Abstract:
The campaign to Open Up the West that started in 2000 has been
presented as a major state project of nation-building directed at the interior provincial-
level jurisdictions in order to encourage endogenous economic growth, to reduce
socio-economic inequalities, and to ensure social and political stability in non-Han
areas of the PRC. Despite appearances to the contrary it is more of an adjustment to
the PRC’s regional development policy than a radical change, not least because of
debate and imprecision about its goals, processes and finance. Its impact is perhaps
best viewed from provincial and local perspectives. These stress not only the
importance of the west’s varied social and economic ecology, but also the
significance of the sub-provincial as a focus for analysis.
