"It is necessary to build our country's People's Air Defense system into an "Underground Great Wall”... for people to live in, engage in production, defend themselves, launch offensives, and carry out tunnel warfare and street fighting at the same time. "We should ... build our strategic rear into a powerful, solid base ... capable not only of supporting protracted war, but of fighting the war independently." Xu Xiangqian Minister of Defense Army Day 1978
Chinese Civil Defense Construction
In April of 1969, after the incident of Zhenbao Island, Chairman Mao issued a nine-character policy to the people of the whole country to “dig tunnels deep, store rice everywhere, never seek hegemony”, “must prepare for war” and “deep underground tunnels”. At that time, in the major cities of the country, a mass mobilization was immediately launched, and the mass movements of “deep digging tunnes” were prepared. The men, women and children were all in battle, using words such as “unprecedented”, “vigorous”, “hot” and “in full swing”.
Although the Chinese term for civil defense, renminfangkong (literally, “people's air defense”), normally is translated as “civil defense,” the Chinese meaning extends beyond the usual Western understanding of the term. In the West, civil defense implies passive measures to protect unarmed civilians from the effects of attack. Although the Chinese do intend their massive network of civil defense shelters and tunnels to protect civilians somewhat, the structures are built primarily to cover and conceal urban militia and PLA stay-behind troops who would conduct tunnel warfare and streetfighting. As such, civil defense preparations contribute to China's overall deterrent to conventional attack and help improve the PLA's prospects for stalling or defeating an invader.
Unlike the USSR and many Western powers, China intended its civil defense effort as a means to continue armed resistance, preserve manpower for military roles, and minimize damage to the nation's warmaking potential. China's multifaceted program had several specific objectives:
- Protect the leadership.
- Defend urban areas.
- Preserve scientific and technical personnel.
- Provide additional space for commercial or industrial use.
- Reduce losses to the industrial base.
- Shelter some of the general populace in the event of nuclear or conventional war.
China's intended use of tunnels and shelter systems in urban warfare was well described in an article entitled “Cities To Become Stalingrads in the Event of Invasion” carried in Liberation Army Daily, 17 April 1978:
"The major cities in the path of an enemy attack are prime objectives the aggressor wants to take and which have political, military, and economic significance for us. These cities have all been built up for many years and have strong ranks of workers ... and many sturdy above-ground structures and under- ground construction works. Therefore, use of the cities is another aspect of adhering to an active defense. For these strategically important cities, there will be Stalingrad-like holding actions characterized by a powerful defense and a dogged fight. Cities which are significant to campaigns and battles must be held for a certain period of time. Defending the cities cannot be considered passive defense but rather a way to disperse and weaken the enemy in coordination with main force units which will destroy the enemy in mobile warfare..."
The People's Liberation Army exerted firm control over China's civil defense system. Garrison commanders in important cities controlled civil defense through the militia commands and through the Municipal People's Air Defense (civil defense) Offices. These organizations build shelters, supervise civilian aspects of the system, and train the Armed Militia that will use the underground shelter system as part of an urban defense. Construction of shelters occured throughout China, but emphasis was given to the major cities of northeastern China that by the 1980s together contained nearly 30 million people [less than 5% of the population], but possessed almost one-third of the nation's industrial wealth.
Though China's civil defense preparations had important deficiencies, they provided a substantial measure of protection against enemy attack. Under most circumstances the Chinese could achieve several of their specific wartime objectives. Furthermore, control of the facilities by the PLA contributed to a coordinated and stubborn defense, raises the price in time and troops required for a successful Soviet invasion, and increased the prospects of a military stalemate favorable to China.
Chinese civil defense construction steadily improved in quality since the mid-1970s, when better materials and state-established construction standards became available. The Municipal People's Air Defense Office constructs civil defense shelters using militia labor, PLA engineers, plans and special materials furnished by Beijing, and local construction materials that meet the high national standards.
By the late 1970s, there had been an upsurge in technical competence, standardized designs, and pre-fabricated structural components associated with tunnel construction as China has incorporated shelters into most new construction projects. Once built, the underground facilities are linked by interconnecting tunnels, some of which can accommodate vehicular traffic.
A Chinese official, citing official policies of “combining peacetime with wartime” and “making one thing serve two purposes," pointedout that including shelters in all new building plans reduced construction costs, increased the space available for productive purposes, and above all provided better and deeper footings to improve the survivability of the structure in an earthquake.
For the construction of civil buildings with a total floor area of more than 2000 square meters, about 4-5% of ground construction area is to focus on the construction of air-defense cellar. New residential areas, development zones and civil buildings in important economic target areas shall be newly built to construct air defense basements at 4-5% of the total planned floor area. The air defense cellar can also provide engineering support for city troops, militia maneuvers and evacuation, tunneling, barricade warfare and street fighting, becoming an important supplement to the protection of urban defense operations.
In the civil air defense basement, the roof, side walls, floors are thicker than the regular basement, in addition to bearing a certain amount of shock wave and conventional blast detonation ability. Air-defense basement structure airtight, there are ventilation equipment, anti-chemical, biological warfare equipment and capabilities, while the ordinary basement did not have these features.
The construction of air-defense basements in combination with civil buildings is a need to improve the anti-air and anti-destruction capabilities of the city and preserve the potential and strength of war. The basic function of the air defense basement is to defend against the enemy's sudden air strikes and to protect the safety of people's lives and property. Air defense basement can take advantage of the protection of the superstructure, the direct hit on the bomb and early nuclear radiation, nuclear deposition has a better protective effect.
Large-scale construction projects are subject to examination and approval by the competent national people's air defense department of the People's Republic of China; small and medium-sized construction projects are subject to examination and approval by the competent civil air defense departments of the people's governments of provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions; and sporadic projects are examined and approved by the people's air defense department of the major cities for civil air defense.
By the end of 2010, over 100 million square meters of civil air defense projects had been used nationwide, with an annual output value of more than 30 billion yuan, a profit of over 12 billion yuan and more than 6.7 million job creation.
Thus, for instance, as early as the end of 2013, Chengdu had initially completed the "Chengdu Underground Space Utilization Planning", the first of its kind in the world. This version of the plan proposes a long-term perspective, Chengdu's underground space will be used along with the continuous extension of subway lines and important transport nodes. According to the plan, in the future, Chengdu will construct an underground space system of 638 elements, which is a combination of 6 major regions and 38 nodes, forming a new pattern of urban intensive development with ground and underground interconnection. But the utilization rate of existing underground space in Chengdu is not high, and there is a lack of comprehensive and systematic special planning and construction standards that have caused the existing underground space to be small, scattered and chaotic.
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