China's first 5 year plan (1953–1957) was quite successful with regards to industrial growth. The remaining private industries were brought under state control (agricultural land reform had been ongoing since the civil war), and with technical support from the soviet union, a large increase in the production in industries like coal, steel, and machinery was accomplished. Agricultural growth and collectivization saw progress but to a smaller degree. It'd be interesting to see how things would have went had they kept this up, but they decided to do the Great Leap Forward instead, which was, to sum it up, too ambitious. Then after the Sino-Soviet split (one of the greatest tragedies in the history of communism imo), they had lost the technical support of the Soviets as well as their economic and military relations. This is likely one of the larger reasons for the PRC opening up to the west and the market reforms.
Critical support to the PRC, but it's true they have made a good deal of blunders (along with the USSR). There's not really a reason why China couldn't have developed its productive forces without the market reforms, of course, but the picture is a bit more nuanced than the party selling out to the capitalists (why not just fully liberalize the country and make themselves the new oligarchs in that case?) What I wish would've happened is that China and the USSR had made nice and stomped on the capitalists together instead.
China's first 5 year plan (1953–1957) was quite successful with regards to industrial growth. The remaining private industries were brought under state control (agricultural land reform had been ongoing since the civil war), and with technical support from the soviet union, a large increase in the production in industries like coal, steel, and machinery was accomplished. Agricultural growth and collectivization saw progress but to a smaller degree. It'd be interesting to see how things would have went had they kept this up, but they decided to do the Great Leap Forward instead, which was, to sum it up, too ambitious. Then after the Sino-Soviet split (one of the greatest tragedies in the history of communism imo), they had lost the technical support of the Soviets as well as their economic and military relations. This is likely one of the larger reasons for the PRC opening up to the west and the market reforms.
Critical support to the PRC, but it's true they have made a good deal of blunders (along with the USSR). There's not really a reason why China couldn't have developed its productive forces without the market reforms, of course, but the picture is a bit more nuanced than the party selling out to the capitalists (why not just fully liberalize the country and make themselves the new oligarchs in that case?) What I wish would've happened is that China and the USSR had made nice and stomped on the capitalists together instead.