Agricultural/economic policies

+ Economic growth at 9% per year.

+ Coal production 1952 63.5 million tonnes to 1957 124 million tonnes.

+ National expenditure 7000 yuan 1952 to 29,000 yuan in 1957.

+ 10,000 Soviet advisers were brought into China for economic/industrial expertise.

+ Machine tools exceeded target by 220%.

- Production increased by only 3.8%.

- Light industry and consumer goods were neglected.

- 2.75 landlords were killed during this time.

- Workers were illiterate/untrained so broke machinery. Competition for resources.

- Quantity not quality.

+ CPC control in countryside was strenghened.

+ By 1955 63% of the population was in collectivised farms.

+1955 'land-shares' were reduced, so there was fairer profit-distribution.

- Production increased by only 3.8%.

- In the last year of the 1st 5YP grain increased by only 1%.

- Debate in CPC over the pace of change.

Historians:

+ Spence- 'better were better fed in 1956/57 than previous years'.

- Chang/Halliday-'peasants had to eat tree bark'.

+ Large irrigation projects gave possibility for development of new land in future.

+ Backyard furnaces 1958 gave 65% more steel than 1957.

+ Giant works eg 100-acre Tiananmen Square.

+ 1957 coal 131 million tonnes to 200 million tonnes in 1964.

+ 1964 Atomic bomb developed.

- 1960 300 enterprises shut as Soviet sponsorship stopped.

- 1960 only 143 million tonnes of grain produced so 1961 6 million tonnes imported from USA.

- 1960 industrial decline eg coal 290 million tonnes 1959 to 200 million tonnes in 1964.

- Steel from furnaces was of bad quality; only 9% was usable.

- 45 million died, prostitution and banditry reappeared.

+ Light industry increased by 27%, heavy industry by 17%.

+ Natural gas increased by 4000% and oil by 1000%.

+ 1965 agricultural output was back at 1957 levels.

- Working class was reduced so 25 million peasants returned home.

- Free market was introduced, which undermined Communism.