China from 1949 to 1976

Karl Marx wrote that technology helps in the development of productive forces and technology can liberate workers from hard work. These ideas and other closely related ideas were adopted by the Soviet Union in particular, where people thought that scientific and technological revolution should lead to communism. In China, Chairman Mao Zedong said social revolution linked to the development of science would be apparent very soon. He particularly said that Marxism is a social scientific theory and that communist culture should guide scientific work.

To help us to understand the development of science and technology in the early People's Republic of China, a timeline delineates or differentiates between 4 different periods beginning in 1949. During the first period, 1950 to 1957, China was assisted by the Soviet Union. The Chinese Academy of Sciences was established and the first science and technology plan was formulated with the emphasis on heavy industry. There was the Hundred Flowers campaign and the Anti-Rightist campaign. The second period, 1958 to 1960, was known as The Great Leap Forward. The key characteristic of this period was the withdrawal of Soviet Union assistance for science and technology development in China. From 1961 to 1965 there was a period of readjustment with the formulation of the second long-term science and technology plan. In 1964, there was a test of the first atomic bomb. The fourth period, 1966 to 1976, was known as the Cultural Revolution, an extremely difficult time for scientific and technological expertise.

Originally, Russia was a strong ally of China and assisted Chinese scientific and technological development to a great extent. There was $3 billion worth of industrial projects for 130 projects in total. More than 10,000 Soviet and East European experts worked in China. The Soviet Union also provided scientific and technical documents so China could upgrade and thousands of Chinese engineers actually trained in the Soviet Union. There was a two-way flow of people. China was relatively backwards and had a weak domestic infrastructure and very few trained people. It was very difficult during this period for China to get technology from the west because of the confrontation with the US over Taiwan and during the Korean War. National defense was a priority as it is for many countries. The need to build up military capability made it important for science and technology to be promoted in China. Soviet assistance was very relevant because the Soviet Union worked under a communist model just as China did. This was a model which emphasized state ownership and planned development. All of these factors combined to promote science and technology as a planned activity by the state.

The first science and technology plan for 1956 and 1967 was formulated by the Science Planning Commission with Soviet assistance. There were 12 priority areas dominated by defense and heavy industry. It was never really completed but it was claimed to have been completed because China needed a new plan and it couldn't be formulated or implemented until the first one was completed. The Chinese Academy of Science was and is an important institution that was established in 1949. It concentrated scientific manpower in one organization. It was mandated to do basic and applied research. However the planning of science followed political guidance. “The academy should meet the urgent demands of the people and serve the immediate task of the state.”

There was an organizational infrastructure that was created in the 1950's. For instance, the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC), the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, and Sector Research Institute were established in this period. Universities were established and existing universities also started to emphasize scientific and technological education, and development, much more heavily. Provisional research institutes were also established after 1958.

On the 16th of October, 1964, China tested its first atomic bomb. China's first hydrogen bomb test took place in 1967. Both tests were the result of China's most successful science and technology project.

The academic leadership was mandated to guide research based on internal criteria, (scientific excellence) but at the same time, the Chinese central party was involved at every level of administration. There was ideological leadership even though it was said superficially that internal criteria should be the driving motivation for the development of science and technology.

In 1956, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the Hundred Flowers Campaign. There was to be freedom of debate, freedom of independent thinking, freedom to express one's views and so on. A group of Chinese Academy scientists criticized party control, using these freedoms, but the CCP reacted with the Anti-Rightist Campaign whereby those who had voiced independent views were labeled rightists and condemned.

During the period of 1958 to 1960, the Great Leap Forward began with the first five-year plan for economic development, emphasizing construction of heavy industry in major cities. Chairman Mao also wanted to encourage more construction of industries in rural areas. He presented this idea of “walking on two legs”, whereby he promoted technological dualism, combining large scale capital-intensive industries with small scale labor-intensive industries. There was a strong desire to catch up quickly with other industrialized nations. China was influenced heavily at this time by rivals in the West. This campaign tried to promote rural industrialization, to mobilize the masses, the rural population, and encourage industrial development in the interior provinces of China.

China's development is still heavily concentrated in the coastal regions. Rural industrialization is something that they have been trying to emphasize ever since the 1950's. What they tried to promote then was the construction of an iron and steel industry in the countryside and the large number of pig iron furnaces were developed at that time. Peasants were assigned to work in rural industries and they were taken away from harvesting crops.

During this period, the Soviet Union’s assistance had been withdrawn so China had to be more self reliant or had to look elsewhere for assistance. There were new principles of balanced growth, of acknowledging agriculture as a foundation for economic growth, and also for rational arrangement of light and heavy industry. In other words, heavy and light industries should both be promoted simultaneously, but they should be promoted rationally, should not be promoted blindly and in an ad hoc manner. Furthermore, during this period of readjustment, one of the key features to emerge was this idea of market socialism, the idea that the profit motive is important and it's okay to make a profit while trying to promote science and technology.

In the late 1960's, there was a revival of science and technology in terms of planning and professionalism, growth of scientific research and scientific engineering personnel and re-centralization of the administration. The second long-term program for science and technology was formulated in 1962. More resources were devoted to military science and technology. For instance, 46% of personnel from the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) Division of New Technology helped the military. Furthermore, there was a reduced emphasis on ideological work and more emphasis on professional expertise. In other words, the role of the state was reduced.

During the Cultural Revolution, people had to be classified according to whether they were “Red” or “Experts”. They asked, “Is science and technology the superstructure or the basis of society? Are scientists, members of the working class or not? How do we ensure that scientists and engineers work for socialist revolution, but not for bourgeois capitalism? Furthermore, what is the purpose of education? Is the purpose ideological or professional?” The Cultural Revolution lasted roughly ten years and it was extremely detrimental to the promotion of scientific and technological expertise in China. There were some positive effects of the Cultural Revolution but by far the negative effects outweigh the positive. Scientific research was badly disrupted. Research institutes were closed and scientists were sent to the countryside. Western scientific theory, such as Einstein's Theory of Relativity, were denounced. Many universities were closed. Education increasingly emphasized ideological persuasion instead of scientific expertise. Large, state-owned enterprises lost their prestige, power, influence and dominance. Marxist thought was to serve as a guide for all scientific enterprise and scientific activities. Class struggle was seen to be much more important so promoting science and technology would seem to be bad, unimportant, and unnecessary.

One of the positive effects of the Cultural Revolution was the increased need to rely on oneself, to reverse-engineer foreign technology and/or try to create technologies by oneself. The Chinese state considered that to be very important. There was also an attempt to integrate theory and practice. Rural industrialization was promoted to a large degree.
from Coursera course, Science and Technology and Society in China. Week 1. by Naubahar Sharif, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology