Mao to Tiananmen Square

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Mao to Tiananmen Square
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China divided

• Taiwan Nationalist China
• -U.S. aided
• Controlled by Chiang Kai-Shek

• MainlandPeoples Republic of China
• -Soviet Union aided
• Controlled by Mao

PRC Peoples Republic of China ROC Republic of
China
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Mao Inherits a post civil war underdeveloped
country
Years of foreign and civil wars had caused
widespread damage to Chinese industry.
Many peasants were on military service and were
away from their villages
Small units of land
Lack of investment
PROBLEMS FACING CHINA IN 1950s
FARMING
INDUSTRY
No farm machinery, no fertilisers
Outdated machines
Damage to transport systems roads, rail, bridges
Old-fashioned methods of farming by hand.
INEQUALITIES BETWEEN RICH AND POOR
In the cities, factories and businesses were
owned by an elite rich.
In the countryside, most of the land was owned by
a few rich landowners
The ordinary people lived in great poverty, poor
housing, working long hours, often in dangerous
conditions, for low pay, poor health, little
education.
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The Great Leap Forward

• A five year plan (1958-1963) to develop the
  agriculture and industry in China
• Ag food to feed and sell
• Ind manufacturing to build infrastructure and
  sell products

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The Great Leap Forward
Collective manpower - working collectively
produces greater gains than working
competitively (sound familiar?)

• What do you see in the picture?
• What are the people doing?
• Why are the people there?
• Who are these people?
• How many people do you think are in the picture?
• How do they feel about the Great Leap Forward,
  and how does this affect them?

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Mao ZeDongs Aims

• to overtake all capitalist countries in a fairly
  short time, and become one of the richest, most
  advanced and powerful countries in the world
• To do this he must move the people from
  illiterate farm workers to a cutting edge
  productive modern society (realistic?)

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Why Great Leap?

• Sputnik, Autumn 1957
• Soviet Union economic achievement (model of
  communism producing results)
• Wanted China to succeed differently (less reliant
  on machinery, more reliant on man power)
• Wanted Self-reliance

,
,
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MAO'S ECONOMIC AIMS
Mao wanted China to be a great military power But
China was poor and over 90 of its population
were peasant farmers.
HOW WAS THIS TO BE ACHIEVED?
1. FIVE YEAR PLANS were introduced - based on
the Russian model. Russian advisers were brought
in to help.
2. IRON AND STEEL - Mao made iron and steel
production the central focus of his industrial
reform program.
3. FARMING REFORMS - The cost of modernizing
industry would have to be paid by selling Chinese
farm produce. Mao saw that Chinese farming also
needed to be reformed. BUT he believed in manual
hands in the dirt as being more valuable than a
machine doing all the work. Believed in manual
labor as being connected to the work. Building
something with your own 2 hands produces pride
and concern for quality
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Maos belief

• The collectivized peasants would produce a
  surplus of food
• This surplus food could be sold abroad to raise
  money to expand Chinese industry

Sounds like capitalism (re-investing profit to
expand and update the company), BUT the benefit
is for the country not the individual
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The emperor of the Blue Ants

• Mechanical diggers were shunned favor of the
  hands of workers
• Bridges, canals and dams were constructed by hand
• Thousands dressed in identical blue uniforms

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Snap shot of the Ideal

• 25,000 peasant workers
• Organized into Peoples Communes where they
  ate, slept, and worked together,
• all for the benefit of the state, rather than
  the benefit of the individual.

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Growing Division (1962-1965)

• Mao Zedong vs. Deng Xiaoping
• charismatic leadership vs. bureaucracy

Deng Xiaoping
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Mao Dies in 1976,

• Turning point in China Mao dead, his
  ideals/plans/etc are dead as well

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China since Mao

• Mao dies in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping comes to
  power.
• Deng institutes the Four Modernizations, which
  focuses on improving agriculture, industry,
  science and technology as well as defense.
• Deng was in power until his death in 1997
• He was the Leader during the Tiananmen Square
  event