While production had been just over five million tons in 1957, he expected the country to catch up with or even surpass the United States by 1962, producing 80-100 million tons per year, and to reach 700 million tons per year by the mid-1970’s, making China the undisputed world leader. All this was to be accomplished using small “backyard steel furnaces” operated by ordinary people with no particular technical expertise.
发自上海 —— 让时光回到 1958 年，那个发动“大跃进”的年月，国家主席毛泽东对中国的钢铁工业寄予了厚望。在 1957 年钢产量仅有 500 万吨的情况下，他希望全国钢产量能在 1962 年时赶上甚至超过美国，达到 8000 万到 1 亿吨，并在 1970 年代中期达到 7 亿吨，让中国成为无可争议的世界钢材生产之王。而用来实现这一宏愿的，则是一些连专门钢铁生产技术都不具备的民众建立起来的“土法炼钢炉”。