A. Plan of Investigation
The investigation will attempt to answer the question, “To what extent did Chinese agricultural reforms between 1978 and 1982 enable the success of the four modernizations?” Research will primarily be gathered on the nature of these reforms, how they compared to the agriculture policy of Mao during the Great Leap Forward and how Deng’s reforms enabled the possibility of economic growth and reform in the private sectors of China. Primary source such as official statistics of agricultural production kept in villages will be analyzed to determine the impact of overall government policy in villages and other agricultural centers. Other secondary sources will also analyze the overall effect that these agricultural reforms created in China. The impact of these policies would be analyzed to find a connection with increased economic production and economic reform in other sectors of the economy under Deng Xiaoping in later years.
B. Summary of Evidence
During the Mao era, agriculture was seen as an inferior part of development. Mao based his economic system off of the Soviet Union’s economic policy in the 1950s, which focused on the development and growth of industry (Huang, 17). During the period of Mao’s rule, lack of incentives and absence of markets constrained increases in agricultural output (Brandt 469). The majority of agricultural production was centered on food to sustain China’s growing population. However, most citizens were still unable to obtain food security and barely consumed 2,300 Calories a day (Brandt 471).
In addition to this, agricultural policy under Mao broke the link between rural and urban economies. It established an agricultural sector that was isolated from the urban economy. Th...
... middle of paper ...
...culture." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 73 (May 1991): 266-75. JSTOR.
Howe, Christopher, Y. Y. Kueh, and Robert F. Ash. China's Economic Reform: A Study with Documents. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003.
Huang, Yiping. Agricultural Reform in China: Getting Institutions Right. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Kalirajan, K. P., M. B. Obwona, and S. Zhao. "A Decomposition of Total Factor Productivity Growth: The Case of Chinese Agricultural Growth before and after Reforms." American Journal of Agricultural Economics 98 (May 1996): 331-38. JSTOR.
"Marketing Reforms, Market Development and Agricultural Production in China." Agricultural Economics 17 (December 1997): 95-114.
Kau, Michael Y. China in the Era of Deng Xiaoping: A Decade of Reform. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1993.
Moise, Edwin E. Modern China. LONDON: Longman, 1994.
Following the Chinese Revolution of 1949, China’s economy was in ruin. The new leader, Mao Zedong, was responsible for pulling the economy out of the economic depression. The problems he faced included the low gross domestic product, high inflation, high unemployment, and high prices on goods. In order to solve these issues, Mao sought to follow a more Marxist model, similar to that of the Soviet Union. This was to use government intervention to develop industry in China. In Jan Wong’s Red China Blues, discusses Maoism and how Mao’s policies changed China’s economy for the worse. While some of Mao’s early domestic policies had some positive effects on China’s economy, many of his later policies caused China’s economy to regress.
Gittings, John. The Changing Face of China: From Mao to market. Oxford University Press, 2005.
Fairbank, John King, and Edwin O. Reischauer. China: Tradition and Transformation. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1979. Print.
Deng Xiaoping felt that the quickest way to build a better China was to improve living conditions immediately, to give people the level of morale they need for further development. At that time, he realized that China’s economic need to reform; he found very effective ways to reform the China’s economic. His goals were to open up the China’s market to the outside world, breaking down the collective farms, getting rid of state-run enterprises and providing more jobs for people in the industry. He found that the most important thing was the modernization of agriculture because 80% of the population derived their living primarily from agricultural production. The new contract responsibility system allowed farmers to rent land for individual farming families. Farmers had to sell a certain percentage of their crops to the State with the State’s price, and they could sell the remaining for their own profits. This system had helped the rural income to be doubled (Benson, 47). It marked a successful modernization of agricultural.
Mao’s 1949 Communist Revolution marked an era of significant change in China, with goals set in place to enforce social, economic and political changes, which were achieved, however in many cases only achieved to some extent, not to a full extent due to the problems or changes that ensued. Mao’s Communist Revolution of 1949 sought to increase development in agriculture and industry through efforts such as The Great Leap Forward whose consequences resulted in Mao only achieving his economic goals to some extent. Other goals included the change of ideologies from imperialism to communism that, too, was only achieved to some extent before changes were made. Mao’s social goals were achieved through its aim to serve the masses and to remove traces
Programs such as collectivization and land reformation were essentially a microcosm of Mao's impact on China. Under the policy of collectivization, the government promoted cooperative farming and redistributed the land on the principle that the product of labor could be better distributed if the la...
