of Liu Shaoqi from power.

Liu was imprisoned and beaten. He died in 1968. Deng Xiaoping was removed from top offices but not imprisoned. He was made the manager of a factory. Defense Minister Lin Biao ordered the military to support the Cultural Revolution but disorder was emerging as different factions of the Red Guard and other radical movements fought each other for control of areas. In some cases these battles involving the Red Guards involved as many as fifty thousand people.

Mao and his group of radicals continued to maintain control of the government. In 1969 Lin Biao was officially designated as Mao's successor. Lin Biao as Minister of Defense instituted martial law in response to military clashes between Chinese and Soviet troops on the northern border at the Amur River. Some feel that Lin Biao instigated these border clashes so he could declare martial law and enhance control of the country. Lin's actions created discomfort within Mao's radical group. Mao's wife Jiang Qing opposed Lin but Chen Boda supported him.

Mao purged Chen Boda in 1970 and in 1971 Lin Biao was killed when his airplane crashed in Mongolia while he was attempting to flee the country. The top command in the army was replaced after Lin's fall. Zhou En lai emerged in the period immediately after Lin's fall. In 1972 Mao and Zhou experienced health failures; Mao had a stroke and Zhou had cancer. To bring stability to the country Mao and Zhou brought Deng Xiaoping back to the Beijing government. The radical group under Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, was still powerful enough to oppose Deng and Zhou.

From the middle of 1973 to the middle of 1974 the radicals dominated the political events. But by the middle of 1974 the concern for the economic chaos led Mao to favor Deng. In the fall of 1975 however, Jiang Qing and her group were able to convince Mao that Deng would not carry on Mao's visions for the future of China and in April of 1976 Deng was removed from office. When Mao died in September of 1976, army and political leaders arrested Jiang Qing and her radical supporters. Deng re-emerged in 1977 as the leader of the China. Conclusion The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a result of the tension between Factions in the CCP, the Great Leap Forward, the communes, and the Sino-Soviet Split caused a division amongst the leaders which provided much unrest.

The intense struggle between the two lines had not been decisive and Mao's radicals had to restore Deng back to power. The revolution created a generation that lost faith in the moral rhetoric of Mao and the validity of the Communist Party.

Bibliography

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