1. Written as a comparative province analysis paper for Brantly Womack's graduate course
"Domestic Politics of China (PLCP 5610)" at the University of Virginia. Written by Jennifer
Yvonne Jones in Oct., 2011.
Jiangxi Province, PRC
Jiangxi province is generally considered a backwater location. It staggers physically and
economically behind the richer east-coast provinces, it has ranked in the lower third of China’s
per capita GDP/GRP since the 1950’s. While Jiangxi’s people are relatively poor, they are also
relatively healthy with an expected lifespan of 73.9 years. The province has a great amount of
mineral resources, particularly copper, and most of its gross regional product (GRP) is in the
secondary industry sector. Its urban to rural income ratio is relatively small, though a third of its
rural income originates from migrant workers sending wages back home. In matters of foreign
trade, Jiangxi ranks in the middle, but its leaders plan to advance its position via infrastructure
improvements. Its agriculture has significant agricultural gross output value (AGOV) despite a
relatively low output. Most of its citizens are literate, though the province follows the national
trend of greater male than female literacy. But it does not follow the national trend of a large
commodities gap between urban and rural. Overall, Jiangxi is not the backwater province many
assume it to be. (Note that all statistics, unless otherwise stated, are from Brantly Womack’s
Comparative Provincial Data 2009.)
Jiangxi ranks low on general economic indicators but high on life expectancy
The 2009 GRP for Jiangxi is $17,272, placing it 25th
out of a total 31 provinces in the People’s
Republic of China. Not much has shifted in the provincial ranking over the years since 1952.
Figure 1 uses GRP per capita data from the years 1952 -98. Note that the richest provinces are
2. colored yellow to represent hot economic activity; the poorest are
colored blue. Jiangxi has yet to advance from the bottom third.
Accordingly its per capita province expenditures, total and
educational, rate 26th
and 25th
respectively. However, Jiangxi’s
total GRP is $766 billion, rating 19th
, in the middle third. A
possible reason for the disparity in ranking between total and per capita GRP is the fact that
Jiangxi’s year life expectancy is relatively very high. In 2000 it ranked 4th
out of all provinces
for expected longevity.
Jiangxi specializes in secondary industries
Jiangxi has abundant mineral resources. Out of the 150 known minerals, Jiangxi has 140, and 52
are ranked in the top ten of national reserve amounts.1
Southern Jiangxi is known as the “Rare
Earths Kingdom.”1
Thus, it’s not surprising that its GRP composition is over half secondary
industry, at 51.2%. While its primary industry is only 14.4% of its GRP, this percentage ranks in
the top third of provinces. The largest, Hainan, has 27.9% primary industry composition, and the
lowest, Beijing, has 0.8%. Yet Jiangxi ranks 30th
in tertiary industry composition. As the 7th
poorest province, it does not have a consumer base to support advanced economic activity and it
suffers a brain-drain affect.2
Rural income is bolstered by migrant worker wages
Approximately 32% of Jiangxi’s rural income is from wages sent home by migrant workers.2
With this type of supplement, its rural net income ranks in the middle third of national rural
1
Statistics Bureau of Jiangxi. About Jiangxi. 2009. Jxstj.gov.cn
2
The Economist Intelligent Unit Limited. Regions: Jiangxi, Infrastructure-driven Growth. March 2010
Figure 1. Rich and poor
provinces in China
3. income rankings. Its rural net income percent average was in the high 90’s during 2000-2009,
and its urban over rural income is only 2.8 (23rd
rank). This signifies its urban income is only 2.8
times higher than its rural. Compare this to the highest urban/rural income which is Yunnan at
4.3. Jiangxi migrant workers have opportunity to improve their wages they are neighbors to
some of the richest provinces, Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang; all of which rank in the top
eleven provinces for tertiary industry GRP composition.
Jiangxi has moderate foreign trade, and plans to boost it via infrastructure improvements
Jiangxi ranks in the middle-third of provincial data for the categories of total, exports, imports,
and per capita foreign trade. Guangdong consistently ranked as number one in foreign trade in
2009 with 611,094 million U.S.$ in total foreign trade, most of which was exported to Britain-
governed Hong Kong. However, Jiangxi ranked number four in the category of 2009/2007
incremental foreign trade increase. As industry manufacturing moves westward Jiangxi proves
to be attractive in that it has so many natural resources and holds the promise of developing into
a central transport junction between eastern and western China. The Yangtze River flows
through the province, providing sea access. Its capital city Nanchang is the junction of three
major highways and has an international airport.
With help from the national government Jiangxi has an internal
focus on infrastructure development that will also help increase
tourism.3
Jiangxi’s 2009/2007 tourism per capita placed it fifth in
the nation for incremental increase even though its tourism
3
The Asian Development Bank. People's Republic of China: Jiangxi Fuzhou Urban Integrated
Infrastructure Improvement. Sept. 2010. ADB.org
Creative Commons License
Image 1. Sanqing Shan Tourism
4. earnings per capita in 2009 was only $7 million, earning 23rd
place in 2009 the national ranking.
Jiangxi has great potential for ecotourism with a lack of pollution that plagues many rich
provinces, and great natural beauty of sites such as Sanqing Shan and Boyang Lake. The
cultural and historical importance of Jiangxi as the birthplace of modern Chinese communism
and the People’s Liberation Army is not to be underestimated as a tourism draw. However
Jiangxi will probably never reach Beijing’s level of tourism. Beijing earned first place in 2009
with $248 million in tourism per capita.
Agriculture cultivation is relatively small but effective
Jiangxi ranked 6th
(173.4 billion yuan) in the 2009 AGOV
despite only having 2,827,000 hectares of cultivated land
(rank 21) in 2008. Figures 2 and 3 illustrate this; the
Jiangxi columns are designated with red. It uses its
farmland well, especially compared to Helingjiang which
had the most cultivated land, 11,830,00 hectares, but only
produced the twelfth highest AGOV (225.3 billion Y). The
national average of grain produced per province was 17.12
million tons. Jiangxi produced above that, at 20.03 million
tons, but still far below the leader, Henan, which cultivated 58.89 million tons.
Jiangxi’s citizens are relatively literate; both urban and rural have modern amenities
Jiangxi has a relatively low illiteracy rate. It’s the eleventh least-illiterate province. But there are
many more literate males than females. The 2009 female/male illiteracy rate of those over the 15
Figures 2 and 3.
5. years old for Jiangxi is 3.7, which ranks as the 6th
highest. However, Beijing, which is the most
literate, also has the second highest female/male illiteracy ratio of 4.4. This shows that female
illiteracy is a national, not a provincial trend.
Jiangxi’s values of ‘goods per100 households’ reveal that the province is in ‘middle comfort’ and
that within the province there is not a huge disparity between urban and rural. In regards to
goods per 100 urban households, Jiangxi’s values rank in the middle third of the national data,
with the exception of cars. Goods per 100 urban households are as follows: 1.1 cars, 93
refrigerators, 45 computers and 155 cell phones. For rural households, the numbers are as
follows: approximately 0 cars, 17 refrigerators, 2 computers and 93 cell phones. Relative to
other provinces, Jiangxi does not have a large urban-rural gap.
Jiangxi is a middle-ranked province with potential
Jiangxi most often ranks in the middle of provincial data. It lacks many of the challenges its
richer neighbors face, such as pollution and large urban-rural disparities. With its healthy and
literate population, central location, plentiful natural resources, and planned infrastructure
improvements, it stands poised to become a wealthy province in the long run.