In tune with the spirit of 16th Party Congress and paying great attention to establishing culture, party committees and governments at all levels all intensified cultural input in 2002. Income from financial subsidies (namely financial grants) reached a total 8.365 billion yuan, 1.226 billion yuan more than last year (up 17.8 percent on a yearly basis).

The average national cultural expense (based on the average income from financial subsidies) is 6.5 yuan. With the reduction in income from central financial subsidies, the figure stands at 6.17 yuan. Only 15 provinces, regions and municipalities exceed the average level, with Shanghai in the first place with per capita average of 39.54 yuan, followed by Beijing with 30.94 yuan. Henan Province has the lowest average level with an average cultural expense of 2.72 yuan.

Twenty-seven provinces, regions and municipalities have reported an income of more than 100 million yuan from financial subsidies, leaving Hainan Province, Tibetan Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region with a lower income. Income from financial subsidies increased more or less throughout the country, with Guangdong Province reporting the highest increase (158 million yuan) followed by Zhejiang Province (93.17 million yuan) and Jiangxi Province (91.14 million yuan). The extent of increases in 14 provinces, regions and municipalities reached or exceeded the national average level (17.85 percent), with Tibet ranking first at 88.8 percent, followed by Jiangxi Province at 66.5 percent and Hainan Province at 38.7 percent. The above statistics suggest that cultural input in western regions has increased in 2002; on the other hand, due to financial difficulties, relatively small base of cultural expense and small population, intensified cultural investment cannot absolutely remove the shortages in cultural expenses. Therefore, the onus is still on the government to further intensify cultural input and build an advanced Chinese culture.