Linkages between China’s Regions: Measurement and Policy

The rate of economic growth in China over the last 50 years has been remarkable. However this has only highlighted the inequalities between regions in China, making for considerable disquiet at the highest levels of Chinese policy-making. Not everyone has benefited from the same levels of prosperity and this book examines the many and varied policy solutions and proposals that have been applied to this thorny problem.

The authors find that the industrial core of China (the South East and the Changjiang and Yellow River regions) is reasonably well integrated but not well connected to the remainder of the country. Indeed, evidence suggests that development in coastal areas comes at the expense of that in the interior while much of the policy designed to boost the interior actually flows to the coastal provinces.

This original analysis of the linkages between regions in China, and regional policy since 1949, will prove an invaluable and illuminating account to a wide readership. This will include academics and researchers of Chinese studies and regional economics as well as policy-makers in the region.