Week 9: Urbanization

Urbanization in China is a fascinating topic with respect to environmental protection for reasons. On one hand, urbanization is considered by Chinese government as part of the solution for environmental degradation because of the low ecological footprint of urban citizen, which is argued by some scholars. The recent Shanghai Expo expresses the message of building green cities. On the other hand, as we have seen in this lecture, urbanization is accountable for some of the environmental problems in China. The fact that urbanization is a double-edge sword makes it a particularly interesting issue to discuss in this class.

Although China has the largest urban population in the world, its urbanization level is actually lower than the world average. However, it is urbanization level is growing at a rapid pace, from lower than 20% in 1978 to more than 40% today, and it is expected to continue at this rate for the next few decades. However, internal migration is China is limited because of the hukou system that binds individual to his/her birth place. This has several important implications on the characteristics of China's urbanization, and it leads to some social problems in China such as the discrimination against migrant worker in cities.

Urbanization is most dramatic in the region that is also the agricultural base in China. As a consequence, growing cities are eating up farm land around them, exerting a big pressure on agricultural land in China, which is already a scarce resource as we have discussed in previous lectures. Chen's paper offers a good look on this issue. The paper also elaborate on the abuse of land in the process of urbanization, which is evident in the comparison between development area and old town. The characters of those development areas seem to suggest that China is implementing the US model in building new cities, which can be an interesting hypothesis for future studies.

In my lecture I tie up our reading with some background information on land management in China because of its high relevance for our discussion. The discussion on land property in China is of great importance, especially in a comparison between China and the US. The Land Administration Law is the most important central policy on land management, and it reveals how cities in China actually acquire land from its rural surroundings. An overview on the LAL also reflects upon some of the themes we have observed again and again in the course, such as the conflict in interests between the central government and local governments, the lack of an independent legal system, and the widespread existence of government failure.

Slides: http://groups.google.com/group/chinaenvirogisp/web/Urbanization and Land Management in China.ppt