Research on the Relations between China's Urbanization and Economic and Social Development since the Reform and Opening up

摘要

Since reform and opening up, China's industrialization has been following dual courses in the urban and rural areas, and urbanization and industrialization have been developing simultaneously. The three upgrading of consumption demands having taken place in China not only helps stimulate economic growth and enables the rapid penetration of urbanized lifestyle in both cities and rural area but also facilitates the introduction of foreign investment and technologies. The private businesses plus specialized markets in Zhejiang Province are the paradigm of bottom-up urbanization in China, and the collective economy plus the establishment of development zones are a model of urbanization led by government. The paper examines the changes of the major driving force mechanism of urbanization over the 25 years of reform and opening up as well as their impact on social and economic development. It then presents two case studies of urbanization in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces respectively. Urbanization is a process of economic transition, social evolution and cultural re-construction of the human society. To put it specifically, it means that the focus of economic structure shifts from agriculture to non-agriculture, the social structure of urban and rural areas is characterized by the gradual decrease of proportion of rural population and the steady increase of urban population, and the cultural landscape is featured by the gradual urbanization of physical infrastructure of settlements and people's lifestyle. The paper examines the major driving force mechanism of urbanization over the 25 years of reform and opening up as well as their impact on social and economic development. It then presents two case studies of urbanization in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces respectively.