Development of China's Western Regions Under Scrutiny
EarthVision Environmental News
December 1, 2000
LONDON, December 1, 2000 - China's Western Development campaign, announced by President Jiang Zemin in June 1999 in a drive to promote development of the regions that make up 56 percent of China's land area, is placed under scrutiny in a new book, China's Great Leap West, published this week.
The stated aims of the proposed development of the western regions are to improve infrastructure, strengthen environmental protection and develop science, technology and education. This enormous undertaking will affect almost a quarter of China's vast population, including Tibetans, Uighur Muslims and other "national minorities."
Widespread poverty means that appropriate development in China's western regions is urgently needed. Yet there is a clear political agenda underlying this campaign - the need to maintain stability. One Chinese economist working in Beijing says frankly: "The worst-case scenario - and what we're trying to avoid - is China fragmenting like Yugoslavia. Already, regional [economic] disparity is equal to - or worse than - what we saw in Yugoslavia before it split."
Conferences held to attract foreign investors, including two in October, have focused on exploitation of the rich mineral and other natural resources of the Western Regions - much of which will be transferred directly to the east coast. Western Development is likely to lead to increased migration from eastern and central China, rather than benefiting the predominantly rural populations of the west.
The book examines the implications of a public statement by a top Chinese minister that the campaign will be "extremely significant" in "solving China's current nationality problems." It also analyses the potential impact on local communities for whom, as one aid worker says, the policy to develop China's West might as well have "dropped out of the sky."
"China's Great Leap West" is published by Tibet Information Network (TIN), an independent London-based news and information service that collects and distributes information on what is happening in Tibet. Based in London, with newsgathering centers in India and Nepal, TIN monitors political, social, economic, environmental and human rights conditions in Tibet and publishes the information in the form of news updates and a range of reports. TIN is a registered charity in the UK and a 501(c)(3) non profit organization in the USA.