In order to promote grain production Mao introduced the “4 Noes campaign” in 1958. The campaign identified sparrows, flies, mosquitoes and rats the pests responsible for stunting grain production. The public were urged to bang drums and chase the sparrows to prevent them from landing until they would die of exhaustion. Mao believed that by eliminating these 4 pests it would boost grain production and thus contribute greatly to modernizing and building the economy. Although in theory Mao’s policy could contribute to grain production, the near extinction of each of the animals caused a severe ecological imbalance which can credited with exacerbating the Great Famine. In addition, the campaign was another diversion for working men and women from agricultural and industrial work that would have been more effective to contributing to the economy, especially since the campaign offered non-material rewards, and so this prevented from modernising the economy.
Thursday, 27 November 2014
For the duration of Mao’s first 5 year plan and the Great Leap Forward (GLF) the economy of China was transformed in many aspects. His attempts of vast industrial and agricultural reform impacted greatly on the economy, however this cannot be interpreted as wholly successful in modernizing Chinas economy.
Although the industrial success of the first 5 year plan did result beneficially for the economy, it resulted in a neglect for agricultural reform. The majority of money and time was invested in industry, with little focus or effort on agriculture. Agricultural outputs were bypassed by industrial without concern and so the first 5 year plan showed little development and modernisation of agriculture and therefore did little to modernise the economy. This meant that the vast success of heavy industry in China was outweighed by the neglect of agriculture.
In the GLF Mao strived to collectively use power of the peasantry in order to develop a high functioning and modern economy. He did this through the creation of communes. Communes could consist of up to 30,000 people living in barracks with communal kitchens and segregated living quarters. Cadres would operate these communes, encouraging and rewarding hard work. By segregating people in these communes and removing all possessions Mao believed it would encourage the peasants to achieve higher production rates in order to build and ultimately modernise the economy. Although this plan was theoretically logical for pooling the skills of the peasants, many were not skilled or prepared enough to reach the targets they were set. Like the backyard furnaces, the collective focus on production was a significant factor that lead to the Great Famine, and therefore radically failed at modernising the economy.
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