"trickle in" to remote areas, as land, labor and transport costs rose in more developed regions. The problem is that such a process is likely to take decades. Meanwhile, poorer are still subsidizing richer coastal areas with cheap raw materials. Officials tacitly acknowledge this phenomenon, but they defend it as imperative for progress. "Development must be stable and orderly," said Zhao Jiaxing, vice director of Guizhou Economic Commission. "Actually, China can't develop evenly. But after the coastal areas get rich, their people will come here." By some accounts, the nation has four or five million millionaires as calculated in local currency. (A million yuan is equivalent to about $175,000 at the official rate of exchange.) Some Chinese believe that such estimates, reported in the Chinese press, are exaggerations, but they have aroused some resentment. "A certain level of gap encourages people to work," said Zhu Qingfang, who researches income differences at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "But if the gap is too big, it makes people feel uneasy." In any case, the disparities are creating strains. Conspicuous consumption is growing in the cities, leading official newspapers to denounce "money worship." Huge migrations are creating headaches, as millions of peasants flock to cities in search of work. In the past, China restricted labor movements, but it has relaxed those rules, partly to allow urban economies along the coast to soak up surplus labor in the countryside. One result is a talent drain from the poorer inland regions in China's northwest. The "floating population" has also made it tricky for the Government to control the birth rate. The Government's overriding fear is that the new inequities will provoke unrest. But some Chinese argue that even the poor are better off and therefore will not challenge the system.
"trickle in" to remote areas, as land, labor and transport costs rose in more developed regions. The problem is that such a process is likely to take decades. Meanwhile, poorer are still subsidizing richer coastal areas with cheap raw materials. Officials tacitly acknowledge this phenomenon, but they defend it as imperative for progress. "Development must be stable and orderly," said Zhao Jiaxing, vice director of Guizhou Economic Commission. "Actually, China can't develop evenly. But after the coastal areas get rich, their people will come here." By some accounts, the nation has four or five million millionaires as calculated in local currency. (A million yuan is equivalent to about $175,000 at the official rate of exchange.) Some Chinese believe that such estimates, reported in the Chinese press, are exaggerations, but they have aroused some resentment. "A certain level of gap encourages people to work," said Zhu Qingfang, who researches income differences at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "But if the gap is too big, it makes people feel uneasy." In any case, the disparities are creating strains. Conspicuous consumption is growing in the cities, leading official newspapers to denounce "money worship." Huge migrations are creating headaches, as millions of peasants flock to cities in search of work. In the past, China restricted labor movements, but it has relaxed those rules, partly to allow urban economies along the coast to soak up surplus labor in the countryside. One result is a talent drain from the poorer inland regions in China's northwest. The "floating population" has also made it tricky for the Government to control the birth rate. The Government's overriding fear is that the new inequities will provoke unrest. But some Chinese argue that even the poor are better off and therefore will not challenge the system.
china_economy_in_1993-1999_2003_2004_2008_2012.docx