MSNBC/Newsweek has this article describing the wide variance in economic & political development across China.

There are quite a few insights w.r.t. the dual nature of economic and political development.   First, the obvious, well written success story of the First China -- the coastal regions:

When most outsiders speak of “China,” they are talking about a relatively thin slice of the country—the booming coastal provinces, where glitzy skylines and fashionably dressed crowds cause many visitors to wonder whether they’ve landed in Hong Kong by accident.

...Coastal Chinese have a per capita income 75 percent above the national average and an effective purchasing power of almost $6,000 per year.

However, this is marred by the stories of Second China -- Inland:

Yet with each passing year this “China”—which accounts for only 30 percent of the population—looks less and less like the rest of the nation. An entirely different China sweeps across the country’s vast hinterland—a landscape denuded by thousands of years of cultivation by small farmers. Nearly 600 million downtrodden peasants populate this, the former cradle of Chinese civilization, and their circumstances are declining.

...These Chinese already earn 25 percent less than the national average—some $700 per year—and yet are inundated with locally imposed taxes and fees. Despite their mind-boggling numbers, they have no representatives on the Politburo.

Wow.   A 10x gap between coastal / non-coastal?  And that's between the averages.  And finally, "third China" -- the Overseas -- who are powering much of the Chinese surge in direct investment and Light Manufacturing:

If the Overseas Chinese community, including Hong Kong and Taiwan, were imagined into a separate China, it would have a population of about 55 million and a GDP of $1 trillion in 1999 (the same as the People’s Republic).

At the same time, many of these ethnic Chinese bring with them an experience of democratic freedoms that Beijing would rather keep from its citizens.

Fascinating.