Chapter 65 Two self-destructive economic movements

Around 1957, when the "First Five-Year Plan" ended, the Communists almost simultaneously achieved two major victories: rapid economic growth and the elimination of the private sector, which inflated the confidence of decision-makers like never before.Then, they went farther and farther down the road of self-confidence. In 1958, Mao Zedong, who was eager for success, launched the "Great Leap Forward" in the two fields of industry and agriculture at the same time. The goal of industry was to surpass the United Kingdom, and the goal of agriculture was to double the output of grain and cotton a year.

At the end of 1957, Mao Zedong told Khrushchev in Moscow that in 15 years, we may catch up with or surpass the United Kingdom, but only 4 months later, this timetable was shortened to 7 years, and after another two months, it was even more difficult. shortened to two years.Mao Zedong believed that the only evaluation index for China's economy to exceed that of the United Kingdom was steel output. He put forward the slogan of "all-round great leap forward" for the national economy and asked the economic departments to revise the predetermined index. The steel index was set at 10.7 million tons, and within a year doubled.

In this way, a national steelmaking climax was set off.Hundreds of thousands of small blast furnaces have been built all over the country, and people smelt steel day and night with great enthusiasm. Many people donated their iron pots, basins, and iron doorknobs at home and poured them into the fiery furnace.This year, steel production reached a record 11.08 million tons, exceeding an impossible task.Behind this figure, there is a fact that is almost self-destructive: a considerable proportion of the 11.08 million tons of steel is smelted in small blast furnaces installed by indigenous methods, of which more than 3 million tons are useless scrap steel. The more than 9 million tons of pig iron smelted in small blast furnaces can neither be used for casting nor rolled into useful steel after steelmaking.The national steelmaking not only interrupted normal economic activities, but also seriously damaged the ecological environment, and all the trees on many mountains were cut down.In order to make steel for the whole people, all regions are rapidly recruiting people from the countryside to the cities. By the end of the year, the number of employees in enterprises and government agencies across the country reached 45.32 million, a full increase of 20.82 million from the end of the previous year. The food supply situation immediately became severe.Blind optimism and radical strategies have caused a serious waste of national power.

The food "Great Leap Forward" that took place in the agricultural field is equally absurd.According to Mao Zedong's request, the grain quota in 1958 was 800 billion jin, and the cotton was 67 million dan, both more than doubled from the previous year. "People's Daily" published an editorial "How bold people are, how productive the land is", which became the most famous and resounding slogan in 1958.Rural areas all over the country falsified and falsely reported grain production. The record of wheat yield per mu "rose" from an impossible 1,500 catties to an unimaginable 130,434 catties of 10 taels and 4 renminbi (1 catty was 16 taels at the time).Xinhua News Agency announced to the world that China's total grain output in 1958 reached 3.5 trillion catties, almost 10 times that of the previous year, making it the world's largest grain producer.

In the following three years, the national economy, like an athlete who collapsed after running wildly, suddenly fell from a crazy leap to a depression.Nearly half of the factories across the country were shut down, and more than 20 million newly recruited workers were driven back to the countryside.In rural areas, the local government still expropriates grain from farmers based on the falsely reported data from the previous year. Farmers are unwilling to pay, so they engage in anti-rightist deviation, anti-property concealment, anti-private distribution, and even arrest, imprison, and beat people. The phenomenon of starvation.Liu Shaoqi, who is in charge of the economy, also had to admit that the three-year famine was "three parts natural disasters and seven parts man-made disasters." The disastrous consequences of the "Great Leap Forward" on the Chinese economy have been reflected and summarized in many papers and books in the future.According to data from the National Statistics Department, during the "Second Five-Year Plan" period (1958-1962), the average annual growth rate of the national industrial and agricultural production value was only 0.6%, far lower than the 10.9% during the "First Five-Year Plan" period.According to the calculation of the American scholar Mike Farquhar in the book "The Origin of the Cultural Revolution": "The total loss caused by the Great Leap Forward to the national economy is now estimated to be 100 billion yuan, almost twice the cost of capital construction during the 'First Five-Year Plan' period." Total investment (55 billion yuan)."

In 1964, a "palace coup" occurred in the Soviet Union, Khrushchev was dismissed and quarantined for review, and the newly appointed Brezhnev implemented "new economic system reforms". There are one million soldiers on the Sino-Soviet and Sino-Mongolian borders.At the same time, the United States sent troops to Vietnam, and China encountered the "North-South threat" from the two superpowers. The decision-makers of the CCP judged that "war is inevitable, and it must be based on a big, early, and nuclear war."Based on this, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made a major strategic decision of "three-line construction" to relocate important industrial enterprises in the first- and second-tier areas of Northeast China, North China, and East China's coastal areas to the third line in the west and northwest.

In the history of China's industry, the large-scale and secret third-line construction has multiple symbolic meanings. It is the second "industrial westward movement" after the wartime relocation in 1937, and it is an initiative with a strong plan. sex act.At the same time, it is also the most concentrated and significant industrial investment movement since the founding of New China, following the "156 Project" aided by the Soviet Union.In the 17 years from 1964 to 1980, the central government invested 50% of the planned industrial investment and 40% of the design and construction forces in the third-line construction, with a total investment of 205.2 billion yuan, and built more than 1,100 large and medium-sized military and military buildings. Heavy chemical industry projects.

However, the expected world war did not break out "as scheduled", and the huge "third-line plan" became another waste of national power.In terms of layout, the construction of the third front took "war is imminent" as the premise, and implemented policies such as "relying on mountains, dispersing, concealing, and entering holes." The layout of "village style", "melon vine style" and "sheep shit" is adopted.It is conceivable that low efficiency and high investment are used in factory construction by means of guerrilla warfare and preparation for war.Because the third-line construction is a product of the planned economy, it was launched in a hurry and the scale was very large. In addition to political turmoil and management chaos, the waste and loss were astonishing. After the mid-1990s, with the adjustment of the national strategy, a large number of third-line factories located in the deep valleys of the southwest were abandoned. The factory areas built by the state investing billions of yuan in those days became like ghost towns later.