China’s Geo-economics: Politics of Inequality
by Sungtae Park
Nature of every country, including its economy, is defined by its geography. The same holds true for China. Geo-economics of China is defined by two features. First, China has a very large and dense population even relative to its large landmass, particularly in terms of arable land. Second, China’s geographic features provide for an uneven development throughout the country. These two features result in an economy with notable inequality in wealth, one that is politically difficult to maintain.
The main geo-economic feature that has characterized China since the ancient times was that the country has the second largest landmass in the world yet is overpopulated. The top five largest countries in the world besides China (in terms of landmass) all have relatively small populations compared to their landmass. In fact, the country is mostly made up of mountains, hills, and other difficult lands, such as the Mongolian desert and Siberia in the North and the mountains and the plateaus in the West and the Southwest as well as jungles and hills in the South and Southeast. Only areas of arable land that China possesses are the North China Plain (China’s historic heartland), Manchuria (the rich black soil), and the Sichuan Basin (the breadbasket of China). The so called real population density, which measures population per arable land, reveals a startling figure with regards to the amount of China’s arable land relative to other large countries. Russia has a hundred seventeen people per square kilometer, the United States has a hundred seventy-nine people per square kilometer, Canada has seventy eight people per square kilometer, Brazil has three hundred eighteen people per square kilometer, and Australia only has forty three people per square kilometer. China, on the other hand, has nine hundred forty three people per square kilometer, nearly three times as much as Brazil’s real population density.
The dearth of arable land relative to China’s population has always meant that there were never enough resources to go around for everyone in China, leading to a small percentage of the country’s population with political power becoming rich and the rest remaining poor. Because of China is an immensely large country and is extremely diverse in nature (why it was historically called the Chinese empire, not the nation of China), a centralized authoritarian government was always required to keep the country stable and unified. The centralized political system, however, often led to a small percentage of China’s population using its power to amass wealth at the expense of the majority of the population, as is the case in most authoritarian countries. Because China is particularly resource-scarce, the general population was always vulnerable to economic downturns and especially famines. China has been called the land of famine and not without a good reason. The country has experienced 1,828 major recorded famines between 108 BC and 1911 AD, nearly one every year. When China performed well economically, domestic uprisings could be managed. On the other hand, when famines and other economic downturns spiraled out of control, they triggered mass uprisings that overthrew the government in power. The scarcity of usable land and resources and resulting inequality in wealth between those with power and those without have always been the main sources of political instability in China.
Such a condition has not changed throughout China’s modern history. When Mao Zedong unified China, he sought solve the country’s historic problem by creating a society where wealth is equally distributed among all people. His Communist experiment, however, only ended up Two faces of China Two faces of China creating mass starvation. Today, China has nearly completely shorn itself of the Communist ideology and has reverted back to the oligarchic system that it always has been throughout its history. A small percentage of China’s population continues to monopolize wealth. Euromonitor statistics show that only 80 million people make up China’s middle class, which is defined as the households (not individuals) who earn $10,000 or above annually, meaning that the middle class in China is less than 6 percent of its entire population. Nearly half the population still earns less than $1000 per household annually, while the remaining 45 percent of the population earn less than $3000 per household annually. While the current socioeconomic condition would remain stable if China’s rapid growth were to continue (experts say that China needs to grow at a minimum of 8 percent per year to prevent rate of unemployment from rising), the economic crisis that China is expected to face this year could soon become a political challenge.
The second geo-economic feature that has had heavy impacts on China since the late Qing dynasty is the discrepancy in development between China’s coastal and interior regions. China is a large country. Yet, it does not have easy transportation and communication routes, namely rivers and fat lands that could be used to develop the country’s interior. The United States, for example, while it is a large country, borders two oceans. At the same time, the Mississippi River and the wide plains of the Midwest make the interior of the United States easily accessible, while capital and goods can easily move up and down from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico. China, on the other hand, only has a single coast line, while the Yellow River and the Yangtze River can only go too far before they move into mountains. Transporting capital and goods into China’s interior is simply too costly relative to its benefits. Because only the coastal regions and portions of the Northern China plain have had easy access to foreign trade and capital, they became very wealthy relative to China’s rural interior regions.
The inequality between China’s coastal and interior regions has been a major source of instability, since the late-Qing era. Before China was forcibly opened up by the British in the 19th century, the Chinese government did not have to worry too much about the discrepancy in development because China traded very little with the West. After the opening, however, coastal cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, became very wealthy, while the living standard in interior regions remained very much the same, giving rise to the discontent that Mao Zedong was able to utilize to gain support. When Mao unified China, he completely closed of China from the West, temporarily eliminating the inequality between the coast and the interior. When Deng Xiaoping reopened China to the West, he recreated the inequality between the coast and the interior yet again. China currently faces two major problems from the resulting inequality. First, at the level of the masses, the people from the interior are discontent at the fact that the coastal regions are significantly richer. Second, at the elite level, government officials from the coastal and interior regions promote differing views on how China should develop. The Shanghai clique benefits immensely from the coastal areas’ development, while the Tuanpai clique prefers that China pay more attention to developing the country’s interior. The central government at Beijing must juggle these two factions and their views while maintaining the Chinese Communist Party’s overall unity or at least the appearance of.
While China has indeed been growing at a miraculous pace for the past thirty years, a close examination of the country’s geo-economics reveals much socioeconomic vulnerability. Despite being the world’s second largest economy, China has to deal with the fact that most of its citizens are very poor. At the same time, the country has to deal with the discrepancy in development between China’s coastal and interior regions. Dealing with these issues is becoming more and more challenging for the Chinese Communist Party, particularly as an economic slowdown is beginning to affect China
by Sungtae Park
Nature of every country, including its economy, is defined by its geography. The same holds true for China. Geo-economics of China is defined by two features. First, China has a very large and dense population even relative to its large landmass, particularly in terms of arable land. Second, China’s geographic features provide for an uneven development throughout the country. These two features result in an economy with notable inequality in wealth, one that is politically difficult to maintain.
