Further developing China's west
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This month marks the tenth anniversary of the development of west China. As a grand strategy to open and develop the west, it serves to improve the life quality of 30 percent of China's population living in over 70 percent of Chinese territory, many of them being the poorest in the country. It is a shame that so many of our compatriots still live in a miserable situation simply because they were been born in a remote area.
According to official statistics, 40 million Chinese people have a daily spending of merely US$1, and 100 million live off under US$1.5 per day. These people could be classified as living in absolute poverty. Unfortunately, this country still has as many as 100 million like them, accounting for over 7 percent of total population, more than the entire populace of Germany or Iran.
Most of China's poor live in the western part of the country. If China maintains uneven development its internal divide will expand, possibly leading to various social instability and political turmoil. Therefore, "developing the west" serves a core interest for the nation: by assuring equal rights of development – a crucial part of human rights – the government addresses political stability and regime security.
To fix China's imbalance between east and the west, the central authority gave a mandate to boost the western area with a three-phase strategy: from 2000-2010 improving the infrastructure, environment and education. Also, adjusting the strategic structure and bringing about market mechanism, matching the pace of regional economy to that of the entire nation. The 2010-2030 phase will involve industrializing and marketing the region's economy; improving existing sub-regional specialties will take place between 2031 and 2050.
The above offers a reasonable but conservative program to improve the economy of China's west. The plan is achievable – it only entails a small amount of official spending compared with the vast overall budget of the central government. From January 2000 to September 2009, the Chinese government spent just 1.74 trillion yuan on major projects, compared with over 31 trillion of GDP in 2008. During the global financial crisis, the central authorities ordered additional public spending at 4 trillion for two years. The "developing-the-west" strategy entailed just 40 percent of that figure for a ten year plan.
Clearly the central government doesn't feel equal importance of developing the west as with the east. The population of vast western China is just 30 percent of the nation, so it won't receive the same importance in budgeting. Also, the east is more sensitive to the international environment, so it is critical to maintain stability in the east before attention could be given to the west. Furthermore, the east is more open to international cooperation because of its accessibility, it is therefore more important to improve the infrastructure in the east to facilitate overseas investment.
This explains the government's conservatism regarding developing the west. In fact, the authority has made it clear that the "grand strategy" of western development doesn't aspire to bring the west's economy to that of the east, rather, despite the grand strategy, it is foreseen that the gap between the east and the west will increase. Statistically, from 2000-2008, China's GDP quadrupled; but during the same period, the minority regions in the west had its GDP merely doubled. As the comparison with the east in 2000 was already sharp, one can see that at the end of the decade how the west has been further behind the east, despite the success compared with its own past.
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