How did China overcome the Great Famine?
During the 1990s the worst droughts and floods in China’s modern history had only a marginal effect on the country’s adequate food supply. Only a return to more rational economic policies after 1961, including imports of grain, ended the famine. China’s opening up to the world made a key difference.
Who was Mao’s second in command?
Rise to prominence. Lin’s support impressed Mao, who continued to promote Lin to higher political offices. After Mao’s second-in-command, President Liu Shaoqi, was denounced as a “capitalist roader” in 1966, Lin Biao emerged as the most likely candidate to replace Liu as Mao’s successor.
How did the Great Leap Forward impact China?
The Great Leap Forward reversed the downward trend in mortality that had occurred since 1950, though even during the Leap, mortality may not have reached pre-1949 levels. Famine deaths and the reduction in number of births caused the population of China to drop in 1960 and 1961.
What was Mao’s Great Leap Forward?
The Great Leap Forward had already been announced in 1958 as a revolutionizing of the entire country. Mao argued that it was necessary for China to “strike while the iron was hot,” and press forward through willpower and dedication.
What happened to China in 1969 during the Cultural Revolution?
Amid the chaos, the Chinese economy plummeted, with industrial production for 1968 dropping 12 percent below that of 1966. In 1969, Lin was officially designated Mao’s successor. He soon used the excuse of border clashes with Soviet troops to institute martial law.
What is a cult of Maoism?
A personality cult quickly sprang up around Mao, similar to that which existed for Josef Stalin, with different factions of the movement claiming the true interpretation of Maoist thought. The population was urged to rid itself of the “Four Olds”: Old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas.
What happened to the Red Guard movement in China?
With different factions of the Red Guard movement battling for dominance, many Chinese cities reached the brink of anarchy by September 1967, when Mao had Lin send army troops in to restore order. The army soon forced many urban members of the Red Guards into rural areas, where the movement declined.