My recent visit to Mianyang, the second-largest city in Sichuan province, revealed a place little known despite being just a 90-minute drive from Chengdu. Its unique distinction lies in its high concentration of scientists – a legacy of its role as a central hub during the “Third Front Construction” from 1964 to 1978. This was a critical period when China relocated strategic industries inland to build a self-reliant economy against a backdrop of external threats.
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This era formed the second of three key phases in China’s industrial evolution, which began with establishing a heavy industrial foundation in the east during the 1950s, moved to the defensive Third Front Construction in the country’s interior, and culminated in the post-1980s era of reform and opening up.
During the Third Front era, millions of people and advanced research institutes were relocated from coastal areas – mainly Shanghai and Beijing – to the inland western region, with many facilities and factories built directly into mountainsides. Mianyang was dramatically transformed.
This legacy is the foundation for its unique status as China’s only official Science and Technology City. It is a state-mandated hub specialising in sectors ranging from national defence, aerospace and nuclear technology to electronics, advanced materials and smart robotics.
My trip served as a powerful reminder of the shifting global economic order. It is a profound irony that merely 60 years after China’s initial self-reliance campaign, the world is turning away from super-globalisation and stepping into a new age of self-reliance.
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This shift is primarily driven by a universal desire for greater economic stability and national security. No longer just a feature of China’s development strategy, the trend has become widespread, evident even within Western nations.