Urban Transformation of China and its Discontents

The urban transformation of China over the past few decades serves as an interesting study which provides manifold opportunities to understand the mechanism of the causes of regional and national economic development. China has been “growing at an average of almost 10%  –  three times the global average  –  since Deng Xiaoping became the national leader and started to introduce economic reforms. In dollar terms, its GDP has jumped from $147.3bn (£94.55bn) in 1978 to $4.9tn in 2009” (Weardan, 2010) The bedrock of this growth came from the dynamic interactions and relations between local and central states; with the former playing the key role as development states (Whaites, 2008) to spearheading the national growth and the latter being the coordinator of local economic strategic development. Throughout the process, none is more potent in intensifying the growth than the urbanisation of cities. This essay shall look at the different factors which transpired in the urbanisation process of China.