PJ, Josh, & Sam G  Industrialization Under Mao
What were Mao’s goals?
To secure from farmers a real surplus (food, raw materials and exportable goods) and a financial surplus1
To create an agricultural surplus before industrializing machinery2
To secure government control over agriculture and industry – Mao wanted control over basic commodities so he
could have ultimate power over his people
To mimic Stalin and catch up/advance over the western nations using his own method of industrialization3
To catch up to the industrially advanced nations in the West
What did Mao do?
Co-Operativization
Life expectancy: Went from <40 in 1930s to 40% 1957
Literacy Rate: Went from 20-30% in 1930s to 35-45% in 1957
Steel Production: Went from <1 kg per capita in 1930s  8kg 1957
Electric power: Went from 6kwh in 1930s to 30 kwh in 19574
Used backyard furnaces to industrialize Josh
Make peasants buy more commodities in order to fuel industrialization Josh
5-year Plan
Peasant Expropriation5
How did it help Mao rise to/consolidate power?
By collectivizing and taking public control over both grain and industries, the people had no choice but to
accept Mao’s rule
Employed a “waste nothing” policy where all materials had to be used and peasants couldn’t have too much
grain
Preobrazhensky says that Mao’s ideas of peasant expropriation were similar to Stalin – copied already existing
plan Josh
Used “New Democracy” as rhetoric to influence the people and as a method to industrialize
He could nationalize commodities and infrastructure to eliminate capitalism6
What problems arose? What were his weaknesses?
Delayed farm mechanization because too few tractors and draught animals were available
Flawed implementation – tractors were often used for transportation rather than cultivation
Didn’t have long-term plans in choosing soil types, farming techniques, seed varieties etc.  only focused on
obtaining immediate yields
The farms couldn’t meet demands in per capita grain production because so much grain was needed for so many
people7
1
Ash, Robert. "Squeezing the Peasants: Grain Extraction, Food Consumption and Rural Living Standards in Mao's China." The China
Quarterly 188, no. 01 (2006): 959. doi:10.1017/S0305741006000518.
2
Kueh, Y.Y. "Mao and Agriculture in China's Industrialization: Three Antitheses in a 50-Year Perspective." The China Quarterly, no. 187
(2006): 700-23.
3
Ash, Robert. "Squeezing the Peasants: Grain Extraction, Food Consumption and Rural Living Standards in Mao's China." The China
Quarterly 188, no. 01 (2006): 959. doi:10.1017/S0305741006000518.
4
Eberstadt, Nick. "Did Mao Fail?" The Wilson Quarterly 4, no. 4 (Autumn 1980): 120-31.
5
Ash, Robert. "Squezing the Peasants: Grain Extraction, Food Consumption, and Rural Living Standards in Mao's China." The China
Quarterly, 2006, 959-98. Accessed February 13, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20192701.
6
Klein, Sidney. "Capitalism, Socialism and the Economic Theories of Mao Tse-Tung." Political Science Quarterly 73, no. 1 (March 1958):
28-46.
7
Ash, Robert. "Squeezing the Peasants: Grain Extraction, Food Consumption and Rural Living Standards in Mao's China." The China
-
The amount of industrial workers was small compared to peasants8
Backyard furnaces weren’t hot enough to produce efficient steel
Evidence Bank:
Peasant expropriation – government took land from wealthy peasants and redistributed it
Backyard furnaces - Kilns were put in the back of every commune to turn scrap metal into steel
Collectivization – peasants were moved to state-owned communes where they shared land and materials to
produce grain
5 year plan – Rapid industrialization mainly focused on steel, coal and iron production9
New Democracy – 1) Nationalize commodities 2) Keep small industrial private firms 3) Initiate cooperatives 10
Mao quote: “Enterprises, foreign or Chinese, which possess a monopoly character or which due to their big scale are
beyond the individual's power to establish, such as banks, railways, aviation companies, etc. shall be run and managed
by the state, so that private capital cannot manipulate the life of the people. Such is the main principle of capital
restriction”11
Quarterly 188, no. 01 (2006): 959. doi:10.1017/S0305741006000518.
8
Klein, Sidney. "Capitalism, Socialism and the Economic Theories of Mao Tse-Tung." Political Science Quarterly 73, no. 1 (March 1958):
28-46.
9
Ash, Robert. "Squezing the Peasants: Grain Extraction, Food Consumption, and Rural Living Standards in Mao's China." The China
Quarterly, 2006, 959-98. Accessed February 13, 2013. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20192701.
10
Klein, Sidney. "Capitalism, Socialism and the Economic Theories of Mao Tse-Tung." Political Science Quarterly 73, no. 1 (March 1958):
28-46.
11
Mao, China's New Democracy (New York, 1945), p. 29.