CHINA'S ECONOMIC REFORM POLICY.   Term Paper ID:29708 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Improved rural standard of living.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Improved rural standard of living. Attempts to combine centrally planned state sector with a market-driven sector. Concept of "household responsibility system" initiated by Deng Xiaoping. Unequal incomes and barrier imposed by the hukou system. Discriminatory system and lower wages paid to rural migrants in China's urban areas. Paper Introduction: China’s Economic Reform Policy Historically, the lives of China’s citizens has differed sharply depending on whether they were born in a city or born in the countryside. For centuries, industry, including agriculture, was run by state-owned institutions in a government-planned economy. The effective result was a significantly higher standard of living for urban residents, who only totaled approximately 30 percent of the Chinese population. Today, despite economic reforms instituted beginning in the late 1970s, urban incomes in China still exceed rural incomes by almost 300 percent. Nonetheless, these economic reforms have improved the standard of living in China’s countryside, although more needs to be done to erase the significant differential in the standard of living that remains today. Deng Xiaoping’ Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. China's Economic Reform Policy Historically, the lives of China's citizens has differed sharplydepending on whether they were born in a city or born in the countryside.For centuries, industry, including agriculture, was run by state-ownedinstitutions in a government-planned economy. Despite these unequal incomes and the significant underemployment inrural areas, China's hukou system seeks to control urban populations bylimiting the rights of rural migrants in urban areas. The ADB, however, does note that China is nowbeginning to address ways to recover services and infrastructure costs fromurban dwellers, which will hopefully aid and encourage the government toprovide benefits and fair wages to all city dwellers. Approximately 91 millionpeople, or 7 percent of China's population, reside in rural areas. The effective result was asignificantly higher standard of living for urban residents, who onlytotaled approximately 3 percent of the Chinese population. 76). 81), rural migrants are prohibited from holding manyoccupations in the cities (Lague, 2 3, p. Xiaoping instituted the "household responsibility system," whichleased the rights of agricultural land to individual households on acontract that stipulated the household would produce a certain amount ofgrain on the land (Starr, 2 1, p. Hill & Wang: New York. The discriminatory treatment and low wages paid to rural migrants inChina's urban areas must be addressed in a more fair manner, particularlygiven that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicts that more than 3 million more rural workers will migrate to China's urban areas by 2 1 (Lague, 2 3, p. Still, one of the greatest barriers to an equalization of incomes inChina lies with the remnants of the hukou system that has controlled ruralto urban migration in the country for centuries. 24). 24). 84). 81). Nonetheless, the system did give each household theauthority to determine its own division of labor and households had anincentive to produce excess grain that could be sold for higher prices inthe free market (Starr, 2 1, p. Furthermore, the hukousystem bars even those rural migrants with low-paying positions from everobtaining job security or benefits (Starr, 2 1, p. (2 1). After Xiaoping cameto power in China in 1977, he instituted economic reforms in China aimed atimproving citizens' standard of living while still maintaining theCommunist Party's control of the political system (Starr, 2 1, p. The result was an economic reformpolicy of "socialism with Chinese characteristics," which combined a largebut shrinking state-owned sector with growing collective (communally-owned)and private sectors (Starr, 2 1, p. Today, despiteeconomic reforms instituted beginning in the late 197 s, urban incomes inChina still exceed rural incomes by almost 3 percent. 77). 84). 72-73).He attempted to combine a market-driven sector with a centrally plannedstate sector (Starr, 2 1, p. (January 9, 2 3). Deng Xiaoping's economic reform policies were aimed primarily atbettering the standard of living for rural households. 73). Moreover, although ruralincomes have increased 5 percent since the economic reform policies wentinto effect, the income of urban workers is still more than two and a halftimes greater than that of rural workers (Starr, 2 1, p. Starr estimates that up to 1 million of these rural workers couldbe "redeployed," or moved to other work positions, with no reduction in thearea's overall agricultural output (p. Ofthese people, 7 percent of the workforce work in the collective sector,with the remaining 3 percent working on state-owned farms (Starr, 2 1, p.77). Almost 1 millionrural workers have migrated to China's cities since the institution ofXiaoping's reform policies, an almost 3 percent increase in the cities'population (Starr, 2 1, p. 24-28.Starr, J. ReferencesLague, D. 84). Understanding China. Nevertheless, in an attempt to limit thefinancial and infrastructure burden such migration could place on urbanareas, rural migrants are prohibited from being employed in certainpositions. The household would be free to dowhat it wished with any excess grain produced on the land. However, thegovernment controlled the price of the grain it bought under the contract(Starr, 2 1, p. 79). 8 ). 24;Starr, 2 1, p. "The human tide sweeps into cities," Far Eastern Economic Review (166: 1), pp. Nonetheless, theseeconomic reforms have improved the standard of living in China'scountryside, although more needs to be done to erase the significantdifferential in the standard of living that remains today. Thus, although Xiaoping's reforms sanctioned some migration tothe cities, thereby allowing rural workers to gain generally short-term,low-paying menial, though vital, jobs in the cities (Lague, 2 3, p. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.