Chinese regional disparities are readily apparent, with well-being seen the highest at the coast and declining steadily inland. Their mitigation will clearly be hostage to improvement in economic development, since the unevenness of that development created them in the first place. Integral to development is structural change, and the key to effecting that change is improved energy efficiency. Indeed, this paper explores energy usage and regional development from 1952 to the present, establishing that they both conform to an inverted-U pattern. Eastern China, the leader in industrialization, has moved beyond the apogee of the curve, but Central and Western China have failed to follow suit, being held back by poor industrial structures and adverse patterns of energy consumption. Remedying this laggardly performance preoccupies China's Government, for rendering the country energy-efficient and containing regional disparities, both rest on pushing the Central and Western regions down the curve in the wake of the prosperous coast. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.