A GROUP of influential experts has warned Beijing against squeezing the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for the purpose of narrowing the gap between the rich coastal area and the impoverished west.
For the second time in a month, the nation's liberal economists and cadres have converged on Hainan Island, to give support to radical market reforms.
The semi-official China News Service (CNS) reported yesterday that 80 academics and officials met in Haikou for an international conference on the development of the SEZs.
Sources said economists who had worked for former party chiefs Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang defended the zones' entitlement to preferential policies.
Last year a coalition of central planners in Beijing and regional chiefs from central and western areas had argued that special tax and other policies for the coast should be abrogated.
They claimed that as a result of such policies, the zones had 'exploited' the heartland regions, and the disparity between the coast and the heartland had widened.
Such views were disputed by senior economist Yu Guangyuan, who advised both Mr Hu and Mr Zhao.