Going West and Going Out: discourses, migrants, and models in Chinese development
Top Cited Papers
- 3 May 2016
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis Ltd in Eurasian Geography and Economics
- Vol. 57 (3), 286-315
- https://doi.org/10.1080/15387216.2016.1235982
Abstract
In 1999 China announced the launching of the Open up the West campaign, sometimes called “Going West,” to help western China finally catch up to the much wealthier eastern, coastal areas after several decades of lagging behind. The same year, China also announced a “Going Out” strategy to encourage Chinese investment abroad. The 15 years since then have witnessed dramatic Chinese government investment in various development activities in western regions of China, as well as around the world. Though rarely considered together, we argue that there are significant parallels in development discourse, the centrality of physical infrastructure, the characteristics of Chinese labor migration and the nature of migrant-local relations, and the application of “models from elsewhere” in Going West and Going Out. Considering these parallels can help shed light on Chinese development discourse and practice, as China becomes increasingly important in the field of development once dominated by Western countries. Finally, we also consider direct connections and convergences between the two strategies in China’s neighboring countries of Asia and in the One Belt One Road initiative.Keywords
This publication has 64 references indexed in Scilit:
- Nupela Masta? Local and Expatriate Labour in a Chinese-Run Nickel Mine in Papua New Guinea1Asian Studies Review, 2013
- Globalisation and the Rise of the State? Chinese Geogovernance in ZambiaNew Political Economy, 2012
- African Shenzhen: China's special economic zones in AfricaThe Journal of Modern African Studies, 2011
- Emerging China and Critical Geopolitics: Between World Politics and Chinese ParticularityEurasian Geography and Economics, 2010
- Towards a Critical Geopolitics of China's Engagement with African DevelopmentGeopolitics, 2010
- The Past in the Present: Historical and Rhetorical Lineages in China's Relations with AfricaThe China Quarterly, 2009
- Chinese Migrants in Africa as New Agents of Development? An Analytical FrameworkThe European Journal of Development Research, 2009
- The Cartography of National Humiliation and the Emergence of China's GeobodyPublic Culture, 2009
- The Campaign to “Open Up the West”: National, Provincial-level and Local PerspectivesThe China Quarterly, 2004
- Of Belts and Ladders: State Policy and Uneven Regional Development in Post-Mao ChinaAnnals of the American Association of Geographers, 1995