Kelly's Essay

Different Views on Narrowing the Gap Between Urban Areas and Rural Areas in China

With the development of economy, the gap between urban areas and rural areas has become a popular concern by many countries. Looking back to the past few decades, you will find out that because of the unbalanced income, the differences between urban areas and rural areas had appeared gradually, lots of rural young people went to cities to look for work and left the fertile lands uncultivated. Should we narrow the gap between urban areas and rural areas? There is a fierce controversy over this issue. Some one think there’s no need to worry about this phenomenon, while others stick the different opinions, they think that we should pay more attention on this gap. In this essay, I’m going to look at the different sides of the argument and give conclusion.

Some people hold the view that it is unnecessary to narrow the gap between urban areas and rural areas. They think the developed level of one place is related to its location, since the land was unequally distributed, the gap occurred. For example, coastal areas are usually richer than inland areas. To some extent, the gap is the result of the development of the whole society. We do not have to narrow the gap between urban areas and rural areas because we are not able to change the location of one place. Besides, narrowing the gap needs to invest quite a lot of money. The government has to spend money on a wide variety of things, and what we need to do now is to make effort on construction of infrastructures. Bridging the gap is not so urgent at the moment. However, this idea is usually not acceptable because the public awareness of the gap between urban areas and rural areas has raised in recent years, more and more people get to know the disadvantages of the gap.

By contrast, some people have different opinions about the former view which I strongly agree with. They think it is important for government to adjust its national income distribution system, and invest more money in the rural areas in China. Since the gap between city and countryside becomes larger, it is not good for stability and sustainment of the whole society. The distribution of wealth between urban and rural people is a huge issue of this problem, no one will be comfortable living in a impoverished area with poor education. It is said that the gap between city and countryside has become the biggest barrier to the development of economy. China Agricultural Minister Sun Zhengcai said the average income rate between city and countryside had gone up to 3.33:1 in 2007 (Zhou Yingfeng & Wang Fei, 2008). Although the government is making effort to solve this problem, we still need to pay attention on it.

Moreover, people who stick the opinion that the gap between city and countryside should be bridged because they think it can stop the migration from rural areas to urban areas. The migration of rural labour to urban areas in China since the mid-1980s has created the largest labour flow in the world history. A commonly cited figure puts the number of rural migrations residing in urban areas at 50 million in the mid-1990s (Zhao Yaohui, 1999). Lacking of labour force makes the farm lands abandoned and be left uncultivated. As is known to all, China owns a large population, it is difficult to feed so many people without enough farm lands. Besides, this also causes a big pressure to the lands in urban areas, the housing prices has gone up quickly during recent years. As a result, the Chinese government has to launch a policy to restrict migration from rural to urban areas. Hopefully narrowing the gap between city and countryside can slow the migration.

Last but not least, the gap between urban areas and rural areas contributes to the low education level in the rural areas. Because of poverty, many children lose the opportunity to go to school. The government invested more money in urban areas than in rural areas, so the educational facilities are very poor in rural areas, not so many knowledgeable teachers are willing to teach there, these lead to the low teaching standard in rural areas. As a result, rural students’ studying skills are not so good as urban students’. Many rural students have to leave school and start to work early in their lives to support their families. A recent research shows that urban students are better at reading, writing, math and they are able to deal with more complicated relationships than rural students (Pan Weibo, 2009). However, education is the prime force of productivity. Narrowing the gap between city and countryside is needed to provide equal opportunities to students in education.

To walk out of this difficult situation, the government has to take responsibility to bridge the gap between urban areas and rural areas. As I said before, they should gradually adjust its national income distribution system, and invest more money in rural areas. In 2004, Chinese government abolished the agricultural tax for which the farmers had to pay before. Although the government had tried to make efforts to solve this problem, with a large population, the achievement was not so satisfying. Besides, medical care in rural areas needs to be improved. Confirmed data shows that 90 per cent farmers had to pay by themselves when they went to see the doctors. Also, the government ought to pay more attention on educations in rural areas, and consummate the rural educational systems.

In sum, although investing money to the construction of infrastructures is important, I am convinced that the gap between urban areas and rural areas can not be ignored. With the increasingly large gap between urban areas and rural areas, many problems emerged, such as social instability, migration and education problems. The existence of the gap shows an unbalanced development through the past years, and the gap is getting larger. Individuals have already raised their awareness on this issue as well. Since the government has attached importance to this phenomenon, and made efforts to solve it, maybe the gap is going to be bridged not far in the future.


Bibliographies:
David S. Landes (1999) ‘Why are We So Rich and They So Poor?’, The American Economic Review, Vol.80, No.2, (eds) Papers and Proceedings of the One Hundred Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, pp.1-13.
Zhao Yaohui (1999) ‘Leaving the countryside: Rural-To-Urban Migration Decisions in China’, The American Economic Review, Vol.89, No.2, (eds) Papers and Proceedings of the One Hundred Eleventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association, pp.281-286.
Zhou Yingfeng & Wang Fei (2008) ‘the average income rate between city and countryside has gone up to 3.33:1’, http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-08/28/content_9730713.htm
Li Xiaohua (2009) ‘Income gap between city and countryside grows’, http://www.china.org.cn/china/news/2009-06/16/content_17956039.htm
He Limin (1998) ‘Narrow the gap in education between urban areas and rural areas’,http://space.30edu.com/04350323/ReadArticle.aspx?ID=de6e48ea-b449-4bd6-ab8a-70aa1998d1f2
Pan Weibo (2009) ‘A research on the gap between city and countryside in China’,http://www.12371.gov.cn/ShowArticle.aspx?MsgID=CA20091029195928584000412&PublisherID=000.012.001&Code=000.012.001