Laughing at the World | How Poor is Hunan, the “Poorest Province in Central China”?!

Regarding the series of topics on Hunan’s “Strong Provincial Capital”, I have successively published six articles: “Zhuzhou: Brought by Trains, and Then Taken Away by High-Speed Rail!”, “How Hard the People of Yongzhou Suffer, and How Painful the People of Hunan Are!”, “Hengyang: China’s First City of Sorrow!”, “Yueyang: How Long Until the Decline?!”, “How Awesome is Changsha?!”, and “Why Hengyang Can Surpass Yueyang, Changde, and Zhuzhou to Become the Second City in Hunan!?”.

Now I am publishing “How Poor is Hunan, the ‘Poorest Province in Central China’?!”.

01

Upon seeing the title saying Hunan is the “poorest province in central China”, I’m afraid many Chinese people won’t believe it!

Some Hunan people will even shake their heads and say: “Rumor! One hundred percent rumor!”

In the eyes of ordinary people, Hunan has historically been a land of fish and rice, and it is also developing well now.

Especially the provincial capital Changsha, in the list of the top ten provincial capital cities in terms of per capita GDP in 2022, Changsha ranked sixth in the country with 136,397.12 yuan, after Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, and Wuhan.

How could Hunan be the “poorest province in central China”?! Even if Hunan’s development has shortcomings, it’s impossible for it to be poorer than Henan, a large province in central China!

Also, Anhui, which has suffered many disasters throughout history, has always been known for its poverty.

Historically, there were two armies of beggars who went out to beg for food. One was the Yu army composed of Henan people, and the other was the Wan army composed of Anhui people. On May 20, 2006, the Fengyang Flower Drum, which was specially sung for begging, was also announced by the State Council as the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage.

Today, in the prosperous era of reform, the hometown of beggars is even richer than the land of fish and rice, which is simply a fantasy!

As for Jiangxi, tens of thousands of Jiangxi people came to Hunan in the past, wasn’t it to live a better life? How come today, Hunan is not as good as their hometown?!

02

To be honest, I don’t believe that Hunan is the “poorest province in central China” either, but after looking at the statistical data released by the governments of the six provinces in central China, I have to admit: Hunan is indeed the “poorest province in central China”.

According to the data from the statistical bulletins of the governments of the six provinces in central China in 2022, the per capita GDP after deducting the provincial capital cities, the list of per capita GDP in the six provinces in central China from high to low is as follows:

The per capita GDP of Hubei Province after deducting Wuhan is: 77,769 yuan;

The per capita GDP of Henan Province after deducting Zhengzhou is: 69,839 yuan;

The per capita GDP of Shanxi Province after deducting Taiyuan is: 69,705 yuan;

The per capita GDP of Jiangxi Province after deducting Nanchang is: 64,271 yuan;

The per capita GDP of Anhui Province after deducting Hefei is: 63,970 yuan;

The per capita GDP of Hunan Province after deducting Changsha is: 62,396 yuan.

It can be seen that after deducting the provincial capital cities, the economic development level of Hunan Province is the most backward in central China, which is an ironclad fact.

It is true that Changsha ranks sixth in the country, but Hunan outside of Changsha is the true poorest province in central China, without any doubt.

03

In fact, a person in Hunan, as long as they have a slightly normal mind, knows that there are actually two Hunan provinces, one is the Hunan of Changsha, and the other is the Hunan outside of Changsha.

With the wild promotion of Hunan’s “Strong Provincial Capital” strategy, Changsha’s per capita GDP has soared.

Changsha’s per capita GDP not only leads the 14 prefecture-level cities and states in Hunan Province, but also tramples on the rich coastal cities.

Especially the gap between the per capita GDP of the provincial capital city and the per capita GDP of the whole province, Changsha has always maintained the record of being the first in the country.

Taking 2019 as an example, Changsha’s per capita GDP reached 137,900 yuan, which is 2.4 times the per capita GDP of Hunan Province, which was 57,500 yuan.

Among them, Changsha’s per capita GDP is 5.14 times the per capita GDP of Xiangxi.

The per capita GDP of Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture is 26,600 yuan, which is not even a fraction of Changsha’s per capita GDP of 137,900 yuan.

