Manufacturing and Industry in China
The Chinese have long since been an enterprising group of people. Long
before the introduction of Western technologies and ideas, this country has had a
history of local industry dating back some 2000 years. These innovative people,
from an early time, produced paper, gunpowder, and silk, and printing with one of
the first movable type. In all, the manufacture of luxury items, fine handcrafts,
metal crafting and the manufacture of tools were all well established businesses
long before the onset of western entrepreneurs. (Compton's Interactive).
One of the first goals of the Communists, after 1949, was to develop the
growth of heavy industry. The practice, following the model of the Soviet Union.
They attempted to attract industrial development in the interior sections of China.
The thought here was that there was already significant wealth in the old treaty
port cities. New steel mills were constructed at Wuhan on the Yangtze and at
Baotou in the Interior Mangolia. Other interior cities also grew at a rapid pace.
The communists took advantage, as well, of coastal cities, such as Shanghai.
Shanghai and the like were attractive due to their location and transportation
systems. These areas provided skilled labor and swift access to international
markets. (Compton's Interactive).
During what the Chinese called "The Great Leap Forward", there were
large investments in heavy industry. There were small scale versions of these
industries such as steel refining. The program was abandoned, however, when it
caused great disruptions in the economic growth of the country. A ten year plan
was established in which economic conditions improved through a greater use of
privately owned enterprises, as opposed to the old state-owned businesses.
(Microsoft Encarta).
The idea for private enterpr...