Officially, the country is called the People’s Republic of China (Encarta, 2008). The title above is the name in the local language. Located in the eastern sector of the Asian continent, the country holds the distinction of being the largest nation in terms of its population, and also ranks among the largest in size, almost measuring as large as the United States. In 2008, estimates on the population of the Zhongguo, or the name by which the Chinese call their country, amount to 1,330,044,600 Chinese (Encarta, 2008).
With a annual growth rate in 2008 estimated at around 0. 63 percent, the Chinese population would grow to around 1. 4 billion individuals by the year 2025 (Encarta, 2008). The present population translates to roughly 143 persons per square kilometer, or 369 people to a square mile.
Of this number, 41 percent of the population stays in the urban areas, in the largest cities of the country (Encarta, 2008). The city of Shanghai corners the lion’s share of the population in the urban centers, providing refuge to some 13. 6 million of the urban Chinese dwellers (Encarta, 2008).Next is the nation’s capital Beijing, with 11.
8 million residents. Tianjin, with 9. 3 million, Wuhan, 7. 8 million and Chongqing, with an estimated 6.
3 million make up the Chinese in the urban centers of the country (Encarta, 2008). The rest of the 59 percent live in the rural regions of China (Encarta, 2008). Stretching for 9. 3 million square kilometers, inclusive of inland waterways, the country extends in an arc that extends approximately 5,000 kilometers, or 3,000 miles (Encarta, 2008).On the eastern side, China is bordered by the East China Sea and North Korea (Encarta, 2008).
The countries of Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia ride the northern border of the “Middle Kingdom” (Encarta, 2008). On the west, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan border China; India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Bhutan, along with Laos Vietnam and the South China Sea are on the south of the country (Encarta, 2008). Northeast China is where the most fertile agricultural lands of the country are found (Encarta, 2008).This is also where a major portion of the timber that the country produces.
In the central plain of the region, the dark-colored soil of the region is where the most significant agricultural activities are conducted. Here is also found major mineral deposits are mined, particularly iron, petroleum and coal deposits (Encarta, 2008). The Liaodong Peninsula, a tract of land that reaches southward, possesses some of the country’s best harbors, with Dalian, at the topmost part of the peninsula, being the region’s primary seaport (Encarta, 2008).In the recent contexts of human development, it views the development of the people as more than just gaining or generating wealth or increasing income (China Institute for Reform and Development, 2008). In the 1990’s, this interpretation of the human development index gained widespread acceptance (China Institute, 2008). Nobel Prize award winner Dr.
Amartya Sen developed the Human Development Index as the single determinant that the three basic factors in human development; knowledge, income and health can be compared and gauged in a particular country over a given time frame (China Institute, 2008).This gauge has given rise to an increased awareness about human development: those societies with increased levels of incomes on a per capita basis may possess poor records in regards to their education and health records, while poorer states may have good records for the same sectors (China Institute, 2008). While the population of the country is still on the upswing, the growth rate has been declining due to the downturn of the birth rates and low fertility statistics (Encarta, 2008).The number of children that is projected that a woman will bear in her lifetime, or the fertility rate of the country, plummeted from a high 6. 2 in the middle of the 1900’s to only 1. 8 children in 2008 (Encarta, 2008).
Also, the birth rate of the women dropped from 45 births for every 1,000 to just 14 in 2008 (Encarta, 2008). The drop in birth rates has been mainly due to the “One-Child” policy that the government has instituted in a four decade span beginning in the 195s’s (Encarta, 2008). In spite of this situation, China continues to expand by millions each year (Encarta, 2008).The advances made by China in terms of the human development index has been recognized even in the international stage, with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) stating in its Human Development Report in 2005, that the Human Development Index Ranking of the People’s Republic of China (PROC) has jumped 20 percent from 1990 (United Nations Development Program, 2005). It also recognizes that the Chinese possess one of the most rapidly growing economies in the last twenty years, with the per capita income of the people increasing three-fold (UNDP, 2005).
The Chinese Economic Juggernaut The rise of the slumbering Chinese dragon economy began in 1978, after decades of controlling policies engendered by the state of all the production assets of the country (Zuliu Hu & Mohsin Khan, 1997). During this time, the Chinese government relaxed many of the restrictions in a massive economic reform thrust to stimulate the slumbering giant’s economic machinery (Hu & Khan, 1997). In this regard, China pursued the initiative of creating rural businesses, private business concerns (Hu & Khan, 1997).It also undertook the relaxation of trade and foreign investment policies, loosening control over pricing and put large amounts of financial resources into industrial and education thrusts (Hu & Khan, 1997).
This resulted in growth rates averaging around 9 percent as compared to 6 percent previous to the reform drive on the economy (Hu & Khan, 1997). In the peak of the economic highs, the economy grew by 13 percent, and many of the country’s analysts predicted that the Chinese economy would outstrip the United States in a period of two decades (Hu & Khan, 1997).This growth rate would fare well with the other “tiger” economies of the region at the time- South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan (Hu & Khan, 1997). In the research conducted to determine the reasons behind the rise of the Chinese economy, it was discovered that the rural factor played a somewhat important role in the rise (Hu & Khan, 1997).
