Press Conference of Research on Endogenous and Sustainable Urbanization Held in Beijing
Author:Unirule
Time：2014-10-30 14:14:19 Clicks:
August 5th, 2013, Unirule Institute of Economics held the press conference of the research on “Endogenous and Sustainable Urbanization” in Beijing. Urbanization is the key subject of China’s development in the next several decades. Finding the right path for China’s urbanization in the context of China’s economic and social status will not only bring about theoretical innovation but also improve people’s livelihood. Recently, over 11 ministries and government departments, including National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC) and Ministry of Finance, are working on exploring for new forms and modes to set up “cities”, i.e. towns with a population over 100,000 residents will be set up as cities for experiment.
Unirule has undertaken extensive research on the development of cities and towns, especially those with advantages in economic development, and completed a research report on “small cities and county level cities”. Unirule has laid the foundation for further research on the new forms and modes to set up cities. The research team leader was Professor YAO Zhongqiu(Qiufeng), President of Unirule Institute of Economics, and the team members include Professor LI Renqing, Researcher at Rural Development Institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences(CASS), and Mr. ZHANG Lin, Project Researcher at Unirule.
The main findings of this research are as follows:
Urbanization in the sense of promoting towns, instead of mega cities, better describes the modernization of China. Research on China’s urbanization should not only focus on big cities and city groups that allocate resources with administrative power, but also on de facto cities that emerge on an economic and social basis.
In the last three decades, China’s urbanization has developed on two facets: firstly, administrative urbanization which brought about massive cities with institutional recognition; secondly, spontaneous urbanization which brought about many de facto cities that are not recognized as cities from a legal perspective.
De facto urbanization relies on the power of market and society to grow in a bottom-up manner. In contemporary China, it comes in two types, i.e., industrial and commercial cities(towns) and suburban cities(towns).
Unlike western urbanization, China’s urbanization grows out of China’s agricultural society. Farmers with entrepreneurship became the creators of cities. Therefore, as reform in rural areas took place since the 1970s and the 1980s, many industrial and commercial towns emerged. They accumulated large population and industries, which later became the main actor of this round of industrialization in China.
In the beginning of the reform, due to institutional restraints, industrial and commercial towns were faced with various difficulties as provision of public goods could not catch up with the demand of the economy’s scale. The development of the administrative system could not suit the development of the industrial and commercial towns. This contradiction became more and more prominent, which even led some industrial and commercial towns to perish.
The second type of spontaneously emerged cities formed around big cities. They are the result of the expansion of population in big cities. We call them suburban cities.
It is estimated that more and more suburban cities will emerge. But these suburban cities are faced with similar institutional restraints which may lead to similar problems concerning city governance.
We were inspired by the development experience of China’s traditional cities and towns and the institutional arrangements of the development of cities in Taiwan. Therefore, we proposal this solution to the problem of spontaneously emerged industrial and commercial cities and suburban cities, that is to set up “county level cities”.
Compared to other reform alternatives, such as setting up cities by zoning or by empowering towns, setting up “county level cities” has intrinsic advantages. To recreate city system via the plan of “county level cities” will divert some of the economic and administrative functions of the cities, which further prepares for institutional shift to “county governance”.
The key to the new type of urbanization is the shift of government’s position from the creator of cities to the guardian of cities.
Joined in this press conference were Professor WEI Houkai, Deputy Director of Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of CASS; Professor SHEN Chi, Director of China Center for Urban Development(CCUD) of NDRC; Professor ZHANG Shuguang, Chairman of Unirule Academic Committee; Professor SHENG Hong, Director of Unirule; Professor NIU Fengrui, Office Head of Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of CASS; Professor WANG Yeqiang, Researcher of Institute for Urban and Environmental Studies of CASS, and Associate Professor CAO Guangzhong from College of Urban and Environmental Sciences(Peking University).
The press conference was also joined by The Economic Observer, Reuters, Phoenix Weekly, Reforms(Internal Review), EastDay Finance, Financial Times Chinese, Caijing Magazine, Economic Information, and Lianhe Zaobao.
