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West China Development: Updates on Policy and Progress

While China’s national economic growth has been impressive and fairly consistent since reforms began, regional progress and performance have been much more uneven. Development in western China has been especially challenging, partly because of its resource base and partly because of policy biases that promoted the coastal areas over central and west China. The first article in this symposium by Jane Golley presents a broad economic geography context to ask what government policy is trying to accomplish with the Opening the West Strategy, and what has been accomplished so far in terms of the industrial sector. Susan Walcott addresses similar questions in two major cities – Chengdu and Chongqing – in the second article. In the third article Rachel Connelly and Zhenzhen Zheng analyze the education changes in western China given the new emphasis on this region by the central government. Finally, the fourth article by Anqing Shi and Shuming Bao considers the education and skill level of migrants both within the region and those seeking employment outside of the region. These four articles provide evidence of economic progress in western China, as well as caution about how government policy can influence the underlying economic and social forces of change.