Mao's reforms: A total failure?

Résumé du document

"In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements." This quotation from the Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976) could perfectly apply to his economic policy. When Mao came to power in October 1949, China was out of a decade of war and its economy was still very backward and when he died in 1976, Chinese economy had made significant progresses in many fields, but China was still an underdeveloped country in comparison with Western countries, or even with Asian countries such as Japan or South Korea. After 1978, China felt the need for reforms and took the path toward "Socialist market economy" and now it seems that there is nothing left of Mao's era. Given the high growth rates reached by China during the last two decades when it seems to have got rid off its Maoist heritage and the denunciation campaigns Mao has been the target of, we may wonder if it is possible to find any positive achievement from Mao's period. In other words, did Mao achieve to improve the Chinese economy, or on the contrary, did he slow down the Chinese "take-off" (Rostow)?

Extraits

[...] But Mao's China took the path of industrialization. One of the first steps toward industrialization has been the unification of the country. Indeed, a unified country means that the economic relationships within this country become easier and it is a mandatory step toward an industrialization process. Mao has been able to unify the country by implementing a common currency and a common banking system for instance[1]. But a lot more would have been needed to have a perfectly unified country: although the transportation system was really poor before 1949: for instance China had only kilometres of railroads at the eve of the Second World War, against for the United Kingdom whose size is not comparable, the Mao's government didn't do much to improve it[2]. [...]

[...] Last but not least, there has been an important improvement in the human capital of the country. Indeed, in 1949, the life expectancy was of only 35 years but then China has been able to curb a lot of infection and parasitic diseases thanks to better water conservation, an improved hygiene, medical equipments and efficient prevention campaigns. Moreover, huge progresses have been made in education: at the end of the World War II the illiteracy rate reached 80%[12] and it has been reduced to 40% of the adult population at the end of Mao's era, thanks to massive enrolment into primary schools.[13] Significant progress were also made in technology: China developed new and modern industry such as automobile, electronics, petrochemical and nuclear industries are cases in point. [...]

[...] Although the inequalities have been partially reduced by the first wave of reforms, new inequalities may be deeper ones, soon appeared. First of all, the waging system was in itself very unequal. Indeed, wages depended not only on the skills of workers, but also on the branch of industry they were working in[26]. In the countryside, deep inequalities soon appeared when peasants who could not afford to cultivate their lands had to sell it and to get hire in another farm. [...]

[...] Mao's reforms : A total failure ? time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.” This quotation from the Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung(1893- 1976) could perfectly apply to his economic policy. When Mao came to power in October 1949, China was out of a decade of war and its economy was still very backward and when he died in 1976, Chinese economy had made significant progresses in many fields, but China was still an underdeveloped country in comparison with Western countries, or even with Asian countries such as Japan or South Korea. [...]

[...] Indeed, although China was still a poor country in the 1950's, the investment rate reached 26% of the GDP in 1954, which is very important for an underdeveloped country.[4] The consequence has been an important industrial growth: from 1949 to 1952: the industrial production had already more than doubled, and the average industrial growth rate from 1952 to 1978 has been of a year. The data are quite impressive: if we assume that in 1957 the industrial production index was of 100, this index was only of 20, this index reached 181 at the end of the Great Leap Forward (1960) and 502 at Mao's death in 1976. So we may say that Mao succeeded in starting the industrialisation process of China. [...]