Is China looking to Mao Zedong’s ‘Third Front’ as part of economic self-reliance drive?

China is reviving aspects of a Mao Zedong-era plan to relocate critical facilities away from the country’s most densely populated areas to its western hinterlands.

Mao’s 1964 “Third Front Construction” initiative was motivated by Cold War fears of nuclear attack, fuelled by the deepening American involvement in Vietnam and increased hostility between China and the Soviet Union.

Some observers say the new plan – unofficially described as the “new third front”– may still have a military dimension, but the main focus this time around appears to be economic security in the face of multiple challenges such as US tech curbs and wider moves to end supply chain reliance on China.

In a resolution passed during a key Communist Party policy meeting in July – the so-called third plenum – the leadership said it would “develop China’s strategic hinterland and ensure backup plans for key industries” as part of its ongoing self-sufficiency drive.

“In many ways, I see this [latest scheme] as a continuation of the ‘Third Front’ and ‘Go West’ policies, including their goals of developing poor, geographically remote regions in the West as well as creating strategic buffers by relocating some key parts of the supply chain to western provinces,” said Christopher McNally, a professor of political economy at Chaminade University of Honolulu.