Mao's Economic Policies

A Which statement about the Agrarian Reform Law is FALSE?

• 1 It made the poor peasants landowners

• 2 It made the rich landlords landless

• 3 It led to perfect equality and improved livelihood for everyone

• 4 It destroyed traditional social power of the landlords

• 5 It gained the CCP popular support overall

Answer explanation

Although land was redistributed from rich landlords to poor peasants, many landlords were condemned for previously exploiting the poor peasants and lost all their land. The poor peasants no longer saw the landlords as their masters that they were forced to submit to. So there was not genuine equality. There was also uneven distribution of land across the north and south of large China.

2 Why were the Advanced Producer Cooperatives less productive than the original Agrarian Reform Law? 

• Reduced private profit incentives

• Tools and livestock pooled

• Peasants still owned much individual land

• There was collaboration

3 Which statement is untrue?

• The Agrarian Reform Law and mutual aid teams improved productivity.

• The Advanced Producer Cooperatives led to negative productivity growth.

• The 1st 5-year plans increased economic growth.

• The Great Leap Forward reversed industrial growth.

Which was not a change to industry during the First Five-Year Plan?

• foreign industries came under state ownership

• emphasis on coal and steel

• emphasis on consumer goods production 

• bourgeoisie were no longer sole owners of industries, but managed it for state

Which was not an aim of the Great Leap Forward communes?

• increase agricultural productivity

• make china a communist superpower

• feed urban workers

• repay US debts

Which is the LEAST valid reason for the Great Famine from 1959 to 1962?

• failure of 4 Pests campaign

• lack of profit incentive as peasants owned no land and gave what they produced to the state

• most harvest went to repay Soviet debts

• widespread natural disasters

Why was the Great Leap Forward detrimental to Mao’s maintenance of power? Pick the LEAST correct answer.

• It led to famine

• It reduced productivity

• Steel produced was mostly useless

• It led to Liu Shaoqi reversing Mao’s Great Leap Forward, which challenged his power.

• Mao gave in to this idea, put forth by his colleagues.

Match the following economic policies with their aims.

• Improve agric output to repay USSR debts

• Communes

• Improve steel output to catch up with US

• Agrarian Reform Law

• Economic growth

• 1st 5-Year Plan

• Increase equality

• Backyard steel furnaces

Reorder the following chronologically.

• 1st 5-Year Plan

• Great Leap Forward

• Advanced Producer Cooperatives

• Agrarian Reform Law

• Great Famine