Strategy of Large-Scale Development of the Western Regions

It was the major strategic decision put forward by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee of the CPC. The Western Development Strategy is based on Deng Xiaoping’s thought of “the development of both coastal and inland areas”. In 1988, Deng Xiaoping proposed in his speech titled “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.”

He added: “Our country has a vast territory, a large population, and underdeveloped productive forces. Under these conditions it is unrealistic to achieve prosperity and equal prosperity, simultaneously within a period of time. There will inevitably be the situation of some getting rich first and some later.”

In June 1999, Jiang Zemin put forward, “Through decades of hard work and even the entire century, the strategic goal is to build a western region with economic prosperity, social progress, stability of life, national unity, and beautiful mountains and rivers.”

The report of the 19th CPC National Congress emphasized the need to “strengthen measures to promote the development of the western region to form a new pattern”. This is one of the important measures to further strengthen the implementation of the regional coordinated development strategy. The implementation of the Western Development is a grand strategic task to rejuvenate China, and it is of far-reaching significance to China’s economic, cultural, political, military, and social development. Without the stability of the western region, there would be no national stability. Without the western region’s well-off society, there would be no national well-off society. Without the western region’s modernization, the nation’s modernization cannot be said to have been achieved. The implementation of the Western Development Strategy is a major deployment for strategic adjustment of the economic structure and promoting the coordinated development of the regional economy. It is a major measure to expand domestic demand and promote the sustained, rapid and healthy development of the national economy. It is the fundamental guarantee enhance ethnic unity, maintain social stability and consolidate border defense. It is an inevitable requirement to gradually narrow the regional gap and ultimately achieve common prosperity. The implementation of the western development strategy mainly includes the infrastructure construction strategy in the western region, and the strategy of combining development with the protection of ecological environment. To implement the western development strategy, it is necessary to adapt to the requirements of a socialist market economic system, adapt to the requirements of transforming the economic development mode, use new ideas, explore new methods, and establish new mechanisms.