To what extent was the famine of 1958-62 caused by the Government’s policies? (20 marks)
In 1958 an unprecedented famine hit China with an estimated 45 million dying from starvation. The famine greatly affected the China’s rural areas where the peasants lived as their lives depended on agriculture. Various factors caused this tragedy such as economic mismanagement, Mao’s viewpoint, radical changes in agriculture in addition to weather conditions and natural disasters. However, none were to the extent of the government’s policies.
Political policies played a significant role towards the cause of the great famine. For example, the ‘reunification’ campaign set up by the PRC was created for the destruction of Tibetan culture. Furthermore, by
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For example, his refusal to accept failure of his agricultural policies. Mao put the famine down to three factors, all of which had little impact. Firstly, Mao believed that peasants were hoarding grain, which prevented the food getting to the people. Secondly, Mao accused local officials of bring incompetent at their jobs, in fear of punishment they would lie about how much they were producing to match their targets and thirdly: exceptionally bad weather hit rural China in the years 1958-61 therefore making it impossible to grow and harvest crops. Although some officials made mistakes when implementing the policies and lying about targets, nonetheless, the blame of the extent of the great famine should be with Mao, as it was his pursuit of ‘walking on two legs’ and rule by terror, that the famine caused so many deaths. Mao himself even said that ‘‘when there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat their fill.” Mao knew about and accepted the famine but did nothing to help. However Mao’s government made plans with unrealistic targets and were usually revised upwards by officials in order to impress Mao. Nonetheless Chairman Mao’s viewpoint also played a huge part in the extent of the famine in …show more content…
An example of these ideas was close planting; the amount of seedlings started at double and then tripled and then doubled again. The ideology was that plants of the same species would not compete with each other. However this stunted the plants growth and resulted in lower yields. Additionally, the ‘Four Pests Campaign’ was launched which involved peasants killing sparrows and other wild birds that ate crop seeds, so they could protect yields. Birds that’s were considered pests (Sparrows) were shot down or scared from landing until dying of exhaustion. Due to the elimination of their predators there was an explosion of the vermin population which resulted in crops being eaten. This meant that it was difficult to produce crops and those that were, were useless. However this was just one of many government policies that caused the great famine. Nonetheless, this ecological imbalance is blamed for exacerbating the famine. Therefore, Changes in agricultural techniques had a great extend to the cause of the famine in
The short story “Famine” by Xu Xi is about her trip to New York from Hong Kong after her parents death with flashbacks to her life with controlling, abusive parents. Throughout the story there is a theme of revolt despite her parents having a strong, strict hold on her. From learning English, going on hunger strikes, to an impulsive trip to New York. From beginning to the end of the story, Xu Xi portrays herself as rebellious throughout her life.
In this paper I will examine both Peter Singer’s and Onora O 'Neill 's positions on famine relief. I will argue that O’Neill’s position is more suitable than Singer’s extreme standpoint. First I will, present O’Neill’s argument. I will then present a possible counter-argument to one of my premises. Finally I will show how this counter-argument is fallacious and how O’Neill’s argument in fact goes through.
While in China a similar problem became evident, the farmers of China began to notice the deterioration of agriculture and while they had no money because the lack of food they were also being pushed off their lands by the Qing (Bulliet, Crossley, Hedrick, Hirsch, Johnson, and Northrup).... ... middle of paper ... ... Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
News: Politics. Meng, Xin, and Nancy Qian. The Institutional Causes of China's Great Famine, 1959-61. Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research,
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who was born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li was selected from a poor Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. The film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson and the consequences that followed.
“Mao’s Last Dancer” is a book about the life of Li Cunxin. Li Cunxin was born into poverty in China under the rule of Mao Ze dung. The book was first published in 2003 and since then has won several awards including the book of the year award. Throughout the novel the composer chronologically cites the life of Li Cunxin and how he felt and where he belonged at certain points in his life.
