Between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution

Yuan-tsung returned to Beijing in November 1960, but she could not forget what she had seen in the Red Flag Commune, and so she planned to circumvent another, probably worse catastrophe. She discussed options with Jack. Both agreed to leave China for Hong Kong, where Jack’s brother Percy ran the Marco Polo Club, a sort of bridge between Western businessmen and China. Jack would work as a freelance journalist. They consulted their friend Comrade Xia. Xia arranged for Jack to meet the foreign minister, Chen Yi, who liked to wear a French Beret. Chen Yi thought it was a good idea that Jack continue his work in a less restrictive environment. But Yuan-tsung and Jack disagreed on when to depart. She preferred 1965 and he, 1966. She was afraid that anything might happen in that one year.

The Mob Rule Continued

In 1967, during a mutiny known as the Wuhan Incident, Zhou Enlai flexed his political muscles and pacified the insurgent commanders. Mao felt threatened. Yuan-tsung’s friend Courtier Yu, her direct link to Zhou, warned her that she had been caught in the crossfire of a huge power struggle between Zhou and Mao. Zhou wanted to reach an understanding with the West that would lead to the lifting of its trade sanctions against China. Mao, however, wanted to resuscitate the Great Leap Forward. Yuan-tsung’s best bet was Zhou. If Zhou prevailed, he would use Jack’s knowledge of English and Western culture to explain his open-door policy to the West. In return Jack and Yuan-tsung would get their exit visas. Courtier Yu arranged a meeting at a place near Badaling where Yuan-tsung could take her plea directly to Zhou.

Региональная промышленность КНР в ходе реализации стратегии выравнивающего и сбалансированного пространственного развития в 1950–1970-е гг.

Introduction. The chronological framework of the article includes the period of China’s development in the 1950–1970s, when the strategy of equalizing and balanced spatial development was being implemented; this had a significant impact on the formation of industrial complexes and main production sectors of the PRC. The aim and objectives of this study are to examine the characteristic features of the implementation of the strategy of equalizing and balanced spatial development of the PRC in the 1950–1970s, to identify the main trends in the dynamics of the Chinese regional industry; and to analyze key regional projects, concepts, ideas for the development of the mining and processing industry in China during the period under study. Data and research methods. The article draws on the main sources on the economic history of the PRC, including statistical collections, materials of five-year plans, and collected works of Mao Zedong. Special historical methods such as thematic chronological research method and retrospective method were applied to the study of the data. Results. Deformations in regional industrial transformations during the Great Leap Forward campaign in China (1958–1960); activities since 1964 in preparation to a war, which was being expected at the time; and the period of Cultural Revolution significantly influenced the formation of the system of regional industry in China. In the period under study, the implementation of five-year plans for the socio-economic construction of the Chinese national economy (1953–1957, 1958–1962, 1966–1970, 1971–1975, 1976–1980); the formation of regional zones for economic cooperation; the implementation of the objectives for regional «three lines» transformations; and an active scientific-technological and financial assistance of the Soviet Union laid the foundations, fostered further development and modernization of regional industries in China, such as electric power industry, metallurgy, production of building materials, mechanical engineering and metalworking, fuel and chemical industries. Conclusions. For the first time in the history of China, the period of equalizing and balanced regional development of the PRC saw the implementation of measures designed to narrow the gaps in the development of inland and coastal regions; these would help to solve the problems of the country’s reconstruction within the framework of industrialization of the PRC at large.

La vulnerabilità come “ritorno del rimosso” e la nuova domanda di senso durante la pandemia da Covid-19

The great leap forward of medicine in the twentieth century contributed to the myth of the repression of vulnerability accompanied by the illusion of individual control and self-determination. However, epidemics, like major natural disasters, have continued to act as elements capable of upsetting scientific optimism. The Covid-19 pandemic, with its uncertain causes and unpredictable effects, has led to authentic demythologisation and caused a “return of the repressed”: a feeling of vulnerability along with dramatic awareness of our mortality. This phenomenon has been accompanied by a re-emerging demand for meaning, which has led to a more direct confrontation with the drama of suffering and the need for a personal relationship with the sacred, finally rediscovering the public dimension of prayer. Firstly, the article outlines in its essential features the ambiguity of the pre-pandemic cultural horizon. Secondly, it analyses the characteristics of the rise of a new sensibility, by referring also to the notion of prayer as a “political issue” coined by Jean Daniélou.

