In fact the national bourgeoisie were assisted by the new
Last updated: 10/19/2023
In fact the national bourgeoisie were assisted by the new government by 1953 the number of privately owned industries had increased from 123 000 to 150 000 while the number of workers in private firms rose from 1 6 million to 2 2 million In all this private sector accounted for almost 40 per cent of China s industrial output The government even used nationalist pleas to encourage some of those who had fled in 1949 to return to aid economic reconstruction and help develop and modernise China s economy The Communists concentrated on dealing with unemployment by placing large state contracts with private firms and improving workers pay and rights by insisting that firms paid a minimum wage and paid holidays to workers In addition the government controlled access to raw materials However private firms still operated as capitalist ventures receiving profits though these were controlled that gave were big enough to give these national capitalists a very comfortable life style The transition to socialism 1953 55 As a result of the Treaty of Friendship Alliance and Mutual Assistance signed between the Soviet Union and China in January 1950 China was to receive financial and technical assistance from the USSR for the next 15 years Further agreements were made in 1953 1954 and 1956 Although the financial assistance mainly consisted of short term credits rather than loans over 10000 Soviet engineers were sent to China all this helped create 300 modern industrial plants By 1952 the leaders of the CCP felt they had achieved sufficient economic recovery to move on to their promised ten years of development In November 1952 acting on Soviet advice Mao set up a State Planning Commission headed by Gao Gang to design a Five Year Plan to expand and modernise China s economy in both agriculture and industry Initially however China s involvement in the Korean War until 1953 see Chapter 5 meant there was little surplus funding for this project When the Plan was first announced in late 1952 total industrial and agricultural production despite the revival of China s war wrecked economy was still only at mid 1930s levels while modern transportation systems were still largely lacking Nonetheless in January democratic nhase of the 1952