¹ See, for example, Ta-k'ai, Chin, “The Problem of Administrative Divisions on the Mainland,” Min-chu P'ing-lun, 09 1955Google Scholar, who argues that changes in the size of local organs made little real historical difference anyway.

² Tun-jou, Ku, “Experiments in Local Government,” Yenching Journal of Social Studies, 07 1939.Google Scholar

³ The several levels were region, sub-region (fen-ch'ü), hsien, ch'ü, hsiang, administrative village (hsing-cheng ts'uri) village (ts'un). Lung-ying, Hsü, A Survey of the Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia Border Region, Part I, p. 47.Google Scholar

⁴ Tang, Peter, Communist China Today (London: Thames & Hudson, 1957), p. 268.Google Scholar

⁵ AD excellent description of this process in a particular village is found in Yang, C. K., A Chinese Village in Early Communist Transition, Part 2.Google Scholar

⁶ Adopted September 29, 1949. For excerpts see Kuo-chüm, Chao, Agrarian Policies of Mainland China: A Documentary Study (1949–1956) (Harvard Un. Press, 1957), pp. 6–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ Thomas, S. B., Government and Administration in Communist China (New York: I.P.R., 1955), p. 84.Google Scholar

⁸ Only 85 per cent, of those elegible to vote participated in this election, indicating a certain difficulty in explaining the electoral process to the population. Gudoshnikov, L. M., “Development of the Organs of Local Government and Administration in the PCG,” Sovetskoe Gosudarstvo i Pravo, No. 10, 10 1957, (JPRS 342D, U.S. Govt. Publication 17043/1958 microtext.)Google Scholar

⁹ “Organic Law of the Local People's Congresses and Local People's Councils of the PGS,” Article 42, in Documents of the First Session of the First National People's Congress of the PRC, p. 231.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Shabad, Theodore, China's Changing Map (London: Methuen, 1956), p. 25.Google Scholar

¹¹ Li-man, Chang, “Special Features in the Changes of Administrative Areas in China.” Cheng-fa Yen-chiu No. 5, 10 2, 1956.Google Scholar In Excerpts from China Mainland Magazines (ECMM) (Hong Kong: U.S. Consulate-General), No. 57.

¹² Shabad, , op. cit., p. 30.Google Scholar The process of administrative simplification at the upper levels had its parallel in Russia in the merger of the guberniya into larger units during the 1920s (p. 29).

¹³ See for example Article 38 of the Common Programme. (Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 7.)Google Scholar

¹⁴ Hsu, , Survey, Part II, p. 132.Google Scholar In Yenan about 27 per cent, of the population of the border region was organised in co-ops, and these were mostly m consumers' cooperatives.

¹⁵ Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 56.Google Scholar

¹⁶ The model co-operative of this form was the “South District Co-operative.” Hsu, , Survey, Part II, p. 120.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Central Committee, Chinese Communist Party; “Decisions on mutual aid and co-operativization in agricultural production,” in Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 61.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Chao, , loc. cit.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Tzu-hui, Teng, “Report to the Rural Work Conference of the Central Committee, New Democratic Youth League,” 07 15, 1954Google Scholar, Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 74.Google Scholar

²⁰ Loc. cit., p. 78. Teng later was to accuse himself of “rightist opportunism,” presumably because of this and similar speeches. (See his speech to the Eighth National Congress of the CPC, in volume II of the documents of that congress, p. 182.)

²¹ Preface to Socialist Upsurge in China's Countryside (Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1957), p. 8.Google Scholar

²² Op. cit. See for example the article “The Superiority of Large Co-ops.,” pp. 460–476.Google Scholar

²³ For this foresight Mikoyan was to congratulate the Chinese. See his speech to the Eighth National Congress, Documents of Eighth National Congress, Vol. III, p. 18.Google Scholar

²⁴ Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 55.Google Scholar

²⁵ “Model regulations for Advanced APCs,” article 31.

²⁶ Jen-min Shou-ts'e, 1957.Google Scholar

²⁷ I-yuan, Hsieh, “Delineation of Administrative Regions of the PRC,” Acta Geographica Sinica, No. 1, 02 1958 (JPRS 650D, U.S. Govt. Publication 17043/1958 microtext).Google Scholar

²⁸ “Changes in the Administrative Division of ch'ü and hsiang areas,” Shih-shih Shouts'e, 07 25, 1956.Google Scholar (Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 258, or ECMM, No. 48.)Google Scholar

²⁹ Hsieh, , op. cit.Google Scholar

³⁰ The State Council directive on simplification of December 27, 1955, also urged that all “non-productive man-power” be removed from administrative organs of state and sent down into the fields.

³¹ “Is hsiang State Power Organisation Still Required for a Co-operativised hsiang?” Hsüeh-hsi, No. 98, 08 2, 1956. (ECMM, No. 54.)Google Scholar

³² Kuang-ming Daily, 12 14, 1956. Quoted in China News Analysis No. 254.Google Scholar

³³ Documents of Eighth National Congress, Vol. II, p. 88.Google Scholar

³⁴ Hsüeh-hsi, loc. cit.

