| 2nd Five-Year Plan | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 第二个五年计划 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 第二個五年計劃 | ||||||
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The 2nd Five-Year Plan was the second five-year plan adopted by the People's Republic of China. It was planned to last from 1958 to 1962,and was more modest than the first Five-Year Plan,but was de facto abandoned since the beginning of the Great Leap Forward.
The first Five-Year Plan made tremendous progress. However,China in 1956 faced a severe rural-urban exodus,a lack of foreign investment and of a technological revolution. [1] By the second half of 1955 and the first half of 1956,Mao Zedong had begun to encourage more radical policies,demanding that people build socialism "more,faster,better,and more economical". [2]
Mao wrote Ten Major Relationships in 1956,calling for a departure from Soviet-style production relations and the investment of more resources in light industry,which was in direct contradiction to the First Five-Year Plan and provoked heated debates. [3] However,his opinion was not heeded in 1956. [4]
Several moderate goals were set during the 8th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,including: [5]
An article by Ma Yinchu published in the People's Daily at the end of 1956,which was endorsed by The National Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China,supported a more balanced development,centering more on light industry than on heavy industry. In addition,the second five-year plan also heralds possible decentralization. [6] The National Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China announced in December 1957 that the targets are 240 million metric tons of grain and 2.15 million metric tons of cotton at the end of the plan. Mao accused the targets of being too low at a meeting the following January,yet this did not substantially influence policy making at the time. [7]
With the introduction of the Great Leap Forward slogan in January 1958 and the People's Communalization Movement in the summer,the second Five-Year Plan was virtually ignored,though not abandoned at an official level. [8]
Mao Zedong,also known as Chairman Mao,was a Chinese politician,revolutionary,and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) and led the country from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1976. Mao also served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1943 until his death,and as the party's de facto leader from 1935. His theories,which he advocated as a Chinese adaptation of Marxism–Leninism,are known as Maoism.
The Great Leap Forward was an economic and social campaign within China from 1958 to 1962,led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an industrialized society through the formation of people's communes. Millions of people died in mainland China during the Great Leap,with estimates based on demographic reconstruction ranging from 15 to 55 million,making the Great Chinese Famine the largest or second-largest famine in human history.
The time period in China from the founding of the People's Republic in 1949 until Mao's death in 1976 is commonly known as Maoist China and Red China. The history of the People's Republic of China is often divided distinctly by historians into the Mao era and the post-Mao era. The country's Mao era lasted from the founding of the People's republic on 1 October 1949 to Deng Xiaoping's consolidation of power and policy reversal at the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Congress on 22 December 1978. The Mao era focuses on Mao Zedong's social movements from the early 1950s on,including land reform,the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The Great Chinese Famine,one of the worst famines in human history,occurred during this era.
The Hundred Flowers Campaign,also termed the Hundred Flowers Movement and the Double Hundred Movement (双百方针),was a period from 1956 to 1957 in the People's Republic of China during which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP),led by Mao Zedong,proposed to "let one hundred flowers bloom in social science and arts and let one hundred points of view be expressed in the field of science." It was a campaign that allowed citizens to offer criticism and advice to the government and the party;hence it was intended to serve an antibureaucratic purpose,at least on the Maoists' part. The campaign resulted in a groundswell of criticism aimed at the Party and its policies by those outside its rank and represented a brief period of relaxation in ideological and cultural control.
The Great Chinese Famine was a famine that occurred between 1959 and 1961 in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. It is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest man-made disasters in human history,with an estimated death toll due to starvation that ranges in the tens of millions. The most stricken provinces were Anhui,Chongqing (15%),Sichuan (13%),Guizhou (11%) and Hunan (8%).
The people's commune was the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas of the People's Republic of China during the period from 1958 to 1983,until they were replaced by townships. Communes,the largest collective units,were divided in turn into production brigades and production teams. The people's commune collectivized living and working practices. Many individual homes were abolished in favour of communal residences,with many houses taken apart and demolished. Regardless of age or relationship,many men and women lived separately,and often,multiple families were placed in the same communal homes. One's land,tools,resources were pooled together,with working hours and farming practices completely dictated by the CCP.
Kang Sheng,born Zhang Zongke,was a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official,best known for having overseen the work of the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A member of the CCP from the early 1920s,he spent time in Moscow during the early 1930s,where he learned the methods of the Soviet NKVD and became a supporter of Wang Ming for leadership of the CCP. After returning to China in the late 1930s,Kang Sheng switched his allegiance to Mao Zedong and became a close associate of Mao during the Second Sino-Japanese War,the Chinese Civil War,and after. He remained at or near the pinnacle of power in the People's Republic of China from its establishment in 1949 until his death in 1975. After the death of Mao and the subsequent arrest of the Gang of Four,Kang Sheng was accused of sharing responsibility with the Gang for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution and in 1980 he was expelled posthumously from the CCP.
