ard furnaces," which produced high-cost iron of
low quality, seem to have had a similar purpose: to teach citizens how
to produce iron for armaments in case of war and enemy occupation, when
only guerrilla resistance would be possible. In the same year,
aggressive actions against offshore, Nationalist-held islands increased.
China may have believed that war with the United States was imminent.
Perhaps as a result of Russian talks with China, a detente followed in
1959, but so too did increased tension between Russia and China, while
the results of the Great Leap and its policies proved catastrophic. The
years 1961-64 provided a needed respite from the failures of the Great
Leap. Farmers regained limited rights to income from private efforts,
and improved farm techniques such as better seed and the use of
fertilizer began to produce results. China can now feed her population
in normal years.

Chinese leaders realize that an improved level of living is difficult to
attain while the birth rate remains high. They have hesitated to adopt a
family-planning policy, which would fly in the face of Marxist doctrine,
although for a short period family planning was openly recommended.
Their most efficient method of limiting the birth rate has been to
recommend postponement of marriage.

First the limitation of private enterprise and business and then the
nationalization of all important businesses following the completion of
land reform deprived many employers as well as small shopkeepers of an
occupation. But the new industries could not absorb all of the labor
that suddenly became available. When rural youth inundated the cities in
search of employment, the government returned the excess urban
population to the countryside and recruited students and other urban
youth to work on farms. Re-education camps in outlying areas also
provided cheap farm labor.

The problem facing China or any nation that modernizes and
industrializes in the twentieth century can be simply stated.
Nineteenth-century industry needed large masses of workers which only
the rural areas could supply; and, with the development of farming
methods, the countryside could afford to send its youth to the cities.
Twentieth-century industry, on the other hand, needs technicians and
highly qualified personnel, often with college degrees, but few
unskilled workers. China has traditionally employed human labor where
machines would have been cheaper and more efficient,