Urbanization and Industrial Development in China
Over the period 1978–2016, more than 550 million migrants moved to China’s cities, resulting in a large rise of urbanization from 18 to 57%. While urbanization is influenced by many factors, this study focuses on industrialization, a key structural determ
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Urbanization and Industrial Development in China Kevin H. Zhang
Abstract Over the period 1978–2016, more than 550 million migrants moved to China’s cities, resulting in a large rise of urbanization from 18 to 57%. While urbanization is influenced by many factors, this study focuses on industrialization, a key structural determinant of urban development. How does industrial development affect China’s urbanization? Does China’s industrialization lead to its urbanization? Is China under- or over-urbanized? How does China manage urban development so that the virtuous circle between urbanization and industrialization could realize? This chapter offers explanations to the questions as follows: China’s rapid industrialization is the key driver of its urbanization; China’s urban development is at the right speed, avoiding many problems of over-urbanization in developing countries; and China successfully guided urbanization to promote economic growth through agglomeration and consumption effects. Keywords Urbanization development
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Urban development
Industrialization
Industrial
Introduction
China’s rapid urbanization and high economic growth for 38 years (1978–2016) have been unprecedented in human history. In 1978, less than one-fifth (17.9%) of China’s 975 million people lived in cities. But over the past 38 years, more than half a billion (558 million) people moved from rural areas to urban areas, seeking work in manufacturing and services as China industrialized its economy through developing special economic zones and export-oriented industries. This urban transformation, 57% of Chinese people in cities in 2016, has been mostly successful. Real per capita income increased by about 20 times in 1978–2016, lifting half a billion people out of poverty (World Bank 2017). K.H. Zhang (&) Illinois State University, Normal, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 Z. Tang (ed.), China’s Urbanization and Socioeconomic Impact, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4831-9_2
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K.H. Zhang
Urbanization in China seems to be directly associated with industrial development. Industry, especially manufactures, has been viewed as an engine of economic growth for all economies. Unlike dependence on services in growth in India and on natural resources in Brazil and Russia, China’s economic miracle is largely a manufacturing success. China’s rapid industrialization since 1978 has increased incomes, raised living standards, and made China the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter.1 As workers shifted to urban employment with higher productivity and with labor productivity rising across sectors through large investments, real output per worker increased by a factor of 12 (WB and DRCC 2014). With an annual average growth rate of over 9% for three decades, China became the world’s second largest economy in 2010, and more than half of Chinese was urbanized as rural people moved to cities. While there are many studies on China’s urban development, several issues of the urbanization-industrialization lin
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