Regional and Urban Development: Government Intervention

The view that the government can accelerate national economic development and growth by encouraging the economic growth of selected regions or cities seems to have been accepted by Chinese authorities. In effect, such a policy involves the promotion of uneven or unbalanced regional development — the ‘forced’ growth of particular areas, very often with the expectation that this growth will radiate out to a wider area at a later stage. Such a policy was enunciated clearly by Zhao Ziyang in 1987 at the Thirteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. He said: It is necessary to consolidate and develop the pattern of opening to the outside world that has begun to take shape, with the open policy extending progressively from the special economic zones to coastal cities, then to coastal economic regions and finally to interior areas. With the overall interests of the national economy in mind, we should draw up a correct development plan for all these zones, cities and regions. They should focus on development of export-oriented economy and expand their horizontal economic ties with the interior areas, so as to serve more effectively as a base for implementing the open policy and as a window open to the outside world. (Zhao Ziyang, 1987, p. 27)