Ｐｅｏｐｌｅ’ｓ Ｃｏｍｍｕｎｅｓ

Ｂｙ　ＳＨＵＡＮＧ　ＳＨＵＡＮＧ

CHINAs individual agricultural economy based on private ownership was transformed into cooperative economy based on public ownership between 1949 and 1956. During this time span the “communistic commune,” the “collective farm” and the “peoples commune” successively appeared in rural areas. In 1958, shortly after Chairman Mao Zedong said, “It is good to establish peoples communes,” the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China established peoples communes throughout the country. Documents at that time stated: “The realization of communism in our country is not a thing of remote future. We must actively establish peoples communes and explore a concrete way to communism.” By the end of October 1958, more than 26,000 peoples communes housing 120 million rural households — 99 percent of all rural households in China — had been set up.

The peoples commune was a collectively owned economic organization representing the grass-roots organ of state power in rural areas. It was involved in agricultural, industrial and commercial activities. Agricultural technology was popularized in the two decades during which the peoples communes operated, and more than 87,000 reservoirs and many embankments were built that harnessed Chinas major rivers and lakes. Most important, the health care system covering the countrys entire rural areas was formed.

The equalitarianism and ultraleft policies prevalent in peoples communes that took no account of economic development level, however, severely encroached on farmers economic interests and hampered rural productivity. Members of communes also lacked decision-making power. China carried out dramatic rural reforms in 1978 in the form of the household contract responsibility system that acted as an incentive to farmers. Peoples communes had vanished by the early 1980s.