For much of the twentieth century, China’s rugged southwest existed as a veritable blank spot on the country’s geological and planning maps. Geo-political crises in the late 1930s and later in the mid-1960s, however, spurred leaders to redirect state investment and attention away from east and central China and toward this isolated periphery. The story of Panzhihua, once a village tucked away into an isolated corner of the southwest but now a steel-producing industrial icon, highlights the transformative power of geo-political crisis in China’s peripheral regions. By examining the activity of geologists and other agents of the state charged with the task of pinpointing regions for state-sponsored development, this article sheds light on the central role that crisis played in driving investment into China’s southwest during the twentieth century.
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