CHINA'S FOOD AND AGRICULTURE: ISSUES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

China's impact on world agricultural markets in coming decades will depend on many factors. Growing income and transition to modern urban lifestyles will increase demand for all foods, but demand will shift toward meat and high-value products. WTO accession may increase openness of China's agricultural trade and allow more imports. An understanding of geographic variations of consumption, production, trade, and policy is critical to understanding the vast China market. Development of transportation infrastructure and market channels will make it easier for food products to reach consumers. China's approach to biotechnology and its reform of institutions for allocating land, labor, and water inputs have important implications for agricultural productive capacity.China, food, agriculture, production, consumption, regions, international trade, biotechnology, livestock, land, irrigation, retail, transportation, marketing, rural development, labor markets, statistics, Agricultural and Food Policy,

Economics of China's Joint-Stock Co-operatives

Joint-stock co-operatives, Ownership and governance, China

Economic Reforms and Constitutional Transition

This paper investigates the relationship between economic reforms and constitutional transition, which has been neglected by many transition economists. It is argued that assessment of reform performance might be very misleading if it is not recognized that economic reforms are just a small part of large scale of constitutional transition. Rivalry and competition between states and between political forces within each country are the driving forces for constitutional transition. We use Russia as an example of economic reforms associated with constitutional transition and China as an example of economic reforms in the absence of constitutional transition to examine features and problems in the two patterns of transition. It is concluded that under political monopoly of the ruling party, economic transition will be hijacked by state opportunism. Dual track approach to economic transition may generate very high long-term cost of constitutional transition that might well outweigh its short-term benefit of buying out the vested interests.constitutional transition, economic reform, division of labor, debate of shock therapy vs gradualism, debate of convergence vs institutional innovation

The Role of Local Government in China’s Urbanization: The Relationship Between Local Land Finance and Government-Led Urbanization

Over the past several decades, dramatic growth and institutional reforms have taken place in the Chinese economy and society, which has been accompanied by accelerated urbanization. This paper examines the rationale behind the local government’s pursuit of urbanization and its deep relationship with fiscal reform, local land management, and the political performance evaluation system of local cadres by central officials. The findings reveal that, rather than being a natural consequence of economic development and a complex outcome of population urbanization and land urbanization, China’s urbanization in recent decades can be identified as a local government-led development deriving from the municipalities’ fiscal incentives, land monopoly authority incentives, and political incentives. While urbanization seems to be an inevitable trend of economic development, it is actually driven by an unsustainable accumulation regime that prioritizes the needs of local land fiscal income, real estate development, and GDP growth

Drivers of Urban Sprawl in Urbanizing China – A Political Ecology Analysis

Chinese cities have undergone a process of urbanization that has resulted in significant urban sprawl in the past 20 years. This paper uses the \u27ecology of actors\u27 framework to analyze the interactions between various state, market and civil society players that result in excessive land conversion from agricultural to urban use. The paper shows that under the existing institutional setting, the interests of most actors involved in the process are aligned towards greater land development and growth. The more land is developed, the more land lease revenue for the local government, the more profit for developers, and the more opportunities for compensation for farmers. Planning actors have been powerless to apply long term planning principles. There is a need to change the underlying rules of the game so that environmental impacts of land conversion are fully taken into account in the future economic calculations of actors involved in the process

Shanghai rising in a globalizing world

In a globalizing world, cities at or near the apex of the international urban hierarchy are among the favored few--New York, London, and Tokyo--that have acquired large economic, cultural, and symbolic roles. Among a handful of regions that aspire to such a role--such as Hong Kong, Miami, and Sao Paulo--Shanghai has reasonable long-term prospects. If the Chinese economy can sustain its growth rate, it will rival the United States in a few decades. And if Shanghai can sustain its preeminence in China, it is the Asian city most likely to become a global center. The authors explore the makings of a world city, identify ingredients essential for that status, indicate national and municipal policies that may set Shanghai on the path to being a global city, and show how such policies are being implemented. As urbanization continues, the authors say, and as information technology and finance-related service activities take on even more importance, the number of regional and global centers could increase, but only if they satisfy some exacting requirements. Shanghai's chances, for example, depend on the extent to which China opens up and on a host of municipal policies--policies that emphasize Shanghai's industrial strength, substantially enlarge its base of information technology and producer services, ensure an adequate supply of skills, expand available housing and infrastructure enough to meet demand, and improve the quality of life.Decentralization,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Environmental Economics&Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,ICT Policy and Strategies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management

The Use of Value Capture for Transport Projects in China: Opportunities and Challenges

