Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The magnitude of the response might have surprised Mao.
Thousands of intellectuals took Mao at his word and criticized the
Soviet Union, Mao's impetuosity in the agricultural collectivization
movement, and even socialism and the CCP itself. Some posters put
up by students in Beijing were almost frenetic in their denunciations.
By May 1957 Mao announced that criticisms of socialism and the party
would no longer be tolerated, and a distinction was drawn between
“fragrant flowers” and “poisonous weeds.” Those who had already
uttered “poisonous weeds” were tracked down by the hundreds of
thousands and “sent down” to the countryside for backbreaking
agricultural “reform through labor.”
Did Mao plan all of this from the start and use the Hundred Flowers
movement as a ruse to smoke out his critics and then crack down on
them, or did he start the movement with the best intentions, only to
be taken aback by the magnitude of the negative response? Many
scholars, as well as many Chinese people who lived through this
period, disagree on the answer to this question.
THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD
For reasons that are not altogether clear, Mao and his critics in the
highest levels of the CCP worked out a reconciliation among them-
selves in the summer of 1957. Perhaps they were fearful of the ground-
swell of public opinion voiced against them and their party during the
abortive Hundred Flowers movement. At any rate, by the summer of
1957, a largely united effort was made by the CCP leadership to push
forward the agricultural collectivization movement once more. Mao
hadarguedallalongthattheAPCmovementhadfailedinthemid-
1950s because it was not pushed fast enough. He was impatient to
see the agricultural transformation of China through to its completion,
and his former critics apparently decided to go along with him and
give it one more try.
The CCP launched the Great Leap Forward in September 1957. Its
purposes were twofold: to collectivize agriculture and thereby dra-
matically increase agricultural production, and to surpass Great Brit-
ain in industrial production within the impossibly lofty goal of
15 years. The collectivization of agriculture was accomplished by
October 1958. In industry it was decided that China would follow a
decentralized approach, with thousands of small-scale industrial
enterprises located throughout the countryside. Huge numbers of
