ABSTRACT
Zeng underlined the importance of the influence of 'Deng Xiaoping theory' on the Western Development and emphasised the role of the Great Western Development strategy in the state's coordinated plan for modernisation and the development of regional economies. Planning would have to include a dozen provincial, municipal and autonomous regions as well as the quasi-autonomous Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Two events in the middle of the first decade of the twenty-first century, the West China Forum and a speech by Premier Wen Jiabao, provided opportunities for reflection on the progress of the Great Western Development strategy. The question of large-scale migration is central to the question of the economic development of China's West and it is clear from Wen Jiabao's speech among other sources that this development can never be merely a neutral device for the alleviation of poverty.
