Day: October 15, 2023

Dear Comrades, 

 

It has been a few years since I last wrote an entry informing you on what is happening in the countryside of China. At this point, land reform has been well on the way but hasn’t been the most successful. Mao continues to try to build the country and make the peasants better off. However, his next major move of making “The Great Leap” isn’t going exactly as planned. It may even seem that the country is falling off the path they might have seemed to be on. The concept of the Chinese communes were failing in multiple ways from the top down. This was a direct consequence of the attempt of having immediate progress with the campaigns Mao implemented.

 

The increase in production and labor that Mao envisioned was not a balanced or a realistic feat that the Chinese peasants could handle (Peng, 438). The communes were failing as it resulted in divorcing the peasants from reality and the masses would lose its support for the party. This not only created starvation but divided the party and their families.The local cadres and leaders were also corrupt in this way as they would lie about the crop production because of the pressure to repay the debt which made the peasants lose even more trust about the party. Collectivations were expected to increase their production and by having unrealistic goals, the campaign would fail miserably. With Mao’s Anti-rightist campaign, it was a crime to speak out against the party or to seek the truth about how the country was doing (Xun 30). These leaders would keep their collectivization so closed off that the people of a community would believe that they were going through a poor harvesting season, instead of seeing that the whole country was in the same situation. The party leaders who were higher up even ignored protests when people did speak out about their situations which is a huge issue if there was any chance of change in the foreseeable future. Later in 1959, the Anti-hiding campaign was launched in the countryside to prevent the peasants from concealing grain amounts, concealing labor, and withholding labor (Xun 37). Not only did it encourage cadres to promote violence in the countryside, but it turned peasants against peasants which created even more of an issue.

 

Mao, with the help of Soviet Union funding, had attempted to turn the country into an industrialized nation. There was a focus on the production of steel and cultivating more cotton instead of crops to feed the nation. Mao would also implement new farming methods which called to plough deeper and to plant more seeds close to each other. People would turn to eating mud and tree bark as substitutes for food (Xun, 5). To meet the government procurement quotas, rice and grain were taken right from the Chinese peasants to repay the debt, which created even more starvation within the nation. In terms of steel production, peasants were forced to break down useful tools which would inevitably be useless to the Chinese (Sue, 48 mins). This was a result of not having Deaths rising  and women were not able to even give birth or breastfeed because of the malnourishment of their bodies. The poverty throughout the whole country was so bad that families began to sell their children to support themselves to get through the next week (Xun 9). Mao’s campaign to eliminate the four pests also backfired on him. He believed that by eliminating sparrows, rats, mosquitoes, and flies would allow the harvest to flourish. However, by creating a propaganda to eliminate the sparrows, the insects ran rampant and would destroy much of the crops. 

With all the negative aspects of the Great Leap, we can still believe in Mao to create a better life for the average Chinese citizen. Within all revolutions, there are shortcomings that can be addressed and learned from. I believe once the party finds a way to be transparent about the situation, it will regain the trust of the peasants and it can build a strong community. The muddled vision of strategic goals and concrete measures have affected which decision the party has made to attempt to make the country better. Instead of trying to make big changes immediately, it would be a better option to strive for gradual growth that would make a more impactful change for the future.

Greetings Tongzhimen,

I apologize that it has been so long since my last post. Living just outside the city, my family survived the recent famines and we have all been able to remain together. Though these are tumultuous times, I have faith that China will quickly return to its former might! I have read more of Chairman Mao’s works since returning from my work team, and this line stands out to me as China prepares to move past these difficulties:

“New things always have to experience difficulties and setbacks as they grow. It is sheer fantasy to imagine that the cause of socialism is all plain sailing and easy success, without difficulties and setbacks or exertion of tremendous efforts” (On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People [1957]).

While our country will certainly be led back to prosperity by Chairman Mao and the Party, there have been some significant problems over the past few years. “The Three Hard Years”, 1959-1961, have had grave consequences for China. 

