ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN MAINLAND CHINA.

The article focuses on economic development of China. During 1952-57, the average annual rate of growth of net domestic product was 6 per cent per year in constant 1932 prices. Regulation and control of economic activities were progressively and drastically tightened during the period 1952-57. The severity of the control measures introduced during those years, however, was mild indeed when compared with the developments in 1958. Communes were introduced in 1958. Within a few months, the entire rural population was organized into 26,000 communes, most of which were almost indistinguishable from army camps. In addition to providing an instrument for total political control of the population, the communes afforded a means of integrating agriculture and industry into one gigantic machine that could utilize all human labor resources to the maximum. On top of the continued emphasis on modern and capital intensive industrial development, a massive effort was made to increase production by using labor-intensive techniques on crude equipment. Backyard blast furnaces were built to produce steel in cities and in villages, and such techniques as deep ploughing and close planting were employed in agriculture. All these efforts, in industry and in agriculture, were to bring about a great leap forward in 1958, generally aiming at a doubling of output in one year from 1957 to 1958.