China\'s Quest. The History of the Foreign Relations of the People\'s Republic of China - John Garver

Joining the Socialist Camp } 55

sector. With Soviet assistance, China set up an array of industries entirely new
to China: machine tools, airplanes, cars, trucks, tractors, petroleum mining and
refining, precision instruments, chemicals, and many others. Via agreements
signed in 1950, 1952, 1953, and 1954, the Soviet Union undertook to assist 156 major
industrial projects. All Soviet assistance went to the PRC’s state sector, supplying
52 percent of total capital investment during China’s First Five Year Plan. Soviet
assistance greatly strengthened the leading role of the centrally planned indus-
trial sector (i.e., “socialism”) in China’s economy.
Soviet machinery and equipment (M&E) supplied for these projects fre-
quently represented major technological advances for Chinese industry,
resulting in major increases in productivity in those sectors. Figure 2-2 illus-
trates the distribution and productivity gains of the 156 Soviet aid projects.
Together, these projects made up the backbone of China’s industrialization
efforts under the First and Second Five Year Plans (1953–1957 and 1958–1962
respectively). The Soviet role was comprehensive and included investigation
of geological conditions, selection of factory sites, and assistance with actual
manufacture of products.
The Soviet Union also supplied extensive human technical assistance.
Between 1950 and 1960, some 11,000 Soviet specialists were sent to China. At
least twenty specialists were assigned to each of the 156 key projects. Hundreds
of Soviet advisors worked at big projects like new metallurgical or heavy

Industry Number of
Enterprises

Industry % Increase Productivity

Due to Soviet Assistance

iron and steel 7 iron 92.1
nonferrous metals 14 steel 82.8
electric power 24 steel products 82.8
machinery building 63 coal 22.7
coal 27 trucks 100
oil 2 electricity 45.9
chemicals 5 nitrogen fertilizer 28.5
drugs and pharmaceuticals 2 crude oil 51.4
paper 1 metallurgical
equipment

50.3

textiles 1
water conservation 1
state farms 1
transportation 6
other 3
TOTAL 156

FIGU R E 2-2 Distribution and Productivity Contribution of 156 Key Soviet Projects
Source: Chu–yuan Cheng, Economic Relations Between Peking and Moscow: 1949–1963 (Praeger: New York,
1964), p. 28, 43.