China Has Gone Through Tough Times

But what our nation experienced then, or even during the Great Depression, was nothing to compared to the hardships that the Chinese people endured during the 1950's, 60's and 70’s.

In 1949, Chairman Mao and the newly formed People’s Republic initiated China’s fall into deep poverty when the centuries-old practice of private land ownership was ended. In 1950, the Agrarian Reform Act ended land ownership by landlords who were then considered “enemies of the state”. This was the beginning of China’s famed “Cultural Revolution”.

These landlords owned large amounts of land, but also provided plots of land to their tenant farmers. This system of land ownership allowed the Chinese people a means of growing their own crops to sustain themselves. Unfortunately, when Mao’s government took their land away, they also took the private plots of land away from millions of tenant farmers.

Land collectivization followed in the mid-1950’s, when Mao and the Communist Party decided to use Stalin’s model of collectivization to take greater control of the country. In the beginning, families were forced to help each other farm each other’s plots, but eventually all farmland was combined because it could be cultivated more “efficiently” by collectives.

To make the collectivization work, communes were formed that were designed to break families apart. Some people were moved to dormitories so that family members would be separated.

The Communists did not limit their destructive policies to farmers; small businesses were closed down as the government assumed their roles, forcing them back to farming for a living. This eventually led to a shortage of people who could work in industry, mining, or construction jobs.

In 1959, the government began their “Great Leap Forward” policy, which was designed to force people from farms back into urban areas. The influx of people into the cities was so great that most of them were forced back to their farms, where they literally because prisoners to their government jobs.

The Communists felt threatened by citizens who had been well educated before the Cultural Revolution began. These people were branded as “bourgeois intellectuals”, and were terribly abused or killed.

In the late 1950’s, as a part of the Great Leap Forward program, Chairman Mao decided that China should become a leader in the world’s production of steel. His goal was to exceed the amount of steel that was produced by Great Britain for the symbolic value that it would give to Communism. A defeat of Great Britain in the world steel market would signify communism’s defeat of capitalism and colonialism.

Mao’s policy forced farmers to stop farming and to start building “backyard furnaces” where their tools and anything else they owned that was metal was melted down to be given to the state. The steel they produced was of little quality; the worst of it was that they no longer had the tools they needed to farm with, leading to more poverty and starvation.

Another ill-fated campaign by Chairman Mao and the Communist Party was called “Wipe Out the Four Pests”. The entire nation was directed to kill all rats, flies, mosquitoes, and sparrows. The policy led to the destruction of all kinds of birds, not just sparrows. Without enough birds, the insect population got out of control, wiping out crops. This led to a complete collapse of what little agricultural system they had, and to a famine that caused 30 million Chinese people to starve to death.

When we look at how well China is doing now, it is easy to feel bitter about the thousands of jobs that are moving to China, that is unless you know at least some of their history. Then perhaps it is more understandable and even remarkable to observe how well they are doing.

Let’s be thankful that we live in a country where we are still free to own our own land and to own a business, and that we have never suffered the hardships that the Chinese people have endured. Even more important, we as Christians and as Americans need to be willing to fight to keep those freedoms, because believe it or not, there are still plenty of people out there who think Communism is the right way to live.