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Impact on Economy
"The Proletarian Cultural Revolution had
a strong power over the economic production of China."
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The CR was provided as above, and promoted. But the actual result was completely
reverse, for ten-years the CR drove the economy of China into the depth of collapse. It
was the group of Jiang that caused the destruction of production. They fabricated various
excuses to distract the flow of production. They condemned a basic theory that production
power decides the relation of production and the character of a society as
"Revisionism". They said, "if the people just do revolution, production
will be better naturally."
They also agitated workers openly as saying, "don't fear to stop production and
work." They criticized the "Four Modernization" which Zhou suggested as
"Capitalism". And they criticized anything such as the socialism, that
distributes to one's work as "economical substructure to born reactionary bourgeois
authorities", that workers had an interest of the civil life as "stimulating the
people by matter", and introduction of technological plant as "worshipping and
toadying to foreign countries".
Most officers and workers complained about this type of status quo, and made an effort to
produce. But as a result workers couldn't refrain from being oppressed by haphazard
slogans created by Jiang's groups. Production and construction was destroyed terribly,
besides, a birth control program was abandoned. Consequently the population of China
increased rapidly, and the quality of civil life deteriorated rapidly.
Food
As far as food concerned, annual consumption of grain per head of 1966 and 1976 decreased
as 1966 was 190.5 kilogram, 1976 was 191.5 kilogram when compared with that of 1956, 204.5
kilogram that was the best.
In the field of clothes, annual consumption of cotton per hear decreased in 1966 as 20
feet and 1976 as 23.7 feet, compared with that of 1959, 29.2 feet that was the best.
Where housing was concerned, because the investment for housing construction decreased
vastly, the people living in cities worried about housing.
And the CR made relation of national economy loses their balance. Heavy industry occupied
32.7% as a whole in 1966, the figure raised to 38.9% in 1976. On the other hand, that of
agriculture decreased from 35.9% to 30.4%, at the same time light industry also decreased
from 31.4% to 30.7%. In the field of agriculture, grain was considered important, though
industrial crops such as cotton, sesame, tobacco and hemp, forestry, dairy and fishery
were neglected. Consequently output of grain increased relatively, but on the other hand
general output of agriculture decreased.
Besides, the balance of ecological system was destroyed The balance between output of
industry and agriculture and traffic and transportation had collapsed. Output of industry
got more than twice during the ten years, but quantity of freight transport increased only
28.2% at the same time. Freight didn't apply to transport, they were in a heap, and the
distribution drove into tie-up.
Thus, during the ten years, the economy in China was driven to near collapse. Of course,
most part of the people had a drought of slogan uttered by Jiang's group and made an
effort to produce. Even though the fact that the people couldn't escape from such
confusion represents how big authority Jiang's group had been grasped in those days. In
that sense, ten years during the CR was just "disaster" for the people.
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