ABSTRACT
Sichuan not only is China’s most populous province, but also has—and has had consistently since the establishment of the People’s Republic—one of the largest provincial economies. A particular source of economic strength has been its agricultural output. However, the development of Sichuan’s economy—even before 1978 as well as during the reform era—has been hampered by both its natural and political settings. Remote and isolated, it has had difficulties in integrating its economy into the national mainstream. During the 1950s this was the result of a deliberately chosen unbalanced growth strategy that stressed Sichuan’s role as a national provider of grains. In the late 1950s and 1960s, and indeed through the Cultural Revolution, the development of Sichuan was often determined more by the interplay between its political leadership and Beijing than by provincial concerns. Even during the 1960s and 1970s, when considerable investment was made by Beijing in Sichuan, it proved to be a double-edged sword. The industrial development, though large-scale, was often defence-oriented and non-productive. With the political changes that led to reform the province found itself left responsible for an inefficient as well as non-productive large industrial sector. The 1980s and 1990s have once again seen the province faced by the difficulties of integrating into a national economy characterised by an unbalanced growth strategy, though this time one driven by market forces rather than planned allocations. As in the 1950s, its relationships with Beijing and with other parts of China remain prime concerns for Sichuan’s leaders.
