China's Industrial Growth,1953—1957

Abstract

Official data indicate a pattern of rapid industrial growth in Communist China during the First Five-Year Plan (1953-57). This growth varied considerably from year to year, largely because of industry's substantial dependence upon agriculture and because of uneven performance in the agricul tural sector of the economy. The composition of mainland China's industrial output also changed significantly during this period. The nation's resources were primarily concentrated on development of heavy industry, and the annual rate of growth of production of capital goods was thus consistently above that of consumer goods. The tempo of industrial expansion should increase further during the Second Five-Year Plan (1958-62 ) as the regime continues maximum mobilization of material, financial, and human resources. New policy changes—includ— ing more attention to industries serving the agricultural sector, emphasis on smaller industrial units, and decentralization of in dustrial planning and administration—will affect future devel opment. By 1962 the economy of mainland China should have completed the period of rapid industrial expansion known as the take-off and entered a new stage of sustained, self-generating growth.