China under the Leadership of Mao Zedong

In the 10 years preceding the "cultural revolution" China achieved very big successes despite serious setbacks. By 1966, the value of fixed industrial assets, calculated on the basis of their original price, was 4 times greater than in 1956. 

The output of such major industrial products as cotton yarn, coal, electricity, crude oil, steel and mechanical equipment all recorded impressive increases. 

Beginning in 1965, China became self-sufficient in petroleum. New industries such as the electronic and petrochemical industries were established one after another. 

The distribution of industry over the country became better balanced. Capital construction in agriculture and its technical transformation began on a massive scale and yielded better and better results. 

Both the number of tractors for farming and the quantity of chemical fertilizers applied increased over 7 times and rural consumption of electricity 71 times. The number of graduates from institutions of higher education was 4.9 times that of the previous seven years. 

Educational work was improved markedly through consolidation. Scientific research and technological work, too, produced notable results.

Later, he called for the creation of "a political situation in which the Party members have both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness. " 

In 1958, he proposed that the focus of Party and government work be shifted to technical revolution and socialist construction. All this was the continuation and development of the line adopted by the Eighth National Congress of the Party and was to go on serving as a valuable guide. 

While leading the work of correcting the errors in the great leap forward and the movement to organize people's communes, Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out that there must be no expropriation of the peasants;that a given stage of social development should not be skipped;that egalitarianism must be opposed;that the country must stress commodity production, observe the law of value and strike an overall balance in economic planning;and that economic plans must be arranged with the priority proceeding from agriculture to light industry and then to heavy industry. 

Comrade Liu Shaoqi said that a variety of means of production could be put into circulation as commodities and that there should be a double-track system (The double-track system for labour refers to a combination of the system of the eight-hour day in factories, rural areas and government offices with a system of part-time work and part-time study in factories and rural areas.

 The double-track system for education means a system of full-time schooling combined with a system of part-time work and part-time study. ) for labour as well as for education in socialist society.

 Comrade Zhou Enlai said, among other things, that the overwhelming majority of Chinese intellectuals had become intellectuals belonging to the working people and that science and technology would play a key role in China's modernization.