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It means that there are a ton of farmers in rural China that are barely scraping by. It also means that there are a ton of factory workers in the cities that ar

It means that there are a ton of farmers in rural China that are barely scraping by. It also means that there are a ton of factory workers in the cities that are making very tiny wages. The point of this article is that while the GDP may be comparable to the US (to be fair, the GDP of China is actually less than half of the US [1]), the situation in China is not really a first-world (to use an outdated Cold War term) type of situation. There's a lot of poverty in China, and if the GDP per capita were on par with the US, we'd be looking at a $45-50T economy. The current China GDP is hovering below $7T at the moment, so they've got quite a ways to go. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomin...

w1ntermute 15y ago
> It means that there are a ton of farmers in rural China that are barely scraping by. Exactly. One has to keep in mind that in China, citizens are not free to move about within the country as they please. The Hukou household registration system[0] prevents, for example, rural migrants from legally taking up residence in a more prosperous area, such as Beijing or Shanghai, without the government's permission (which is quite difficult to get for a poor person). This has effectively created 2 Chinas - an urban one and a rural one. And just like we have here with Mexico and America, there are illegal immigrants from rural areas who live in secret in the urban areas, often working under inhumane conditions that they can't escape from without going to jail. The children of those who are officially rural residents are not permitted to enroll in urban schools, and thus forced to be separated from their parents and return to the parents' hometown to receive a formal education. 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system#Effect_on_rural_workers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system#Effect_on_rural_wo...
- cellis 15y ago
  That is quite amazing to learn. How are the farmers not granted "citizenship" as it were, in their own country once they move to another part of it and presumably contribute to the local economy?
  - endersshadow 15y ago
    I think the thing to note here is that China is most definitely not like America. I think the common practice in the west is to think of China as an Asian version of a first world country, with a government that just censors things. That's not the case--China has an oppressive government. While they've been opening up commerce in the last few decades, that doesn't mean that they've adopted the western sense of freedom. There are a whole host of reasons why this is the case, but it's very important to note that while China is very visible in the world arena, it is still a developing nation.
  - w1ntermute 15y ago
    The same thing was happening just 80 years ago in our own country: > California was emphatically not the promised land of the migrants' dreams. Although the weather was comparatively balmy and farmers' fields were bountiful with produce, Californians also felt the effects of the Depression. Local and state infrastructures were already overburdened, and the steady stream of newly arriving migrants was more than the system could bear. After struggling to make it to California, many found themselves turned away at its borders. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html

w1ntermute 15y ago

> It means that there are a ton of farmers in rural China that are barely scraping by. Exactly. One has to keep in mind that in China, citizens are not free to move about within the country as they please. The Hukou household registration system[0] prevents, for example, rural migrants from legally taking up residence in a more prosperous area, such as Beijing or Shanghai, without the government's permission (which is quite difficult to get for a poor person). This has effectively created 2 Chinas - an urban one and a rural one. And just like we have here with Mexico and America, there are illegal immigrants from rural areas who live in secret in the urban areas, often working under inhumane conditions that they can't escape from without going to jail. The children of those who are officially rural residents are not permitted to enroll in urban schools, and thus forced to be separated from their parents and return to the parents' hometown to receive a formal education. 0: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system#Effect_on_rural_workers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system#Effect_on_rural_wo...

cellis 15y ago
That is quite amazing to learn. How are the farmers not granted "citizenship" as it were, in their own country once they move to another part of it and presumably contribute to the local economy?
- endersshadow 15y ago
  I think the thing to note here is that China is most definitely not like America. I think the common practice in the west is to think of China as an Asian version of a first world country, with a government that just censors things. That's not the case--China has an oppressive government. While they've been opening up commerce in the last few decades, that doesn't mean that they've adopted the western sense of freedom. There are a whole host of reasons why this is the case, but it's very important to note that while China is very visible in the world arena, it is still a developing nation.
- w1ntermute 15y ago
  The same thing was happening just 80 years ago in our own country: > California was emphatically not the promised land of the migrants' dreams. Although the weather was comparatively balmy and farmers' fields were bountiful with produce, Californians also felt the effects of the Depression. Local and state infrastructures were already overburdened, and the steady stream of newly arriving migrants was more than the system could bear. After struggling to make it to California, many found themselves turned away at its borders. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afctshtml/tsme.html