Since 1958, the Great Leap Forward Movement has caused serious difficulties to the national economy for three years, which are mainly manifested as: the proportion of the national economy is seriously out of balance, the scale of infrastructure is too large, food is scarce, inflation, market supply is tight, and people's lives are seriously difficult. In order to solve these problems, the eight-character policy of "adjustment, consolidation, enrichment and improvement" was put forward at the meetings in Beidaihe, Zhou Enlai and Li Fuchun in June, and was formally adopted at the Ninth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in June. Later, the Central Committee held several meetings and further formulated a series of policies and measures for implementation, resolutely and comprehensively adjusting the national economy.
The basic contents of the "eight-character policy" are: adjusting the proportional relationship between various departments of the national economy, mainly including the proportion of agriculture, industry, production and infrastructure, accumulation and consumption; Consolidate the achievements of economic construction; Enrich light industry and handicraft production with industrial products as raw materials, and develop emerging industries such as plastics and chemical fiber; Improve product quality, enterprise management and labor productivity. The center of the "eight-character policy" is adjustment. Through adjustment, we will improve the development speed of the whole national economy and appropriately control the development speed of heavy industry, especially the iron and steel industry. At the same time, it is necessary to appropriately reduce the scale of capital construction, so that the proportion between industry and agriculture, between heavy industry and light industry, and between accumulation and consumption tends to be coordinated, so that national construction and people's lives can be arranged as a whole.