Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Volume 37, Number 8. April 24 1972
Strategic defence
Strategic defence
In most developing countries industry is concentrated in a few centres while the rest of the country, and the great majority of the population, are left untouched. The Chinese however believe that industrial development should be spread right throughout the country so that the national economy can develop in a balanced way. Futhermore the development of industry in rural areas is an important means of preventing seasonal unemployment in the countryside and of breaking down the social and economic divisions between town and countryside. It also has strategic significance for the defence of the country.
The film also shows the development of heavy industry which is crucial in overcoming the legacy of thousands of years of poverty the result of feudal agricultural developments and foreign exploitation. Although China is still a poor country and a developing country it now produces enough oil for its domestic requirements, it is the biggest producer and exporter of textiles in the world, and it has become a exporter of food.
But the Chinese don't intend to simply copy the western capitalist world in its industrial development. For example the Chinese rely on railways, buses and push bikes as their main means of transportation because they have seen the bad effects of the "car culture". in the west.