TO UNDERSTAND WHAT China’s leaders care about, look at where they travel. Earlier this month Li Qiang, the prime minister, spent three days in Xinjiang, a poor area in western China where he ordered local authorities to boost incomes and employment. At the same time Mr Li’s deputy, Ding Xuexiang, went to Shenyang, a city in China’s north-eastern rustbelt. Mr Ding called for the region’s “revitalisation”. Two weeks before all that, the supreme leader, Xi Jinping, presided over a symposium in the city of Chongqing where he heralded a “new chapter” in the development of China’s western region.
The Economist
