Page 21 - SELECTED WORKS OF ZHOU ENLAI Volume II

FINANCIAL AND ECONOMIC SITUATION 19

Since it is the cities, where the population is concentrated, that
lead the countryside, where the population is scattered, and since it
is industry that leads agriculture, does it follow that we need not rely
on agriculture — the foundation of our economy — and can ignore
the countryside? No. The broad foundation of agriculture can never
be dispensed with or ignored. City and countryside are two aspects
of a dialectical whole; so are industry and agriculture. Neither aspect
can replace the other or be stressed at the expense of the other. When
we speak of the leadership of the cities and of industry, we are by
no means forgetting the role of agricultural production in promoting
industrial growth. The growth of industry is impossible without
the growth of agriculture. The primary task at present is to restore
agricultural production to its pre-war level and then to expand it.
We plan to increase grain yield by 5 million tons next year. We
should be able to attain an annual yield of 140 million tons — the
highest pre-war output — in from three to five years. Thus the
purchasing power of the 400 million peasants will be increased, and
their demand for industrial goods will grow. The amount of industrial
raw materials they supply will also be augmented. Expansion of ag-
riculture will then serve to restore and develop industrial production.
The cotton output this year is over 400,000 tons, and the plan for
next year is to increase it to 650,000 tons. If we fail to reach that
amount, one million spindles will stop spinning. The urban popula-
tion cannot go on living without food. The 10 million people in
Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai all depend on the countryside for their
food and clothing. The cities cannot manage without the country-
side. Industry cannot operate without agriculture but must be based
on agriculture.
In handling the relation between the cities and the countryside
we have to guard against two deviations. Cadres from the old liberated
areas have accumulated rich experience in rural production and are
skilled at organizing agricultural production. But that is no reason
for them to focus on agriculture to the neglect of industry, negating
or underestimating the leading role of the cities and of industry. If
this deviation is not prevented, mistakes will be made. Agriculture
cannot be the focus of work and will grow only under the leadership
of industry. Only when urban industries are organized to play a lead-
ing role can agriculture be modernized and mechanized. The Second
Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee decided to shift
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the focus of the Party’s work to the cities, and we should now devote