Chinese Warned Of Long Task

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31027, 5 April 1966, Page 17

Chinese Warned Of Long Task

(N Z PA. Reuter—Copyright) PEKING, April 4. The Chinese people were told yesterday to be prepared to face “scores of years of strenuous effort” if they were successfully to complete the modernisation of their country.

The official "People’s Daily” reported this in a front-page article devoted to the national conferences on industry and transport held in Peking earlier this year. The report indicated that the conferences dealt mainly with China’s third five-year plan, which it said was of great strategic importance.

The plan began in January, three years after the expiry of the second five-year plan, but its production targets, priorities and provisions have not been announced. Announcements about the second plan reflected a tone of sober optimism and noted it would take 20 to 30 years to catch up with the rest of the world.

But today’s report implied that the process would take even longer still. Uneven Development

It drew attention to an unevenness in the development of transport and industry and that great and arduous tasks still lay ahead.

“It would take scores of years of strenuous effort to complete the modernisation

of China’s industry, agriculture, national defences, and her science and techniques,” the report said.