Wide Gap between Regions Challenges China’s Development Jinhua Mu, Minghua Peng, Xueyan Li

Background Although China has achieved significant social-economical development in the past decades, the wide difference in development between China’ Eastern and Western Regions poses a great challenge to the sustainable development of this country.

Human Development Index by Regions

HDI by Regions In 2008, China Human Development Index was 0.781. However, there is a gap between eastern and southern coastal areas. The top six of the highest HDI areas concentrate on eastern and southern areas, while the top six of the lowest HDI areas concentrate on middle and western areas. This reflects the development inequality between the east and the west of China.

FDI by Regions

FDI Foreign Direct Investment in China contributes a lot on China’s economic development. However, from this map, the FDI pattern in China shows a great disparity among regions. The most two biggest FDI receivers are Guangdong and Jiangsu Province which are located in the eastern and southern China. Fujian, Liaoning, Shandong and Zhejiang in the south and the east are under the second most categories. The lease FDI flows to 7 provinces in western areas. Eastern areas are more developed than in western areas.

Greenhouse Gas Emission

Greenhouse Gas Emission This map shows total volume of industrial waste gas emission by region in China in 2008. The most polluted areas are in eastern areas which are more developed in economy. The least developed areas are the least polluted areas.

Energy by Regions

Energy by Regions Power generation in Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong in eastern provinces takes a large amount of the total. The least power generation happens in western areas except Beijing. Besides, the more developed areas, lower energy consumption per ten thousand GDP. On the contrary, higher the energy consumption per ten thousand GDP is high in underdeveloped areas.

GINI Coefficient

Gini Coefficient However, the less economically developed areas often boast less income inequality. The Gini coefficient index in Beijing and Shanghai these two big cities are the highest. Qinghai and Tibet have the lowest within the whole country. And rural and urban incomes inequality happens more in coastal areas.

Conclusion The growth in China appears uneven among eastern and western areas from the maps above. The task for narrowing the differences is tough for the country. The east develops at the cost of high pollution. Therefore, the strategies for western development should be environmental friendly and resources allocation has to be planned well according to the balanced development with the environment protection. Furthermore, favorable policies shall be implemented to encourage Foreign Direct Investment in western regions.

Data Source National Bureau of Statistics of China National Bureau of Environment of China