COMUNIST CHINA: ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE 'DOWN TO THE COUNTRYSIDE' MOVEMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85T00875R001600030058-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 15
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 24, 2011
• Sequence Number: 58
• Publication Date: May 1, 1970
• Content Type: IM

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DIRECTORATE OF
INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence Memorandum
Communist China: Economic Aspects
Of The "Down To The Countryside" Movement
Cad idential
ER IM 70-58
May 1970
Copy No. 42
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WARNING
This document contains information affecting the national
defense of the United States, within the meaning of Title
18, sections 793 and 794, of the US Code, as amended.
Its transmission or revelation of its contents to or re-
ceipt by an unauthorized person is prohibited by law.
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CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
May 1970
Communist China: Economic Aspects Of The
"Down To The Countryside" Movement
Since August 1968, the Chinese Communist regime has been moving large
numbers of city residents of various skills and ages to rural areas in a "down
to the countryside" movement. This movement has received much attention
because it began during the Cultural Revolution and because it emLadies
some rather utopian ideological objectives. There are earlier precedents for
such urban-rural movements in China and this movement has many of the
same objectives of these earlier movements. There are indications, however,
that the Chinese regime also views this movement as an integral part of its
current efforts at rural development. This memorandum briefly reviews the
background of the movement, explores the scope of the movement, and the
potential economic impact of the movement.
Background
1. The assignment of graduates of middle schools and some graduates of
colleges to posts in rural areas has been a fairly regular phenomenon in
Communist China since 1957. In addition, semiskilled migrants to industry
were returned to agricultural production after the Great Leap Forward in
1958-59. Cadres have been assigned to agricultural labor on many occasions
during the past 13 years as the result of periodic "criticism" campaigns.
Subsequent to 1963, some temporary transfers of medical personnel to rural
Note: This memorandum was produced solely by CIA. It was prepared by the Office of
Economic Research and was coordinated with the Office of Current Intelligence, the
Office of National Estimates.
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areas were also undertaken by the regime on an experimental basis. Lastly,
the current movement of teachers into the countryside reflects, in some
respects, the experiments with "work-study" schools of the late 1950s. In
sum, the present "down to the countryside" movement is a much broader
form of a number of phenomena that have occurred previously in
Communist China.
2. The political and ideological aims of the current "down to the
countryside" movement-for example, the creation of a race of "new",
selfless Chinese and the elimination of social and economic institutions
which give rise to Soviet-style "bourgeois revisionism"-have dominated
most discussions of the movement. Nevertheless, an economic objective may
also be perceived-albeit somewhat dimly-in the movement. This objective
appears to be the promotion of increases in agricultural production by
supplying the rural production force with persons more capable of both
introducing and applying inudern technology to agricultural production. In
this respect, the "down to the countryside" movement parallels and is
complementary to other current regime policies which appear to be aimed at
increasing the capital inputs to rural production.*
Scope of the Movement
3. As with China's population, the number of persons moved from
urban to rural areas in the past two years is not known with any precision.
a total of more
than 71/2 million in the period August 1968 to January 1970 (see the Table).
The gaps in the coverage of these reports suggest that the number of persons
affected by this movement since August 1968 may be three or four times
this total. As with earlier attempts at urban-to-rural population movements,
some illegal reverse flow has occurred and, in any case, some transferrees
were sent out on only temporary assignment. Nevertheless, the movement of
people has been large; it is still continuing, and it may have more permanent
effects than such earlier movements.
Type of Personnel
4. Five general categories of personnel are affected by the movement:
students, technical personnel, teachers, medical personnel, and cadres. Each
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of these categories has been transferred for different reasons, and some of
the personnel have been transferred permanently and others temporarily.
Duration of assignments depends upon the nature of their work which
determines the degree of problems involved in the transfer. For example,
students, teachers, some medical personnel, and some cadres who are
assigned permanent rural posts must be integrated into the rural economy.
Technical and medical personnel who visit rural areas in mobile teams and
cadres attending May 7th schools* generally do not have to be integrated.
