Rural Small-Scale Industry in the People's Republic of China

Rural Small-Scale Industry in the People’s Republic of China explores the sprawling, shape-shifting world of county-jurisdiction factories—some “rural,” many in county towns; some “small,” others with 500+ workers—visited by a 12-member, China-savvy delegation in summer 1975. Framed by self-reliance, these enterprises blend indigenous and modern technology, serve agriculture first, and evolve quickly in scale and technique. Case regions such as Hsi-yang (Tachai) in Shanxi and Lin County in Henan show how massive, labor-intensive land and water works (terracing, flood tunnels, the Red Flag Canal) unlock demand for cement, fertilizer, and farm machinery; rising yields then create peak-season labor bottlenecks that justify mechanization. In flatter areas (Wuxi, Jiangsu; the North China Plain), pre-existing water control lets the sequence begin sooner with inputs and machinery. Small-scale siting counters weak transport/marketing by processing local resources (coal, limestone, fruit) near users, trimming haulage, speeding repairs, customizing to local agronomy, and narrowing urban–rural social gaps—without substituting for large urban industry or mainly targeting regional equalization or off-farm job creation.

The report is descriptive rather than sweeping: 50 plants and 10 communes is no sample, and visits skewed to advanced “model” locales; data came from hosts, with uneven access. Still, the team sketches why counties build locally despite classic scale economies: faster build-out, less downtime, fit-for-purpose designs, and fewer urban infrastructure costs—set against unresolved system-level efficiency questions the Chinese were reluctant to “price out” in Western cost-benefit terms. Engineering feasibility turns first on power (grid ties, small hydropower), then on product quality and material efficiency; chapters map administration (who plans, allocates, and motivates), incentives (material and moral), sector deep-dives (cement, fertilizer, machinery), agriculture impacts, employment/gender/administration effects, and education/training pipelines. The through-line: start with what you can do now, let practice generate capability and capital, and ratchet toward bigger, more modern, lower-cost operations while keeping agriculture at the center.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1977.