The Strategical Thinking of Two Overall Situations

In 1988, Deng Xiaoping put forward the important thought in “The Central Government Must Have Authority”, “The coastal areas, which comprise a vast region with a population of 200 million, should accelerate their opening to the outside world, and we should help them develop rapidly first; afterwards they can promote the development of the interior. The development of the coastal areas is of overriding importance, and the interior provinces should subordinate themselves to it. When the coastal areas have developed to a certain extent, they will be required to give still more help to the interior. Then, the development of the interior provinces will be of overriding importance, and the coastal areas will in turn have to subordinate themselves to it.” This was the strategic thinking put forward when the Reform, Opening-up and modernization drive were in full swing.

The strategical thought of two overall situations, were directly related to the “three-step” development strategy and were an important part of it. When implementing the “three-step” development strategy, there was a layout of regional development steps: the first step was that before entering a moderately prosperous society at the end of the 20th century, the overall picture of China's economic and social development was to develop the coastal areas relatively quickly and drive the inland to develop better; the second step was that after entering a well-off society with the 21st century, the overall picture of China’s economic and social development would be to highlight and solve the development problems in the inland while continuing to develop the coastal areas.

Based on Deng Xiaoping’s strategic conception of “the development of both coastal and inland areas” and the actual situation of China’s development at the end of the 20th century, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee of the Party in 1999 formally proposed to implement the strategy for large-scale development of western China. In 2003, the “Several Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on the Implementation of the Revitalization Strategy of Northeast Regions and Other Old Industrial Bases”, clearly put forward the guiding ideology, principles, tasks, and policy measures for the implementation of the revitalization strategy. With the gradual narrowing of the gap between the four major economic sectors in the east, central, west and northeast China, the Second Session of the Tenth National People’s Congress in 2004 clearly proposed “promoting the rise of the central region” for the first time, and in 2005 the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” proposal by Party’s Central Committee also clearly proposed to promote the rise of Central China. So far, with Deng Xiaoping’s strategic thinking of “the development of both coastal and inland areas “ as the forerunner, China has gradually explored both theoretically and practically a western development strategy, a strategy for achieving balanced regional economic development, achieving common prosperity, and completing the goal of the third-step strategy of modern development, that is, strategy for large-scale development of western China, strategy for revitalization of northeast China and strategy of the rise of central China. The two overall strategic thinking not only emphasizes the development of productivity, but also emphasizes narrowing the gap between rich and poor, eliminating polarization, and achieving common prosperity.