Chinese Premier Li Keqiang chaired a meeting of the State Council’s Leading Small Group (LSG) for developing the western region on June 21. This is the first time this LSG has met in three years. The press release from the meeting said: “The natural resource advantages of wind, light, hydropower and minerals in the western region should be exploited to the full[est]” and “Large clean energy bases should be built to strengthen the country’s support capacity in energy and important resources.” The implied objective is to make the west into an energy base to support the technological development of the rest of China. The People's Daily (June 23) reported that Sun Chunlan, Hu Chunhua, Wang Yong, Xiao Jie and He Lifeng attended the meeting.

(Comment: It is interesting that Vice Premier Liu He, who attended the last meeting, did not attend this meeting. Vice Premier Hu Chunhua attended instead. Officially, the “western region” includes 12 provinces which together account for over 70% of China’s geographical area – but only around a fifth of its economic output. The push to develop this region was initiated back in 1999 under Jiang Zemin.)