5. Students form by far the largest category of personnel affected by the
movement-perhaps as much as 70% of all those transferred. Government
policy is to send 90% of the middle-school and university students of the
classes of 1966, 1967, 1968, and 1969 to PLA farms, state farms, rural
construction projects, or rural communes. Although students have been
assigned to rural posts over the past ten years, the number of students sent
down since the fall of 1968 has been larger than previously for several
reasons. First, many students re-entered the cities from rural areas during the
Cultural Revolution to take part in Red Guard activities. The regime is now
returning these students to the countryside, partly in an attempt to break up
the factionalism which accompanied the Red Guard movement. Second,
students who would have been in the graduating classes of 1966, 1967, and
1968 were not assigned jobs during the Cultural Revolution, so that a large
backlog of unemployed students occurred. Third, graduates of previous years
who had remained unemployed in the cities are now included in the rural
assignments.
6. Some of the students have become team or brigade accountants.
Others have assumed lower level leadership positions. Still others are
supposed to open primary schools and conduct part-time study sessions for
adults or for students who cannot be spared from labor during the day. In
addition, some of the students sent to the countryside are being trained as
"barefoot" doctors. Students who originally came from rural areas and
students having research skills have been used to open agricultural research
stations in the individual brigades. Still other students have been used in
commune-run enterprises. And of course, many are probably ordinary field
workers.
" Farms established for cadre political indoctrination and basic training in rural
production techniques.
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Technical Personnel
7. Various factories, finance and trade units, and scientific and technical
service centers have organized mobile teams of technically trained workers,
scientists, and engineers for temporary visits to rural areas. The practical
experience provided by touring rural areas is supposed to provide infor-
mation to their sponsoring units on agricultural problems and is supposed to
make team personnel more cognizant of the specific needs of the areas they
serve. The teams provide training sessions for peasants and contribute their
skills to such problems as pest control, the construction of small plants, and
the maintenance of agricultural tools and machinery.
8. With the permanent transfer of teachers to rural areas and the
associated reorganization of the educational system, the regime seems to be
attempting to (a) remold the teachers' ideology and to redirect the goals of
education, (b) case the financial problems of existing schools, and (c)
provide additional local schools for rural areas so that education is both
available and less costly for rural students. Remolding the teachers' ideology
and redirecting the goals of the educational process is supposed to increase
the practical problem-solving content of education. The financial problem of
expanding the number of schools is being shifted from the central
government to the communes and brigades. The regime hopes that by
locating schools in the rural areas which they are to serve, the cost of
establishing and maintaining the schools can be lowered through work-study
programs and more efficient use of local resources. Finally, by locating
schools in the countryside, the class schedule can be altered so that the
student is free to work and earn income when needed. Thus, the cost of
maintaining a student away from home, which would otherwise devolve on
the family, is eliminated.
Medical Personnel
9. The transfer of medical personnel to rural areas on both a temporary
and permanent basis appears to be an attempt by the regime to build a
comprehensive medical network which will eventually encompass every
production team throughout China. The lack of rural health care reflects the
scarcity and expense of such services in China generally and the concen-
tration of the relatively few hospitals and medical schools in urban areas.
The first step in this program has been the organization of mobile medical
teams by hospitals and medical schools. These teams administer to the ills of
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people where there are no 'c:,tors, learn the health requirements of workers
and peasants, train health personnel ("barefoot" doctors) in the rudiments
of medicine, provide further training for present doctors, and study the
effectiveness of Chinese traditional medicine so that it can be adapted to
modern usage.
10. Recent evidence indicates that the dissemination of birth control
information and equipment is also a main function of these personnel. In all
cases, the emphasis in the medical work and training programs of the medical
teams is on preventive medicine and the popularization of basic and
relatively low-cost medical and health education measures. Although up to
one-third of the medical personnel or medical teachers may be assigned to a
team from a hospital or medical school, a core group of medical researchers
is to remain at home to conduct research and provide support for the mobile
teams. This core group is to be rotated with the mobile teams from time to
time so that no group will remain permanently in the field.
11. The second step in providing expanded medical and health services in
the rural areas has been the assignment of medical school graduates to
establish health centers in rural communes. These centers are primitive by
comparison to Western clinics but they do provide a means for examining
medical problems, distributing medicine, and assigning difficult cases to
more modern medical facilities elsewhere. The health centers provide
medical attention to people who previously did not have access to it either
because the hospitals were too far away or because the person could not
afford to lose the work time needed to visit the doctor. "Barefoot" doctors,
who have been trained by the thousands, provide a link between the laborer
in the field and the commune health center, serve as supervisors over basic
sanitation measures, and carry out inoculation programs to prevent endemic
diseases.
