On The "Third Line"Construction From 1964 To 1978

Chiefly owing to the absolute discipline of national defence, a large scale basic construction historically called the "Third Line" Construction(The) was carried out in eleven provinces and autonomous regions of China' s southwest and northwest fronf 1964 to 1978. As an outcome of the special history, The was not only carded out dunng a long time and covered wide areas with a large scale, but also had its own relative independence in the national economy and far-reaching influence. The exploration of the TLC not only contributes a lot tothe study on the economic history of the People' s Republic of China and the 4re.~t Cultural Revolution" history but also provides the present Western Development and even the whole socialist modernization with benificial experience and lessons.This paper is composed of three parts.Part I outlines the whole process of the TLC. TLC was centered on war preparedness and based on industrial communications and scientific-technological industries of national defence. According to the understanding of the CPC to war preparedness and the changes of role that ThC plays in the nat~onal economic development, TLC is divided into three phases: the beg~imng phase11beginning phase (June, 1964 - 1968); the overall expanding phase (1969 -1972); and the phase of contraction and forming complete set( 1973 1978).Part II analyzes in detail the causes by which TLC was put forward until its final implementation from the perspectives of the abroad and domestic situation, of the origin of historical thought, of the imperfections of socialist economic construction theory, of highly centralized state power and of the equilibrium of productive force distribution.Part III summarizes objectively the achievements and drawbacks of the ThC. Moreover, some enlightenment is drawn.In the end, the author gives a general evaluation about ThC in brief.