'Forward Leap' in Reverse:
PING-FAN, YU
Famine in China-Two Articles 'FORWARD LEAP' IN REVERSE By Yu Ping-fan Instead of making its usual yearend claims of agricultural success, Peking last month announced the worst natural...
...Statements by the Party's Central Committee since its last meeting have indicated that all possible efforts must be devoted to agriculture...
...Despite the famine, increasing amounts of foodstuffs have been collected from the farmers for export...
...In 1960, for example, the Chinese Communists maintained a high level of grain export to the Soviet Union and Communist bloc countries...
...1. Neglect of agricultural development...
...According to figures given by Food Minister Sha Chien-li, annual taxation and collection of food grain rose steadily between 1952 and 1959...
...In addition, there was a great deal of sabotage by the farmers, who thus express their resentment at being deprived of their property, tools, materials and privacy...
...Peking had to find some scapegoat for the starvation and the natural calamities were conveniently at hand...
...The Central Committee has ordered that the original economic plan for 1961 be scrapped and that a new one be drawn up which concentrates on improving agriculture...
...Aside from natural disasters, however, there are three major causes which are relevant to China's present acute food shortage...
...In the spring of 1960, Party leaders, aware of the urgent food problem, gave increased attention to agriculture and sent their "best functionaries" to the countryside to improve production...
...Drought, the most severe damaging agent, was so severe that "during more than 40 days in March-June the flow of water in the lower Yellow River was interrupted or nearly interrupted" and "eight of the 12 main rivers in Shantung province were dried up completely...
...The Chinese are purchasing chemical fertilizers in Europe, too, in an effort to improve crop yields...
...3. "Starvation Export...
...Recent reports indicate that in most provinces the daily grain ration is now only one-third to one-half of a pound for each full laborer, and one-sixth to one-third of a pound for each half laborer or person without labor value...
...The collection after 1959 must have been even greater...
...While grain flows ont of China to earn foreign exchange and to pay for goods from Communist countries, Peking is trying to import foodstuffs from non-Communist countries...
...With the exception of 1951 and 1957, the damaged area rose every year...
...As a result of these starvation rations, the post offices in Hong Kong are full of parcels for China...
...and the amount of damage made a great leap forward in 1958, the very year in which Peking launched its Great Leap Forward program...
...record shipments of 8,500 tons were sent in January and February, topping the average rate for 1960 when a total of 74,000 tons were sent...
...Suitably exaggerated, it was hoped, they would explain everything...
...These announcements were clearly designed to tell the Chinese people and the world that it was neither Communism, nor the People's Commune system...
...It is buying over one million tons of wheat and 40,000 tons of flour, valued at $60 million, from Australia...
...Much of the conflict and confusion which occurred in the economic sector during 1960 can be traced to a lack of planning...
...As a result of drought and waterlogging, many areas were heavily damaged by insect plague...
...Entire harvests were wiped out in some areas...
...Yu Ping-Fan is a veteran journalist who has written several books on contemporary Chinese affairs...
...The following official figures on natural damage to land during the past 11 years tell the grim story: 12.5 million acres were damaged by drought and floods in 1950, 9 million in 1951, 11 million in 1952, 16 million in 1953, 30 million in 1954, 31.2 million in 1955, 48 million in 1956, 46.7 million in 1957, 80 million in 1958, 100 million in 1959, and finally 150 million in 1960...
...the food shortage has reached the proportions of a national tragedy...
...But life for the Chinese people has become increasingly difficult...
...It is hoped that the situation will improve next year, but it is already too late to save hundreds of thousands who will die in China before this winter is over...
...And figures just made public reveal that rice exports to Hong Kong have risen in the last two months...
...Even in Canton, usually comparatively well-supplied because of its proximity to Hong Kong and Macao, the monthly per capita vegetable ration has been reduced from one-third to one-sixth of a pound...
...nor the Administration in Peking that was to blame for the terrible starvation which is stalking the Chinese mainland...
...Famine in China-Two Articles 'FORWARD LEAP' IN REVERSE By Yu Ping-fan Instead of making its usual yearend claims of agricultural success, Peking last month announced the worst natural catastrophes China has known for 100 years...
...The interruption of water flow in the lower section of the Yellow River from March through June must have been due to blocking of the upper valley by unfinished construction projects...
...Even though the Party was aware of disaster, the growth rate of agriculture remained very low—only half that of the coal industry and only one-third of the respective rates for the iron and steel industries...
...In 1958, the Government instituted the Great Leap Forward, a program of intensive industrialization, and Communist party chief Mao Tse-tung promised the people that with hard work the appearance of the entire country would be changed in three years...
...2. Non-coordination of interdependent projects...
...The New China News Agency disclosed that some 150 million acres, or more than half of the cultivated acreage, were stricken in different degrees by drought, typhoons and floods...
...Peking has also contracted for 350,000 tons of rice from Burma, and arrangements have been made for purchasing wheat from Canada...
...This is described as Australia's biggest wheat deal since World War I. The flour is being shipped now, and the wheat deliveries will be completed by the end of June...
...Since 1958, the Government's principal economic concern has been industry, particularly heavy industries such as iron, steel and coal...
Vol. 44 • February 1961 • No. 9
