page_title: Beidaihe Conference (1958)
section_title: Continuously Rising Production Targets
hierarchical_section_title: Beidaihe Conference (1958) / Background / Continuously Rising Production Targets
caption_attribution_description: English: The Second Session of 8th NPC
context_page_description: The Beidaihe Conference of 1958 was an enlarged meeting held by the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee from August 17 to 30 1958. It also involved a conference of provincial industrial secretaries and other relevant local leaders from the 25th to the 31st.
  The conference was held in Beidaihe District, a seaside retreat for the CCP in Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province. In 1953, the CCP Central Committee formed the summer office system. Beidaihe is regarded as the summer capital of China, because almost all the important conferences of the CCP Central Committee in summer were convened here from 1953 to 1965.
  The major topics of the Beidaihe Conference in 1958 were the national economic plan in 1959, current problems of industrial and agricultural production, and rural work. The conference adopted a whole series of critical documents, including the Communique of the conference, the Resolution of Establishing People's Communes in Rural Areas, the Directive on Launching Socialist and Communist Education Campaign, and so on.
  In the conference, the CCP raised the 1958 steel production target to 10.7 million tons and the grain target to 350 million tons.
context_section_description: The background of Beidaihe Conference in 1958 was firstly manifested in the continually increasing economic targets.
  During the 8th National Party Congress in 1956, Zhou Enlai gave the speech about the second Five-year Plan. He suggested that by 1962, the annual steel production should reach 10.5 million tons to 12 million tons. Meanwhile, the annual grain output should reach 250 million tons. In 1957, steel production had been 5.35 million tons. In December, the 6th National Planning Meeting was convened to draw up the economic plan of 1958. According to the goal of catching up with the U.K. in fifteen years, China would produce 6.1 million tons of steel and 196 million tons of grain annually.
  On Nanning Conference held in January 1958, the CCP confirmed to produce 6.2 million tons of steel and 196 million tons of grain in 1958. Besides, Bo Yibo, Chairman of State Economic Commission, proposed a new method of economic planning called "Two Plans" (Chinese: 两本账). It meant that there would be one plan which must be fulfilled and another plan which was expected to be fulfilled. Later this method was endorsed by Mao and included in "Sixty Points on Working Methods." Mao revised it as "three production plans": two are central plans -  the one which must be fulfilled would be published, and the other which was expected to be fulfilled would not be published. Meanwhile, two are local plans - the first local plan was the second central plan which from the local view must be fulfilled. The second central plan was the basis of comparison. On Nanning Conference, Mao was irritated with "Anti-Rash-Advance" (Chinese: 反冒进), and labelled the "Anti-Rash Advance" as "vulgar dialectics and Marxism."
  On March 8, the CCP called up Chengdu Conference. This conference changed the production target of Nanning Conference to the first production plan, and set up a higher target as the second production plan. The steel production of 1958 would be 7 million tons, and the grain would be 251.8 million tons. The document adopted in Chengdu Conference said "if we implement Chairman Mao's directives, our speed of socialist industrialization might be faster than the Soviet Union, and overtake the United Kingdom in less than fifteen years."
  After Chengdu Conference, Mao went to Chongqing and Wuhan in April to inspect the countryside and factories. In Wuhan, he called all the leaders of provinces and municipalities who had not attended Chengdu Conference to report their work. Tian Jiaying, the secretary of Mao, said that Wuhan Conference was a supplement to Chengdu Conference. At that time, Mao had some pragmatic aspects. He asked local governments to be down-to-earth. They should not drive peasants intensively, but alternate work with rest. The policy of local industry was "serve the agricultural, serve the large-scale industry and serve the consumers (Chinese: 为农业服务，为大工业服务，为消费者服务)."
  Things changed rapidly in summer. From May 5 to 23, the CCP held the Second Session of 8th National Party Congress, which formally adopted the General Line - which was suggested by Mao - "go all out, aim high, and build socialism with greater, faster, better, and more economical results (鼓足干劲，力争上游，多快好省地建设社会主义的总路线)." Zhou Enlai, Chen Yun, Bo Yibo and Li Xiannian criticized themselves because of their errors on Anti-Rash Advance. Half month after the conference, on June 7, Ministry of Metallurgical Industry reported to the Central Committee that the steel production target had been raised to 8.2 million tons in 1958 and 60 million in 1962. In mid-June, Li Fuchun, the leader of State Planning Commission, put forward the key points of the second Five-year Plan, which set the steel production target in 1958 to 8.5-9 million tons. The first plan of grain output in 1959 came to 300 million tons, which was an increase of 65 thousand tons over the expected output of 1958. At that period, Ke Qingshi, the top leader of southeast China and Shanghai, arrived in Beijing. His enthusiasm for local steel production apparently influenced Mao.
  When the Politburo convened a meeting on June 17 (M
caption: The rostrum of the Second Session of the 8th National Party Congress. From left: Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De.
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