After the Beidaihe Meeting, 90 million people in the country got involved in “backyard” steelmaking, resulting in tremendous waste of manpower and resources. Small blast furnaces such as those shown here could be seen every-where in the country.

During the “great leap forward” period, many large-and medium-sized projects were built, creating great production capability. However, people were overanxious for quick results and the role of man’s willpower was exaggerated. As a result, the national economy suffered an imbalance, and agricultural production and the people’s standard of living actually dropped.