Economic assessment of the industry on the eve of the reform and opening up programme

In 1978, two years after the death of Mao and on the eve of the reform and opening up programme, China’s coal production at nearly 618 million tons ranked third in the world after the US and USSR, up from ninth in 1949. Between 1953, the first year of the First Five Year Plan, and 1978, production in China increased by almost 800 per cent, compared to 124 per cent in the USSR, and 187 per cent in India.