Chen Boda,was a Chinese Communist journalist,professor and political theorist who rose to power as the chief interpreter of Maoism in the first 20 years of the People's Republic of China. Chen became a close associate of Mao Zedong in Yan'an,during the late 1930s,drafting speeches and theoretical essays and directing propaganda.
On the Ten Major Relationships is a speech by Mao Zedong which outlines how the People's Republic of China would construct socialism different from the model of development undertaken by the Soviet Union. It was delivered by Mao during an enlarged session of a Politburo meeting of the Chinese Communist Party on April 25,1956,and further elaborated in the 7th Supreme State Conference on May 2 the same year.
The history of the People's Republic of China details the history of mainland China since 1 October 1949,when CCP chairman Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) from atop Tiananmen,after a near complete victory (1949) by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War. The PRC is the most recent political entity to govern mainland China,preceded by the Republic of China and thousands of years of monarchical dynasties. The paramount leaders have been Mao Zedong (1949–1976);Hua Guofeng (1976–1978);Deng Xiaoping (1978–1989);Jiang Zemin (1989–2002);Hu Jintao (2002–2012);and Xi Jinping.
The economic history of China describes the changes and developments in China's economy from the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949 to the present day. The speed of China's transformation in this period from one of the poorest countries to one of the world's largest economies is unmatched in history.
The Lushan Conference was a meeting of the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held between July and August 1959. The CCP Politburo met in an "expanded session" between July 2 and August 1,followed by the 8th Plenum of the CCP Eighth Central Committee from August 2–16. The major topic of discussion was the Great Leap Forward.
The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement,often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement,was a policy instituted in the People's Republic of China between the mid-1950s and 1978. As a result of what he perceived to be pro-bourgeois thinking prevalent during the Cultural Revolution,Chairman Mao Zedong declared certain privileged urban youth would be sent to mountainous areas or farming villages to learn from the workers and farmers there. In total,approximately 17 million youth were sent to rural areas as a result of the movement. Usually only the oldest child had to go,but younger siblings could volunteer to go instead.
The Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries was the first campaign of political repression launched by the People's Republic of China designed to eradicate opposition elements,especially former Kuomintang (KMT) functionaries accused of trying to undermine the new Chinese Communist Party government. It began in March 1950 when the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued the Directive on elimination of bandits and establishment of revolutionary new order,and ended in 1953.
The Five-Year Plans are a series of social and economic development initiatives issued by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1953 in the People's Republic of China. Since 1949,the CCP has shaped the Chinese economy through the plenums of its Central Committee and national party congresses. The plenums follow a customary pattern of themes;since the 14th Party Congress (1992–1997),the fifth plenum has evaluated the current five-year plan and outlined the next five-year plan.
The Sufan movement was a purge of perceived opponents in the People's Republic of China between 1955 and 1957. The term "sufan" is short for sùqīng àncáng de fǎngémìng fèn zǐ,which means "purge to eradicate hidden counterrevolutionaries";similar campaigns had been carried out within the Chinese Communist Party as early as 1932. Mao directed that 5 percent of counter-revolutionaries were to be eliminated. During the purge,around 214,000 people were arrested and approximately 53,000 died.
Liu Shaoqi was a Chinese revolutionary and politician. He was the chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress from 1954 to 1959,first-ranking vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party from 1956 to 1966,and the chairman of the People's Republic of China,the head of state from 1959 to 1968. He was considered to be a possible successor to Mao Zedong,but was purged during the Cultural Revolution.
Li Jingquan was a Chinese politician and the first Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Sichuan following the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. He supported many of Mao Zedong's policies including the Great Leap Forward.
The Beidaihe Conference of 1958 was an enlarged meeting held by the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee from August 17 to 30 1958. It also involved a conference of provincial industrial secretaries and other relevant local leaders from the 25th to the 31st.
The Seven-Thousand Cadres Conference was one of the largest work conferences ever of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It took place in Beijing,China,from 11 January to 7 February 1962. The conference was attended by over 7,000 party officials nationwide,focusing on the issues of the Great Leap Forward which resulted in the deaths of tens of millions in the Great Chinese Famine. CCP chairman Mao Zedong made self-criticism during the conference,after which he took a semi-retired role,leaving future responsibilities to Chinese President Liu Shaoqi and Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping.