Exceeding the UK, catching the USA () alternatively translated as surpassing Great Britain and catching up with the United States, was a

slogan A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a clan or a political, commercial, religious, or other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose, with the goal of persuading members of the public or a more defined target group ...

put forward by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

during the

Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward was an industrialization campaign within China from 1958 to 1962, led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to transform the country from an agrarian society into an indu ...

. The slogan was representative of the two goals of surpassing

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in steel production in 15 years and catching up with the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 50 years. The slogan was mainly addressed to the

secondary sector of the economy In macroeconomics, the secondary sector of the economy is an economic sector in the three-sector theory that describes the role of manufacturing. It encompasses industries that produce a finished, usable product or are involved in constructi ...

, of which

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

and grain were top priority. At the end of China's

first Five-Year Plan First five-year plan may refer to: * First five-year plan (China) * First Five-Year Plans (Pakistan) * First five-year plan (Soviet Union) The first five-year plan (, ) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economi ...

, steel output was still less than a quarter of the amount produced by Britain. Mao found overtaking Britain's steel to be of utmost importance to the "socialist transformation" of agriculture, as he found the two to be "inseparable" and unable to be dealt with "in isolation from each other". This was due to the increased need for agricultural machinery to be developed, as well as the agriculture tax that would fund the production of heavy industry. The justification for the selection of Great Britain and the United States as the focuses of the slogan was likely developed from the desire to prove socialist countries as more prosperous and fruitful than their imperialist counterparts, a sentiment that is likewise encapsulated in related Maoist slogan "

The East wind prevails over the West wind The East wind prevails over the West wind (), alternatively translated as the east wind overwhelms the west wind, the East wind is prevailing over the West wind, or socialism will prevail over capitalism, is a slogan coined by Mao Zedong in the e ...

". In 1958, steel production rates had skyrocketed, as Soviet-aided steel plants went into widespread use after being constructed in the mid-1950s. The

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

meetings of August 1958 declared that production of steel would be set to double within the year. As a result of the newly set goal and strong ideological push for progress,

people's commune The people's commune ( zh, c=, p=rénmín gōngshè) was the highest of three administrative levels in rural areas of the People's Republic of China during the period from 1958 to 1983, until they were replaced by Townships of the People's Rep ...

s began to dedicate most of their labour toward manufacturing efforts of the material. "Backyard steel furnaces" were created, where peasant workers would smelt household metal objects such as chairs and cooking utensils in fervent efforts to meet the high levels of demand. This led to significant impacts on peasant life within the communes, as reallocation of production priorities lead to a shortage of agricultural labour in the autumn of 1958. After the

Great Chinese Famine The Great Chinese Famine () was a famine that occurred between 1959 and 1961 in the People's Republic of China (PRC). Some scholars have also included the years 1958 or 1962. It is widely regarded as the deadliest famine and one of the greatest ...

, Mao Zedong relaxed the time scale of "exceeding the UK, catching the USA" to more than 100 years in his speech at the

Seven Thousand Cadres Conference The Seven-Thousand Cadres Conference ( zh, s=七千人大会, p=Qīqiān rén dàhuì, w=Ch'i1-ch'ien1 jen2 ta4-hui4) was one of the largest work conferences ever of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It took place in Beijing, China, from 11 Janu ...

. In the end the goal was met on the original time frame. Chinese steel production exceeded that of the UK in the 1970s and that of the US in 1993, becoming the largest steel producing nation worldwide in 1996.

References

{{Reflist 1950s in China Chinese advertising slogans Campaigns of the Chinese Communist Party Economic history of the People's Republic of China Great Leap Forward

See also

References