Comments on the Report “Surpass Britain in Two Years”
(June 22, 1958)

This document is to be circulated to all comrades attending the Military Commission meeting. Surpassing Britain will not take fifteen years, nor seven; it will require only two to three years—two years being quite possible. The key lies primarily in steel. As long as we reach 25 million tons in 1959, we shall have overtaken Britain in steel production.

Mao Zedong
June 22

Chuan
Refers to the report submitted on June 17, 1958, by Bo Yibo, Vice Premier of the State Council and Director of the State Economic Commission, to the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. The report reviewed the 1958 national economic situation and outlined the 1959 economic development plan, stating that in 1959 the output of China’s major industrial products, with the exception of electricity, would exceed British levels. When Mao Zedong approved this report, he changed its title to “Surpass Britain in Two Years (Report to the Political Bureau).”