12. A third step in attempting to improve medical and health care for the
rural population has been to improve individual medical care. The
government has encouraged the study of traditional Chinese medicines,
which are cheap and more plentiful, to determine their effectiveness and to
adapt their use to modern medicine. In addition, in August 1969, the Central
Committee ordered a 34% reduction in modern drug prices. Finally, to lessen
the cost of medical care to individuals, in 1967, most communes began
instituting a medical cooperative insurance scheme. The program is admin-
istered by having each member pay a small monthly fee for which he has
continued free access to the local health center and medicines. Medical
attention which requires the services of an outside facility is only partly
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covered by the program. In addition to lessening the individual burden for
medical care by spreading the cost over a broad base, the program also
envisions modest accumulation of funds by the commune to purchase
medical equipment.
13. The transfer of cadres to temporary or permanent assignment in rural
areas seems largely directed toward reforming politically "errant" cadres.
Nevertheless, the regime also seems interested in educating government
cadres to the requirements of agricultural production and redirecting cadres
who are redundant in their administrative posts. Such transfers are not new,
and have accompanied most of the cadre reform movements since 1957. It
seems probable, however, that larger numbers of cadres may be involved in
the current movement than was the case in earlier years.
14. In the early part of the movement, cadres were assigned permanently
to posts in the administration of brigades or communes. By mid-1969,
however, most cadres were being assigned to May 7th schools, the first of
which was established in May 1968. These schools are actually farms set up,
for the most part, in relatively. primitive rural areas. Cadres sent to these
farms are expected to undergo rigorous political training, including self-
criticism, as well as to take part in the process of setting up and operating
farms and to participate in the harvesting and construction work of
production teams in their area. For the most part, cadres assigned to May
7th schools are only temporarily assigned to rural production, although a
few may be permanently transferred to communes.
Problem Areas
15. Realization of any economic potential of the "down to the
countryside" movement depends upon a number of factors, especially (a)
effectively integrating the newcomers into country life, (b) minimizing the
cost burden on the recipient rural areas, (c) obtaining the cooperation of the
transferees, and (d) continuing support of the movement by capital inputs
into rural production.
Integrating Newcomers
16. The integration of the transferred personnel into their new area
requires organizational forms which can coordinate on the national and
province level the assignment of personnel, and can supervise on the local
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level the job assignments and living provisions for the newcomers. The
administrative organs for handling distribution of personnel at the national
level remain unknown. Since 1968, however, parts of an administrative
network below the national level concerned with relocation problems have
emerged. Provincial and municipal level governments are taking the
requirements of commune revolutionary committees in various rural areas to
the revolutionary committees of schools and administrative organs. Students
are then assigned through the Graduates' Assignment Offices which already
existed in the schools, while teachers and cadres are assigned through the
revolutionary committees. The assignment of temporary personnel has also
been accomplished through the municipal level governments working with
the factory and hospital revolutionary committees.
17. Provisions for smoothing the absorption of the newcomers into rural
life also began to appear in early 1969. At that time the local revolutionary
committees began to set up "three-in-one" groups (the new arrivals, peasants
or workers, and cadres) to solve such problems of assimilation as work
training, housing assignment, food provisions and, of course, re-education. In
addition, the province level revolutionary committees began sending out
"comfort groups", which lend moral support to the transferred persons and
provide mediation in cases of serious conflict. Recently, provincial and
county level conferences have been held for representatives of transferred
youth, which provide a forum for discussing special problems encountered
by the transferred personnel and exchanging ideas and experience in dealing
with the problem. Thus, the organizational means of facilitating the
integration of the reassigned personnel are developing. How effective these
organs are remains unknown.
18. The successful integration of the newcomers to rural production
requires the maintenance of political control and the absence of factional
activity in organs responsible for administering the movement. Without
adequate control, the organizational apparatus designed to coordinate and
supervise the "down to the countryside" movement cannot function. If the
apparatus does not function, then personnel may not be assigned to areas
where they are needed and adequate provisions for their settlement may not
be carried out and many persons might return to urban areas.
