43 Plan

The Four Three Plan or 43 Plan was the People's Republic of China's plan to introduce complete sets of technical equipment on a large scale from the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and other Western countries in the early 1970s. It was formally proposed in 1973. Since the late 1960s and early 1970s, China made use of foreign exchange reserve as well as deferred payment to import US$4.24 billion of machinery.

The "Four Three Plan" was the abbreviation of the foreign introduction plan "aimed at improving people's livelihood" proposed to the State Council by the State Planning Commission in the late Cultural Revolution in accordance with the spirit of Chairman Mao Zedong's instructions. Because the plan proposes "to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people ", it planned to introduce complete sets of equipment with a total value of US$4.3 billion from the United States, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Japan and other Western developed countries in three to five years.", which is how it got it's name the "43 Plan" Also known as "Project 43".

Background
Since 1954, China has implemented a ticket system. The number of cloth tickets issued each year needs to be calculated repeatedly and stipulated in a central document. Depending on the climate, the standards in various places are slightly different. Generally speaking, each adult is issued a ticket of 16 feet, 18 feet or 20 feet per year (a pillow towel requires about 2 feet of tickets). This is a serious issue because the annual cotton output has been hovering at more than 40 million tons, and textile raw materials are in short supply. In order to solve the problem of cotton production, Zhou Enlai held a cotton work meeting every year. Moreover, increasing cotton production also faces the problem of competition for land between grain and cotton. At that time, in industrialized countries, chemical fibers accounted for 40% or more of textile raw materials. In China, this proportion is only 5.5%. In July 1970, the former Ministry of Textile Industry, the First Ministry of Light Industry, and the Second Ministry of Light Industry were officially merged into the Ministry of Light Industry, with Qian Zhiguang as minister. Zhou Enlai announced: The country will focus on light industry, light industry will focus on textiles, and textiles will focus on chemical fibers.

Planning procedure
Gu Xiulian, an outstanding young female cadre and model worker carefully cultivated by the Ministry of Textiles, was chosen by the organization and transferred to the planning team. In the second half of 1971, Qian Zhiguang proposed that China's own oil and gas resources could be used to build several chemical fiber bases with a production capacity of 1 million tons, equivalent to 20 million dans of cotton. The required technical equipment can be imported from abroad. In this regard, Zhou Enlai and Li Xiannian instructed the State Planning Commission to study and consider introducing chemical fiber equipment to solve the clothing problem and fertilizer equipment to solve the problem.

During the National Planning Conference in early January 1972, Gu Xiulian, who was in charge of the Ministry of Light Industry, called Chen Jinhua, a representative of the ministry and deputy leader of the planning team, and asked him to report to Minister Qian Zhiguang and draft a report on behalf of the Planning Commission. According to the instructions, Chen Jinhua drafted the "Report on the Import of Complete Sets of Chemical Fiber and Fertilizer Technology and Equipment" based on discussions in the ministry and handed it over to Gu Xiulian.

According to the report, it is recommended to take advantage of the favorable opportunity of Western countries eager to find export markets and low prices of commodities and technologies during the economic crisis to introduce 4 sets of new chemical fiber equipment, 2 sets of fertilizer equipment, and some key equipment and materials that are urgently needed in the country in the first half of 1972. It will cost approximately US$400 million. Once put into operation, it can produce 240,000 tons of chemical fiber and 4 million tons of chemical fertilizers per year. The required petroleum gas, oil field gas, and petroleum raw materials are also guaranteed domestically.

The Planning Commission reported this report to the State Council, and Li Xiannian, Hua Guofeng and Yu Qiuli jointly reported it to Zhou Enlai. In early February, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong successively gave their approval.

On May 5, 1972, the Ministry of Metallurgy proposed to the State Planning Commission to import and absorb advanced 1.7-meter large-scale steel plate cold rolling mills and supporting hot rolling mills from abroad and other equipment and technologies urgently needed by the domestic steel industry. On August 6 of the same year, the State Planning Commission submitted a "Report on the Problem of Importing a 1.7-meter Continuous Plate Rolling Mill", which cost approximately US$400 million. Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai approved it.

On November 7, 1972, the State Planning Commission submitted a " Request for Instructions on Importing Complete Sets of Chemical Equipment ", involving 23 sets of chemical equipment and costing approximately US$600 million. Obtained approval from Mao and Zhou. It also requested the State Planning Commission to submit another import plan totaling US$3.3 billion to the central government for consolidation and consideration.

In January 1973, the Planning Commission submitted a comprehensive fourth report, namely the "Request for Instructions on Increasing Equipment Imports and Expanding Economic Exchanges.", The report reads: "'Our country's foreign relations have developed rapidly, and our international prestige has increased unprecedentedly. Imperialism and social imperialism want to isolate us, but instead isolate themselves. The economic crisis in the capitalist world has further deepened, and people are eager to find a way out of product market funds. Actively use this opportunity It is a good opportunity to expand foreign economic exchanges, which will not only help cooperate with international political struggles, but also help accelerate domestic economic construction.'"This overall plan planned to introduce 26 technology projects, requiring a total of US$4.3 billion in funds, so it was called the "Four Three Plan" (this plan was later added, with a total investment of US$5.18 billion). In early February, Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong approved this plan.

List of projects
In addition, another 43 sets of mechanized comprehensive coal mining units, as well as world-leading turbine compressors were included.