MAO’S RED CHINA

China Under Communist RuleA 5 Year Plan and a 100 Flowers: 1953-57

Early Relations with the USSR

• Money, Money, Money - The Need for Assistance

• Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance

• The 5-Year Plan

The First 5-Year Plan

• Building of New production Plants

• Neglect of Light Industry

• Necessity to Feed Workers

Output of the 1st 5-Year Plan

Output in Millions of Tons1952 1957

Planned1957 Actual

Coal 63.5 113.0 124.0

Pig-Iron 1.9 4.7 5.8

Steel 1.3 4.1 5.2

Oil 0.4 2.0 1.4

Cement 2.6 6.0 4.6

Chemical Fertilizer

0.2 0.6 0.7

The Cooperative Farms

• The Agrarian reform Law only the Start

• From 1953 On, Party Begins Farming Cooperatives

• Higher Stage Cooperatives

• By 1956, 95-100% Complete…Peasants Landless Again

The Hundred Flowers

• 5 Year Plan Caused Enormous Strain

• Mao Allows Some Freedom of Speech – The Hundred Flowers

• 6 Weeks of Free Speech 6 Weeks too Long

It is only by using discussion, criticism and reasoning that we can really foster correct ideas, overcome wrong ideas and really settle issues. Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences and a flourishing socialist culture in our land. – Mao Zedong

Mao is hot tempered and not sober-minded; impetuous and not prudent; reckless and not self-assured; incisive and not thoughtful. He loves to be great and meritorious but needs to become more observant of the facts in order to learn the truth. He places confidence in false reports and meets only those who seek to please him.