ABSTRACT

We have seen in the previous chapters that the late Maoist development strategy pursued between 1963 and 1978 was nothing if not ambitious. Its most radical element was the programme of superstructural change which will for ever bear the name of the Cultural Revolution. But late Maoism was about much more than that. It was in its essentials a strategy of rural development. Collective farming was seen as the answer to the problem of low productivity in farming. Rural industrialization would transform the countryside, facilitate the modernization of agriculture and provide the basis for China’s military security. And the expansion of rural education would not only underpin both programmes, but would also help to bring about an increase in life expectancy and a reduction in morbidity. To what extent did late Maoism succeed?