Comrades Shaoqi and Xiaoping, for your reading. Please ask Xiaoping to discuss with Comrades Chen Yun and Wang Heshou [2] and, in the name of the Central Committee, notify all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions to follow the method adopted by Jiangsu [1].

Mao Zedong
May 23

[1]
Fan Muhan, a member of the State Planning Commission, and others wrote a letter on May 16, 1959, to the Party Leadership Group of the Planning Commission and Director Li Fuchun, stating: After visiting various places in Jiangsu to understand the steel production situation, we feel that the production and construction of the iron and steel industry in Jiangsu Province have not been carried out satisfactorily. The most fundamental problem is that the capital construction has been spread too broadly and excessively, failing to concentrate limited resources to complete projects one by one. As a result, the six newly built steel plants are all still "half-finished" and cannot begin production. The Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee has now rearranged the construction of these six steel plants: priority will be given to ensuring that the Changzhou Steel Plant is fully equipped and put into operation as soon as possible; with assistance from Shanghai, the Nanjing Steel Plant and the Wuxi Steel Plant will be fully equipped, striving to commence production in July; construction of the other three steel plants will be temporarily suspended, and their existing equipment will be reallocated for use by the aforementioned three plants. Arrangements for the three suspended plants will be reconsidered in the second half of the year depending on the situation. We believe Jiangsu’s approach is correct. Concentrating resources to ensure that steel plants are completed one by one, rather than all at once, will greatly alleviate the pressure of construction and equipment matching and will also help ensure increased steel output. This situation is not unique to Jiangsu Province. It seems necessary to further study the construction arrangements for steel plants in all provinces, truly shortening the front and concentrating resources. This is an effective measure to guarantee this year’s steel output. On May 22, Li Fuchun forwarded this letter to the Central Committee and Mao Zedong, attaching a note pointing out that he believes the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee’s decision to adopt measures of shortening the front, concentrating resources, and rationally distributing sites for steel plant construction is entirely correct, and he suggested that the Ministry of Metallurgy assist other provinces and municipalities with similar situations in adopting this measure.

[2]
Chen Yun was then Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council. Wang Heshou was then Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Minister of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry.