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An Overview of China’s Regions under CCP Rule（9）Anhui and Jiangxi: Former Prosperity and Cultural Flourishing, Decline through Invasion and Civil War, Limited Recovery amid Poverty, Lost Autonomy and Exploitation
Anhui and Jiangxi have, since ancient times, been relatively poor compared with their surrounding regions. In parts of both provinces, social customs have been comparatively conservative and even brutal (especially when contrasted with neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang), with pronounced bureaucratism and pervasive grassroots violence. This is to a large extent due to unfavorable geographical conditions and a vicious cycle linking geography, the economy, and humanistic development.
Although both provinces have produced many talented individuals—places such as Hefei in Anhui and Ji’an and Linchuan in Jiangxi are all regarded as “hometowns of literary talent”—their impact on the overall cultural landscape and social development of Anhui and Jiangxi has been limited, and the outflow of talent has been severe.
Repeated wars and popular uprisings have further deteriorated local conditions. For example, invasions by northern non-Han peoples from the Song dynasty onward; the wars between Qing forces and the Taiping rebel armies in the late Qing period; Japan’s invasion of China; and several civil wars all dealt severe blows to Anhui and Jiangxi.
As a unitary state, the CCP regime did not endeavor to promote development in Anhui and Jiangxi in order to narrow regional disparities. Instead, it imposed harsh repression to keep the two provinces resigned to poverty, turning them into sources of cheap labor, agricultural products, and mineral resources for other regions. Jiangxi is also a former revolutionary base area of the CCP, yet the CCP has shown little care for it, leaving once-celebrated revolutionary areas mired in deep poverty.
Indeed, partly as retaliation for the careful efforts of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo in developing Jiangxi, the CCP has long suppressed the province’s cultural, educational, industrial, and commercial sectors.
Compared with the Nationalist government and local strongmen, the CCP’s compulsory grain requisitions and taxation imposed on Jiangxi’s farmers were even more brutal and unrestrained. This, too, reflects the CCP regime’s betrayal of the people.
In contrast to the CCP and central government’s harsh indifference, the geographically proximate Jiangsu–Zhejiang–Shanghai region has instead contributed to economic and social development in Anhui and Jiangxi. Many residents of the two provinces have been able to secure subsistence or even accumulate wealth by working or doing business in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.
(Of course, Jiangsu–Zhejiang–Shanghai has also exploited Anhui and Jiangxi’s cheap labor, exerted a siphoning effect on their talent and other resources, and caused certain negative impacts. Moreover, while repressing Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the CCP has simultaneously sought to placate them; part of this “placation” has involved suppressing the political status and power of Anhui and Jiangxi, keeping them in a relatively weaker and poorer position in their interactions and competition with Jiangsu and Zhejiang.)
Under CCP rule, the development potential of Anhui and Jiangxi has been suppressed; talented people are siphoned off and find it difficult to benefit their home regions, while other forms of wealth are likewise remitted upward far more than they are retained locally. Intense “involution” prevails among the populace, and the lack of regional subjectivity prevents people from uniting to pursue regional interests. For a long time to come, Anhui and Jiangxi are likely to remain stagnant and stifled.
#local
Anhui and Jiangxi have, since ancient times, been relatively poor compared with their surrounding regions. In parts of both provinces, social customs have been comparatively conservative and even brutal (especially when contrasted with neighboring Jiangsu and Zhejiang), with pronounced bureaucratism and pervasive grassroots violence. This is to a large extent due to unfavorable geographical conditions and a vicious cycle linking geography, the economy, and humanistic development.
Although both provinces have produced many talented individuals—places such as Hefei in Anhui and Ji’an and Linchuan in Jiangxi are all regarded as “hometowns of literary talent”—their impact on the overall cultural landscape and social development of Anhui and Jiangxi has been limited, and the outflow of talent has been severe.
Repeated wars and popular uprisings have further deteriorated local conditions. For example, invasions by northern non-Han peoples from the Song dynasty onward; the wars between Qing forces and the Taiping rebel armies in the late Qing period; Japan’s invasion of China; and several civil wars all dealt severe blows to Anhui and Jiangxi.
As a unitary state, the CCP regime did not endeavor to promote development in Anhui and Jiangxi in order to narrow regional disparities. Instead, it imposed harsh repression to keep the two provinces resigned to poverty, turning them into sources of cheap labor, agricultural products, and mineral resources for other regions. Jiangxi is also a former revolutionary base area of the CCP, yet the CCP has shown little care for it, leaving once-celebrated revolutionary areas mired in deep poverty.
Indeed, partly as retaliation for the careful efforts of Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang Ching-kuo in developing Jiangxi, the CCP has long suppressed the province’s cultural, educational, industrial, and commercial sectors.
Compared with the Nationalist government and local strongmen, the CCP’s compulsory grain requisitions and taxation imposed on Jiangxi’s farmers were even more brutal and unrestrained. This, too, reflects the CCP regime’s betrayal of the people.
In contrast to the CCP and central government’s harsh indifference, the geographically proximate Jiangsu–Zhejiang–Shanghai region has instead contributed to economic and social development in Anhui and Jiangxi. Many residents of the two provinces have been able to secure subsistence or even accumulate wealth by working or doing business in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai.
(Of course, Jiangsu–Zhejiang–Shanghai has also exploited Anhui and Jiangxi’s cheap labor, exerted a siphoning effect on their talent and other resources, and caused certain negative impacts. Moreover, while repressing Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the CCP has simultaneously sought to placate them; part of this “placation” has involved suppressing the political status and power of Anhui and Jiangxi, keeping them in a relatively weaker and poorer position in their interactions and competition with Jiangsu and Zhejiang.)
Under CCP rule, the development potential of Anhui and Jiangxi has been suppressed; talented people are siphoned off and find it difficult to benefit their home regions, while other forms of wealth are likewise remitted upward far more than they are retained locally. Intense “involution” prevails among the populace, and the lack of regional subjectivity prevents people from uniting to pursue regional interests. For a long time to come, Anhui and Jiangxi are likely to remain stagnant and stifled.
#local
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