Read Mao's Great Famine Online

Authors: Frank Dikötter

Mao's Great Famine (61 page)

34
Macheng, 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 24; 11 Dec. 1960, 1-1-502, pp. 207 and 213; 16 April 1959, 1-1-383, p. 1.
35
Sichuan, 1961, JC1-2606, pp. 18–19.
36
Gansu, 16 Jan. 1961, 91-18-200, p. 94.
37
Hunan, 2–4 Sept. 1959, 141-1-1116, p. 11.
38
Macheng, 13 May 1961, 1-1-556, pp. 2–3; also 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 23.
39
Macheng, 18 April 1959, 1-1-406, p. 1.
40
Macheng, 29 Jan. and 2 Feb. 1959, 1-1-416, pp. 36 and 49; 26 April 1958, 1-1-431, p. 37.
41
Nanjing, 4003-1-150, 30 Dec. 1958, p. 89.

Chapter 8: Steel Fever

1
Yunnan, 8 Nov. 1958, 105-9-1, pp. 11–14; 11 March 1958, 105-9-6, pp. 71–4.
2
Mao,
Jianguo yilai
, vol. 7, p. 236.
3
Informal talks after main speeches by Mao Zedong as reported by Xie Fuzhi to the top leadership in Yunnan and Guizhou, Guiyang, 61-8-84, 28 May 1958, p. 2.
4
Lin Keng, ‘Home-Grown Technical Revolution’,
China Reconstructs
, Sept. 1958, p. 12.
5
Lin Yunhui,
Wutuobang yundong: Cong dayuejin dao dajihuang, 1958–1961
(Utopian movement: From the Great Leap Forward to the Great Famine, 1958–1961), Hong Kong: Xianggang zhongwen daxue dangdai Zhongguo wenhua yanjiu zhongxin, 2008, p. 132.
6
Guangdong, 31 Dec. 1960, 217-1-642, pp. 10–16.
7
These different figures are all discussed in MacFarquhar,
Origins
, vol. 2, pp. 88–90.
8
Gu Shiming, Li Qiangui and Sun Jianping,
Li Fuchun jingji sixiang yanjiu
(Research on Li Fuchun’s economic thought), Xining: Qinghai renmin chubanshe, 1992, p. 115.
9
The conversation was witnessed by Chen Yun; see Pang and Jin,
Mao Zedong zhuan
, pp. 824–5; see also Yunnan, 23 June 1958, 2-1-3276, pp. 1–9; Mao,
Jianguo yilai
, vol. 7, pp. 281–2.
10
Report from the Ministry of Metallurgy, Yunnan, 23 June 1958, 2-1-3276, pp. 1–9; see also Bo,
Ruogan zhongda shijian
, pp. 700–1.
11
Jin Chongji and Chen Qun (eds),
Chen Yun
, Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2005, p. 1143; see also Chan,
Mao’s Crusade
, pp. 73–4.
12
Yunnan, 10 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3276, pp. 99–100.
13
Yunnan, 16 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3101, pp. 105–23.
14
Yunnan, 17 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 58–78.
15
Yunnan, 20 Sept. 1958 and 5 Jan. 1959, 2-1-3318, pp. 1–5 and 10–19.
16
Yunnan, 23 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 147–9.
17
Yunnan, 25 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3101, p. 185.
18
Yunnan, 18 Oct. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 160 and 230; Oct. 1958, 2-1-3102, pp. 235–73.
19
Yunnan, 14 Dec. 1958, 2-1-3259, pp. 165–72.
20
Yunnan, 5 Jan. 1959, 2-1-3318, p. 18.
21
Macheng, 20 Jan. 1959, 1-1-378, p. 23.
22
Macheng, 15 Jan. 1959, 1-1-443, p. 10.
23
Interview with Zhang Aihua, born 1941, Dingyuan county, Anhui, Sept. 2006.
24
Nanjing, 1958, 4003-4-292, pp. 16 and 48–52.
25
Gansu, 20 May 1959, 91-18-114, p. 209.
26
Guojia tongjiju guomin jingji zonghe tongjisi (eds),
Xin Zhongguo wushi nian tongji ziliao huibian
(Compendium of statistical material on the new China’s first fifty years), Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, 1999, p. 3, quoted in Lin,
Wutuobang yundong
, p. 205.
27
Klochko,
Soviet Scientist
, p. 82.
28
Shanghai, 12 March 1959, B98-1-439, pp. 9–13.
29
Yunnan, 16 May 1959, 81-4-25, p. 2.
30
Yunnan, 8 Nov. 1958, 105-9-1, p. 15; also 105-9-3, pp. 9–16.
31
Yunnan, 29 July 1958, 2-1-3102, p. 19.
32
Yunnan, 21 April 1958, 2-1-3260, p. 116.
33
These can only be very rough approximations, and they varied from place to place: in Hunan the number of people who did not engage in agricultural tasks increased by 40 per cent after 1958; Hunan, 4 June 1959, 146-1-483, p. 116; in Shandong only 50 per cent of the workforce worked in the fields: talk by Tan Zhenlin, Gansu, 26 June 1959, 91-18-513, p. 16.
34
Yunnan, 29 July 1958, 2-1-3102, p. 21.
35
Guangdong, 5 Jan. 1961, 217-1-643, pp. 50–60.
36
Speech by Tan Zhenlin, Oct. 1958, Hunan, 141-2-62, p. 148.

