ABSTRACT
Pursuit of balanced regional development has been a main objective of every Chinese administration. Deng Xiaoping mentioned the eventual goal of balanced development in his “Two General Situations” theory. 1 If 30 years of “reform and opening” are divided into two phases, then it just so happens to correspond to the “Two General Situations.” The first 20 years were spent practicing the first General Situation through market-oriented reforms, encouraging unbalanced development to spur economic take-off and the latter 10 years saw a start to facilitating regional balanced development through administrative means. In 1999, 2003, and 2004, programs aimed at supporting the western, northwestern and central regions were implemented, and special considerations were taken for these regions in aspects, such as preferential policies, direct investments by the central government and equalized transfer. 2 According to the statistics, the proportion of transfer obtained by the inland provinces rose from 68.1 percent in 1995 to 82.8 percent in 2007.