³⁵ For some vivid examples of this practice, see Union Research Service, Vol. 2, No. 6.Google Scholar The basic economic reason for the slaughter seems to have been that a dead cow was worth more than a live one. This was of course caused by a flooded market for live cattle. The state council was forced to issue a directive on this subject on December 30, 1955.

³⁶ During the first five-year plan (1952–57) some eight million peasants made the move (Kuo-chün, Chao, Economic Planning and Organisation in Mainland China: A Documentary Study (1949–1957) (Harvard Un. Press, 1959), Vol. 1, p. 144).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³⁷ Chao, , Economic Planning, Vol. 1, p. 120.Google Scholar

³⁸ See Union Research Service, Vol. 5, No. 20Google Scholar, and Chou En-lai's speech to the Eighth National Congress on the Second Five Year Plan, Documents of Eighth National Congress, Vol. II, p. 275.Google Scholar

³⁹ Jut-lung, Liu, “Conclusions at the conference on financial and accounting work of the APCs,” Chung-kuo Ching-nien Pao, No. 21 (1955).Google Scholar (Quoted in Chao, , Agrarian Policies, p. 117.)Google Scholar

⁴⁰ JMJP 07 6, 1956Google Scholar, reported that in Kirin 30–50 per cent, of APCs either keep books faultily or not at all. (China News Analysis, No. 164.)

⁴¹ On this inadequacy see Choh-ming, Li, Economic Development of Communist China (Berkeley: Un. of California Press, 1959), p. 58.Google Scholar

⁴² Speech of Chen-lin, T'an, Documents of Second Session of the Eighth National Congress of the CPC, p. 92.Google Scholar

⁴³ Choh-ming, Li, “Economic Development,” The China Quarterly, No. 1 (01–03 1960), p. 42.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Survey of the China Mainland Press (SCMP) (Hong Kong: U.S. Consulate-General), (No. 1268, April 4, 1956 summary). New China News Agency (NCNA).

⁴⁵ Speech of En-lai, Chou, Documents of Eighth National Congress, p. 310.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ That the Party was wary of over-expansion was learned by a visiting Indian delegation as early as summer, 1956. See their Report of the Indian Delegation to China on Agricultural Planning and Techniques (New Delhi: Government of India, Ministry of Food & Agriculture, 1956), p. 121.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ September 14, 1957. Directive “On Overhauling Co-operatives,” SCMP, No. 1618, p. 21.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ SCMP No. 1618, pp. 24–25.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Yin, Y. C. and Yin, Helen, Economic Statistics of Mainland China (1949–1957) (Harvard Un. Press, 1960), p. 38.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Chao, , Economic Planning, Vol. I, p. 157et seq.Google Scholar

⁵¹ In adopting this method, I am aware that it has major pitfalls, (a) In this paper no original provincial sources are used. I am therefore forced to rely on stories from the province which are picked up either by NCNA or the Hong Kong translation services, (b) Each province has peculiarities of its own which make generalisation from it to the national scene difficult, (c) Policy generally comes from above (especially after the moving of regional bases of power to the centre in 1954), but it is convenient to make it appear spontaneous.

At the same time, if one avoids these possible sources of error, the method may shed light on the detail of realities which affect central policy and particularly on the problems faced by local authorities in implementing policy.

⁵² SCMP, No. 1262, NCNA, Chengchow, March 24, 1956.

⁵³ For example the First Provincial Party Congress of July 1956 (SCMP, No. 1336, NCNA, Chengchow, 07 22, 1956Google Scholar). Nine other provinces held congresses at the same time. Note that the criticism of conservatism was still fashionable after the April decrees from the centre urging nationalisation. The cry of “leftist adventurism,” heard in the autumn, was probably a product of the Eighth Congress.

⁵⁴ SCMP, No. 1448, NCNA, Chengchow, December 26, 1956. Two interesting details of this communiqué are (a) the order to rural party headquarters to cease posting armed guards at the entrance to the party office, so as to “forge closer ties with the masses”; and (b) the order to cease undertaking construction of new buildings, purchase of new furniture, automobiles, entertaining of guests (except foreigners), and to cut back telephone and other miscellaneous expenses. Obviously a radical programme of saving was necessary to reduce administrative expense to a minimum.

⁵⁵ SCMP, No. 1416, NCNA, Chengchow, November 9, 1956.

⁵⁶ SCMP, No. 1319, NCNA, Chengchow, June 12, 1956.

⁵⁷ SCMP, No. 1362, NCNA, Chengchow, August 14, 1956.

⁵⁸ SCMP, No. 1433, People's Daily, 12 1, 1956.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ SCMP, No. 1433, NCNA, Chengchow, November 30, 1956.

⁶⁰ SCMP, No. 1696, Honan Daily, 12 13, 1957.Google Scholar

⁶¹ SCMP, No. 1636, NCNA, Chengchow, October 13, 1957.

