Practical and strategic considerations also played into Mao's concern with self-reliance.
He felt, for example, that China could best withstand an attack from either the United States or the Soviet Union by retreating into the interior and then wearing down the enemy by launching attacks from secure base areas.
This would require that interior areas be able to support both themselves and a war effort without close ties to the coast or to foreign trade.
In additions, China's continental size, combined with its poor transportation facilities, weighed against extensive trade among macroregions, making some effort to promote the self-reliance of various areas a necessity.
The notion of self-reliance, therefore, had both normative and practical components.