Pressures of Development on China’s Cities and Regions

This chapter reviews the rapid pace of development in recent years, and examines some of the tensions this is causing in China’s cities and regions. In cities, these include the environmental impacts of rapid urbanisation, social polarisation and disintegration, the absorption of China’s huge rural labour surplus, and the impact of ‘Westernization’ on urban society. At the regional level, rapid urbanisation enhances regional disparities and tensions between the generally more wealthy coastal region and the poorer interior. The implications of such issues for governance and stability are considered and alternative urban and regional futures for the country are raised.