⁶² SCMP, No. 1628, Kuang-ming Daily, 09 25, 1957.Google Scholar

⁶³ The meetings were:

“Water Conservancy Conference” October 21–27, SCMP, No. 1650. “Water Conservancy Forum” November 14, SCMP, No. 1659.

Second session of First Party Congress of Honan November 12–December 2, SCMP, No. 1671.

⁶⁴ Loc. tit.

⁶⁵ SCMP, No. 1650, NCNA, Chengchow, October 29, 1957.

⁶⁶ Rousset, David, “The new tyranny in the countryside,” Problems of Communism, 01–02 1959.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ SCMP, No. 1760, NCNA, April 24, 1958.

⁶⁸ SCMP, No. 1781, NCNA, May 13, 1958.

⁶⁹ SCMP, No. 1781, NCNA, Chengchow, May 12, 1958. It is interesting that one of the important advantages claimed for the first “model commune”—Weihsing—in Honan was that it encompassed both hilly and flat areas and thus could direct economic co-operation between these two ecologically different areas. (Ts'ai-ching Yen-chiu, No. 16, 09 15, 1958—ECMM, No. 148.)Google Scholar

⁷⁰ SCMP, No. 1780, NCNA, Chengchow, May 20, 1958.

⁷¹ Documents of Second Session of Eighth National Congress, p. 82.Google Scholar

⁷² The Party's case against P'an (as found in SCMP, No. 1838 passim and Current Background (CB) (Hong Kong: U.S. Consulate-General), No. 515 passim) was essentially that he was guilty of localism—i.e. of attempting to protect the citizens of his province from national pressures. One of the prime examples of this was that he, according to the indictment, claimed that “peasants get no grain for the next day” and were forced to eat stone powder. The Honan papers went to great pains to prove “scientifically” that in fact it was only disguised rich peasants who were pretending to eat stone powder in order to embezzle the government, and that P'an was in collusion with them (Honan Daily, 07 25, 1958, SCMP, No. 1838).Google Scholar

⁷³ Chih-p'u, Wu, “From APCs to People's Communes,” Red Flag, No. 8, 1958Google Scholar (in People's Communes in China (PCIC), p. 32).Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Hsin-hua Pan-yüeh K'an, No. 15, 1958, pp. 113–114Google Scholar; quoted in China News Analysis, No. 26.

⁷⁵ Wu, , op. cit., in PCIC, p. 34Google Scholar. The earliest mention of the term “people's commune” (Jen-min Kung-she) that I have discovered is in an article in Red Flag, No. 3, 1958Google Scholar, by Ch'en Po-ta entitled “Entirely New Society, Entirely New Man” (“Ch'üan-hsin-te She-hui, Ch'üan-hsin-te Jen”), p. 10.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Wu, , op. cit., p. 34.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ These purges were not, of course, restricted to Honan. They also occurred in Kansu, Liaoning, Yunnan, Shantung, Kwangsi and Chekiang (Sherman, A. V., “The People's Commune,” in Hudson, Geoffrey et al. , The Chinese Communes (London: Soviet Survey, 1959), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar For the Chekiang case of Sha Wen-han, the Governor of Chekiang accused of “localism” in December 1957, see Union Research Service, Vol. 10, No. 7Google Scholar). But P'an held the highest rank in the National Party (alternate member of the Central Committee) of any of the lot purged. There may also be some connection between the purges in the provinces and the drive to decentralise authority in late 1957. At any rate, since then a number of provincial figures such as Wn Chih-p'u, Ko Ch'ing-shih of Shanghai, and T'ao Chu of Kwangtung have risen to national prominence.

⁷⁸ e.g., by Governor Wu in an article for Chung-kuo Ch'ing-nien Pao, 09 16, 1958Google Scholar, entitled “On People's Communes” (CB, No. 524).

⁷⁹ “Hold High the Red Flag of People's Communes,” People's Daily editorial, 09 3, 1958, PCIC, p. 24.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ “Resolution of the CC CCP on the establishment of people's communes in the rural areas” (08 29, 1958), PCIC, p. 3.Google Scholar

⁸¹ “How to run a people's commune,” People's Daily editorial, 09 4, 1958, PCIC, p. 82.Google Scholar

⁸² Lo Keng-mo (vice-chairman, State Planning Commission), “Hsien Federations of People's Communes,” Ching-chi Yen-chiu, No. I, 1959. (ECMM, No. 159.)Google Scholar

⁸³ Fu-chi, Chao, “The System of One Commune for One hsien,” Ts'ad-ching Yen-chiu, No. 9, 1958. (ECMM, No. 156.)Google Scholar

⁸⁴ ibid. (Italics mine.)

⁸⁵ Shan, Wu and Kang-hou, Sheng, “The Unification of the State and the Commune,” Cheng-fa Yen-chiu, No. 1, 1959, pp. 4–8.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Liaoning Province Rural Work Department, “The Experience of Liaoning Province in Merging Co-operatives,” People's Daily, 09 2, 1958.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ PCIC, p. 5.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ “Tentative Regulations (Draft) of the Weihsing (Sputnik) People's Commune,” 08 7, 1958, PCIC, p. 68.Google Scholar