PIP: Jiang Zemin announced at China's 5th Plenary Session of the 14th Central Committee that there was a serious problem of differences in economic development between Eastern China and Middle and Western China. There are many economic development differences between provinces. The coastal eastern zone is comprised of 12 provinces and municipalities: Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan. The middle zone is comprised of 9 provinces and regions including Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan. The third development zone in Western China includes the 9 provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. The most developed region is the eastern coastal zone. About 41% of the total population live in the eastern coastal zone, about 36% live in the middle zone, and about 23% live in the western zone. The proportion of gross domestic product (GDP) in the eastern, middle, and western zones shifted from 52.5%, 31.0%, and 16.5%, respectively, in 1973 to 58.5%, 27.4%, and 14.1%, respectively. in 1994. GDP per capita increased by 10.5 times in the eastern zone, by 8.2 times in the middle zone, and by 8.0 times in the western zone to 5352 yuan, 2878 yuan, and 2320 yuan, respectively, in 1994. Nationally, per capita income among urban households was 3179 yuan in 1994. In the eastern coastal zone only two provinces were below the national average: Liaoning with 2750.73 yuan/capita and Hebei with 2906.42 yuan/capita. Only 2 of 18 provinces in the middle and western zones had per capita urban income above the national average: Hunan with 3365.47 yuan/capita and Tibet with 3595.42/capita. Nationally, the annual net rural income was 1220.98/capita. Rural income below the national average occurred in Hebei and Guangsi in the eastern coastal zone and all provinces in the middle and western zones. The highest rural income in the middle and western zones was in Tibet with 975.95 yuan/capita.