Description
The emergence and growth of the private sector in China has been one of the most profound socioeconomic changes in China since the onset of post-Mao reform.
From the early 1990s, the number of private enterprises increased by 35 per cent annually and there are now over five million. The private sector is the main source of economic growth in China: as of 2007 it contributed 66 per cent of GDP and 71 per cent of tax revenues. It is also the main source of new jobs: between 2002 and 2006, the private sector created almost 44 million urban jobs, whereas employment in state-owned and collective enterprises shrank by nearly 11 million.[1]
Enablers
- Deforestation
- Brought on by desire for "chopsticks, toothpicks and Ping Pong paddles"
- Firewood collection
- Increased water scarcity in China
- Wind storms
- Improper land use
- Over-cultivation and overgrazing ("the tradegy of the common")
- Climate change
- Increased temperatures, decreased rainfall
- Fragmented government response
Inhibitors
- Improved agriculture
- Problem fences to stop overgrazing
- Reforestation
- The "Green Wall" of China
- Alternatives to wood as a source of fuel
Paradigms
- The world's largest economy will unlikely be able to feed itself as arable land is swallowed up by sand
- Increased sand disasters in Bejing
- Increased internal migration of rural Chinese
- Increased number of migrant workers in eastern cities
Timing
| 4th century B.C.
|
first recorded mention of desertification in China
|
| 1950s
|
sandstorms in Beijing every 7 or 8 years
|
| 1970s
|
sandstorms in Beijing every 2 or 3 years
|
| 1990s
|
sandstorms in Beijing annually
|
Web Resources
- Dictionary.com
- "China Faces Challenge of Desertification", People's Daily
- "Deforestation & Desertification - China"
- "Beijing's Desert Storm", Ron Gluckman
- "China's creeping sands" Slideshow, Sean Gallagher
- "China News: Desertification", China Digital Times
Revision History