Forty-eight years ago, the Great Leap Forward campaign was launched and a famous slogan was put forward: "Building socialism with greater, faster and better economic returns."

At the time, the Chinese leaders put "greater economic returns" before everything else in the hope of redressing the situation of extreme want, in the context of the Cold War, or in China's words the "confrontation between the socialist camp and the capitalist camp."

In the wake of the Korean War, the Chinese economy had been overtaxed and the country was deeply in debt. The State coffers were virtually empty, which was compounded by the huge population of the country and the shaky economic foundation inherited from the old China.

The top authorities then understandably let the "greater and faster economic returns" enjoy top priority. And "better returns" took a backseat. When this was taken to the extreme, economic disasters happened.

In the late 1970s, the country embarked on the road to reform and opening up, in an effort to make up time lost during the catastrophic "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

In this scenario, development speed naturally commanded top priority over economic efficiency.

According to this author's reading of the mindset of the second-generation leadership represented by Deng Xiaoping, emphasis on "faster development speed" reflected their deep sense of crisis as well as their aspirations for modernizing a backward China, which they had harboured ever since their youthful years.

Insofar as the psychology of the Chinese public is concerned, the slogan "For the Revival of China" tallied with individual quests for fortune, which largely tapped people's creativity and enterprising spirit that had been lying dormant for years as the leftist mentality prevailed.

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