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China Suburbanization Writ Large

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Time Magazine's Shanghai correspondent, Bill Powell, (also of Time's China Blog) did a great story, entitled, "The Short March," on his family's move to a Shanghai suburb (h/t to The Yuan Also Rises). Good article on the suburbanization of China, but even better article on how growth affects China and on why continued growth is so necessary. My favorite paragraph:

And that's where the simple comparison to the U.S. after 1945 breaks down. Journalist turned businessman Jim McGregor, one of the most astute observers of modern China, says that the country is cramming three different eras of U.S. history into one. In U.S. terms, the postwar prosperity that fueled the flight to the suburbs is happening at the same time as the 19th century Industrial Revolution that lured people from the farm to the cities, and also as Progressive Era efforts to rein in the worst abuses of capitalism take shape. I asked Guo if he agreed. He nodded, but added a caveat: "What's different about China is the sheer scale of things. The simple fact is there are still 800-900 million people living in poor, agricultural provinces. That's about three times the population of the United States."

Read the article.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on March 29, 2008 (boomark / email).