Computer technology in communist China, 1956-1965

Based on information from translations of Communist Chinese news items and periodical literature for the 1956 through 1965 period, computer technology in China is reviewed under the following headings: (1) initial planning, organization and educational aspects of computer technology and automation; 2) machine development progress: two major specific machines in 1958-59, with Soviet aid; a vacuum in 1960-64 due to the withdrawal of Soviet aid; then presumably all-Chinese-made machines from 1965 to the present; (3) computer applications; (4) the trend of automation: control of production processes rather than data processing; and (5) the “Yun Ch'ou Hsueh” (Science of Operation and Programming) campaign of 1958-60, during which an attempt was made to bring concepts such as linear programming to ordinary Chinese workers and peasants. Communist China is adjudged to have a marginal computer capability, with most of its machines probably being of a binary nature; however, a turning point may have been reached in mid-1965.

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