Daqing Oilfield as the Model for Industry

The Mass Movement related to the reform of the national industrial and transportation system, which was launched in 1964, which focused on learning from the spirit of Daqing Oilfield experience. Daqing Oilfield, which is located in Songnen Plain, Daqing city within the Heilongjiang Province, is run by a huge petroleum industry enterprise.

Since February 1960, under extremely difficult conditions, Daqing people established China's largest and world-advanced level oil field through self-reliance and hard work, ending the history of using "foreign oil" in China, laying an important material foundation for national economic construction, and creating a set of experiences and systems for building and managing modern enterprises. Wang Jinxi, the "Iron Man", represents the spirit of Daqing oil workers, scientific and technical personnel and cadres who upheld dedicated work, overcome difficulties and strive for improvement, which provided valuable inspiration and spiritual wealth for the whole country, thus becoming an advanced model on the industrial front in China. The achievements and experiences of Daqing attracted great attention of the CPC Central Committee. At the beginning of 1964, Mao Zedong issued a call: "In industry, learn from Daqing”.

In February, the CPC Central Committee issued the “Notice of the CPC Central Committee on the Conveying of the Case Report of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry in Respect to the Oil Battle in Daqing”, defined Daqing experience as a model of faster and better management by combining political thought, revolutionary drive and scientific management. The Daqing experience was of universal significance across the country, not only in the industrial sector, but also in various sectors of transportation, finance, trade, culture and education, as well as in the organs of the Party, the government, the army and mass organizations at all levels.

Later, People's Daily and other central and local newspapers and radio stations all over the country continuously reported the advanced experience and outstanding merits of Daqing struggle. The movement of learning from Daqing Experience was promoted across the country in a comprehensive manner.

In December 1964, Zhou Enlai highly appraised Daqing experience in the “Report on the Work of the Government” at the Third Plenary Session of the National People's Congress, pointing out that Daqing adhered to the principle of combining centralized leadership with mass movements, the principle of combining a highly revolutionary spirit with a strict scientific attitude, and the principle of technological revolution and industrious, diligent and frugal nation-building, and issued a call for further study of Daqing experience. The campaign of “Learning from Daqing” was vigorously launched and spread to all industrial front across China. The work rules put forward by Daqing laborers such as "Three Values" (treat the cause as honest people, be sincere and be ethical), "Four Musts" (treat the work with stringent attitude, be stringent in organization, be dedicated to work, and be disciplined), and the "Four Sames" (treat the production of the night shift and day shift as the same, work with the same energy both in bad and good weathers, work the same during the absence of foreman and during his presence, and work the same even if controlled and if not controlled) was spread across the country and became the trend among the people from all walks of life during the campaign of Learning from Daqing. A batch of advanced collectives and individuals learning from Daqing emerged everywhere, and a batch of Daqing-style SOEs emerged across the country.

After the beginning of the “Cultural Revolution”, the learning from Daqing movement was negatively affected and some deviations appeared, mainly in the form of linking the Daqing experience more and more with class struggle and struggle between two lines, exalting the typical cases, modelling and absolutizing some experiences, so forth.

In April 1977, after the ending of the “Cultural Revolution” the National Work Conference on Learning from Daqing in Industry was launched in Daqing, which raised the idea that the level of learning from Daqing should be elevated to the height of blazing a path of our own in industrial development, but this meeting made an inappropriate theoretical summarization of Daqing's experience. On December 18, 1981, the CPC Central Committee issued the “Notice of the CPC Central Committee Conveying the Report of the Party Group of the State Economic Commission on the Issue of Learning from Daqing in Industry”, which correctly, comprehensively and thoroughly summarized the experience and lessons of Daqing in industrial development, it pointed out that almost all the experiences of Daqing in the past were connected with class struggle and two line struggles, which were the product of specific historical conditions, and said the Party’s Central Committee plus the leaders at higher levels at that time should take the main responsibility for this error, but added that the Daqing experience and the movement of learning from Daqing were basically correct.

The movement of Learning from Daqing in Industry enhanced the Chinese people's spirit of self-reliance, arduous struggle and courageous dedication, and played a major role in promoting the task of national economic adjustment and establishing the foundation of modern industry in those days, and it was also played a crucial role in promoting the industrial construction of New China and was a brilliant stroke in the history of ideological and political work.