China’s Industrial Development

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24905, 19 June 1946, Page 6

China’s Industrial Development

The report that geologists attached to the United States Reparations Mission to Korea and Manchuria have discovered in southern Manchuria a deposit of molybdenum believed to be among the greatest in the world is impressive and important; but it is hardly surprising news from a country already known to be rich in mineral resources, though little more than a beginning has been made in exploring them. Not more than onethird of the territory of China has been geologically »surveyed, as Europe and the United States have been. Nevertheless, China’s known

resources of coal are exceeded at most by those of only three countries. Estimates of her reserves of iron ore vary greatly, because it is an open question whether the orebearing areas of Manchuria are as extensive as the Japanese have reported. They have assessed the Manchurian reserves at 1.218 billion tons; but if Manchuria is excluded, the reserves of ore in China are estimated at 250 to 500 milljon tons. As an American authority, Professor Behre, has written, there is enough coal and iron ore “ for a ‘ growing if not iffimense ” steel industry in China. Moreover,

China is the world’s greatest producer of antimony. She is famous, also, as the foremost producer of tungsten. Her supplies of tin exceed her needs; and the magnesite deposits of southern Liaoning may prove to be lhe world’s greatest. Future exploration may greatly change the present picture of these and the* many other mineral resources with which Chins is endowed. But even as they are now known, China is potentially an important and reasonably self-suffi-cient industrial nation. Whether China will move to that status in decades rather than centuries is, however, a difficult question to answer. An abundance of raw

materials is not enough. Nor is an abundant supply of labour. The individual Chinese is quick to learn industrial techniques, and there are 400,000,000 Chinese. But it cannot be assumed that the Chinese masses are physically capable of efficient industrial work. China’s millions are hungry. Their diet is poorly balanced. They depend., too much on plant foods, especially cereals, and obtain too little of dairy and meat foods. A better nutritional level is essential if Chinese industry is to operate efficiently; and, significantly enough, the object of an American missk n now being organised in Washington is to help China reshape her agricultural i economy to raise production and

consumption levels. But the great prerequisite for China’s industrial development is political stability.

A divided China, as President Truman has said, though not so bluntly, is a poor financial risk.