Burden on Recipient Area
19. The Chinese government has undertaken several measures to offset
the most serious burdens on both the individuals transferred and on the
recipient areas. First, every person who has been transferred has been
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provided with a subsidy sufficient io buy some hand tools if needed and
food and lodging for six months to one year. Secondly, in areas which have
strongly protested that they had insufficient provisions to extend supplies to
the newcomers, the government has either reassigned the newcomers or
lessened the compulsory grain sales quotas by the amount required to
provide the newcomers food for one year. Thirdly, the government is
attempting to establish a wage system wherein part of the salaries of teachers
and some cadres will be paid either by the commune (rather than the brigade
or team) or by the province. No overall system has as yet developed, but the
Kirin provincial government expressly stated that teachers are not to suffer a
decrease in living standards, even if the government has to supply part of the
wages. The wages and maintenance needs of the mobile teams of technicians
and medical personnel are generally supposed to be provided by the factory,
hospital, or school from which the team originates. Finally, the transferees
are being dispersed throughout tl;e countryside rather than concentrated in
specific areas, and the movement is being spread over a two or three year
period, so as to facilitate absorption as much as possible.
Cooperation of Transferees
20. The regime is well aware of the reluctant? of most urban residents to
be transferred and has used both positive and negative incentives to obtain
cooperation. A positive value is placed upon rural assignment by the
authorities by making rural assignment a means of furthering one's career,
and by stipulating that students will not be allowed further education until
they have served two or more years in the countryside. Thus, volunteering
for temporary assignment on mobile teams could be viewed as a means of
gaining favor with the authorities, or at least removing oneself from the line
of criticism. Tremendous pressure is exerted upon individuals to volunteer
through the general media, through work-study groups who visit their places
of study or work, and through neighborhood groups who visit :`.heir homes.
If a person withstands these pressures, the government can simply transfer
the resident registration and the ration card of the individual to his assigned
area. In this case, the person becomes an illegal resident in the city, and not
only is subject to arrest, but also must buy his food on the black market.
Finally, the factor which is most likely to ensure that transferees stay at
their rural posts is that, for most of the personnel, few job alternatives exist.
Capital Inputs
21. Realization of the potential of the "down to the countryside"
movement depends not only upon successful handling of the movement of
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pe.sonnel, but also upon the complementary flow of capital inputs. Whereas
great emphasis has been placed upon inovation, and the transferees are
expected to improvise from local resources, development of agricultural
production ultimately rests upon supplying the rural producer with new
tools, equipment, and techniques. The Chinese government is currently
pursuing policies designed to meet some of the needs of raising agricultural
production technology. First, industries which can provide tools and
machinery to agriculture are directed to do so, supposedly even at the
expense of profits. Likewise, the supply of chemical fertilizers from moiern
plants and from imports is being continued. Second, a rural electrification
program directed toward increasing irrigation facilities and mechanizing
some aspects of production is well under way. Third, the government is
encouraging the development of small plants to provide chemical fertilizer,
tools, and some machinery to agriculture. Finally, the government is
encouraging the creation of small-scale agricultural experiment stations in all
communes which are to experiment with new techniques, chemicals, and
machinery so that inputs can be adapted to the crop needs of a particular
area.
22. The effectiveness of these policies of providing increased capital
inputs cannot be measured at this stage. Nevertheless, it is clear that the
government is concentrating on inputs which are relatively low cost and
which are relatively elementary in technological sophistication. The govern-
ment apparently intends to or is content to slowly raise the technological
level of agriculture and to gradually increase production.
23. The overall impetus for the "down to the countryside" movement
stems primarily from Mao Tse-tung's insistence upon accomplishing a
political and ideological reform of the Chinese people and is only
derivatively aimed at achieving economic ends. Thus a diminution of the
drive to achieve the primary objective seems also likely to lead to a slowing
down and, perhaps, a cessation of the movement of urban residents to rural
areas. Similarly, a radical speedup of the overall reform could hazard any
potential economic benefits of the movement. Long-term economic benefits
of the program are not easily perceived. Nevertheless, such chronic problems
as urban housing shortages, urban unemployment, rural illiteracy, and low
rural health standards may be eased by the transfer of urban residents to
rural areas. Likewise, the regime's current rural development policy should
expand rural production to some extent. But benefits would more probably
come from an expansion of capital inputs than from the in-migration of
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urban residents. Finally, there can hardly be any doubt that the necessary
long-run condition for China's economic development is to transfer people
off the farm into urban pursuits.
