[Comment on Liu Bin’s Report on the Situation at Anshan Iron and Steel Company]
(28 February 1965)

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[2]
1. Strive to complete the socialist education movement in full, by stages and in batches, over approximately three years.
2. Organize a new upsurge in production centred on improving product variety and quality and raising labour productivity. On the issue of improving product quality, this year we will continue to adhere to the basic idea that production serves the user, and implement two reforms in management. First, change from organizing and assessing production solely according to planned targets to organizing production, inspecting and assessing production according to contracts under the guidance of the plan. Second, change the standard for doing a good job in quality from being measured solely by national standards to being measured by user satisfaction. In terms of raising labour productivity, it is planned this year to reduce the workforce by more than one-quarter and raise labour productivity by over 30%.
3. In capital construction work, two problems are to be resolved this year: First, basically complete the key projects within the Anshan Iron and Steel plant to fill gaps and bring capacities up to balance; second, complete the major campaign for equipment overhauls. These are two long-standing, difficult problems in production at Anshan Iron and Steel. In capital construction, three reforms will be continued: First, change the calculation of work volume based on monetary value to calculation based on engineering projects. Second, abolish the system of construction units turning over profits to higher levels. Third, reform the structure by merging Party A and Party B, and cultivate a well-coordinated team that vigorously cooperates.
4. Study Chairman Mao’s works in a big way, learn from the People’s Liberation Army, learn from Daqing, and learn from Dazhai. While grasping living ideology, expose and overcome capitalist thinking and the erroneous influence of the Soviet Union in operation and management, gradually revolutionize enterprise management, and strive to run the enterprise according to the Chairman’s thinking.
5. Political work will continue to focus on grasping ideology, grasping positive factors, and grasping work style, so as to promote the revolutionization of the workers’ and staff’s thinking. The above are preliminary ideas for this year’s work, to be revised and arranged after the Central Industrial Secretaries’ Conference.

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Seen. Return to Comrade Bo Yibo. This document is very well written. Compared with the reports Comrade Wang Heshou [1] wrote in the past, it shows great progress.

Mao Zedong
28 February

[1]

--- Notes

Liu Bin, then Vice Minister of the Metallurgical Industry, was stationed on-site at the Anshan Iron and Steel Company.


Wang Heshou, former Minister of the Metallurgical Industry, was then First Secretary of the Anshan Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and concurrently Party Secretary of the Anshan Iron and Steel Company.

Refers to Liu Bin’s report to Bo Yibo on 23 February 1965 regarding the situation at Anshan Iron and Steel. The report stated:
At present, the situation at Anshan Iron and Steel is very good. The year 1965 is a crucial year for striving to bring about a turnaround in the work at Anshan Iron and Steel. The specific requirements put forward for the work this year are mainly in five areas:

This comment was written on a letter dated 26 February 1965 from Bo Yibo, Vice Premier of the State Council and concurrently Director of the State Economic Commission, to Mao Zedong, submitting for review Liu Bin’s report on the situation at Anshan Iron and Steel.