The main geo-economic feature that has characterized China since the ancient times was that the country has the second largest landmass in the world yet is overpopulated. The top five largest countries in the world besides China (in terms of landmass) all have relatively small populations compared to their landmass. In fact, the country is mostly made up of mountains, hills, and other difficult lands, such as the Mongolian desert and Siberia in the North and the mountains and the plateaus in the West and the Southwest as well as jungles and hills in the South and Southeast. Only areas of arable land that China possesses are the North China Plain (China’s historic heartland), Manchuria (the rich black soil), and the Sichuan Basin (the breadbasket of China). The so called real population density, which measures population per arable land, reveals a startling figure with regards to the amount of China’s arable land relative to other large countries. Russia has a hundred seventeen people per square kilometer, the United States has a hundred seventy-nine people per square kilometer, Canada has seventy eight people per square kilometer, Brazil has three hundred eighteen people per square kilometer, and Australia only has forty three people per square kilometer. China, on the other hand, has nine hundred forty three people per square kilometer, nearly three times as much as Brazil’s real population density.
The dearth of arable land relative to China’s population has always meant that there were never enough resources to go around for everyone in China, leading to a small percentage of the country’s population with political power becoming rich and the rest remaining poor. Because of China is an immensely large country and is extremely diverse in nature (why it was historically called the Chinese empire, not the nation of China), a centralized authoritarian government was always required to keep the country stable and unified. The centralized political system, however, often led to a small percentage of China’s population using its power to amass wealth at the expense of the majority of the population, as is the case in most authoritarian countries. Because China is particularly resource-scarce, the general population was always vulnerable to economic downturns and especially famines. China has been called the land of famine and not without a good reason. The country has experienced 1,828 major recorded famines between 108 BC and 1911 AD, nearly one every year. When China performed well economically, domestic uprisings could be managed. On the other hand, when famines and other economic downturns spiraled out of control, they triggered mass uprisings that overthrew the government in power. The scarcity of usable land and resources and resulting inequality in wealth between those with power and those without have always been the main sources of political instability in China.
Such a condition has not changed throughout China’s modern history. When Mao Zedong unified China, he sought solve the country’s historic problem by creating a society where wealth is equally distributed among all people. His Communist experiment, however, only ended up Two faces of China Two faces of China creating mass starvation. Today, China has nearly completely shorn itself of the Communist ideology and has reverted back to the oligarchic system that it always has been throughout its history. A small percentage of China’s population continues to monopolize wealth. Euromonitor statistics show that only 80 million people make up China’s middle class, which is defined as the households (not individuals) who earn $10,000 or above annually, meaning that the middle class in China is less than 6 percent of its entire population. Nearly half the population still earns less than $1000 per household annually, while the remaining 45 percent of the population earn less than $3000 per household annually. While the current socioeconomic condition would remain stable if China’s rapid growth were to continue (experts say that China needs to grow at a minimum of 8 percent per year to prevent rate of unemployment from rising), the economic crisis that China is expected to face this year could soon become a political challenge.
The second geo-economic feature that has had heavy impacts on China since the late Qing dynasty is the discrepancy in development between China’s coastal and interior regions. China is a large country. Yet, it does not have easy transportation and communication routes, namely rivers and fat lands that could be used to develop the country’s interior. The United States, for example, while it is a large country, borders two oceans. At the same time, the Mississippi River and the wide plains of the Midwest make the interior of the United States easily accessible, while capital and goods can easily move up and down from the Great Lakes down to the Gulf of Mexico. China, on the other hand, only has a single coast line, while the Yellow River and the Yangtze River can only go too far before they move into mountains. Transporting capital and goods into China’s interior is simply too costly relative to its benefits. Because only the coastal regions and portions of the Northern China plain have had easy access to foreign trade and capital, they became very wealthy relative to China’s rural interior regions.
The inequality between China’s coastal and interior regions has been a major source of instability, since the late-Qing era. Before China was forcibly opened up by the British in the 19th century, the Chinese government did not have to worry too much about the discrepancy in development because China traded very little with the West. After the opening, however, coastal cities, such as Shanghai and Guangzhou, became very wealthy, while the living standard in interior regions remained very much the same, giving rise to the discontent that Mao Zedong was able to utilize to gain support. When Mao unified China, he completely closed of China from the West, temporarily eliminating the inequality between the coast and the interior. When Deng Xiaoping reopened China to the West, he recreated the inequality between the coast and the interior yet again. China currently faces two major problems from the resulting inequality. First, at the level of the masses, the people from the interior are discontent at the fact that the coastal regions are significantly richer. Second, at the elite level, government officials from the coastal and interior regions promote differing views on how China should develop. The Shanghai clique benefits immensely from the coastal areas’ development, while the Tuanpai clique prefers that China pay more attention to developing the country’s interior. The central government at Beijing must juggle these two factions and their views while maintaining the Chinese Communist Party’s overall unity or at least the appearance of.
While China has indeed been growing at a miraculous pace for the past thirty years, a close examination of the country’s geo-economics reveals much socioeconomic vulnerability. Despite being the world’s second largest economy, China has to deal with the fact that most of its citizens are very poor. At the same time, the country has to deal with the discrepancy in development between China’s coastal and interior regions. Dealing with these issues is becoming more and more challenging for the Chinese Communist Party, particularly as an economic slowdown is beginning to affect China