 

Physically the people have suffered, mainly the peasants in the countryside. Our famines have led to malnutrition and the many issues that present with it. As early as 1958, famine began and peasants were forced to make tough decisions to stay alive. At a Party meeting I read a report by the “Jinan Municipal Investigation Team on the outbreak of famine and deaths in Gaoguanzhai township” from January 1959. For about five months the township faced severe food shortages and the people were forced to take drastic measures when the emergency food aid was not enough. “From early spring to summer, when food first became scarce, people supplemented their diet with chaff, tree bark, and weeds. Some locals told us they had eaten at least fifty types of food substitutes during this time.” Villagers consumed seeds and unripe vegetables, as well as peanut skins and other food substitutes. 

 

The health effects of the food shortages were dire. Edema in particular was a massive issue. The Hunan province stated in 1961 that “within forty days after January 1…35,816 people throughout the province died from edema.” a number which only increased as the year went on. The healthcare system has been unable to treat many, which has added to the death toll. In addition, “most women of childbearing age stopped having periods. Mothers had no milk left to breastfeed, and many babies starved to death as a result.” Last year, I read another report concerning a request from the Sichuan Province Welfare Committee “for additional medical relief funds for the year 1961 to treat edema and gynecological problems.” “Between January and April [1961], more than 1.4 million women in the Sichuan province have been found to be suffering from gynecological problems each month including amenorrhea and uterine prolapse.” According to their investigation, they believed that “in the next eight months more than 3 million women will be in need of treatment.” These health conditions were disastrous for women working in the fields or in the collectives, and also caused miscarriages, infertility, premature births, and a range of birth defects. 

 

In addition to the physical consequences of the past three years, we have witnessed various environmental concerns throughout the country. I read a report earlier this year regarding “the damage to forests in Fujian and four other provinces.” In these provinces, a lot of land was deforested to create new farmland to increase grain production. In Hunan, “unrestrained deforestation to create more agricultural land has not only destroyed trees but also caused soil erosion. This means that after two or three years many newly converted areas of farmland will turn into wasteland again. No one will be able to grow anything.” “On the other hand, [deforestation] has also triggered droughts and floods in the lower reaches of the Yangtze, causing a decrease in grain production in the region.” These forested areas are struggling to keep up with increasing export quotas as their production goes down. I have also heard whisperings of floods in other provinces, but have not seen any documentation regarding these issues. There very well could have been intense rainy seasons in some provinces causing floods and thus a reduction in grain production. 

 

While the country has been in a state of turmoil over these past few years, we must listen to Chairman Mao and his directives forward. I remember Chairman Mao’s speech a few years ago in 1955, in which he stated:

“The wealth of society is created by the workers, peasants and working intellectuals. If they take their destiny into their own hands, follow a Marxist-Leninist line and take an active attitude on solving problems instead of evading them, there will be no difficulty in the world they cannot overcome” (Introductory note to “The Party Secretary Takes the Lead and All the Party Members Help Run the Co-operatives” [1955]).

We, the Chinese people, have the power to bring our country back to prosperity if we listen to the Chairman and the Party. 

 

Stay safe,

Miao Kuo shuo

 

Dear Readers,

As you are most likely aware, we have been struck with a national tragedy. The past several years have been extremely trying for our great country. Natural disaster after natural disaster have rocked the people to the core. Chairman Mao’s genius plan to fix the backward economic system that has kept China from taking its rightful place as a great world power was bound to succeed without what seemed like divine intervention against our nation. When making this great leap of economic progress, Chairman Mao was smart enough to warn against boasting or exaggerating production levels in order to prevent unhealthy competition between different provinces [Dietrich, 121]. By the end of 1958, the future looked incredibly bright for our great nation. Both industrial and agricultural production had risen significantly [Zhou, 3], and the country was on the verge of an economic breakthrough. However, through no fault of the Party or Chairman Mao, these positive changes would not last. The efforts to transform the landscape of the country were valiant, but the unfortunate natural disasters have sadly lain waste to the Chairman’s great vision.