Vogel, E 2011, Deng Xiaoping and the transformation of China, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 1980, China: Multiple Cropping and Related Crop Production Technology, report on the fao/undp study tour or the People's Republic of China, 25 June- 22 July 1979: Rome, United Nations Publishing.
As these economic reforms led to China's accelerating economic growth, they also led to increasing political and economic decentralization where local regional governments made economic decisions, used tax revenue for local projects and received less financial support from the central government(Goldman & Mcfarquhar 2000, p.8). As explained by social scientist Gordan White, he characterized the social changes in post-Mao economic reforms as 'fragmented and fragmenting' (Goldman & Mcfarquhar 2000, p.17) The introduction of market forces as well as political and economic devolution of power to the local governments had produced serious social unrest to the Chinese's society. For example, the economic decentralization of the central government to the local government contributed to the alliances between the local officials and local enterprises. Although it improved the standard of living, this kind of alliance gave rise to corruption and enrich the local officials with power, giving them ultimate control ( Goldman & Mcfarquhar 2000, p.17). Due to economic interest of local authorities, they ignore the central government warning against corruption, labour exploitation and taxes overcharges. For example, due to the dual-price policy in products, it provides opportunities for people who have access to state-controlled goods and materials to make huge profits by buying them at an officially-fixed low price and reselling them at free market at a higher price (Minami 1994 , p.21). This shows that local government do not obey government rules and corruption in government is evident and inevitable. The central government failed to realise that although economic and political decentralization did improve market economy, it would on the ot...
China has approximately 20% of the world’s population, which is around 1.3 billion people (Morris, 2009, p. 111). Also, China has become one of the worlds biggest manufacturing countries within 30 years (Fawssett, 2009, p. 27). However, such rapid development has come at a cost, which has created various environmental problems. Coincidentally, China has 16 cities on a list of the 20 worst polluted cities in the world (Fawssett, 2009, p. 15). Therefore, this essay will explain the reasons for China’s environmental problems, then evaluate the claim that the Chinese government and people, are tackling these environmental problems. First, crop farming techniques over the last hundred years, and their consequences will be explained. Followed by, how peoples choice in food has changed over the last hundred years, and how this indirectly affects the environment. Then, how a capitalist economy is linked to agriculture, and finally what the Chinese government and people are doing to tackle these problems.
Lieberthal, Kenneth (2003). Governing China: From Revolution to Reform. New York City: W.W.Norton and Company
Zhao, S., (2003), ‘Political Liberalization without Democratization: Pan Wei’s proposal for political reform’ Journal of Contemporary China, 12(35): 333–355.
When the new Chinese Government was set up in 1949, the new government faced a lot of problems. First on their agenda was how to re-build the country. As Communist Party of China (CPC) is a socialist party, their policies at the time were similar to that of the Soviet Union’s. Consequently, the CPC used a centrally planned strategy as its economic strategy when it first began. For a long time, the Chinese economy was a centrally planned economy in which none other than the state owned all companies. In fact, there were absolutely no entrepreneurs. As time went on, the problems of a centrally planned economy started to appear, such as low productivity, which was the key reason for restricting the development of China. With the population growing, the limitations of the centrally planned economy were clear. In 1978 China started its economic reform whose goal was to generate sufficient surplus value to finance the modernization of the Chinese economy. In the beginning, in the late 1970s and early 19...
This essay has critically analysed and examined the effect of Communism on the Chinese Society during the period of 1946-1964. The overall conclusion that can be drawn is that the Chinese Communist Party managed to defeat the Kuomintang (Nationalist) Party and achieve victory in the Civil War, in spite of alienation by the Soviet Union and opposition from the U.S. This was primarily because of the superior military strategy employed by the Communists and the economic and political reforms introduced by this party which brought more equality to the peasants in the form of land ownership and better public services. This increased China’s production and manufacturing which not only boosted the country’s economy but also provided a more sustainable supply of food, goods and services for the Chinese people.
Mao resigned as president of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in April 1959 , after the Great Leap Forward, planning for Chinese production to “overtake Britain in 15 years”, failed and caused a widespread famine in China, where 20-30 million people starved. President Liu and General Secretary Deng began to restore China , while Mao remained ceremonial head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Liu and Deng introduced many liberal and effective policies , which involved stepping back from communist ideals. Collectivisation and communal cafeterias were abandoned and peasants recommenced private, “capitalist” farming. They even rehabi...