Revolutionary Urbanism: Mao’s Basic Construction and the Remaking of the Built Environment in Chongqing

Using the case of Chongqing, one of the headquarters of Mao’s Third Front, this article examines how the concept and regime of “basic construction” (基本建设) had shaped the urban environment from the Great Leap Forward to the early 1970s. It first discusses the idea of “basic construction” and its earlier Soviet version. It then explores how this period of radical politics reframed cities as basic agglomerations of industrial production and administration rather than spaces governed in their own right. Specifically, it examines the policies of “basic construction committees” (基本建设委员会) and shows how essential urban infrastructures – housing, roads, municipal facilities, sanitation – were subordinated to heavy industry investment and thus gave rise to mounting urban environmental crises in housing, food provision, and waste management. It demonstrates how the ideological prioritization of heavy industry forged a revolutionary urbanism that downplayed urban environmental concerns and centered exclusively on production to distinguish itself from Anglo-American models.