When you get to Changsha, you realize that Hunan is really rich!

04

Leaving Changsha, you feel that Hunan is so poor!

The chart of the proportion of fines and confiscation income compiled by “Caijing Shiyi Ren” is enough to explain how poor Hunan is outside of Changsha?!

The first chart is the proportion of fines and confiscation income in all provinces and cities across the country.

Hunan ranks fourth in the country, and is the only province among the six provinces in central China to enter the top ten, far surpassing the other five provinces in central China!

The second chart is the top 50 cities in the country in terms of the proportion of fines and confiscation income.

05

Hunan has eight cities whose fines and confiscation income account for the top 50 in the country, namely: Shaoyang City, ranked 3rd; Xiangxi Autonomous Prefecture, ranked 8th; Yiyang City, ranked 17th; Loudi City, ranked 20th; Hengyang City, ranked 23rd; Yongzhou City, ranked 39th; Yueyang City, ranked 46th; Changde City, ranked 50th.

Everyone knows that the proportion of fines and confiscation funds in local fiscal revenue witnesses the quality of the local business environment. The higher the proportion of fines, the worse the business environment.

Hunan has become a strong province for fines, with eight cities in Hunan in the top 50 in the country. It is conceivable how bad Hunan’s business environment is.

Not to mention investing and doing business in Hunan, even driving through Hunan is frightening.

The first fear of Chinese truck drivers is to go to Hunan. Hunan Expressway has become the nightmare of all drivers. It’s either “better to go around Hubei for three hundred miles than to go three kilometers in Hunan”, or “better to go around Jiangxi for 100 miles than to go 1 kilometer in Hunan”.

However, Hunan has spent decades developing the provincial capital Changsha with all its resources, and all of Hunan’s resources are highly concentrated in Changsha. For the governments of other cities and states in Hunan, the overwhelming problem is the serious problem of survival, so how can they have the mood to consider the business environment?!

To tell the truth, who would be willing to rob all day long, year after year, if they weren’t so poor that they had no other choice?!

06

Just get by day by day, and to hell with the business environment!

In 2022, although Changsha ranked sixth in the country in terms of per capita GDP, it is not considered to be “in the forefront”, nor does it have “global influence”.

On April 19, 2022, the Hunan Provincial Party Committee held a meeting in Changsha to implement the “Strong Provincial Capital” strategy. The Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government issued the “Several Opinions on Implementing the Strong Provincial Capital Strategy to Support the High-Quality Development of Changsha City”, which proposed: “Continuously enhance Changsha’s radiation power, regional leadership, national competitiveness, and global influence. By 2026, Changsha’s regional GDP will reach about 2 trillion yuan, and the main indicators of high-quality development will be in the forefront of provincial capital cities across the country”.

However, Changsha’s GDP in 2022 was only 1396.61 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.5%. This means that it needs to increase by 600 billion yuan in the next four years, an increase of 42.959%. It needs to increase by 150 billion yuan on average every year, and increase by more than 10% every year.

Fortunately, the first sentence of the “II. Objectives and Tasks” chapter of the “Several Opinions on Implementing the Strong Provincial Capital Strategy to Support the High-Quality Development of Changsha City” clearly states: “Build a batch of high-quality international central business districts for finance, science and technology innovation, headquarters economy, and cultural consumption”.

Regarding Changsha’s development of the headquarters economy, “Xin Xiang Review” and “Hunan Micro-Government Affairs” have already published articles to explain: that is, other cities and states must move the enterprises and industries with good benefits to Changsha to register their headquarters, and work in Changsha’s office buildings to ensure that GDP and tax revenue enter Changsha’s pocket, see “How Awesome is Changsha?!” and “Zhuzhou: Brought by Trains, and Then Taken Away by High-Speed Rail!”.

The 12th Party Congress of Hunan clearly wrote the strategy of strengthening the provincial capital with the whole province’s strength into the report. Every Hunanese outside of Changsha has an unshirkable responsibility and must do their best to make Changsha stronger.

If Changsha cannot quickly possess “national competitiveness and global influence”, every Hunanese outside of Changsha must bear historical responsibility!