Western Development Strategy Timeline

Mao's Thoughts

As early as the 1950s, Mao Zedong emphasized the need to properly handle the relationship between coastal industries and inland industries in his speech “On Ten Major Relationships”¹

Deng Xiaoping's Two Situations

Deng Xiaoping puts forward the strategic thinking pattern of “two overall situations”: coastal areas should open to the outside world and develop first, and when the coastal development reaches a certain point, these now affluent coastal areas will be required to contribute to the development of the inland regions.¹

Strategy Officially Proposed

Jiang Zemin proposes that the time is ripe to speed up the pace of development in the central and western regions. In the same year, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 15th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Economic Work Conference (党的十五届四中全会和中央经济工作会议) formally proposes the implementation of the Western Development Strategy (西部大开发战略).¹

Plan Formed

The State Council forms a leading group for the development of the western region. Immediately, they hold a meeting to form the basic ideas and strategic tasks for "accelerating the development of the western region." This meeting put forward the preliminary idea of implementing an official development strategy and determined several major tasks and issues to be dealt with at present and in the future.¹

There were five such tasks:

1. Accellerate the construction of infrastructure
2. Strengthen the protection and construction of the ecological environment (for example, combat desertification)
3. Actively adjust the industrial structure
4. Increase the intensity of reform and opening up.

The implementation of the western development strategy has begun.

10th Five-Year Plan

The "Outline of the Tenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China" is adopted by the Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress. It made specific arrangements for the implementation of the Western Development Strategy, expanding on those ideas produced in the January 2000 meeting.⁶

"Several Opinions" Issued

The State Council issues "Several Opinions on Further Promoting Western Development". As of this point in time, Wen Jiabao has repeatedly stressed that the central government will never waver in implementing the strategy of developing the western region, that the state's support for the western region will not be weakened, and that the pace of economic and social development in the western region will not slow down.¹

Major Event: 11th Five-Year Plan Established

The Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China states that western regions should accelerate the pace of reform and opening up, and enhance their self-development capabilities through national support, self-efforts, and regional cooperation.⁴

There were several key goal areas:

1. Strengthen infrastructure construction, build outbound and cross-regional railways and new channels for west-to-east coal transportation, build power bases and west-to-east electricity transmission projects
2. Strengthen the protection and construction of ecological security barriers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
3. Support the transformation of resource advantages into industrial advantages, vigorously develop characteristic industries, strengthen the development and processing of clean energy and advantageous mineral resources, and support the development of advanced manufacturing, high-tech industries and other industries with advantages
4. Strengthen and improve public services, give priority to the development of compulsory education and vocational education, improve rural medical and health conditions, and promote talent development and technological innovation
5. Construct and improve border facilities, strengthen economic and technological cooperation with neighboring countries, and develop border trade
6. Deepen the western development policy, increase policy support and financial transfer payments, and promote the establishment of long-term and stable western development funding channels

17th National Congress

The Seventeenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China reaffirmed the need to continue to implement the overall strategy for regional development and further promote the development of the western region.¹

In 2007, the central government’s various financial transfer payments to the western region totaled nearly 1.5 trillion yuan, and national debt, budgetary construction funds and departmental construction funds cumulatively allocated more than 730 billion yuan to the western region. According to offical reports, the GDP of the western region increased from 1,665.5 billion yuan to 4,745.5 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 11.6 percent, exceeding the national economic growth rate over the same period.¹

12th Five-Year Plan

The State Council approves the “12th Five-Year Plan for Western Development,” which demanded more attention be given to the quality and efficiency of development, and, in terms of development methods, more attention should be paid to giving full play to regional comparative advantages. Exhorts that local governments at all levels should strengthen guidance services, vigorously improve the investment and development environment, give full play to the fundamental role of the market in resource allocation, attract various factors to flow to the western region in an orderly manner, and further gather forces from all sectors of society to participate in And support the development of the western region.¹

13th Five-Year Plan Goes In-Depth

The Thirteenth Five-Year Plan calls for the in-depth implementation of the overall regional development strategy of developing the west.⁸

It narrows the focus to the following areas:

1. Give better play to the leading role of the "Belt and Road" construction in the western development (national economic, not simply regional interest incorporated)
2. Accelerate the construction of internal and external communication channels and regional hubs, further improve the level of infrastructure, and significantly improve the conditions for external traffic in "backward and remote areas"
3. Vigorously develop green agricultural product processing, cultural tourism and other characteristic and advantageous industries
4. Relying on areas with strong resource and environmental carrying capacity, increase the proportion of on-site processing and transformation of resources
5. Strengthen the scientific development and efficient use of water resources
6. Improve long-term and stable funding channels, and continue to increase transfer payments and government investment.
7. Accelerate the equalization of basic public services
8. Increase the opening up of gateway cities and improve the level of open economy.

14th Five-Year Plan

As we reach the latter portion of the Accelerated Development Stage, the 14th Five-Year Plan for the National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the 2035 Long-term Goal Outline includes “Promoting the Great Western Development and Forming a New Pattern” (推进西部大开发形成新格局).³

Like the others, it has multiple goals, many of which are similar to the aforementioned:

1. Strengthen measures to promote the development of the western region, and effectively improve the accuracy and effectiveness of policies
2. In-depth implementation of a number of major ecological projects, carry out comprehensive management of key areas.
3. Actively integrate the "Belt and Road" construction projects into the plan
4. Increase investment in infrastructure in the western region, support the development of characteristic and advantageous industries, concentrate efforts to consolidate the achievements of poverty alleviation, and make up for shortcomings in education, medical care and other areas of people's livelihood
5. Support Xinjiang to build a national "three bases and one channel", and support Tibet to build an important channel opening to South Asia.