The Formation of a Strategy for Catching Up

After a protracted period of war and social turmoil, China found itself, at the end of the 1940s, mired in economic backwardness. Living standards were extremely low, and poverty was everywhere. Mao Zedong once described this poor China, bare of modern industry and material wealth, as ‘a clean sheet of paper’. However, for him, this condition of naked poverty was not entirely negative. He actually considered it a good thing because it could be a source of strength and inspiration. Determination, extreme effort and innovative action were required to change it. On this clean piece of paper, he insisted, the most modern and beautiful essays could be written, and the most modern and beautiful pictures could be painted.1