In the 50s of the 20 th century, senior economic experts and leaders of the Soviet Union once proposed that if China's economic construction wants to develop rapidly, it must concentrate on construction in the coastal and northeastern regions.
At first, China basically accepted the Soviet side's opinion, but before it was finalized, it was considered that concentrating all 156 projects on the war-fighting northeastern region adjacent to North Korea and the large coastal cities that were vulnerable to aircraft attacks would be detrimental to the balanced distribution of China's industry, especially the security of the defense industry. Therefore, the leaders headed by the leader proposed that a number of projects should be arranged to be carried out in the western region, and nearly half of the national defense construction projects should be arranged in the western region.
After repeated consultations with the Soviet side, it was finally decided that 21 of the 106 civilian industrial enterprises and 21 of the 44 defense industry enterprises would be built in the western region during the "First Five-Year Plan" and "Second Five-Year Plan" periods, and China's aircraft, tanks, artillery, warships and other heavy production bases would be deployed in the western region. The western region initially established industrial foundations in iron and steel, electric power, coal, petroleum, nonferrous metals, weapons, aviation, building materials, electronics, and electrical engineering, thus laying the foundation for the later "three-line construction."
1.The international background of the "three-line construction".
In the early 60s of the 20th century, the international environment posed severe challenges to China. The main threat comes from the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, which have nuclear weapons in their hands. In 1964, the Soviet Union deployed millions of troops on the Sino-Soviet border and stationed troops in the Mongolian People's Republic.
From 1960 to 1964, the United States formed an anti-China alliance with many countries and regions surrounding China, establishing dozens of military bases in these countries and regions, and forming a "half-moon-shaped" encirclement of China. In August 1964, the United States began bombing North Vietnam.
In addition, in the early 60s, the Chiang Kai-shek regime, with the support of the United States, wanted to "** the mainland" and stepped up the dispatch of armed spies to carry out attacks on the southeast and other coastal areas, in a vain attempt to establish a "guerrilla warfare corridor" in southeast China for large-scale attacks on the mainland. * It is believed that the heavy industry and military industrial bases in Northeast China are all within the strike range of the Soviet Union's medium and short-range missiles and strategic bombers that can carry nuclear warheads, and the coastal industrial cities and large cities such as Beijing are also within the strike range of the US and Chiang Kai-shek air forces, and once a war breaks out, even if the enemy does not use nuclear weapons, most of China's industrial base will be destroyed in one fell swoop;The western region was outside the range of military firepower strikes of the Soviet Union and the United States and Chiang Kai-shek (at that time, neither the Soviet Union nor the United States and Chiang's ** equipment could not hit the western region, especially the southwest region).
Therefore, from the perspective of war, two decisions were made at that time: one was to develop the atomic bomb, the other was to carry out "three-line construction", and the other was to comprehensively spread out the layout of China's industrial construction, so that the first line along the coast, the second line in the middle, and the third line in the west and northwest coexisted, and the third line was taken as the focus of construction.
** Emphasizing the need to focus on "three-line construction" and the three-line development of the atomic bomb.
From May 15 to June 17, 1964, the work conference held by the Communist Party of China made a major strategic decision on "three-line construction". In August of that year, the meeting decided to concentrate manpower, material resources, and financial resources to build the third line. Since 1965, China has begun to relocate some industrial enterprises along the coast to the western and northwestern regions, and most of the new projects that year were concentrated in the western regions.
After the conflict on Zhenbao Island in 1969, in order to deal with the military threat from the Soviet Union, the idea of "small third line" construction was put forward, and all provinces, especially those that carried out "three-line construction", needed to build their own self-contained "three lines", so that the two systems of "big third line" and "small third line" were interlinked to form a large system. Since 1970, the "three-line construction" project has been implemented according to the principle of "priority arrangement, key guarantee, and urgent repair".
It has also determined the principle of "three-line construction" of "large dispersion and small concentration" and "camping by mountains and rivers", that is, to determine the construction projects according to the local topography and geomorphological conditions, so that the enterprises of "three-line construction" can meet the needs of modern warfareIt is necessary to stay away from large and medium-sized cities and disperse their locations, so that even in the event of a nuclear war, these factories and scientific research units cannot be destroyed or blown up, and they can continue to persist in production and scientific research and support the front line.
2.Human, financial and material support for the "three-line construction".
"Three-line construction" is a systematic project involving many aspects, from the macro state financial arrangements to the micro industrial supporting layout.
In terms of industrial support, it is particularly emphasized that it is necessary to develop the third-line heavy industry, especially the iron and steel industry, so that the military industry can have a raw material base. He even said, "I can't sleep if I don't build the steel plant in Panzhihua." ”
In terms of employing people, he has selected and sent a number of generals and a group of the best scientists in China, such as Qian Sanqiang and Deng Jiaxian, to carry out construction in third-tier areas. Focusing on the atomic bomb, a key military project, many military and scientific and technological backbones have been dispatched to the western region to strengthen the construction of nuclear research and development bases. During this period, it was also decided to exercise military control over some key "third-line construction" bases and projects, and even directly sent troops to carry out construction.
The daily work of the "three-line construction" is presided over by the main person in charge of *** and ***;At the local level, three "three-line construction" committees have been set up in the southwest, northwest and central and south, and the directors are all served by the first secretary of the local ** bureau. Leading groups have been set up for major projects of "three-line construction", and headquarters have also been set up for other "three-line construction" projects.
