Important issues in China's next stage of development
To be a good observer, I think it’s important to have an insight into the universe of what’s being observed. The following article gives a full account of the major issues PRC is facing under the opening-up reform, started nearly 30 years ago, which is still going on. It helps to read what is in the mind of the Chinese Leaders, what their world is about today.
http://www.chinaelections.org/en/readnews.asp?newsid=%7B5D3DA771-B5FF-
46B4-88AB-B0271DEC0762%7D
Urban and rural inequality as well as environment and energy problems are among the critical issues in the Mainland, as in all developing countries. The situation in PRC might be much more serious in terms of scale and duration due to the size of the country. The architect of the reform, Deng Xiaoping might have estimated that the reform would take a century to mature and had ordered that the Four cardinal principles on the reform be sustained over 100 years
As a result of the reform, the biggest change in the economy is the urbanization, the rural population has shrunk to 56% at the end of 06 against 74% in 1990 and 64% in 01. The sharp rise in income disparity is attributed to the flourishing of the tertiary sector in recent years, particularly the financial industry after entry to WTO in December 2001 (39,5 % in 2006 & estimated at 43,3 % in 2010 against 31,9% in 1993 and 23,7% in 1978, the year where the reform is “decreed”) to the detriment of the primary sector (11,8 % in 2006 against 19,5% in 1993 and 28,1% in 1978). The more the service sector develops, the bigger will be the income gap (the wage ratio of banking & insurance to agriculture was 2.55 in 1999).
However, statistics show that rural poverty continues to decline. The number of rural residents living below the poverty line (the minimum level of income high enough to satisfy basic needs) as set by the Mainland government declined substantially from 250 million in 1978, or 30.7% of the population, to 24 million in 2005, or 2.5% of the population.
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