190 { China’s Quest
manufacture (especially military equipment) was built up in Sichuan, Yunnan,
and Guizhou. A mammoth new iron and steel complex was built at Panzhihua
(Dukou), south of Chengdu. New West German heavy metal-working
machinery was purchased for the Panzhihua complex. An aluminum and
high-alloy steel industry was built, along with factories to forge those mate-
rials into planes, ships, missiles, and other weapons. Machinery in many
eastern Chinese industrial centers was dismantled and shipped west, along
with a portion of the eastern factory’s workers and managers. Other new
machinery consisted of domestic copies of older foreign equipment. The scope
of the effort was enormous. All components were rushed forward simultane-
ously with the highest priority in 1965. Spearheaded by the PLA, hundreds
of thousands of workers were mobilized for “human wave” efforts to com-
plete projects forward. Workshops of factories were often widely separated,
and situated in canyons or even caves carved into mountainsides to min-
imize vulnerability to air attack. Roads and rail lines had to be build con-
necting new facilities. Plants were typically built at considerable distance
from existing populated areas, again to minimize damage from air attack.
That meant that new housing and other accommodations had to be built. TheMON GOLIA
JAPANTAIWANPHILIPPINESNORTH
KOREASOUTH
KOREATHAILAND VIETNAMLAOSRUSSIAINDIANEPALBHUTANBANGLADESH
BURMASouth
China
SeaSea of
JapanBay of
BengalBeijingNORTH-
WESTFIRST
PHASESECOND
PHASEF IGU R E 7-3 The Third Front, 1964–1971