Concern in China with problems of rural-urban population distribution, rates of urban growth, and relations between employment opportunities and rural and urban development have resulted in a firmly articulated policy regarding population movement. Permanent movement from rural to urban places and from smaller to larger urban places is strictly controlled. Yet the pressures of a large surplus labor force and the introduction of the new economic responsibility system have led to a substantial increase in population mobility, most of it temporary. Such circulation has become a major mechanism to allow rural areas to cope with their surplus labor and to raise rural standards of living. It has also allowed urban places to gain the skilled service workers and unskilled construction workers that are in short supply without putting undue pressure on urban facilities.
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References
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1. Murray Chapman and R. Mansell Prothero, “Themes on Circulation in the Third World,” East-West Population Institute, Working Paper no. 26 (Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, 1982).
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2. Ibid.
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3. In 1981, 75 of 126 less-developed countries considered their distribution of population to be inappropriate and to require substantial modification, and 45 other countries considered it to be only partially appropriate; only 6 less-developed countries regarded their population distribution as acceptable. United Nations, Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, World Population Trends and Policies: 1981 Monitoring Report, vol. 2, Population Policies, United Nations, Population Studies no. 79 (New York: United Nations, 1982), tab. 49.
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4. United Nations, Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, World Population Trends and Policies: 1979 Monitoring Report, vol. 2, Population Policies, United Nations, Population Studies no. 70 (New York: United Nations, 1980).
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5. According to the State Council, a city is defined as a place that contains a population of at least 100,000 or, if it has a smaller population, as the location of the provincial leadership organs. Other places are defined as urban (1) if they contain 3000 or more people, of whom at least 70 percent are engaged in nonagricultural activities; or (2) if they have populations of 2500-3000 and at least 85 percent are nonagricultural. Li Chengrui, “On the Results of the Chinese Census,”Population and Development Review, 9:331 (June 1983).
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6. Deborah Davis-Friedmann, Long Lives: Chinese Elderly and the Communist Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), pp. 18-19.
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7. Lu Baifu, “The Way for Agriculture,”Beijing Review, 24 Jan. 1983, pp. 14-17, 21.
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8. “New Achievements in Rural Economy,”Beijing Review, 5 Sept. 1983, pp. 6-7.
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9. Wang Dacheng, “Take the Road to Common Prosperity,”Beijing Review, 26 Sept. 1983, p. 4.
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10. “Peasants Closing the Gap,”China Daily, 9 May 1983.
12. An important element in the success of China's one-child family policy is an elaborate system of incentives and disincentives. Although the specifics of implementation may vary from one province and local area to another, one-child families are clearly given preferred treatment with respect to education, child-care services, medical care, job placement, housing space in urban places and land allocation in rural areas, and family allowances. The policy also calls for reliance upon necessary and feasible restrictive measures, which may take the form of negative applications of these incentives.
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13. Jing Wei, “Responsibility System Revives Jiangsu Countryside”Beijing Review, 28 Nov. 1983, pp. 17-22.
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14. Funding for such development is seen as coming primarily from the commune or brigade savings that are being generated by the responsibility system. Local government may also provide some capital. Further aid would come from urban-based factories and unions that might contract with communes to make various components for their products and would thereby provide raw materials, equipment, and possibly even land. The state ministries, such as the railroad, may also assist by providing land. Once a town is sufficiently developed, the state then expects to step in and provide some of the needed infrastructure.
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15. Jing Wei, “Industry Thriving in Jiangsu Countryside,”Beijing Review, 12 Dec. 1983, pp. 20-23.
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16. “New Firms to Help Rural Collective Enterprises,”China Daily, 23 May 1983.
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17. “Farm Production a Matter of Balance,”China Daily, 23 May 1983.
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18. “New Jobs from Shrinking Farmland,”China Daily, 2 Mar. 1983.
19.
19. “Peasant Builders to Take on Bigger Role,”China Daily, 10 Mar. 1983.
