Introduction

Since the late 1970s, as the People's Republic of China (PRC) has opened to the outside world and reformed its economic system—and especially as it has implemented a tax sharing policy between the central and provincial governments—various of its regions have achieved high economic growth rates, gained more autonomous power in decision making and more initiative in economic development, and experienced a significant improvement in living standards. Even Guizhou province, with the lowest GDP per capita, has experienced an eleven-fold increase in economic output from 1978 to 2005, with the annual economic growth rate averaging 9.5% at constant prices. GDP per capita increased from 175 yuan in 1978 to 5,052 yuan in 2005; this is nearly eight-fold growth with an average annual growth rate of 8.6% at constant prices.

However, the PRC is a large developing country with a huge population and a tremendous amount of territory. Among the regions, the natural endowments as well as economic and social conditions differ greatly. These differences predispose the PRC to having regional imbalances. This regional disparity is one of the crucial issues faced by the PRC in its medium- and long-term development. It is also a core problem that the PRC must solve to achieve coordinated regional development. In-depth study of the regional income disparity in the PRC is necessary for this effort.

In the 1990s, continuously growing regional disparity raised concern among the government and society. Many scholars undertook rigorous study of various aspects of the regional disparity. Most of these studies focused on the problems of disparity among provinces; relatively little systematic study has investigated disparity within each province.

The PRC's provinces are large and populous. Seven of its provinces or autonomous regions have land areas that exceed 400 thousand square kilometers; nine of its provinces have populations over 50 million, and three of those provinces' populations exceed 90 million. Because the provinces cover such expansive areas and contain such large populations, a variety of differing conditions exist within each province. Therefore, study that focuses only on the issue of disparity among provinces cannot accurately reflect the situation of regional disparity in the PRC.

The unique feature of this paper is that it includes analysis of regional disparity not only among the provinces of the PRC, but also within them. The analysis is based on recent updated statistical data that has become available since the PRC implemented its first national economic census in 2004. The regions adjusted their historical economic data in accordance with the result of this national economic census, these adjusted data reflect the region's economic conditions more precisely.

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