Introduction
The National New-Style Urbanization Plan is focused on coordinating the development of the urban system taking into account the changes in the economic and social spheres. The rapid economic development of the country is closely linked to and is the result of China’s active urbanization. Over the past decade, the urban population has increased dramatically. The transition from a rural to city life influenced the socio-economic level of the country, which is reflected in the fact that urbanization gave rise to an acceleration of the export-oriented industrialization (Zhang, LeGates, and Zhao 372). It contributed to the fact that the country has managed to raise the living standards significantly, improve the transport infrastructure as well as boost its human capital. However, the rapid growth of cities has led to a host of related problematic trends. The two most pressing of these are the conflict between the needs of agricultural and other land uses (residential, industrial, commercial), as well as the position of rural migrant workers in cities (the lack of access to the local social security system). In order to evaluate whether the proposed program will be as effective as planned, it is essential to assess it from different angles.
The Urbanization Plan
The problems related to the rapid growth of the city population have accumulated at a certain point and started to prevent the further improvement of the quality of life of the population (Johnson 32). The need for the new comprehensive strategy on issues related to urban development has emerged from the necessity to change the vector of economic development (gradual transition from the commodity-export model), to balance the level of development of different regions, and to level the imbalance between rural and urban populations. The essence of the plan is the reformation of urbanization at several levels simultaneously (Zhang, LeGates, and Zhao 372). The main changes are related to the conversion of the land policy. It was proposed to strengthen the farmers’ rights to property and to limit the influence of local authorities.
It should help to make cities more functional and less extended, and most importantly, to start using energy more efficiently. Moreover, this approach will allow introducing agricultural technologies that are more advanced. However, over the past decade, the land reforms were supposed to support the rural population; nevertheless, their rights remained vague (Zhang, LeGates, and Zhao 373). In addition, it was considered that the reformation would help to distribute wealth across the country. It was presumed that the prices of rural land would increase after the property rights of the rural population have grown. Regarding the reform of hukou registration system, it is believed to help solve the problem when the population was grounded to a specific territory (Johnson 33). Many villagers were not able to move to bigger cities due to the fact that they had limited access to public services. Accordingly, people were deprived of a real opportunity to work in big cities. If the problem is resolved, an increase in labor productivity is expected due to urbanization that will be more functional.
Issues
The implementation of the plan requires the stabilization of the country’s budget system. The reinforced property rights imply that city authorities would be limited in power execution (no income from selling the land). However, these state funds will be needed to provide public services to the population (Eggleston, Oi, and Wang 165). Given the fact that the public services would be in increased demand, the state will have difficulty in controlling the budget effectively. The situation would force the government to seek alternative sources of income. The introduction of such taxes as environmental fees, car taxation, or others will enable us to balance the budget. One of the aspects of the plan is that the city’s registration will be available for less than half the population (Dunford and Weidong 159). However, the acceleration of the socialization of migrants should contribute to the growth of their income due to the weakening of discrimination by employers, and an increase in the share of income that goes to consumption. For instance, when accommodating in the city, the former rural citizens will tend to spend more money for the resettlement of the housing, durable goods and services, and so on; thus, contributing to the budget (Levy 208). According to researchers, it will be necessary to promote the construction of infrastructure in areas such as communications, irrigation systems, energy, and utilities, which will mean attracting investments and expanding employment opportunities.
The increased rate of urbanization of the country would give an impetus to foreign capital to participate in projects for the development of social infrastructure. In particular, the investment would be required in such areas as health care and education (Eggleston, Oi and Wang 167). A significant increase in the urban population will create a new basis for consumer demand and cause the need to expand existing energy facilities, transportation systems, infrastructure, water supplies and recycling. This implies that the government will have to modernize the utility systems to eliminate the deficiencies in the capacities in the future.
Conclusion
The proposed plan of the state entails several aspects including the intensification of economic processes (taking into account the specificity of agriculture and regional development) and active participation of the state in the procurement of the main types of agricultural products. In addition, the plan implies the infrastructure development of rural settlements and their gradual transition to a new innovative type of the economy management (Fang and Yu 183). The improvement of production processes in agriculture while increasing migration of the qualified personnel, which will generate sustainable growth, is among the targeted goals of the urbanization of the new type. The government has planned an active introduction of innovations and technology together with attracting the valuable human resources to the development of agriculture and the comprehensive development of community services.
Despite the large scale of the plan, the evidence suggests a number of future challenges. Interestingly enough, despite the projected complexity of financing, the state seeks for higher urbanization. Instead of setting such goals and building cities for the future migrants, the authorities should start investing in the urban infrastructure increasing the attractiveness of cities. An effective measure would be, for instance, to program the delivery of clean water to the population of China, which it is currently lacking. In addition, the government should reform the outdated licensing system that infringes the rights of the villagers. None of these reforms will add to the attractiveness of the city life. Nevertheless, they will encourage villagers to rush to the bigger cities.
Works Cited
Dunford, Michael, and Liu Weidong. The Geographical Transformation of China, Abingdon: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Eggleston, Karen, Jean Oi, and Yiming Wang. Challenges in the Process of China’s Urbanization, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2016. Print.
Fang, Chuanglin, and Danlin Yu. China’s New Urbanization, New York: Springer, 2016. Print.
Johnson, Donald. “China Rethinks Urbanization.” Planning (2014): 30-35. Print.
Levy, John. Contemporary Urban Planning, Abingdon: Routledge, 2016. Print.
Zhang, Li, Richard LeGates, and Min Zhao. Understanding China’s Urbanization, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016. Print.