LOOKING BACK AT CHINA LEAPING FORWARD

Anyone who pays attention to world news will have observed the 
rising tensions between China and Taiwan lately. With the slow 
progression from economic restrictions such as limiting tourism, to 
incursion of their waters by huge fleets of sand dredgers, and now 
the frequent flights of Chinese military aircraft above those 
waters. At the same time the Chinese authorities and state media 
are willfully affirming that taking Taiwan is still firmly on their 
to-do list, even though it's been there since 1949.

It's an interesting time to look back on communist China's much 
earlier years, when Taiwan was even more firmly in thier sights, 
and this CIA film, "China Leaps Forward", from the beginnings of 
the Great Leap Forward in 1958, presents a facinating window into 
those times:
https://archive.org/details/gov.archives.arc.643188

The film begins showing city life and a large agricultural expo 
where the machinery demonstrated indeed looks up to the western 
standards of the time*. Once the bold American reporter (narrating 
in classic 1950s style) makes his way out to the industrial and 
rural areas though, such modern equipment is frequently seen 
substituted by classic Chinese bulk manpower. Later on it also 
introduces the "backyard" steel furnaces that Mao ordered all 
workers to build for the sake of increasing steel production (in 
practice requiring the melting down of any spare steel that could 
be classed as "scrap", only to produce low grade iron), which have 
become a symbol of the logical failings of the Great Leap Forward 
that tragically lead to the starvation of tens of millions of 
Chinese peasants in rural areas. You notice them popping up with 
increasing frequency, at increasingly unlikely locations, towards 
the end of the film.

But besides documenting the emergence of an economic disaster, as 
an American the journalist captures the seemingly universal 
determination in both propoganda and the Chinese people themselves 
that Taiwan would be taken back. This, and a hatred of the USA for 
defending Taiwan, is closely intertwined with the activities of the 
Great Leap Forward. It's amazing how so much effort was put towards 
implementing Mao's misguided economic policies, and yet the 
situation with Taiwan actually remained relatively unchanged right 
up until today.

It also begs the question whether the hostilities expressed towards 
Taiwan by the Chinese government today are really serious? Or are 
they again intended as a distraction for the Chinese people 
themselves, who after two decades of extremely rapid economic 
growth are now seeing the forward leaps of modern China begin to 
stumble?

 - The Free Thinker.

* Also at one point it's interesting to see Chinese copies of both 
Russian and American 50s car designs parked side-by-side. Perhaps 
unsurprisingly, they're still playing at that game as well:
https://electrek.co/2021/10/09/awesomely-weird-alibaba-ev-of-the-week-a-fake-electric-ferramborghini-from-china/

"When you have to include brakes as a feature, you're really 
 scraping the bottom of the automotive barrel."