ABSTRACT
Rural industrialization was the third key element in the late Maoist development strategy alongside the expansion of rural education and collective farming. The underlying conception here is summarized in the slogan ‘walking on two legs’. The People’s Republic inherited a significant industrial base, but most of these industries were located in the urban centres of Manchuria or the great urban centre of Shanghai. The aim of the rural industrialization strategy was to redress the spatial balance, and in so doing serve the needs of defence (by creating a less vulnerable industrial base) and of agriculture by expanding the production of agricultural inputs such as tractors and chemical fertilizer. By exploiting local resources which might otherwise be neglected, and by holding down transport costs, it was hoped that rural industry would serve to complement the urban industrial sector.
