TO Please understand China’s leaders are concerned about where they’re going, and they’re watching. Earlier this month, Premier Li Qiang spent three days in Xinjiang, an impoverished region in western China, where he called on local authorities to boost incomes and jobs. At the same time, Li’s deputy, Ding Xuexiang, visited Shenyang, a struggling city in China’s northeastern rust belt. Ding called for “revitalizing” the region. Two weeks earlier, top leader Xi Jinping presided over a symposium in the city of Chongqing, where he declared a “new chapter” in the development of China’s western region.
China’s leaders are trying to solve a problem that has dogged the country for decades: how to distribute wealth more evenly. GDP The per capita national incomes of the western and northeastern regions, which make up most of China’s land mass and one-third of the population, are 70,870 yuan ($9,800) and 60,400 yuan, respectively. Along the coast is 124,800 yuan. Beijing, China’s richest provincial-level unit, is four times richer than Gansu, the poorest province (see map). And the wealthiest regions are getting further ahead every day.