China's "three-front construction" for the purpose of national defense is costly. From 1965 to 1975, the state allocated almost half of the country's capital construction funds to the construction of the third-line strategic rear. From 1965 to 1971, the total investment in China's "third-line construction" reached 340800 million yuan, which does not include the investment of the provinces in raising their own funds to carry out the construction of the "small third line".
According to the Fourth Five-Year Plan, China's investment in the defense industry from 1970 to 1972 reached 912.3 billion yuan, accounting for about 16 percent of the total investment in industrial capital construction in the same period, becoming the three years with the highest proportion of capital construction investment in China's national defense industry from 1949 to 1985. It is estimated that from 1964 to the 80s of the 20th century, 205.2 billion yuan was invested in the "third-line construction".
3.The "three-line construction" has strengthened the military heavy industry system in the western region.
Through the "three-line construction," more than 1,100 large and medium-sized industrial transportation enterprises, national defense science and technology industrial enterprises, scientific research institutes, and colleges and universities have been built, and an industrial system has basically been formed in which the production departments of transportation, electric power, coal, chemical industry, petroleum, building materials, and iron and steel are coordinated but geographically dispersed.
In terms of railway construction, from August 1964, when it was decided to build six railway lines, including the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, the Sichuan-Guizhou Railway, and the Guizhou-Kunming Railway, to the 80s of the 20th century, the "three-line construction" was built into the Chengdu-Kunming Railway, the Hunan-Guizhou Railway, the Jiaoliu Railway, the Xiang-Chongqing Railway, the Sichuan-Guizhou Railway, the Guizhou-Kunming Railway, and many highway networks were also built, creating transportation conditions for mineral development, product circulation, industrial construction, and national defense construction in the western region.
In terms of the construction of the national defense industry, through the "three-line construction", a conventional weapons industrial production base has been built in ChongqingIn Sichuan and Guizhou, the electronic industry production base has been built;In Sichuan and Shaanxi, a strategic scientific research and production base has been builtIn Guizhou, Shaanxi, and western Hubei regions, aviation and aerospace industry production bases have been builtIn the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River, it has built a shipbuilding industry research and production baseA satellite test and launch center was built in Xichang. By relocating a part of the old military industrial enterprises in the northeast and north China to the western region to build new factories, the goal of "dividing the important military industrial enterprises into two" has basically been achieved.
In terms of raw material industry, energy industry and machinery industry, it has built large enterprises such as Panzhihua Iron and Steel Base, Chongqing Iron and Steel Base, Chengdu Iron and Steel Factory, and Guizhou Shuicheng Iron and Steel PlantThe Northwest Copper Processing Plant, Lanzhou Liancheng Aluminum Plant, Lanzhou Aluminum Plant, Styx Aluminum and Magnesium Smelting and Processing Plant, Northwest Aluminum Processing Plant and Chongqing Southwest Aluminum Processing Plant were newly builtIt has built a coking coal base in the southwest, a coal base in the northwest, and mining areas such as Pingdingshan, Jiaozuo and Hebi68 new power stations of more than 100,000 kilowatts;The second automobile factory, Shaanxi automobile factory and Sichuan automobile factory were newly builtA number of new supporting factories have been built, enabling the western region to form the capacity for mass production of light and heavy vehicles that combines military and civilian use12 new heavy machinery industrial manufacturing plants have been built, so that the western region has formed a strong heavy machinery manufacturing capacityThe motor and electrical industry has developed, and Sichuan Dongfang Electric Machinery Factory, Dongfang Steam Turbine Factory, Dongfang Boiler Factory, and Dongfeng Electric Machinery Factory have been built, forming an annual output of 800,000 kilowatts of complete sets of generator setsIn order to support the defense industry, heavy water, explosives, resin, rubber, and pharmaceutical enterprises have also been built.
In the light textile industry, through the "three-line construction," the production enterprises of paper, sugar, salt, bicycles, sewing machines, watches, synthetic detergents, plastic products, leather products, cotton textiles, wool textiles, silk, printing and dyeing, knitting, chemical fibers, and textile machinery have been rolled out in the western region in an all-round way. Among them, 7 cotton textile mills with more than 50,000 spindles and 5 large and medium-sized vinylon factories have been newly built.
In addition, more than 100 subordinate reserve warehouses, 15 large-scale radio and television projects, and a number of institutions of higher learning have been built in the western region. After 241 machinery industry factories, research institutes and design institutes were relocated to the western region, 124 large and medium-sized projects were newly built and expanded, with a cumulative investment of 947.2 billion yuan, accounting for 53% of the investment in the national machinery industry in the same period.
4.The strategic significance of "three-line construction".
The "three-front construction" has enabled China to have a relatively secure strategic rear, and at the same time, it has also formed China's deterrent force. China's "three-front construction" is unprecedented in both world economic and military history.
By 1973, when China and the United States were "strategically approaching" under the new international situation, China's "three-front construction" had begun to take shape; judging from the world's military pattern and technological level at that time, China had built a solid rear base that could not be defeated or bombed, and could support the war for a long time, thus changing the situation of one-sided industrial concentration in coastal cities. **In the early 90s of the 20th century, he inspected the western region many times. He pointed out that judging from the international situation, we should have a further understanding of the importance of the "three-line construction." In April 1993, ** wrote in the inscription for a book: "Let the historical achievements and arduous entrepreneurial spirit of the 'third-line builders' be carried forward in the new era." The feat of "three-line construction" was highly affirmed.
The strategic decision on the large-scale development of the western region in 1999 was made on the basis of summing up historical experience, especially the historical experience of China's "three-line construction," and in light of the actual needs of China's current economic construction.