The initiative to build backyard furnaces was something that came from the right idea but was unfortunately derailed by the conditions of the country. The people were eager to jump to the Chairman’s call to join the industrial effort, but unfortunately, the people began to neglect the fieldwork that was necessary to maintain the agricultural economy. The timing of floods and droughts combined with the new iron smelting effort have had disastrous results on crops. An eyewitness I interviewed in one village told me that “Strong people have left to smelt iron, only children and old women reaped the crops [Dietrich, 130]. Economic reform originally made drastic improvements, but the natural disasters quickly prevented any lasting growth.

Famine has hit our great nation with a vengeance, as people are now starving, looking for any way to find food to eat. In my recent travels, I have seen several extreme cases of people eating food substitutes such as weeds, leaves, and mud in order to try to stay alive [Zhou, 8]. Famine has pushed the people to riot and cause unrest, greatly straining the countryside even more. Reports from Shanxi and Gansu Provinces indicate that both provinces have seen riots over food shortages in more than twenty counties in each province [Zhou, 12.] These shortages have brought out the worst in the people, with forced labor, torture, and even murder in some cases [Zhou, 21].

Our great nation is going through an incredibly trying period, and I must stress that this is not the fault of Chairman Mao and the Party. While the policies of the so-called “Great Leap Forward” were drastic and could be considered radical in some cases, they were only doomed by the natural disasters of flooding and droughts that have plagued the countryside and brought about this famine unlike anything ever seen before. We must stand strong together as a united people behind the Chairman, for only he can lead us out of this crisis.

Stay safe,

孙诚

Dear my 同士,

 

　Today, I would like to convey the realities of the current situation in China. The country I live in now is challenging and chaotic. I moved to the countryside to learn more about the current situation and tell you about the case. My family is not in such a difficult situation because of its essential position in the Communist Party. Still, I would like to go to the most miserable places and report on the status. It is dangerous to note such criticism and consider my position because it seems Rightest.  The problem is too rapid a policy change and too high an ideological goal. Recently, the government assigned tasks to the peasants, such as steel production and the extermination of the four pests, and fined them if they failed to complete them. Thus, the peasants sacrificed their livelihoods to meet the government’s demands. This might cause a terrible situation in local areas. However, there was no way that rural villages in the region could have the technology to produce high-quality steel. The metal used for cooking pots and farm implements was also collected and melted. Of course, this steel was also unusable. In addition, since many farmers were mobilized for this movement, the farmland left unmanaged became desolate, and agricultural production was significantly reduced. In today’s society, once the government gives an order, almost the entire population is mobilized to follow the order. However, this has caused the following devastation.

　Mao is implementing the Great Leap Forward policy to grow the country faster. However, countless people suffer from famine, and the death toll is high. This is a tragic situation, more so than in any previous war. The famine is so bad that people suffer from unbelievable conditions in the countryside where I am now. Some people said they ate dirt because there was no food and their stomachs were empty. This has created severe health problems; many suffer from constipation, edema, and food poisoning. This also seems to be happening in cities, with large numbers of children suffering from rickets (a disease that causes weak and soft bones), a disease caused by malnutrition. Some sold their children to survive, and because of this shocking environment, many had mental illnesses. Also, the current situation is dire, especially for women. Many women suffered from hunger and exhaustion, which led to amenorrhea and uterine prolapse, the loss of the muscles that support the uterus. Young women were expected to work as much as men, sometimes subjected to sexual violence and humiliation. Grandmothers at home were also expected to care for their grandchildren, cook, and do all the household chores. 1959 was believed to be a good harvest and fertile year for our country. But imprisonment, endless political campaigns, and this severe hunger could be considered a “season of death.”

　The damage caused by drought and flooding is also severe. Is there any way out of this disaster-like situation? We can only hope for the Mao and the Communist Party.