Why are some parts of China so rich while other parts are so poor?

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         Why are some parts of China so rich while other parts are so poor?

China today is going through an age of a fight for wealth, freedom and the division of wealth. Over the past centuries China has been divided into two areas: large cities in which many live in considerable wealth, where there is a rapidly increasing availability of well-paid jobs and a strong industrial economy. On the other hand, the other side of China is of poor towns and cities and rural areas struggling and failing to climb on even the first rung of the ladder of the richer cities’ increasing wealth.

China still has to cope with the cost of its disastrous ‘rush to riches’. As a result of the economic revolution, many people have suffered and lost their lives. Men have died to fuel the economic revolution and many still mine; it is the only job that is left in some of the poorer parts of China, and with the low pay they struggle to feed their large families. There are often disasters in the mines and then the families are left behind to fend for themselves. An article in The Times last year shows a picture of widows and children of miners who were killed last year in the Shangxu mining disaster. ‘Every 52 minutes a minor dies somewhere in China.’ Poor families are left to live in destitution, while the mine owners continue to take the profits made by their exploited and cheap workforce.

While parts of China are poor and starving, large cities are advancing from the economic revolution, making money and offering more jobs and work for thousands of people. Shanghai is one of these cities, offering jobs for more than 600,000 workers. People living in these parts of China are living in modern cities that are rapidly increasing in wealth; there is a continually growing economic gulf between these growth areas and their poorer counterparts where there is no economic support but only economic exploitation.

One of the causes for these two contrasting areas was the leadership of Deng Xiaping. Deng’s first aim was to ‘Spread his powers all over the world, to distribute wealth all around evenly’ as he wanted economic development to be the top priority for the next century. In 1980, Deng introduced the One Child policy- meaning that families were only allowed to have one child, which would hopefully combat China’s over-population. This decreased the population a great deal, however Deng did not take into account the severe consequences; families’ choices were limited, and many felt that having a boy, would be far more convenient. This was because boys usually stayed living with their parents where as girls had to go and live with their husbands rather than carry on the family name. The result was that millions of baby girls were murdered, causing a great unbalance of over 1 million extra men. Although this is a great problem even today, Deng’s One Child Policy has slowed down the rate of starvation and poverty. In some ways it has proven to be a success but in others it has not.

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Deng’s second attempt was the ‘Rush to Riches.’ He intended to make China rich by the C21st.

       

       

 

        Why are some parts of China so rich while other parts are so poor?

The Chinese, who for years had been told they were communist, that any element of capitalism would be brought down, were soon seeing the ideals and elements of capitalism introduced into their economic system.

Deng focussed on the already rich, instead of thinking about the poor, so the ...

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