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From backyard smelter to modern industry
Source: Xinhua |
September 21, 2009, Monday
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HAN Yuzhu remembers her zeal when the country asked the people to produce steel for New China's construction.
When told more raw materials were needed, Han, like many others, rushed home and collected her family's extra pots and pans.
Before leaving for the smelting furnaces, she picked up a big stone and smashed a copper lock from their family's clothes case, taking the copper.
"I didn't want to lag behind others at that time," said 76-year-old Han.
It was in 1958 when the government issued a declaration to "produce 10.7 million tons of steel for the Party and the people." Steel output was only 3.35 million tons in the previous year.
Han's efforts, together with those of millions of others, helped fulfil the production target at the end of 1958. What she knew later was that only eight million tons, 75 percent of the steel they churned out in a hurry, was any use.
That was a typical story in China's Great Leap Forward campaign from 1958 to 1960.
Besides steel output, the other "leap" targets also included grain output, an 80 percent increase from 1957-1958, from 195 billion kg to 350 billion kg - and then a further 50 percent hike from 1958-1959.
"Everyone at that time was eager to catch up with developed countries," said Xu Yongqi, former general manager of Shougang Group, China's eighth-largest steel maker.
A lot was wasted in the campaign mobilizing the public to produce steel and experts believed it caused losses of about 20 billion yuan (US$2.93 billion), Xu said. Backyard furnaces were famous, and inefficient. The Great Leap Forward was corrected in 1961.
However, normal economic growth lasted for only five years before the "cultural revolution" began in 1966. After 10 years of chaos, it was in 1978 that China shifted focus in its economic build-up and introduced the reform and opening-up policy.
Baosteel Group Corp, now China's largest steel maker, was set up in the same year with 30 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion), aiming to produce high-end steel to international standards.
China's steel production was less than 160,000 tons or less than 300g per capita - not enough to make a kitchen knife - when New China was founded in 1949.
Since 1996, China has produced more steel than any other country in the world. Its crude steel production stood at 660 million tons by the end of 2008. This brought on worries about overcapacity as domestic demand was less than 500 million tons.
Fast economic growth helped China relieve its poverty, but also caused problems including pollution, the rich-poor gap and imbalances in regional development.
Hu Angang, an economist with Tsinghua University, said China now is experiencing unprecedented challenges in energy consumption, economic activities and environmental protection.
China put forward "scientific development" in October 2003 and turned from its growth mode focusing on gross domestic product (GDP) to coordinated and sustainable growth.
The central government fine-tuned a key economic growth slogan from "fast and sound development" to "sound and fast development" at the end of 2006, mirroring China's beginning to shift efforts from speed to quality.
The government issued a guideline for foreign investors in December 2007, prohibiting foreign investment in resources-intensive sectors and sectors of high energy consumption and high pollution.
Zhang Yansheng, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's economic planner, said: "Research and development centers, operation centers or distribution centers are always welcome here, but no longer chimneys."
When told more raw materials were needed, Han, like many others, rushed home and collected her family's extra pots and pans.
Before leaving for the smelting furnaces, she picked up a big stone and smashed a copper lock from their family's clothes case, taking the copper.
"I didn't want to lag behind others at that time," said 76-year-old Han.
It was in 1958 when the government issued a declaration to "produce 10.7 million tons of steel for the Party and the people." Steel output was only 3.35 million tons in the previous year.
Han's efforts, together with those of millions of others, helped fulfil the production target at the end of 1958. What she knew later was that only eight million tons, 75 percent of the steel they churned out in a hurry, was any use.
That was a typical story in China's Great Leap Forward campaign from 1958 to 1960.
Besides steel output, the other "leap" targets also included grain output, an 80 percent increase from 1957-1958, from 195 billion kg to 350 billion kg - and then a further 50 percent hike from 1958-1959.
"Everyone at that time was eager to catch up with developed countries," said Xu Yongqi, former general manager of Shougang Group, China's eighth-largest steel maker.
A lot was wasted in the campaign mobilizing the public to produce steel and experts believed it caused losses of about 20 billion yuan (US$2.93 billion), Xu said. Backyard furnaces were famous, and inefficient. The Great Leap Forward was corrected in 1961.
However, normal economic growth lasted for only five years before the "cultural revolution" began in 1966. After 10 years of chaos, it was in 1978 that China shifted focus in its economic build-up and introduced the reform and opening-up policy.
Baosteel Group Corp, now China's largest steel maker, was set up in the same year with 30 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion), aiming to produce high-end steel to international standards.
China's steel production was less than 160,000 tons or less than 300g per capita - not enough to make a kitchen knife - when New China was founded in 1949.
Since 1996, China has produced more steel than any other country in the world. Its crude steel production stood at 660 million tons by the end of 2008. This brought on worries about overcapacity as domestic demand was less than 500 million tons.
Fast economic growth helped China relieve its poverty, but also caused problems including pollution, the rich-poor gap and imbalances in regional development.
Hu Angang, an economist with Tsinghua University, said China now is experiencing unprecedented challenges in energy consumption, economic activities and environmental protection.
China put forward "scientific development" in October 2003 and turned from its growth mode focusing on gross domestic product (GDP) to coordinated and sustainable growth.
The central government fine-tuned a key economic growth slogan from "fast and sound development" to "sound and fast development" at the end of 2006, mirroring China's beginning to shift efforts from speed to quality.
The government issued a guideline for foreign investors in December 2007, prohibiting foreign investment in resources-intensive sectors and sectors of high energy consumption and high pollution.
Zhang Yansheng, a researcher with the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's economic planner, said: "Research and development centers, operation centers or distribution centers are always welcome here, but no longer chimneys."
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