Northeast China and uneven development under the influence of China's reform and opening up

A multi-mechanism framework under a multi-scale method proposed by Wei (1999) is appropriate to analyze the development conditions of Northeast China. In detail, the three mechanisms are decentralization, marketization and globalization, and the three scales are at the interregional, interprovincial and intra-provincial levels. Decentralization after 1978 in China has led to a weaker central state and stronger local governments, both of which have had important implications for regional development. Challenges from local governments have undermined the control of the central government over regional development. However, powerful local governments have helped Chinese governments to embed in local economies. This has been beneficial to develop and form diversified local economies in the Northeast region. But their over-embeddedness in the economic development target has led to an overlook of local government’s responsibilities in maintaining social justice and protecting and assisting the disadvantaged groups, increasing inter-provincial competition and subsequent local protectionism. Marketization reforms in China have generated a regional biased effect on older declining regions including Northeast China. Privatization or the restructure of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) has led to losses of skilled labor and valuable intellectual properties, such as product brands and major manufacturing equipment in Northeast China. Moreover, the formation of an integrated domestic market in China after 1978 has created a more advantageous condition for southern provinces, not for northeastern provinces, because of the closer distance with domestic and overseas markets of southern provinces, and market protectionism conducted by some southern local governments through disguised subsidies to local enterprises or government procurement contracts only for local enterprises. Foreign investment and trade, two major forms of globalization, also have had influences on regional development in China. In detail, international trade has generated border effects, for example the newly formed economic centers alongside the border with leading western European countries in the central and east European transition countries, and also the prosperous economy in coastal China. Foreign investment’s effects on regional development have been influenced by several factors, including the particular selected locations of foreign investors, and also the attitudes or reactions from local players such as governments, labor unions and other actors.Arts, Faculty ofGeography, Department ofGraduat