| The Liberation War was a significant transitional period during when the Communist Party of China started to put their priority of work,which had been rural issues,to urban ones.That time,the CPC was rendered a green hand managing urban economic problems by years of struggle in the rural areas.Ergo,a topic worth discussing here was the development of municipal economy conducted by the CPC.Time range being researched on issues about the CPC's construction of municipal economy has basically been after the founding of the People's Republic of China,while that of the Liberation War period has been understated.To give this matter a more comprehensive perspective,Lushun and Dalian,an industrial city in the CPC's early contact with urban issues,is a training ground to learn about economic management.Therefore in this article,experience of Lushun and Dalian's economic construction will be discussed using historical research methods to explore how ability for municipal economic management was realized by the CPC.Under the leadership of the CPC,Lushun and Dalian,a special liberated area,bore a great responsibility of improving the living conditions of local people and also,of supporting the front,which were inseparable with Lushun and Dalian's economic expansion.However,to guarantee these,the CPC was challenged by three issues.First of them was to rectify the mess in Lushun and Dalian.Second was to gain wilder experience for industrial city management.The third challenge was a new one,to live on friendly terms with the Soviet Army,whose control was Lushun and Dalian under back then,so as to promote all needed work.It was under these situations that the CPC in Lushun and Dalian suited their measures to the local conditions for economic reconstruction.Solving problems concerning the living conditions of local people was a fundamental question for economic construction that called for careful consideration.To accomplish this,the CPC in Lushun and Dalian regulated the grain market,cultivated virgin land,and applied other measures to increase grain production.Also,the CPC organized less privileged people to engage in shoemaking and mesh knitting,looking for solutions to a better life.Moreover,housing adjustment was issued by the CPC to help the local move into new residences.By the time livelihood issues were tackled,social stability had been achieved and the CPC in Lushun and Dalian had gained the trust of local people.Another important method to ensure employment was to involve more machines in industrial production,and it was an internal need for supporting the front.For this,the local CPC recovered and promoted civilian industry,and organized and established military industry.Through a couple of years,the local CPC vigorously developed public owned industry,encouraged private owned industry,and acquired experience of skills and management in joint ventures of China and the Soviet.Under the efforts,Lushun and Dalian's industry was gradually restored,which not only ensured the basic supply needs of the local but also,large batches of military products provided strong support for the war back then.Further,foreign trade was the lifeblood of Lushun and Dalian,which was a prosperous port city living on importing crops and raw ingredients from other places and exporting process products to serve commercial growth.Built on this fact,measures such as developing public owned industry and protect and support legal private merchants were carried out by the CPC,planned to organize consumer's cooperatives for market adjustment and life-ensuring.Meanwhile,the CPC energized the management of foreign trade.Along all these,commercial activities in Lvda were put on the right course.Nonetheless,as a military organization on the provincial level of the Soviet Army,Lushun and Dalian's right of issue of banknotes was under strict control of the Soviet Army.The Soviet Army used to implement currency reforms to end the situation that prices in Lushun and Dalian had been on a rise,but with ineffective measures,Lushun and Dalian's prices rised steadily still.All considered,after the liberation of the Northeast China,in November 1948,China and the Soviet Army decided to initiated a new currency reform to settle disputes about right of issue of banknotes and resolve problems about prices.In the reform the appreciation of Guandong Currency lowered Lushun and Dalian's prices,ameliorated people's life and strengthened the economic power of CPC's.This also means that the Soviet Army's control to Lushun and Dalian was successively undermined and that the CPC could speak more authoritatively about economic issues.A city's development has inseparable ties with the support of rural areas.In former times,colonists,feudal landlords and rich peasants exploited farmers in Lushun and Dalian ruthlessly.Land reform was urgently needed to change the production relations at that time.Given that Lushun and Dalian was inhabited mostly with suburbs and villages,and that it was under military control of the Soviet Army,the CPC decided that the land reform would be of two phases,including a guiding principle before the establishment of China to steadily weaken landlords and rich peasant,and to redistribute land resource after China's establishment.Lushun and Dalian's land reform successfully eliminated feudal land system,ensured every farmer their own land,and liberated productive forces,as well as providing sufficient grains,subsidiary agricultural products,and industrial materials,etc.Additionally,the reform contributed Lushun and Dalian to a competent consumption market of industrial products and boosted further development of Lushun and Dalian's industry.As the CPC's earliest attempt for economic construction in an industrial city,Lushun and Dalian harbored both a fresh new city environment and challenges of managing an industrial city.With no experience on hand to draw from,Lushun and Dalian's CPC learnt through trial and error.Four years later,remarkable success was achieved.Economically,agricultural production increased year by year;besides,industry was recovered to the level and scale when Lushun and Dalian was formerly colonized by Japan;at the same time,commercial sectors and trade showed scene of boom and prosperity.With prices falling steadily,unemployment was wiped out and people's standard of living was improved.As for the nature of economy,public-owned enterprises,by and large,became the leading factor of local economy,along with diverse economic sector,which formed an economic type of new democracy.Simultaneously,a comparatively complete industrial system made Lushun and Dalian a representative city of productivity in the new China.An important enlightenment drawn from the economic reconstruction by the CPC in Lushun and Dalian is that during early urban construction of economy,cadres of local CPC needed to keep pace with times.For this matter,the CPC firstly put measures of the CPC into effect using proper methods in accordance with local features,and subsequently focused their work on industrial development,and meanwhile took great effort publicizing their policies and handled issues about interest for all social stratums carefully to gain the public's understanding and support,all serving to secure economic reconstruction. |
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