Chapter 9: Warning Signs

1
Yunnan, 12 April 1958, zhongfa (58) 295, 120-1-75, pp. 2–4.
2
Hunan, 25 April 1958, 141-1-1055, pp. 66–7.
3
Yunnan, 20 Nov. 1958, 2-1-3078, pp. 116–23; 22 Aug. 1958, 2-1-3078, pp. 1–16.
4
Yunnan, 20 Nov. 1958, 2-1-3078, pp. 116–23.
5
Yunnan, 12 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3077, pp. 55–77; 12 Sept. 1958, 2-1-3076, pp. 97–105; Sept. 1958, 2-1-3075, pp. 104–22.
6
Yunnan, 28 Feb. 1959, 2-1-3700, pp. 93–8.
7
Yunnan, 16 May 1959, 81-4-25, p. 17; for the average death rate in 1957 see
Zhongguo tongji nianjian, 1984
, Beijing: Zhongguo tongji chubanshe, 1984, p. 83.
8
Mao,
Jianguo yilai
, vol. 7, pp. 584–5; the original is in Yunnan, 25 Nov. 1958, 120-1-84, p. 68; see also documents from the Zhengzhou conference, 25 Nov. 1958, Hunan, 141-2-76, pp. 99–103.
9
Hebei, 16 April 1961, 884-1-202, pp. 35–47.
10
Hebei, 19 Feb. 1961, 856-1-227, p. 3.
11
Hebei, 25 Dec. 1958, 855-4-1271, pp. 58–65.
12
Hebei, 18 Oct. 1958, 855-4-1270, pp. 1–7.
13
Hebei, 23 Oct. 1958, 855-4-1271, pp. 25–6.
14
Hebei, 24 Oct. 1958, 855-4-1271, pp. 42–3.
15
Hunan, 5 Nov. 1958, 141-1-1051, p. 123.
16
Li Jingquan at provincial party committee, Sichuan, 17 March 1959, JC1-1533, pp. 154–5.
17
Gansu, 25 Jan. 1959, 91-18-114, p. 113.
18
For instance an extra 600,000 tonnes was shipped to Beijing and 800,000 to Shanghai; see Shanghai, 12 March 1959, B98-1-439, pp. 9–13.
19
Yunnan, 18 Dec. 1958, 2-1-3101, pp. 301, 305–12.

Chapter 10: Shopping Spree

1
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing, 6 Sept. 1963, 109-3321-2, pp. 82–5.
2
K. A. Krutikov,
Na Kitaiskom napravlenii: Iz vospominanii diplomata
, Moscow: Institut Dal’nego Vostoka, 2003, p. 253; see also T. G. Zazerskaya,
Sovetskie spetsialisty i formirovanie voenno-promyshlennogo kompleksa Kitaya (1949–1960 gg.)
, St Petersburg: Sankt Peterburg Gosudarstvennyi Universitet, 2000.
3
AVPRF, Moscow, 9 March 1958, 0100-51-6, papka 432, p. 102.
4
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Beijing, 10 June 1958, 109-828-30, pp. 176–7.
5
George Ginsburgs, ‘Trade with the Soviet Union’, in Victor H. Li,
Law and Politics in China’s Foreign Trade
, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977, p. 100.
6
BArch, Berlin, 2 Dec. 1958, DL2-4037, pp. 31–9.
7
Jahrbuch 1962
, Berlin, 1962, p. 548, and MfAA, Berlin, 25 Nov. 1963, C572-77-2, p. 191.
8
BArch, Berlin, 7 Jan. 1961, DL2-4039, p. 7; 1959, DL2-VAN-172.
9
See
Zhou Enlai nianpu
, vol. 2, pp. 149, 165, 231, 256, quoted in Zhang Shu Guang,
Economic Cold War: America’s Embargo against China and the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1963
, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001, pp. 212–13.
10
See p. 105.
11
A. Boone, ‘The Foreign Trade of China’,
China Quarterly
, no. 11 (Sept. 1962), p. 176.
12
BArch, Berlin, 6 Oct. 1957, DL2-1932, pp. 331–2.
13
Lawrence C. Reardon,
The Reluctant Dragon: Crisis Cycles in Chinese Foreign Economic Policy
, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2002, pp. 91–2.
14
Martin Kitchen,
A History of Modern Germany, 1800–2000
, New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2006, p. 336.
15
MfAA, Berlin, 27 Sept. 1958, A6861, p. 145.
16
Ibid., pp. 151–2.

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