Comments [2] on the Report [1] of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry on Solving the Problem of Product Variety and Quality

For Jiang Qing to read. Very important.
Return to Mao.
(September 14, 1962)
September 14

[1] The report of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry on September 11, 1962, to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee concerning the situation and problems in solving the issue of product variety and quality is divided into four parts:
(1) Great achievements have been made in product variety and quality in recent years.
(1) The number of steel grades currently being smelted has reached 850 (compared to 372 in 1957). The proportion of alloy steel will increase from only 3% in 1957 to 8% this year. High-quality steel output will reach 2 million tons this year (compared to 700,000 tons in 1957).
(2) Short-supply varieties among rolled steel products will increase from 42% of total steel output in 1957 to 56% this year, of which 24 scarce varieties will increase from 15% of total steel output in 1957 to 28% this year.
(3) The metallurgical system already has 7 specialized research institutes with about 4,000 technical personnel, which will gradually increase to 10,000 in the future. (2) Revisionism does not want us to be self-reliant. The Soviet Union does not provide us with technical data on high-grade alloy steel and forbids Soviet experts from imparting such technology to us. It also refuses to give us important rolling mills, attempting to make us forever dependent on it and subject to its control. (3) At present, we still cannot fully achieve self-reliance in the varieties needed for agricultural technological transformation and cutting-edge national defense. We can now solve over 90% of the metal varieties required for general machinery, and 80% of the metal varieties needed for relatively advanced chemical fertilizer, power station equipment, and aircraft. Another 10% to 20% of the varieties remain to be tackled and solved in the future. (4) Time is needed, and the prospects are very promising. We estimate that to achieve a roughly complete range of metal varieties, more than 20 sets of key rolling mills are required, and their...