The Global Shift - China Case Study

Question 1

Social benefits and costs

Answer 1

+Reductions in poverty
+Better education and training
-Increase in unplanned settlements

Question 2

Economic benefits and costs

Answer 2

+increase in urban incomes

+investment in infrastructure

Question 3

Environmental costs and benefits

Answer 3

• over exploitation resources and resource pressure
• Loss of biodiversity
• Pollution and health problems
• Land degradation
• Loss of productive farmland

Question 4

Reductions in poverty

Answer 4

• Between 1981 and 2010 the number of people living in poverty reduced by 680 million
• Extreme poverty has reduced from 84% in 1980 to 10% in 2016
• Remittance payments have decreased rural poverty.

Question 5

Better education and training

Answer 5

• TNCs invest in training and skills development to improve workforce productivity, and some skills are transferable.
• Economic growth generated by global shift in manufacturing used to finance investment in education and training
• Households use higher income to pay for more of children’s schooling
• 94% of Chinese over 15 are literate compared to 20% in 1950
• Education is free and compulsory in China

Question 6

An increase in unplanned settlements

Answer 6

• Rapid industrialisation and then urbanisation has created a need for more housing resulting in an increase in informal homes.
• An increase in land process has made affordable housing hard to find. As a result, two types of illegal housing are now common:
• Expanded housing in villages close to the edge of cities. Villagers add an extra storey to their house and rent it to migrant workers
• Farmland is privately developed for housing without permission

Question 7

Increase in urban economies

Answer 7

• The urban workers also receive good terms and conditions – 40hour working week, overtime payments and paid holidays
• There is a big and growing urban / rural divide.
• Economic growth and slow population growth has led to urban incomes rising as pay has increased.
• Urban incomes have increased by 10% a year since 2005.

Question 8

Investment in infrastructure

Answer 8

• Attracting manufacturing FDI requires initial investment in basic infrastructure, e.g. ports, power, water supply, sewers.
• Initially investment in a few coastal locations (SEZs) but this later expands to link up SEZs to cities inland.
• rail systems in all cities and provinces
• Now 250 airports - 8 of the top 12 airports by freight tonnage

Question 9

Over-exploitation of resources and resource pressure

Answer 9

•Supply cannot keep up with demand, so the Chinese government are having to seek additional resources
-Amazon rainforest cleared for soy production
-Venezuela is being exploited for oil
-Coltan mining in Congo
•This search for additional resources is creating widespread environmental degradation
-Created new domestic and global flows of commodities, driving up commodity prices and leading to mineral depletion.

Question 10

Loss of biodiversity

Answer 10

•The UN has identified the Yellow Sea and South China sea as the most degraded marine areas on earth.
•36% of forests are facing pressure from urban expansion
-Rapid industrial expansion can outpace environmental regulation creation and enforcement (or corruption may circumvent

Question 11

Pollution and health problems

Answer 11

-pollution so bad that many cities have pollution alerts
-70% of chinas lakes and rivers are now polluted - some cannot be used for irrigation or drinking
•100 cities suffer from extreme water shortages and 360 million people don’t have access to clean water.
•1/3 Chinese population breathes in air that would be considered unhealthy by US or European standards

Question 12

Land degradation

Answer 12

• Over 40% of China’s farmland is now suffering from degradation.
• Industrial emissions are creating acidic soils in the south.
• Land clearance for industry has led to deforestation.
• Over-intensive grazing has created degradation and then desertification

Question 13

Loss of productive farmland

Answer 13

-Farmland close to rivers has been taken out of action due to the risk of pollution from fertilisers and pesticides
•Rapid urbanisation has created a loss of farm workers which has decreased production
•Overproduction=desertification and a further loss of productive land.
•Rural farmers are 40% more likely to suffer from liver cancer due to their exposure to heavily polluted land and water.