New urbanization amid further reform

Where does a city come from? Where do people go? Actively and steadily promoting the new round of urbanization has generated heated debate in Chinese society. In his 2014 government work report, Premier Li Keqiang said China will grant urban residency to around 100 million rural people who have moved to cities, rebuild rundown city areas and villages inside cities that are home to 100 million people, and guide the urbanization of around 100 million rural residents of central and western regions. Compared to the last round of urbanization, the new round of urbanization carries greater expectations amid further reform.

Industrial agglomeration supporting nearby employment
Currently, a gap exists in the urbanization development of China’s eastern and western regions. The urbanization rate in the eastern region has surpassed 60 percent and is now entering a slowdown. But in central and western regions, the urbanization rate is still yet to hit 50 percent. Urbanization in these regions will maintain a relatively rapid pace for some time to come, and could even speed up in the short term. Many experts claim that the most pressing issue in the urbanization of central and western regions is developing industries, rather than reforming hukou (household registration) and social security issues. Urbanization development therefore cannot neglect industrial development.

During the new round of urbanization, the city of Xiantao in Hubei Province has emerged as a good example for nearby urbanization. Xiantao, the cradle of Jingchu culture with a history dating back 1,500 years, has been continuously strengthening its industrial support and building industrial platforms to attract a large number of large-scale enterprises. All of these efforts provide a solid foundation for urbanization development in this area.

Nowadays, Xiantao has preliminarily formulated its industrial pattern supported by some pillar industries of machinery, electronics, food processing, textiles and clothing, and medicine. Economic development and industrial agglomeration have created a benign employment environment for the city. Some migrant workers who used to work in coastal cities have successively returned to their hometowns looking for work or starting their own businesses. Meanwhile, new rounds of rural construction and urban-rural integration construction in Xiantao have come into full swing. Until now, 40 new rural communities have been set up and more than 50,000 people have obtained employment. Rural modernization and urbanization is thriving in the city.

In the context of new urbanization, guiding urbanization of around 100 million rural residents in central and western regions aims to help less-developed regions catch up with developed ones to achieve balanced urbanization development nationwide. The pace of urbanization in different areas has been unbalanced. However, the government still cannot fast track development of urbanization too rapidly.

Experts indicate that urbanization must be realized on the basis of construction of urban and industrial agglomerations. It is a reflection of overall development of an area that not every city, county or even village or town should pursue urbanization. The national urbanization rate cannot be regarded as the evaluation criteria everywhere. Breakneck urbanization is not necessary nationwide. It must instead be a long-term, complicated transition to deal with the relationship between the quality of urbanization and its speed between land and population, as well as industry and city.

‘Citizenization’ of rural floating populations
Unlike past rounds of urbanization, new urbanization in China is people-oriented and entails the “citizenization” of rural floating populations. This is a core index for measuring the sound development of urbanization.

In more than 35 years of reform and opening-up, large swathes of migrant workers living in cities have become an obvious demographic phenomenon in China. Numerous young workers migrate from rural to urban areas, particularly from central and western regions to developed coastal regions. All of these workers have made great contributions to China’s economic growth, while changing the overall pattern of Chinese society.

Amid the new round of urbanization, some neighboring villages and towns will be incorporated into nearby cities. Communities in outer suburbs will also be influenced by these cities and develop industrial satellite towns. Some places nearby cities can promote urbanization based on their advantageous position.

But it is difficult for villages and towns far from cities to advance urbanization, meaning a considerable proportion of the rural floating population will still flow into cities. It has become a major focus of society for these rural floating populations to be integrated into cities through institutional reform, thus creating demographic dividends and providing impetus for China’s economic transformation and sustainable growth.

Huang Shouhong, deputy director of the State Council Research Office, claimed that based on current projections, the country’s migrant population will roughly reach 240 million to 250 million by 2020. About 100 million people will be expected to live in cities permanently until this time for reasons excluding personal choice or economic prospects.

Restricted by the hukou system, a significant proportion of migrant workers and their families lack residential status in cities. This results in some still nominally being “peasants.” Even though rural floating populations migrate to cities to work or live, they struggle to effectively integrate. Limited access to welfare intensifies social alienation, thus giving rise to a dual structure within cities. Orderly promoting “citizenization” of migrant workers and speeding up reform of the hukou system loom as the most challenging issues for Chinese policymakers.

Some experts believe that the process of “citizenizing” rural floating populations includes formalizing their occupations, transforming their social identity from “peasant” to “citizen,” as well as changing their lifestyle and behavior.

To truly put the people-oriented concept into practice amid development of the new round of urbanization, it is necessary to promote the urban-rural comprehensive reform, said Wang Chunguang, research fellow at the Institute of Sociology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

For example, reform of urban-rural basic social security and public service will help people attain fair rights and interests as well as opportunities between urban and rural areas. Accessing fair migration opportunities is especially vital to tackle problems with urbanization in some megacities, he added.

Translated by Chen Meina
Revised by Tom Fearon