Before the reform era, it was found that four out of every five Chinese workers were employed in the area of agriculture (Hu & Khan, 1997). But in the years preceding the reform initiative, only two were working in the agriculture sector (Hu & Khan, 1997).Small businesses not aligned with agriculture blossomed in the rural regions due to the expansion of property rights in the areas (Hu & Khan, 1997). Also, the increase in the returns for agricultural based output led to a greater number of family run farms (Hu & Khan, 1997). All of these factors led to the exodus of workers from the agricultural sector (Hu & Khan, 1997).
The attendant growth of the community-based enterprises has attracted millions of people into the fold of higher return manufacturing area instead of staying in the agricultural sector (Hu & Khan, 1997).In relation to this was the seeming freedom that the state gave to the business heads of the enterprises. The reforms allowed the managers to set their own production targets and quotas, and even allowed them to trade in the free market for their wares and products (Hu & Khan, 1997). Recently, the Chinese authorities unveiled in 2008 a large fiscal initiative in the amount of 4 trillion Yuan, or roughly $ 586 billion (Beijing Review, 2008).
This was meant to further strengthen the domestic economy to increase local demand and to buttress the economy from the effects of the global economic slowdown to stimulate the economy (Beijing, 2008).Under the aegis of the policy, the government has centralized the bulk of the amount in 10 areas until 2010 to maintain the growth of the Chinese economy (Beijing, 2008). Inclusive of these areas targeted for spending are infrastructure, increases in the pay of urban dwellers and those in the rural areas, social welfare programs, earthquake reconstruction efforts and economic improvements in relation to the environment (Beijing, 2008). Translating wealth into positive outcomes: are there any?But with all of the positive reports that the Chinese government have borne out in their statistics, one glaring fact has been the wealth to be generated in this drive at economic stability seems to be lost on the less affluent sector of the society (UNDP, 2005). For instance, the generation of increased wealth for the increased steps to halt the increasing rates of child deaths in the country (UNDP, 2005).
In the report of the UNDP, the state has failed to use the wealth to mitigate child deaths in the country due to the lack of health insurance to about 70 to 80 percent of the households located in the rural areas (UNDP, 2005).In the earlier definition of human development, social progress must be parallel to the income generated in that society (China Institute, 2008). These deaths resulted as a direct result of the dismembering of the socialized health care system once established in the country (UNDP, 2005). It was seen that there was a significant hole in the delivery and access of the basic health services to urban and rural residents in the various regions of the country (China Development Research Foundation Report, 2005).
In the rural areas, the rate of child deaths is twice the rate in the urban centers (China Development, 2005). In the urban centers of China, the rate of child mortality is 33. 1 children for every 100,000 born, while the rural centers registered 61. 9 for every 100,000 infants (China Development, 2005).
In the urban centers, 8 out of 10 urban residents can access medical facilities in around 10 minutes, while the rural dwellers average only 67 percent of those who have access to medical aid in that same time (China Development, 2005).Another glaring statistic is the number of medical personnel that are available (China Development, 2005). The western region of the country is currently with the worst record as to the number of medical practitioners (China Development, 2005). And as with the disparity in the resources that have been allocated to the delivery of basic health services, the bulk of those resources have been focused on the urban centers of the country (China Development, 2005).
In 2002, it was estimated that 67. 7 percent of the funds for hospitals emanating from government coffers were dedicated to medical facilities in urban centers (China Development, 2005). Many of the hospitals in the rural areas are on the brink of breakdown as a result of the disparity in funding (China Development, 2005). In the report of the UNDP, they also suggest to China to observe the reform strategies of their neighboring states (UNDP, 2005).They cite the cases of the smaller countries that border the Asian giant, specifically Vietnam and Bangladesh, which have cut their infant mortality rates at a grater rate than that of China and India (UNDP, 2005). In the report released by the United Nations body, they point out the inequality that is prevalent in the various areas of the country (UNDP, 2005).
Answering the Challenge In the aftermath of the 30 years that the Chinese have promoted the reform of their economy and by allowing foreign investment into the country, the country has made significant strides in the problem of meeting the basic needs of its 1. 3 billion populations (China Institute, 2008).The various initiatives of the government have allowed for the metamorphosis of the country from that of a low-income country to that in the middle bracket in terms of income of its people (China Institute, 2008). But the move has also produced additional issues to be addressed by officials in Beijing (China Institute, 2008). The delivery of that basic service-health- remains to be concern that is sure to remain for some time to come (China Institute, 2008).
The report released by the UNDP also points out the inequality earlier discussed in terms of microeconomic scales. They point out that if the province of Guizhou was a country, the equality index of Guizhou would just be notch higher than the African nation of Namibia (UNDP, 2005). In the thrust of the Chinese government for equality in the delivery of the basic services, namely health care, along with education and social security and employment, must be pursued if the country were to improve its thrusts in that area (China Institute, 2008).
