Pics in news stories about China re everyday life or emergencies show scenes that could have come from any western nation. When there is a fire, earthquake or other emergency there’s a bunch of fully outfitted EMS people and shiny firetrucks etc. in attendance vs the scenes from Pakistan which is mostly scrambling villagers trying to deal with some act of God.
Sceneslike this show what appear to be modern workplaces indistinguishable from those in the west. Road scenes show huge modern highways that look better than ours.
On the flip side we see scenes in some documentaries about impoverished villagers forced to work in industrial hellholes for pennies a day as virtual serfs.
What’s the more accurate picture? Are the developed scenes cherry picked or is China really developing this fast?
There are (at least) two Chinas. The developed part, near the major cities, which represents maybe 25% - 30% of the population. Then there is the rural, undeveloped part, which is 3rd world.
Doh! John beat me by two minutes. What he said…
It is developing fast, but it’s a big place, so there will be areas that are highly developed and others that are not. Heck, that’s true of anywhere.
Also, news from Chinese sources have an agenda, and so do documentaries, so both will probably pick their footage accordingly.
They probably have some of both but who knows how much of each.
In the same way you could show pics of rows of crack houses in East St.Louis boarded up and falling apart vs. some shiny new suburb of McMansions and strip malls in a Chicago suburb and ask “which is the real Illinois?”
Not even crack houses - go to any rural area of the US and you’ll get a much different picture of how people live than in the cities. I wouldn’t have to drive far to find people living in squalor; nor would I have to drive far to find people living in ultra-modern conditions.
I think here Google Earth might be your friend. I don’t know how good the imagery is for China, but you can certainly get some impression of how modern places are (either rural or in the City) by looking at the imagery. Rural with houses and power lines and paved roads is different than shacks with no power and dirt trails. Places that look to have stable vegetation rather than rampant clear cutting and signs of uncontrolled erosion. Well run garbage dumps vs large piles of trash. And so on and so on.
Per capita income in China is less than in Mexico. Mexico is a fairly developed nation, but you won’t have to work very hard to find impoverished Mexican villagers.
Yeah, but that 25-30% is as many people as the United States.
If you check out the Infrastructure and Mobility subforum at SkyscraperCity, there are often picture threads about Chinese railways, roads, bridges, etc. They’re growing at breakneck pace; I don’t know how long it can continue. I read somewhere that at one point a few years ago, China was using 45% of the world’s cement production.
Development indexes of Chinese provinces/cities
Shanghai is listed as being equally developed as Portugal, while Guizhou is less developed than Guatemala or Tajikistan. If you rate development by the amount of high speedrail, then China is the most developed country in the world. But the per capita GDP of China is less than Jamaica, though with 10% annual growth that won’t be the case for long.
When I was in a fairly poor interior province in 2005, there were brand new highways, bridges and dams in relatively unpopulated mountainous regions. This area was later hit by an earthquake that caused major damage, but tens of billions of dollars have since been spent on the recovery. I plan on going there again next year, so it will be interesting to see what these towns look like three years after the quake. Some were completely destroyed, killing the majority of the populace.
As for the cities, I wouldn’t be surprised if China is building the majority of new subways lines in the world. Beijing alone has added several new lines over the past couple of years. Xi’an, Chengdu, Shenyang, Hangzhou, Kunming, Suzhouand Harbinare all opening their first subway systems within a span of 5 years. A number of other cities will have their first subway lines before the end of the decade. If New York is lucky, they might have their Second Avenue line running by the end of the decade.
Probably true – although the degree to which a news provider at least attempts to give a balanced account, and attempts to verify information, varies a great deal.
Certain bushy-tailed news providers have no appetite for research, and never bother to faithfully describe opposing viewpoints.
China is dualistic. A lot of basic infrastructure is poor but pockets that0arr world class. for example, China has far far better cell phone coverage and connections than the US. The water isnLt potable.
I just moved back to the US after 25 years in greater China and the most recent 12 years in Shanghai. I’ve literally watched the infrastructure go from dirt tracks to freeways. And I’m freakin shocked at how bureaucractic, automated,hidebound and slow the US is.
to the OP, most of the impoverished workers from the countryside find the life harsh as a migrant worker but easier than being a completely impoverished peasant. It’s also the first time in chinese history that the is something akin to free movement and wealth accumulatiion for the peasantry.
They would describe China to us as “a developed developing country.” I agree there are two Chinas. Actually, it is more like three. The big East Coast cities- which is as far as a lot of people get- are very well developed and not too different than any other big city. You can live in a modern high-rise, shop at Wal-Mart, and motor around on fancy highways.
The smaller cities in the interior, like what I lived in, are about what you’d expect from a former Soviet state. Most of the buildings are pretty junky- lots of weather-stained concrete, sketchy electrical wiring, and a general feeling that the place wouldn’t survive a mild tremor. While there are occasional flashy buildings, but even those have a “made in China” feel- behind the gold trim there are surely a lot of cut corners. There is water and electricity, but the water is probably a strange color (you certainly wouldn’t want to drink it) and you probably have only one constantly-blowing circuit per apartment. There are supermarkets and shopping centers that are up to Western standards, but also pockets of the city that wouldn’t look out of place in an African slum.
Finally, there is the countryside. Some parts are okay- people are building nicer houses with money from their migrant-worker kids. But some areas are as poor as it gets.
Actually, yes you would. The only people who live in squalor in the US do so by choice or accident/misfortune. Water, power and food are available to just about all in the US. This can not be said of China for at least a century, if then.
China is probably where the USA was about 1900 or so. By the 1950’s the US was rich enough that people living in traditional log cabins or adobe pueblo constructions were being encouraged to move to “modern” housing. Plus, automobiles were sufficiently cheap to become the transport of choice (and later the alwn ornament of choice) even in the remotest towns.
The CHionese seem to be encouraging this entrepreneurial spirit and facilitating development in a way that Pakistan, for example, does not.
A good example - if we wanted to defeat the Taliban and al Queda, the first steps would be to make cell towers ubiquitous; and provide television coveage everywhere. In Afghanistan, cellular technology has been widely adopted - to the point where the Taliban at first started blowing up cell towers, then discovered that their action was so negatively received by the general population who loved their cell phones, that they had to stop. Nothing erodes traitional social mores like exposure to the wider world and reruns of Gilligans Island.
Obviously the definition of “squalor” is different for the US versus China; I’m not debating that. What I am saying is that there are places in the US that look VERY different than the norm on TV - rural areas that most of us who live in cities, have internet access, go to Target and Applebee’s tend to forget exist.
And why do the people living in squalor in China do it, if not by choice, accident, or misfortune? “Misfortune” covers a lot - simply being born in certain areas of the world pretty much guarantees you a bad life.
The rural areas I describe tend to be filled with people who have not been educated very well, have few job skills, and who are unable to scrape together the money/motivation/skills to move to where there are better jobs, or they are stuck where they are because of family obligations. Not a fun life, even though you have running water, electricity, and food. Though I would guess that it wouldn’t take me long to find at least a few families living without a couple of those. There’s a lot of poverty in my area.
