A Social History of Maoist China (New Approaches to Asian History) by Wemheuer Felix

Author:Wemheuer, Felix [Wemheuer, Felix]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2019-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

The Great Downsizing

A number of scholars have argued that the recovery of China’ s agricultural sector was primarily down to reforms to the ownership structure of the People’ s Communes. The key document in these reforms, the so-called “ 60 Points in Agriculture” of 1961, defined the structure of the communes as consisting of three levels. At the top sat the commune itself, and below it the production brigade and finally the production team, formed from several individual families. Under the “ 60 Points,” collective ownership and the accounting of work points were to be managed primarily at the level of the production team, the lowest rung on the ladder. Commune members were entitled to plots for private use and a small number of livestock.

Although these reforms were important – primarily because they created greater incentives for peasants to increase production – they are only part of the story. The restoration of plots for private use and the strengthening of the role of the production teams in the communes were structural steps to increase future agricultural productivity. Their effect would only ever be felt a full cycle of planting and harvest after the famine; they did not offer any immediate increase in the supply of grain. In fact, according to official statistics released in the post-Mao era, death rates fell significantly in 1962 even though grain production was still lower than it had been in 1959. 5 In other words, no matter how important increased productivity was, China did not produce its way out of the famine. Instead, as I suggest below, the recovery was owed largely to a rebalancing of the supply system.

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