Analysis: 'Smash iron woks' -- a Great Leap Forward idiom returns to China

Katsuji Nakazawa is a Tokyo-based senior staff and editorial writer at Nikkei. He spent seven years in China as a correspondent and later as China bureau chief. He was the 2014 recipient of the Vaughn-Ueda International Journalist prize.

An old idiom has recently been buzzing around political and official circles across China. Za guo mai tie translates to, "Smash all your woks and sell them as scrap iron."