China’s Western Development Program

China’s Western Development Program

A June 2000 report from U.S.Embassy Beijing

Summary:We visited three of China’s western provinces，Gansu，Xinjiang，and Qinghai.A topic that inevitably arose in discussions with local officials was the new Great Western Development Initiative.Officials unanimously supported the new program；saying development of the impoverished western regions was long overdue.I was clear in the ensuing discussions，however，that few of the local leaders expected to receive substantial funding（although the definition of what qualifie as substantial varied significantly from province to province）.Instead，local officials all hoped that a combination of new policies，pressure from the central government on wealthier eastern provinces help their poorer cousins，expanded exploitation of natural resources，and modest central government funding devoted totransportation，and communications infrastructure，would gradually boost development in the western areas.

The Great Western Development Initiative

Early this year the Chinese central government announced a major，new initiative to develop China’s poor，backward western regions.The initial announcement led to a frenzy of activity as more and more provinces tried to define themselves as part of the“poor，backwards”western area in order to sup at the imagined huge public trough of central government largesse devoted to this project.Over the ensuing months，however，it has become clear to all that the cash-strapped central government doesn’t have a large trough，perhaps just a few small buckets.It does plan to invest some resources in the development of transportation and communications infrastructure，but the visions of large sums of money being tossed around recklessly are not likely to materialize.

hancheng

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