Urbanization in China

China was a country of farmers, but this situation has been changing steadily over the past 20 years. In 1990, the proportion of farmers to city residents was 830 million to 300 million. But 10 years later, the proportion changed to be 800 million to 450 million. In 2010, the number of farmers was only about 10 million larger than that of city residents. How should we look at this urbanization?

This change has interesting implications. For one thing, as economy develops, the central government has been attaching greater importance to farmers’ interest. The ongoing urbanization brings more people to towns and cities. Such people can gain access to higher quality of life that they have never dreamed of. For another, there is good reason to believe that the high mobility of people makes our society more dynamic, and also creates greater demands for infrastructure in cities like school and hospitals. Meanwhile, we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to the challenges that this urbanization brings about. For example, social security is becoming a compelling problem. So the government should take our social tradition, people’s literacy level and welfare system into account in promoting the process. Only then can urbanization truly benefit more people in our country.