Great Leap Backward in the Panic Famine

Under the promotion of the GLF, China had a high-speed growth rate of 21 percent in GDP in 1958. Its industry even had an astonishing growth rate of 53 percent. This high-speed growth was realized not only by concentrating on the steel industry but also by a high accumulating rate. Through 1958–60, the accumulation rate in the national income achieved 34, 44 and 40 percent respectively, surpassing that of 23 percent in 1953. The share of productive accumulation in total accumulation increased from 49 percent in 1953 to 82 percent in 1958, 87 percent in 1959 and 97 percent in 1960 (CSY 1984, p. 32 and 34). The GLF concentrating on steel output only brought chaos to the national economy. It caused a serious imbalance between industry and agriculture and between light and heavy industries. The output value of industry increased from 70 billion in 1957 to 164 billion yuan in 1960, about 1.3 times as many as that in 1957. However, the output value of agriculture in China decreased greatly from 54 billion in 1957 to 46 billion yuan in 1960, a drop of 23 percent. The “steel priority” strategy also caused an imbalance in the interior of the industry. Because of the shortage in coal, mineral excavation, transportation and electric power, many industries had to stop and to support the steel production in order to complete the target of steel and iron production which led to a stagnation in many other industries. For example, light industry development was very slow in the GLF. The share of light industry in the total industrial output decreased from 55 percent in 1957 to 33 percent in 1960, a drop of 22 percentage points.