Value capture (VC) could be a useful tool to address the huge demand for public transport infrastructure funding in China. This research identifies the opportunities and challenges faced by VC implementation in China and explains how local governments and local transit agencies dealt with the regulatory barriers. The findings of this research offer insights including: (1) macro environment, regulatory framework, and supportive policy environment provide opportunities to adopt VC projects, while the risk of acquiring land vale cannot be isolated from the global political and economic situations; (2) the regulatory challenges of land transactions and lack of property tax system restrict the application of VC; (3) evidence from the case study of Shenzhen demonstrates that local government may creatively deal with the regulatory challenges to do VC and benefit local community; (4) institutional capacity is vital to implement VC. The analysis of Shenzhen experience can provide a reference for other Chinese cities to implement VC.fals

China’s Post-Reform Urbanization: Trends and Policies

Since the adoption of economic reform policy in 1978, several trends are changing the Chinese society. Chief among these is the rapid transition to an urbanized country. Not only is more than 1/3 the country’s population now living in cities and towns but the remaining is becoming increasingly dependent on cities and towns for its economic survival and livelihood. Chinese experts predict that by 2050, urban population is likely to reach 1.0-1.1 billion with urbanization level soaring up to over 75 percent and urban sector contributing to over 95 percent of the national economy. Accordingly, more than 600 million Chinese people will shift from rural areas to urban districts by 2050. Furthermore, projections shows that by 2050, there are likely to be 50 ultra-large cities with population of more than two million, some 150 big cities, 500 medium-sized cities and 1,500 small cities. While these figures are predictable, other forces such as globalization and regional integration will reinforced the role of cities as centers of production, consumption and social and political change. This chapter aims to unravel such changes and to examine issues related to these developments.postprintThe IIED‐UNFPA Research Workshop on Population and Urbanization Issues, London, 9-10 September 2009, IIED code: G0256

CHINA'S ACCESSION TO WTO AND SHIFTS IN THE AGRICULTURE POLICY

The overall goal of our paper is to explore this question of how China's policy will likely respond as the nation enters the WTO. Specifically, we will have three objectives. First, we briefly review China's existing agriculture policy and past performance of China's agriculture and how it has changed during the past 20 years of reform. Next, we examine the main features of the agreement that China must adhere to as they enter WTO. Finally, we consider a number of possible ways that policy makers may respond, primarily focusing on the national government's viewpoint.International Relations/Trade,

Research on inequality of resource allocation in China since reform and opening up

Over the past 40 years of reforming and opening up, China's economy, politics, and culture have undergone earth-shaking changes, particularly the rapid pace of development of the economy. However, with the rapid pace of development of the economy, the country has exposed many social problems. Among them, I think the most serious is the unequal allocation of resources. Therefore, in order to analyze the specific current situation of China's resource allocation fairness and to understand the difficulties in this aspect, this dissertation uses the collected data of the elementary and junior high school education resources allocation between urban and rural areas during 2014-2017 and takes the Theil index as a method of calculation, from the results, it can be seen that there is an irrational phenomenon in the distribution of educational resources in urban and rural areas, and the phenomenon of inequality has increased year by year. In the dissertation, of those reasons that cause the inequality of resource allocation, the factors of government and of market be chosen to put into the analyzation. Finally, this dissertation explores how the government and the market allocate public resources reasonably, effectively, and equitably to improve overall social equality and narrow the gap between urban and rural development, so as to promote overall social development in an all-round way.Nos últimos 40 anos de reforma e abertura, a economia, a política e a cultura da China passaram dramaticamente por mudanças grandes, especialmente o avanço do desenvolvimento econômico. No entanto, o país expôs muitos problemas sociais com o desenvolvimento da economia. Entre eles, penso que o mais sério é a contradição social devido injustiça da distribuição de recursos. Portanto, de modo que analisa o status específico da imparcialidade na distribuição de recursos da China, com respeito às dificuldades de compreensão, este artigo utiliza os dados coletados dos recursos do ensino fundamental e médio alocados entre 2014 e 2017, no âmbito das áreas urbanas e rurais, por método de cálculo de desigualdade, os resultados mostram que há fenômeno irracional na distribuição dos recursos educacionais urbanos e rurais, e a desigualdade está intensificada ano a ano. Na análise das causas da desigualdade de recursos, este dissertação localiza-se nos fatores governamentais e fatores de mercado. Em fim, de acordo com causas, este dissertação explora como o governo e o mercado devem distribuir recursos públicos de forma razoável, eficaz e equitativa, e melhorar o nível geral de equidade da sociedade e diminuir a brecha entre o desenvolvimento urbano e rural, promovendo assim o desenvolvimento geral da sociedade