Question

Discuss China’s rapid urbanization since the 1980s. Why has it been so fast? What are some of its key problems or challenges?

Answer 1

China's Rapid Urbanization

Between 1980 and 2012,China's urbanization increased from 19.4 to 52.6%. The speed and scale of China's urban growth has been driven by many important factors such as economic reforms in the late 1970s, within-country migration policies, increasing urban-rural income disparities, surplus agricultural laborers, and conversion of farmland for urban use. The maket system resulted in higher productivity in the cities and led to further urbanization and urban growth. Urban growth results from both rural-urban migration and natural increase from births in the cities exceeding deaths. Urbanization is part of economic development which is rapidly increasing in China.

In rapid urbanizing world, China is expected to play an important role because of its size and the speed at which it is changing. In 1980, China's Urban population was 191 million. By 2007 it was 594 million, excluding migrants.

While urbanizing on an unprecedented scale, China has managed to contain migration from the villages or channel it to small or medium sized cities. Crowding, but few slums. A cornerstone of China's urbanization strategy has been the household registration system to control migration and to try to channel migrants to small or medium-sized cities.

Low urban poverty and unemployment. With the rapid growth of Chinese economy, Urban poverty has been contained . It is estimated at between 4 and 6 percent of the population. Urban unemployment is also low, in the 3 to 4 percent range.

Decentralization, another key element of China's successful urbanization is the devolution of public services and many administrative functions to city governments. In 2005, Chinese citizen's degree of satisfaction with local governments rose to 72 percent, considerably higher than in many other countries, including United States.

But as it is often said, every thing comes with a price, so does urbanization. Urban residents use 3.6 times as much energy as rural residents; suggesting that energy use is far from its peak. Also energy intensity ( consumption of energy per unit of GDP ) is 7 times that of Japan and 3.5 times that of the United States. While the government has identified motor vehicles as an important subsector, the country needs to weigh the pros and cons of further motorization, which leads to urban sprawl, higher energy consumption and pollution.

Urban sprawl also needs to be contained because it will be important to have enough arable land in China for agriculture, given high commodity prices and rising consumption. China suffers from water scarcity, with just over 2100 cubic meters of water available per person - one third of the world average. The situation is more precarious in the northern part of the country, where climate change may worsen arid conditions.Climate change will affect heavily populated low lying areas. There are likely to be major infrastructure requirements to protect these areas from sea level rise and flooding.