Computer Technology in Communist China, 1956-1965

Based on information from translations of Communist
Chinese news items and periodical literature 
for the 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.

CACM September, 1966

Audette, D. G.

CA660901 JB March 2, 1978  6:59 PM

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