Success, as defined by the Oxford English dictionary, is the prosperous achievement of an objective. (Oed.com 1968) Conferring to this definition, the 1949 Chinese revolution was certainly a successful revolution. The communist party of China (CCP) was incredibly successful in its attempt in replacing the bourgeoisie dominated nationalist government – The Kuomintang (KMT) - with a proletariat class lead communist government. However, whether the achievement of such objective proves to be prosperous for China and its peoples requires further analysis. Ever since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the legitimacy of the revolution of which it was built upon has perennially been in question. For example, in a 1999 issue of the
to become a dancer - one of the best dancers in the world. After seven
In the outstanding book Mao’s Last Dancer, it tells a life story about a peasant boy named Li Cunxin who’s fate is laid out for him being a labourer in the fields just like his whole family but his determination helps him to escape his destiny. Li was chosen to go to the Beijing Dance Academy to study ballet. He moved away from his home and family to pursue ballet and make his family proud. Li got the chance to go over to America to discover the Western World of ballet. Through hard work, perseverance and dedication, Li was able to escape from his so-called destiny.
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who’s born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li got chosen from a poverty-stricken Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. This film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson including the
Which in order to accelerate his plan he had to turn China into a modern sized industrialized state. Because of this Mao decided to launch what was known as the "Great Leap Forward". “Which began the mass mobilization of the people into collectives and many communities were assigned production of a single “commodity steel”” (Keynes 46). He wanted to increase agriculture by this and only made it worse with bad weather, chaos, and exports of food necessary to secure hard currency (Keynes 32). This resulted in the Great Chinese Famine which made food short and production fell dramatically. This caused the deaths of millions which didn 't make Mao so popular and some began to hate him as a ruler. In 1959, Mao resigned as the State Chairman and this was continued by Liu Shaoqi (Keynes
Communism is a system of government, a political ideology that rejects private ownership and promotes a classless, stateless society based on common ownership of all property and the means of production, where by all work is shared and all proceeds are commonly owned. Communism is practised in China, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cuba. However most of the world’s communist governments have been disbanded since the end of World War II. Soon after the Japanese surrendered at the end of World War II, Communist forces began a war against the Kuomintang in China. The Communists gradually gained control of the country and on the 1st October, 1949, Mao Zedong announced the victory of the Communist party and the establishment of the People's Republic of China. China has been ruled by the Communist party ever since.
Dressed in the drab military uniform that symbolized the revolutionary government of Communist China, Mao Zedong's body still looked powerful, like an giant rock in a gushing river. An enormous red flag draped his coffin, like a red sail unfurled on a Chinese junk, illustrating the dualism of traditional China and the present Communist China that typified Mao. 1 A river of people flowed past while he lay in state during the second week of September 1976. Workers, peasants, soldiers and students, united in grief; brought together by Mao, the helmsman of modern China. 2 He had assembled a revolutionary government using traditional Chinese ideals of filial piety, harmony, and order. Mao's cult of personality, party purges, and political policies reflect Mao's esteem of these traditional Chinese ideals and history.
Laura Smith – Spark on www.cnn.com writes, “Half of the 258,000 Somalis who died in the famine were children younger than 5.” (Smith-Spark et al. May 02, 2013) Somalia was once considered to be one of the most prosperous countries in Africa, but now is considered as one of the worse. How did this horrible transition occur to such a prosperous country? This horrendous result is due to the famine, lack of resources, and lack of trade. Oxfam International states, “Famines result from a combination “triple failure” ("Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions"). This triple failure includes production, access, and response failures. Somalia has been the victim of a two-year drought. Oxfam International states, “particularly in the expectation of the next harvest being 50% of normal.” ("Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions") Because Somalia cannot feed its people, this issue creates malnutrition and affects all ages, especially the young. This is a massive problem in their economic system. The young die too early, therefore creating a gap in the age distribution, which can affect Somalia’s work force in the future. This could also make the economic system weaker. If the only people living in Somalia are old, then there will not be any work done. One reason that they die so young is because of the lack of food. The availability of the food is minimal. Oxfam International states, “The drought has killed off the pastoralists’ prime livestock assets (up to 90% animal mortality in some areas), slashing further their purchasing power.” ("Famine in Somalia: causes and solutions") Somalia ‘s access to its food is limited because the people of Somalia cannot feed their animals. The people of Somalia also cannot trade for food, because dead...
By 1961, China was forced to buy grain form abroad, and only strict rationing prevented the famine from continuing. As we can see, the ambitious Great Leap For...