Chna's regional development can not be fully understood if its overall economic management system is not examined.The relationships,in forms of fiscal budgetary power and economic planning,between the central and local governments and between the state and enterprises are important components in China's regional development.This is because these relationships have basically determined the direction and distribution of flows of capital and resources in the economies,which are crucial source and dynamics for regional development. This paper is to examine the institutional weakneses in the Chinese socialist fiscal and planning systems and their resultant impact on China's spatial development before 1993.Based on a systematic evaluation of the practices and reforms in the state financial and plan-ning systems and the experience of regional development over the past four decades,this paper argues that both "interior balanced development" and "neven coastal strategy" (or "gettiiig rich first")have serious systemic flaws.In line with the new development of western regional development theory and Chinese reality, this paper attempts to explore for a better system or amodel for Chinese regional development,in which central cities and urban agglomeration play vital parts for more efficient and equitable spatial development in China.