Urbanisation throttles China countryside

Though this industrialisation
usually brings benefits to city dwellers, it has caused some concerns about the
rural communities swept up in its wake.

“China alone has 25 percent of the cities with at
least half a million inhabitants,” the UN reported. “The country is undergoing a major
transformation of its urban structure,” that has been on a steady incline since
the 1990s, the report said.

“In 1980, China had only 51 cities of that size,” the
report indicated. “Between 1980 and 1995,
another 51 were added to the group and, between 1995 and 2010, 134 additional
cities in China crossed the half a million threshold.”

The UN expects China to add another 107 cities to that
category by 2025.

Problems for rural populations

One Chinese scholar warns that rapid urbanisation
could harm the welfare of rural populations and create slums in urban areas.

Professor He Xuefeng, a sociologist at Huazhong
University of Science and Technology in the Hubei Province, says that if
China’s urban shift moves too fast cities would not be able to provide adequate
public services for citizens forced to move in from rural areas.

Since 1958, China has maintained a residency system
called ‘hukou,’ which divides citizens into two groups.

“If they lose their land, these families will have no
other choice but to become urban poor”

Urban citizens typically have better health and
medical care, and educational services, but rural populations have access to
more land for housing and farming. It is
very difficult to change a rural hukou to an urban one. Though the hukou system has long been blamed
for creating an ever-widening gap between people in cities and in the country,
Professor He claims there have been some benefits for rural farmers.

“If rural residents do not find a good job and cannot
afford the expensive life in cities, they can still go back home for
farming. There is enough room for them
to turn around,” he explained.

Still, He doubts the success of some plans which call
for encouraging more farmers to transfer their land for industrial projects or
to other farmers and move into cities.
Farmers need money in order to achieve a decent life in the city; hukou
is not the heart of the issue.

China’s economy is driven by cheap manufacturing
labour, and many rural citizens who move into cities can only find work as
unskilled labourers in factories for low wages. 
They aren’t able to afford a decent standard of living in an urban
setting and available public services aren’t adequate to ease the adjustment.

He also warns that if farmers are forced into urban
areas with no recourse to return to their rural hometowns, the results could be
disastrous.

“If they lose their land, these families will have no
other choice but to become urban poor,” He said. “This is as bad as a widening gap between
urban and rural areas.”

He suggests a more gradual shift toward urbanisation,
with more efforts to improve public services both in cities and in the country.