132 { China’s Quest
was taken via collectivization, with farmers living in poverty and kept in line
by fear of losing their grain rations and of the political police, plus a good
dose of propaganda and promise of a bright communist future.
Once in state hands, agricultural goods were used in three ways. Some
small portion of it was returned by commune cadres to the farmers for sub-
sistence rations. Another portion went to feed nonagricultural industrial and
urban workers; state-supplied food rations became a major part of the income
of the expanding industrial workforce. Finally, agricultural produce could
be exported to pay for imports of machinery and equipment with which to
industrialize China.
Marxist-Leninist doctrine linked the speed of industrialization to the tran-
sition from socialism to communism. It taught that a high level of industri-
alization would, under the governance of the dictatorship of the proletariat,
create the material basis for transition to communism. Advocates within the
CCP elite of a somewhat slower-paced approach were in favor of China’s in-
dustrialization, rise as a great power, and eventual transition to communism,
but favored taking a bit longer to accomplish those grand goals. Mao called
this perspective “conservative, rightist opposition.” The “rightist opposition”
advocated greater investment in food and consumer goods, and believed that
a more relaxed political atmosphere (i.e., de-Stalinization) was possible be-
cause rising living standards would generate higher levels of popular support.
Defeating this “rightist opposition” was one of Mao’s key domestic objectives.
Struggle against Soviet “revisionism” and against US “imperialism” was an
important aspect of Mao’s struggle to direct the revolution in the correct
direction
The program of de-Stalinization prescribed by Khrushchev was antithetical
to the program of hyperindustrialization wrought by Stalin and prescribed by
Mao circa 1958. De-Stalinization meant reining in the organs of repression
and terror to create a more relaxed, less fearful atmosphere. De-Stalinization
also involved a shift of investment from heavy and defense industries to con-
sumer goods, agriculture, and public utilities. During a campaign of hyperin-
dustrialization, people’s lives would necessarily be harsh; they would have to
work long and hard while living in extremely spartan conditions. Of course,
there would be opposition and resistance that would have to be broken. People
could not be motivated primarily by individual gain. Too few goods beyond
bare subsistence would be available for that. Rather, people would need to
be motivated by fear. Propaganda and constant exhortation would help. But
those moral incentives would have to be paralleled by fear of state violence.
Mao was also beginning to see defects in the Soviet model adopted in the
early 1950s. As noted earlier, by 1958 Mao had reached the conclusion that
that model would not take China’s revolution where Mao knew it needed to
go, toward utopian communism. Mao called forth new policies designed to
move China in a correct direction, toward communism: mass mobilization