Lauren+Pl

Q. To what extent did Chiang Kia Shek implement the Principle of People’s livelihood in the period 1928 – 1937? Chiang Kia Shek implemented the Principle of the People’s Livelihood to some extent seeing changes to the economy of China, however they did little to stimulate it more to work in favour of his own individual gains. //**This sentence needs some work.**// Chiang Kia Shek’s personal opinion towards democracy saw the abandonment of the ideology completely; however the 2nd principle of Sun Yet – sen’s ‘three principles’ (Nationalism, Democracy, People’s livelihood) was seen as a valuable sacrifice in order to provide a more efficient government for the people. Sun Yat-sen was clear that his government must accept responsibility for providing food, clothing, shelter and transport. Similarly, transport, communication and industry were modernised, finances were reorganized, education was advanced and agricultural productivity resolved. At first //**add in a date here 1928 etc**// Chiang’s government seemed to be successfully following these guidelines given to them by Sun and achieved a lot during the period of 1932-1937 but became obsessed with the fascist government which saw him move away from Sun’s three principles. **//good - perhaps mention his connection with Germany//**

Chiang’s government implemented the principle of livelihood in the development of infrastructure to modernise the state, however well he did this, his main reasoning was solely for military improvement. The Guangzhou-Hankou railway was completed in 1936 and the railway network expanded dramatically between 1928 and 1937 from 8000 to 13000 kilometres of track. The next advancement was 115 703 kilometres of sealed highway in 1936 from 1000 kilometres in 1921. However these establishments were not developed for the economy, purely designed for military use. Post offices were increased from 10 000 to 14 000 in 1936 and 95 000 telegraph lines had been constructed. This was done to benefit the people, but Chaing’s government had military improvement imprinted in their minds**//. there is a good level of detail here.//**

In 1935 another modernisation occurred as Chaing’s government sought to bring the nation together with all silver nationalized and a paper currency (fa-pi) was issued by four major banks. Four major banks were constructed each with its own specific responsibilities; the Central bank (currency stability), Bank of China (foreign exchange), Farmers Bank (land mortgages) and Bank of Communication (domestic industry). This evidently resulted in major financial problems, without any income tax the government relied on customs, salt tax and consumption taxes. Military expenses increased and lead to 87 per cent of the budget being spent on military resources. This was especially felt by the poor whose taxes rose and the simplest of necessities were being taxed, this lead to a major downfall. During this period industrial production also grew at the annual rate of 6 per cent. Modern industry was devoted to the coastal cities especially the treaty ports where products such as iron and coal were exported however, only provided a high return for foreign capitalists. Factory production and mining never employed more than 2 million, and these sectors produced no more that 10 per cent on the Gross National Product. The problem was simply lack of consumer demand, and until the 70 per sent of people employed on the countryside broke its economic stagnation it was doubtful to improve, leading to the lack of Unification.

Education was seen as an approach to achieve national unity, and the Nationalist government was determined to develop skills needed for this to become successful. A national language was made compulsory and an administration system was established. This seemed to be effective, between 1935 and 1937 school enrolments rose from 13 million to 23 million however, educational opportunities weren’t evenly distributed. It appeared that regardless of the fourfold increase there was still only a total secondary enrolment of 545 207 in a population of 450 million. Nonetheless the illiteracy of the majority of the population was seeing increasing problem for the Nationalist government. Chiang’s government did attempt to improve the education of the nation; little was done to establish schools and working opportunities on the countryside where 70 per cent of the population lived. The nationalist government did very little for the 350 peasants that lived on the countryside of China, where he gained no support. However the peasantry condition was made worse due to a series of natural disasters. Between 1929 and 1931 famine hit nine of China’s northern and north-western provinces, resulting in 25 million people suffering from malnutrion. Even through this disastrous period the wealthy still armed themselves to steer off those who begged for food. In 1931 floods cause more destruction in five provinces of Central China. The government did little to provide aid to those who lost homes and crops this resulted in a lack of support for the government and of national unity. Coping with this and the famine the poor and to deal with the warlords who imposed a multitude of gruelling taxes. Peasants had to rent their land and rates ranged from 2 to 5 per sent a month, this was not understood by the illiterate and Chaing’s government did very little to support those who did not understand.

The government did make a serious attempt to increase the agricultural activity of Chinese farms. Chaing’s government looked researched into new seed varieties, pesticides and fertilizers, the introduction of disease-resistant plants and better marketing techniques to help improve silk, cotton and tea production. This was seen to be a big project however, the lack of money soon destroyed these plans, and only 4 per cent of expenditure for 1934-36 was devoted to economic development and a only a bit of this went to agriculture. The great depression didn’t help this either as farm product prices fell immensely. The Nationalist government didn’t attempt to make any plans to redistribute land amongst the peasants – this was a vital factor in Sun’s principle of livelihood and evidently this lost him support which made him unable to unify China. No serious attempt was ever made and rents ranged from 50 to 60 per cent of the total crop, by 1937 the majority of China’s population was in poverty and ignorance. The Nationalist government had officially turned its back on China’s peasants and supporters of the government even acknowledged its failure of Sun’s rural policy.

Chiang Kai Shek lost his opportunity to win the support of the peasantry, and spent those ten years of government more concerned about himself //**too informa**//l and the needs of the military that the needs of the population and ultimately the unifying of China. He had the right theories however, when he began to implement the principles he did not succeed as his greed for ultimate control lost him the battle. While Chiang was left trying to gain support Mao Zedong was persuading his government that the future laid in the peasantry and in equal opportunities.


 * //Lauren: The body of the essay is good. You have a high level of detail. The introduction however, lacks clarity. You need to make sure you summarise the key points in the intro and expand upon them as you go through. The conclusion shows me you know what you are talking about but it is too informal in the language you have used. Otherwise well done.//**