• World
    • Africa
    • Asia Pacific
    • Central & South Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America & Caribbean
    • Middle East & North Africa
    • North America
  • Politics
    • US politics
    • Donald Trump
    • Brexit
    • European Union
    • India
    • Arab world
  • Economics
    • Finance
    • Eurozone
    • International Trade
  • Business
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Startups
    • Technology
  • Culture
    • Entertainment
    • Music
    • Film
    • Books
    • Travel
  • Environment
    • Climate change
    • Smart cities
    • Green Economy
  • Global Change
    • Education
    • Refugee Crisis
    • International Aid
    • Human Rights
  • International Security
    • ISIS
    • War on Terror
    • North Korea
    • Nuclear Weapons
  • Science
    • Health
  • 360 °
  • The Interview
  • In-Depth
  • Insight
  • Quick Read
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Interactive
  • My Voice
  • About
  • FO Store
Sections
  • World
  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Sign Up
  • Login
  • Publish

Make Sense of the world

Unique insight from 2,000+ contributors in 80+ Countries

Close

China After the 18th Party Congress: Closing the Coastal-Inland Gap

Yue Wu • Nov 16, 2012

China’s leaders are facing an enormous coastal-inland income gap. Beijing will have to embrace serious reforms to unravel social tensions.

On 28 September, China finally announced that the 18th Party Congress would be held on 8 November, two days after the US general elections. The 18th Party Congress, an important event in Chinese leadership transition, is seen by many observers of Chinese politics as a turning point for China’s development trajectory. The newly installed fifth generation leaders are expected to push for reforms that will make China's pattern of development sustainable. However, there is no consensus among Chinese elites or the general public as to what kind of reforms should be implemented. People from different geographic areas and social backgrounds have different visions for China over the next eight years.

Western media tends to present Beijing and Shanghai as representative of China as a whole. In reality, inland China is much less developed than the coastal areas. Therefore, it is likely that people from these inland areas have very different thoughts on what China's future should look like, in comparison to those living in the urban centers. 

Case Study: Lanzhou

My own city of origin, Lanzhou is the capital city of Gansu province, which is located in the north-west of China.  In 2011, its economy was ranked fourteen times smaller than the economy of Shanghai. Besides economy, there are other factors that made Lanzhou, and many other inland Chinese cities, quite different from metropolises such as Shanghai. These include major social factors, such as: foreign influence; quality of education; and access to information.

According to data released by the local statistics bureau, seven Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects were approved in Lanzhou in 2011, while 4,329 FDI projects were approved in Shanghai. In 2011, 38,000 international tourists (including tourists from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan) visited Lanzhou, while 8.2m international tourists visited Shanghai. The contrasting figures shown by this data illustrates how little interaction an inland city such as Lanzhou has with the outside world. (2011 Lanzhou Economic and Social Development Statistics Report; 2011 Shanghai Economic and Social Development Statistics Report). Consequently, unlike people living in main urban centers, inland population knows little about the other countries- culturally, politically or economically.  They don’t hear much critical voice of the current system from outside China. They are not understanding the problems, as well as the benefits, of the current system in China.    [1]

The quality of education is lower in Lanzhou than in Shanghai. Based on a national rankingsin 2011, only one university in Lanzhou is among the top 100 universities in China, while eight universities in Shanghai are on this list. In terms of the number of university students, there were 166,000 more university students in Shanghai than in Lanzhou in 2011 (2011 Lanzhou Economic and Social Development Statistics Report; 2011 Shanghai Economic and Social Development Statistics Report). Statistics show that on top of this, a large number of university graduates are attracted to coastal cities. As the admission director of one university in Lanzhou told a reporter in an interview in 2010, around 80% of university graduates choose to look for jobs outside Gansu province, mainly in big cities such as Xi’an, Beijing and Shanghai.

Source of information

There is no publicly available data to show the major information sources for people living in Lanzhou. However, as a Lanzhou local who has lived in the city for more than 20 years, I will write from my own personal experiences; which I believe to be representative of the population of Lanzhou.

For the average family prefers to watch China Central Television (CCTV) news, the state-owned television broadcaster. As for newspapers, most families subscribe to local newspapers, which mainly cover local stories. Nationally circulated newspapers are also widely read, e.g. the Global Times, a highly regarded leftist newspaper, and Reference News. It publishes translations of foreign media articles that are in line with China's official positions. These media sources do reveal problems within China to some extent, however, it goes without saying that they seldom publish articles that are critical of the Chinese government.

