Britain has five urban centres of more than a million people; China has ninety. A few - Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Nanjing - are well known around the world. The names of many others - Suqian, Suining, Xiantao, Xinghua, Liuan - are unfamiliar even to many Chinese. Nowhere is the staggering urbanisation of the world more evident than in Chongqing. Never heard of it? This is where the pace and scale of urbanisation is probably faster and bigger than anywhere in the world today. This is the Coketown of the early 21st century.The last time I heard about Chongqing, it was spelled "Chungking" and was the provisional capital of the Republic of China during WWII. Which is a good indication of how serious a student I am.
Set in the middle reaches of the Yangtze, this former trading centre and treaty port has long been the economic hub of western China. But after its government was given municipal control of surrounding territory the size of many countries, it has grown and grown, becoming what is now the world's biggest municipality with 31 million residents (more people than Iraq, Peru or Malaysia). The population in its metropolitan areas will double from 10 million to 20 million in the next 13 years.
One of the ongoing issues in China is the turmoil in the countryside as inequality between rural and urban areas grows. What isn't always commented on is that the same thing has happened in many countries, including the US. As agricultural productivity increases (in terms of hours of labour) there's naturally a depopulation of the countryside. This happened in the US with the innovation of industrialized farming, beginning in the 1940s and proceeding into the 1970s. In the case of the US, however, the main victims were blacks who were denied most of the federal aid that helped white farmers make the transition to industrialized farming. (Read Lost Revolutions by Pete Daniel to get a better grasp on this period.)
The same thing is happening in China, albeit on a nearly-incomprehensible scale. 8.5 million people move from the countryside to the cities every year. When they get to the cities, most of them are there illegally and so have to take whatever jobs they can get - though the CPC is reforming some laws to allow migrants greater protections. Still, it's a rough time to be poor in China - which is to say, it's the status quo.
One particular irony of all this is that China recently released it's human rights criticism of the US, including a criticism of American wealth inequality. This is funny, because China is actually a more unequal society (according to the Gini index) than the US. Not that I imagine Beijing sees the humour.
2 comments:
Unequal distribution of wealth is going to be a very tricky issue for China for the next couple of years. They've got little sandboxes of capitalism and urbanization, and plan to slowly spread it outwards from those areas until eventually (hypothetically) everyone's up to speed. The idea is to control the rate of change slowly so the whole thing doesn't collapse on itself like in the USSR.
This of course is the hypothetical plan. The reality is that while this is happening a small group of people are getting immensely wealthy, some people are doing okay, and a lot of people are getting completely left out.
Some people are willing to stay with their old way of life, and resist progress. Their problem will be that progress will eventually kick them off their land to build a new city or other development. Some people don't think progress is happening fast enough, and will flock to the cities for jobs. Usually, they'll be mistreated and overworked there. Either way, the situation gets ugly.
It's really a tough problem for China to solve, and when you think about it, unequal distribution of wealth is something that the global community still has to come to grips with. What do you do when 10% of the people have 90% of the money, and 90% of people have 10% of the money?
Chongqing is an amazing city and the Guardian's article on it is fascinating. I also blogged on it. Best food in China!
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