China Should Strive for Sustainable Urbanization

China's newly released Urban Development Report deals with a number of issues related to the rapid urbanization taking place at present. It predicts that by 2020 half of the total population will live in urban areas, with that figure increasing to 75 per cent by 2050. Experts argue that equal focus should be given to quality of life and quantity of migrants in the urbanization drive, so as to create a sound, healthy and harmonious living environment for all.

The urbanization rate is the ratio of permanent urban dwellers to the country's total population. Over the past 2 or 3 decades, China's urbanization rate has grown by roughly one percentage point annually. To put it another way, each year has seen almost 13 million farmers flood into urban areas and set up permanent home there.

Professor Mao Qizhi, from Tsinghua University, compares China's urbanization level to the world average.

"China's urbanization rate is still below the world average, but we are convinced that with the existing trends China's urbanization should reach the world's average and even surpass it quite soon."

Professor Mao Qizhi further argues that China's urbanization drive should be based on the status quo of China's economic and social development. We should not focus on the increased percentage of urban dwellers while turning a blind eye to the need for matching social services.

"China's urbanization should be pushed alongside the process of boosting industrialization and economic growth in urban and rural areas. If the massive number of migrants swarming into cities has no access to necessary social services such as employment, education and health care, their life will end up being miserable."

Experts believe that the government should put more efforts into building a stronger infrastructure and social safety net while encouraging more migrants to move into the cities. Healthy and sustainable urban development should be the ultimate goal, rather than a mere increase in urbanization figures.