Through the Mirror of CCP History: Four Perspectives

Perhaps the most oft-quoted part of Xi Jinping's defiant 1st July speech marking the Party's centenary was his warning than any external forces attempting to “bully, oppress or subjugate” China will “dash their heads against the Great Wall of steel built with the flesh and blood of more than 1.4 billion Chinese people.” Foreign news organizations covering the ceremony also noted the “visual trick” of Xi's donning of a grey Mao suit identical to the one worn by the Great Helmsman in the portrait that hangs on Tiananmen, just feet below the rostrum from which Xi delivered his address; others doubted the functional significance of the five identical microphones, ascribing to them a very different significance. Xi's repeated references to the importance of Party history, however, drew far less attention in the Western press, although Xi gravely warned a cheering and flag-waving audience of more than 70,000 that while the CCP's original mission “is easy to define, ensuring that we stay true to this mission is a more difficult task.” By learning from history, we can understand why powers rise and fall. Through the mirror of history, we can find where we currently stand and gain foresight into the future. Looking back on the Party's 100-year history, we can see why we were successful in the past and how we can continue to succeed in the future. Indeed, in the months leading up to the centennial celebration, the Party launched a comprehensive campaign requiring CCP members to study the Party's past closely; A Short History of the Chinese Communist Party was revised and updated, eliminating a previous discussion of the consequences of the Great Leap Forward, which had concluded with the open acknowledgement that “This bitter historical lesson shouldn't be forgotten.” Also expunged was a frank evaluation of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution, which was replaced with an account that restricted its focus to highlighting various industrial, technological and diplomatic advances made over the course of that period, without acknowledging the social and political turmoil that accompanied those developments.

Histories of Urban Deltascapes: A Comparison of Arles and Kolkata

To confront food insufficiency caused by the Great Leap Forward, China's central government promoted a national policy of 'agriculture as the priority'. The Shanghai municipal government launched a campaign to expand cultivated land within its jurisdiction by transforming wetlands on Chongming Island through a military-style campaign. Tens of thousands of urban workers were drafted into a Land Reclamation Army to meet national and municipal food self-sufficiency goals. Their campaign featured both attacks on nature and interpersonal abuse. In accordance with the central directives, wetlands totalling 8,000 hectares were drained for conversion into farmland. This conversion proved to be costly, as land with low fertility was created through the permanent destruction of the wetland ecosystem and reclamation workers suffered physical and psychological mistreatment. Although the transformation of wetlands was completed quickly, food production fell far short of targets. Furthermore, the land reclamation campaign imposed irrevocable costs on the island's established communities.

From Wetlands to Farmlands: A Campaign Against Nature on China's Chongming Island, 1960-1962

To confront food insufficiency caused by the Great Leap Forward, China's central government promoted a national policy of 'agriculture as the priority'. The Shanghai municipal government launched a campaign to expand cultivated land within its jurisdiction by transforming wetlands on Chongming Island through a military-style campaign. Tens of thousands of urban workers were drafted into a Land Reclamation Army to meet national and municipal food self-sufficiency goals. Their campaign featured both attacks on nature and interpersonal abuse. In accordance with the central directives, wetlands totalling 8,000 hectares were drained for conversion into farmland. This conversion proved to be costly, as land with low fertility was created through the permanent destruction of the wetland ecosystem and reclamation workers suffered physical and psychological mistreatment. Although the transformation of wetlands was completed quickly, food production fell far short of targets. Furthermore, the land reclamation campaign imposed irrevocable costs on the island's established communitiesotivations in authoritarian regimes operating diverse political and economic agendas.

Maoism

Mao Zedong and his legacy may be given credit for effective innovation in conducting guerrilla warfare and mobilizing the peasantry to win a fifteen-year battle against the Guomindang and the Japanese. Stains on his legacy are the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.