24. Since August 1968, the Chinese regime has been moving large
numbers of city residents of various occupations and ages to rural areas in a
"down to the countryside" movement. While political and ideological
objectives are paramount in this movement, economic objectives can also be
perceived. In this respect, the "down to the countryside" movement
constitutes an injection of relatively higher skilled labor into the rural
economy, and is complementary to other current regime policies which
appear to be aimed at increasing the capital input to rural production.
25. A minimum of 7'/z million persons were transferred in the period
August 1968 to January 1970 but significant gaps in the coverage suggest
that the figure may be three or four times this number. Unlike previous
movements which concentrated on permanent resettlement of students and
cadres, the current movement embodies the permanent and temporary
transfer of students, technical personnel, teachers, medical personnel, and
cadres.
26. Students form as much as 70% of the "down to the countryside"
movement. Their transfer is partly to divert those graduates which industry
and the other non-agricultural sectors cannot absorb to agricultural
production, and partly to upgrade the educational level of the rural
population. In addition, these transfers break up factional gangs which are
holdovers from the Cultural Revolution. There is good evidence that most
capable students work their way into positions whic : reflect their talents,
including accounting, teaching, health care, research work on experimental
plots, and work in commune-run enterprises.
27. Technically trained workers, scientists, and engineers are being sent in
mobile teams from urban areas to gather information regarding the
requirements of agriculture and to provide direct support for agricultural
production by training peasants, solving production problems, repairing
machinery, and establishing small plants to support agricultural production.
The transfer of teachers to rural areas is intended to help eradicate illiteracy
and is supposed to increase the practical problem-solving content of the
educational system, and is aimed at alleviating the financial problems of the
schools and the students.
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LOIN H Dh N'FIAL.
28. Medical personnel are being permanently transferred to set up rural
clinics, and temporary medical personnel travel in Teams to conduct training
programs in health and medicine and to gather information regarding rural
health needs. The emphasis of the program is on preventive medicine and the
popularization of basic and low-cost medical and health education measures.
An important part of this program has be the training of "barefoot"
doctors who are basic-level health personnel concerned with prevention and
sanitation measures and the birth control program. This program has also
been forwarded since 1967 by the development of a medical cooperative
insurance scheme.
29. Cadres are being transferred to rural areas on both a permanent and
temporary basis chiefly as a means of reforming "errant" cadres but also a
means of providing better leadership in rural areas. The May 7th schools have
become the main instrument of this policy and, while their major function is
political indoctrination, they also serve to introduce cadres to the problems
of administering the rural economy.
30. Over the past 18 months, such organizational forms for carrying out
the movement as the "three-in-one" groups established at the team and
brigade levels to supervise the work and living conditions of the transferees,
and the investigation and comfort groups sent from province level
revolutionary committees to investigate transfer problems, have appeared.
The possible inability of some rural areas to support the transferees has been
offset by providing various forms of subsidies and by spreading the
movement over time and area to diminish the burden as much as possible.
The regime has implied, and a number of persons have concluded, that
participation in rural work can further the career of the individual. Also, the
transfer of the individual has been made as easy as possible, even to the
extent of maintaining current living levels in some cases. Negative incentives
include the tremendous pressure exerted upon individuals to accept transfers
and the lack of job alternatives in the industrial or other non-agricultural
sectors.
31. The provision of capital inputs is crucial for the realization of gains in
rural productivity. Along this line a rural electrification program is well
under way, and the government is encouraging the development of small
plants on the commune level which can provide chemical fertilizer, tools,
and some machinery to agriculture. These inputs are relatively low cost and
;re relatively elementary in technological sophistication, which facilitates
their use throughout the entire agricultural sector. However, it is still
questionable whether or not these inputs will be provided in sufficient
quantity and quality. Finally, the long-run requirement for China's economic
development is the transfer of labor out of rural areas and into the cities.
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