China Case Study
Case Study: The impact of globalisation on China
The Switched on Urban and the switched off rural
As the world becomes increasingly globalised, China's economy has become increasing interconnected with every region across the world. However, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and it is happening across rural-urban boundaries. This means that although the cities are developing and becoming more modernised, people living in rural areas are not being affected by this change, as a result, do not benefit from China's growing economy. It is estimated that the average income in the cities is $1000/year, average income in rural areas is $300/year.
Reasons for the divide-
This gap between the urban and the rural, has led to a massive immigration from rural areas to cities. It is not uncommon for men to leave their households to find work in the cities, while their wives tend to the crops and take care of the children. This puts and extreme amount of pressure on families who are divided by economic forces due to poverty. The International Migration Organization (IOM) has estimated that over 100 million internal migrants have moved to the cities temporarily to support their families.
Due to the geography of China, the western part of the country is much more rural and use agriculture as a source of income, and the eastern part is much more technology and business driven. The urban-rural divide separates these China physically, into two regions.
Not only are income levels much lower in the rural areas, but these areas often have substandard technology. Agricultural science and technology have advanced to fairly high levels in China, with some projects ranking among the best in the world and others at the cutting edge of global technology. The main reasons for the slow development is due to insufficient funds and the poor quality of the workforce. The high illiteracy among China's rural population- approximately 35% (30 percentage points higher than the USA
The Switched on Urban and the switched off rural
As the world becomes increasingly globalised, China's economy has become increasing interconnected with every region across the world. However, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and it is happening across rural-urban boundaries. This means that although the cities are developing and becoming more modernised, people living in rural areas are not being affected by this change, as a result, do not benefit from China's growing economy. It is estimated that the average income in the cities is $1000/year, average income in rural areas is $300/year.
Reasons for the divide-
This gap between the urban and the rural, has led to a massive immigration from rural areas to cities. It is not uncommon for men to leave their households to find work in the cities, while their wives tend to the crops and take care of the children. This puts and extreme amount of pressure on families who are divided by economic forces due to poverty. The International Migration Organization (IOM) has estimated that over 100 million internal migrants have moved to the cities temporarily to support their families.
Due to the geography of China, the western part of the country is much more rural and use agriculture as a source of income, and the eastern part is much more technology and business driven. The urban-rural divide separates these China physically, into two regions.
Not only are income levels much lower in the rural areas, but these areas often have substandard technology. Agricultural science and technology have advanced to fairly high levels in China, with some projects ranking among the best in the world and others at the cutting edge of global technology. The main reasons for the slow development is due to insufficient funds and the poor quality of the workforce. The high illiteracy among China's rural population- approximately 35% (30 percentage points higher than the USA