Although I have used Lanzhou as an example, I believe it portrays an accurate representation of the majority of inland Chinese cities. There are many other factors that distinguish inland Chinese from people living in the coastal area, but I think the three factors mentioned above have the most profound implications on shaping inland population’s opinion. As there is little foreign influence, the majority of the inland population does not aspire to create a western-style democracy. Sources of information are very limited and the general level of education is relatively low. Therefore people are more concerned about problems having direct impacts on their daily lives, and are more frequently seen in the local media (e.g. pollution, product safety, housing prices, corruption etc). Due to the shallow nature of local sources of information, the majority of the inland population has no access to material that explains the roots of these problems. 

Consequently inland Chinese would be satisfied to see small step reforms in areas that the public is most critical of. Given the Chinese government’s obsession with stability the next generation of Chinese leaders are very likely to carry on the gradual reforms started under Hu and Wen, such as the construction of affordable housing and the development of village democracy. These small-step reforms can serve as foundations for further reforms. However, if past experiences are any indication of the future, the Chinese government is likely to delay reforms if public discontent subsides.

The political, economic, and social landscapes are changing rapidly. The Chinese government has made western development a priority in the 12th FYP. This August, the State Council approved a suburban area of Lanzhou to be the fifth “national level development zone”, after similar zones were set up in metropolises such as Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing. The economic development is expected to bring in foreign influence and raise education standards. At the same time, as the credibility of state controlled media continues to decline and younger generations now rely on social media as their major information source, the people will very likely become increasingly skeptical of the Chinese government. Inland populationsmayfind small step reforms acceptable for now, but this base of people with limited access to information is shrinking at an increasing pace. 

After the 18th Party Congress, the fifth generation Chinese leaders face a hard choice. They could continue withsmall step reforms, cover-up or fix problems when they arise, but halt reforms when the situations improve; or, they could take bold steps, expand reforms, and carry on the reform process until the real problems are rooted out. As tempting as the first option may sound for a government so obsessed with stability, only the latter will bring lasting stability to China.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy.

Share Story
Categories360° Analysis, Central & South Asia, Politics Tags18th People's Congress, China, Communist party, Inland-Coastal gap, Leadership change
Join our network of more than 2,000 contributors to publish your perspective, share your story and shape the global conversation. Become a Fair Observer and help us make sense of the world.

Read more on this 360° series

The Rule of Law in China: Strong Man Politics
Eric Lowe • May 11, 2013
Xi-ing Promise: Xi Jinping’s Southern Tour
Kevin Kwok • Jan 16, 2013
China’s New Leadership: Pitfalls and Opportunities
Lacey Bradley • Dec 09, 2012
Bringing it all Together: One of the Many Challenges for China's new Leaders
Peter Morgan • Nov 28, 2012
China: New Leaders, Old Policy
Gateway House • Nov 17, 2012
China: The Leadership Changes, Now What?
Felix Steinle • Nov 15, 2012

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Post navigation

Previous PostPrevious Is Chinese Literature History?
Next PostNext Visualizing Palestine: Hunger Strikes
Subscribe
Register for $9.99 per month and become a member today.
Publish
Join our community of more than 2,000 contributors to publish your perspective, share your narrative and shape the global discourse.
Donate
We bring you perspectives from around the world. Help us to inform and educate. Your donation is tax-deductible.

Explore

  • About
  • FO Store
  • FAQs
  • Republish
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact

Regions

  • Africa
  • Asia Pacific
  • Central & South Asia
  • Europe
  • Latin America & Caribbean
  • Middle East & North Africa
  • North America

Topics

  • Politics
  • Economics
  • Business
  • Culture
  • Environment
  • Global Change
  • International Security
  • Science

Sections

  • 360°
  • The Interview
  • In-Depth
  • Insight
  • Quick Read
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Interactive
  • My Voice

Daily Dispatch


© Fair Observer All rights reserved
Support Our Crowdfunding Campaign

Free media cannot run for free. Unlike social media, we are not using your personal information to sell you advertising. Unlike some publications, our content does not hide behind a paywall. Yet servers, images, newsletters and editorial staff cost money.

We are running a crowdfunding campaign to reach 1,001 monthly donors. Remember, we are a section 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the US and all donations are tax-deductible. Please donate and ask your friends to do so as well.

Support Fair Observer
We Need Your Consent
We use cookies to give you the best possible experience. Learn more about how we use cookies or edit your cookie preferences. Privacy Policy. My Options I Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Edit Cookie Preferences

The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.

As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media.

 
Edit Cookie Preferences

The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.

As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media.

 

Necessary
Always Enabled

These cookies essential for the website to function.

Analytics

These cookies track our website’s performance and also help us to continuously improve the experience we provide to you.

Performance
Uncategorized

This cookie consists of the word “yes” to enable us to remember your acceptance of the site cookie notification, and prevents it from displaying to you in future.

Preferences
Save & Accept