Reforms and regional inequality in China: 1953-89

Abstract

There is a debate or even a dispute as to whether the current reform practices of the last decade (1979-89) in China have led to a dramatic increase in regional disparities. Radical policy and investment shifts during the past four decades have occurred. The resultant outcomes of the Chinese spatial development policies may also appear to contrast and contradict what the government intended. This article examines the results of these policies in terms of spatial inequality and imbalance. It focuses on a time-series comparison between the periods of 1980-89 and 1953-79, by using the data of provincial and regional share of investment, industrial output, per capita national income and its growth rate. A planned economy most likely works in an extreme way, with frequent change, massive shifts and immense cost. Market or semi-market mechanisms unleashed immense local initiative, which played an important part for both provincial and regional and national economic growth. The resultant effects relatively equalised or mediated the prevailing degrees of imbalance and inequality, although the degree of imbalance and inequality created in the reform era was also high. -from Author