Mineral industry and regional development in China

摘要

This paper represents an exploratory undertaking to analyses the positive aspects of mineral activity in regional development during the past over 40 years in China. The results of applying factor analysis and cluster analysis indicate that: the Socio-Economic Development Factor dominates the general pattern of China's regional disparities; the development of specialized mineral activities reinforces the structure through improving the leading position of core regions as a result of developments in raw-material manufacturings; mineral development can further regional development through the inception of a national integrated transport system; for most developing areas, mineral industry can act as a key instrument to stimulate and sustain regional development only in terms of their resource perspective-plentiful resources equals good growth prospects, while scanty resources equates with much poorer prospects.