Development Coming From Crisis

The main content is the economic activities of the National Government in northwest five provinces during the War of Resistance against Japan and before the War. The economic activities mainly focused on transportation, water conservancy, immigration, reclamation and industry. Two points should be noted. Firstly, the time span of some important economic activities is longer than what is said above. Secondly, the northwestern social background, some subordinate economic activities and the situation of some activities after the War are also introduced. The two points are helpful for us to deeply understand the economic activities of the National Government in the northwest. Beginning with the northwestern crisis, the dissertation has a comprehensive study on the economic activities of the National Government in five northwestern provinces. On base of the comprehensive study, the following questions will be resolved:why the National Government devoted itself to developing the five northwestern provinces, why the economic activities didn’t gain great achievements and what will the development power for less developed areas.The crisis includes internal crisis and outside crisis. The most serious crisis before the War of Resistance against Japan was a drought, from1928to1933. During the period, specially before1931, the main activities of the National Government in the northwest were against the drought. After9.18incident, the Japanese invasion became more serious. In order to deal with the crisis, the National Government began to advocate "developing the northwest". Many plans were made and many institutions were set up. All these led to the first campaign of developing the northwest. As a result, the northwest became a new center of China. When China came to the War of Resistance against Japan, more and more important areas were taken over by Japanese army. In order to defeat Japan as soon as possible, the National Government decided to develop the northwest and the southwest, which were still held by the National Government. Recolating factories to the areas without the War led economic development of these areas. In the stage of stalemate, military pressure alleviated and the cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were emerging questions. As a result, the importance of the northwestern area occupied by the CCP was on rise. It also promoted the importance of the northwest that the Dian-Mian Road was cut off. Due to the importance of the northwest, Chiang Kai-shek visited the northwest for a second time. At the same time, Xinjiang problem was resolved completely. Developing the northwest became an inevitable trend. But after the victory against Japan, the importance of the northwest to the National Government decreased rapidly. A large number of people and capital were withdrew out from the northwest to the areas where were ever occupied by Japan. So, the activities of developing the northwest came to a stall. The following Civil War between the CCP and the KMT further decreased the importance of the northwest to the KMT. All theses led the plans, which were made before the War Resistance against Japan and during the War, to a failure.The purpose of the National Government to develop the northwest was not only for economy but also for politics. So, sometimes there were strongly military factors and the military factors restricted the northwestern economy from development. The time span of developing the northwest by the National Government is the longest one since the modern time. The War Resistance against Japan did not interrupt the developing activities, but also was an important factor advancing the developing. During the process, many new things appeared in traditional fields, such as water conservancy, immigration and reclamation. The developing of these fields are the base of social advancement.The main background of developing the northwest was social instability and war. The reasons why the developing did not gain more achievements were the following: First, the most important reason was absent of a democratic and effective government and the society was unstable. Second, the natural conditions of the northwest were very bad and the transportation was not convenient. Third, both the central government and the local government could not provide enough capital. Forth, there was not a fixed institution to guide and supervise the developing. Fifth, military factors hindered the economic developing. Sixth, because of the backward education system, there were not enough specialists to guide the developing. Seventh, besides the northwest, the National Government also devoted himself to developing the southwest, and the southwest was more important than the northwest.The economic development of the northwest since the modern time tell us that the main motive force of the northwest, including other backward areas, was whether the central government paid enough attention to it. But it should be cleared that only crisis could push the central government to pay attention to the northwest. So, crisis played an important role during the northwestern development. The importance of the northwest to the National Government was proportional to the severity of the crisis. In other words, crisis contributed to the economic development. The main reason of the northwestern backward was that the the National Government did not pay enough attention to it. Provided that the the National Government paid enough attention to the northwest, the northwest would gain rapid development.