East-west pairing assistance key to balanced development

China's east-west pairing assistance program — a mechanism launched in 1996 — continues to shape the country's pursuit of more balanced and inclusive growth. This was evident on Wednesday, when officials gathered in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region, to review and further improve the program.

Over the past decades, the reform and opening-up of China have greatly promoted the development of the country in all aspects. While prosperity has been generated along the country's eastern coast, its western areas have lagged behind in comparison. The challenge is to ensure growth benefits are distributed more evenly across the vast country.

In response, policymakers have established a framework linking the developed eastern regions with their less-developed western counterparts, creating channels through which capital, talent, technology and market opportunities can flow across administrative boundaries. Over time, this has evolved into a coordinated development assistance system.

Over the past five years, enterprises have been guided to invest more than 750 billion yuan ($111 billion) in the western regions. This program has helped more than 5 million rural workers from western China secure jobs and facilitated nearly 570 billion yuan in sales of agricultural products from western regions to the eastern markets. These figures suggest that the mechanism is not just redistributive. It has created sustainable economic linkages and growth opportunities.

Equally notable is the institutional architecture developed over the years. The program now operates through five major mechanisms: industrial cooperation, labor collaboration, consumer assistance, talent exchange and social support. Together they connect investment, employment, market access, human capital and public services into a single framework.

Industrial cooperation encourages investment and industry upgrading. Labor collaboration expands employment opportunities. Consumer assistance creates sizable markets for agricultural products. Talent exchange transfers expertise and managerial experience. Social support mobilizes educational, healthcare and other public resources. Each mechanism addresses a different dimension of regional inequality.

The significance of this model lies in its compatibility with China's national conditions. A country of continental scale, marked by vast differences in geography and development levels, requires institutions capable of coordinating resources across regions. The pairing program turns regional disparities into opportunities for complementary development. Eastern regions gain access to new markets and labor resources, while western regions benefit from investment, technology and expertise.

More broadly, the program reflects a characteristic of China's long-term development perspective. Few governments can sustain a development strategy across three decades while continuously adapting its objectives and implementation — from poverty alleviation to rural vitalization and coordinated regional development. The achievements of the pairing program owe much to long-range planning, policy continuity and incremental improvements in governance.

Experience around the world suggests that economic activity naturally gravitates toward already prosperous regions. China's approach has been to use institutions to mitigate this tendency without abandoning market mechanisms. The pairing program does not replace markets; it connects them by lubricating the internal circulation.

As China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, balanced development has become increasingly important for the efforts to realize common prosperity. Future growth will depend not only on technological innovation and industrial upgrading, but also on expanding domestic demand and ensuring broader participation in development. Regional coordination is therefore an economic imperative of national importance.

The east-west pairing assistance program should be adapted to the current situation. Unlike 30 years ago, many inland areas have become gateways to global engagement under the Belt and Road Initiative. Consequently, the east-west pairing assistance program should incorporate more cross-regional collaboration.

Thirty years after its launch, the program stands as a testament to a governance philosophy that prizes patience, continuity and long-term development — qualities that have helped transform the regional development gap into a story of increasingly shared growth.