Makeeva, S.B. "Population and Economy of Qinghai Province from the Founding of the PRC to the Beginning of the Cultural Revolution (1949–1966)" ...

Текст статьи на сайте журнала URL: https://aasjournal.spbu.ru/article/view/25404 (дата обращения 20.09.2026)

Abstract

In the first decades after the founding of the PRC, the agrarian-industrial potential for the development of northwestern China was laid. The sparsely populated Qinghai Province was included in the projects and programs of reforms within the framework of the “Great Leap Forward” and the creation of people’s communes. The purpose of this article is to study the history of the economic and demographic development of the northwestern province of Qinghai in the period after the founding of the PRC in 1949 and the formation of a planned economy until the beginning of the “Cultural Revolution” in 1966. The main sources of analysis are the archival provincial chronicles of the People’s Government of Qinghai Province, statistical data and materials of the first (1953) and second (1964) all-Chinese population censuses. This study identifies two stages of economic and demographic development in Qinghai Province: the first from 1949 to 1957 and the second from 1958 to 1966. Based on a study of Qinghai’s economic and demographic development during the early decades of the PRC, it was found that the province focused on land reclamation, agricultural mechanization, industrial development (metallurgy, engineering, power), transport infrastructure, and Han migrant labor. These efforts addressed food security, expanded rural areas, and improved vital statistics. However, establishing social services (healthcare, education, research) remained challenging.