Economy
Since the founding of new China in 1949, the economy of China has seen fairly rapid development. This is specially so as China initiated economic reform and opened to the outside world which results to China's economy advancing healthily and achieving a sustained annual growth of around 9 percent. In 2005, the GDP of China is more than US$2200 billion and the average per-capita GDP is US$ 1703. (David, 2014) At present, China's GDP comes fourth in the world and hence plays a vital role on the global economy stage.
The reform, opening up and modernization of China has basically accomplished the change from planned economy to socialist market economy for the country. |
A socialist market economic structure is established and improved step by step. Adapting to this, China's laws and regulations has been improved constantly, its market is opened wider constantly, its investment environment has been improved constantly, and reform of the financial system has been progressed steadily. All of these improvements have furnished a reliable guarantee to the continuous development of China's economy.
Poverty
From the extreme poor occupying 84% of the population in the 1980s to 12% nowadays, poverty has reduced greatly. The GDP per capita also increased from $205 to $6,064, with a growth of almost 30 times (The Economic Times, 2013). However, approximately 150 million are still living below the poverty line of USD$1.25 per day (The Economic Times, 2012) Most of the poor people are concentrated in rural areas, resulting in a large income inequality between the urban and rural areas. While the urban-rural income gap in other countries is around 1.5, it is between 2.5 and 4 in China. (Jiang, 2003).
Most of the poor rural regions are mountainous regions, with Tibet, Yunnan and Sichuan being China's three poorest provinces. The people there are poor as they still rely heavily on agriculture production. However, these mountainous regions have harsh conditions such as steep slopes and cold temperatures which make growing crops unfavorable.
Thus, there is little crop harvest, leading to little income and this cycle repeats (the vicious cycle of poverty).
Most of the poor rural regions are mountainous regions, with Tibet, Yunnan and Sichuan being China's three poorest provinces. The people there are poor as they still rely heavily on agriculture production. However, these mountainous regions have harsh conditions such as steep slopes and cold temperatures which make growing crops unfavorable.
Thus, there is little crop harvest, leading to little income and this cycle repeats (the vicious cycle of poverty).
http://www.economonitor.com/blog/2011/11/chinese-bubble-bursting-a-probable-non-event/