In the Great Leap Forward 1958-1961, Mao decided that steel production was the index of world power. China would surpass Britain’s steel production in 15 years thanks to backyard furnaces: every peasant should have not a cow but a blast furnace in the back hard. This was one crazy measure in a catastrophe that cost an estimated 18-45 million lives. Steel production might be an indicator of industrial power but it cannot be the driver in this fashion. Western commentators were appalled and contemptuous.
But what to say now when China’s steel production is top of the pile and about 8 times bigger than its nearest rival, Japan and half the global output. In 2014 China produced 822 million metric tonnes of the stuff. Britain? 12 million.
And now, to celebrate the Golden Era in relations between Britain and China (a phrase that sounds Orwellian in its rank dishonesty), Chinese steel dumping is destroying what is left of the UK steel industry.
No steel in Britain. Well let them make bronze. Or perhaps it’s back to the Stone Age for us?
But what to say now when China’s steel production is top of the pile and about 8 times bigger than its nearest rival, Japan and half the global output. In 2014 China produced 822 million metric tonnes of the stuff. Britain? 12 million.
And now, to celebrate the Golden Era in relations between Britain and China (a phrase that sounds Orwellian in its rank dishonesty), Chinese steel dumping is destroying what is left of the UK steel industry.
No steel in Britain. Well let them make bronze. Or perhaps it’s back to the Stone Age for us?
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