China's three gorges dam guided reading questions answers

China’s Geography

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China’s Geography Globalization and the Dynamics of

Political, Economic, and Social Change

T H I R D E D I T I O N

Gregory Veeck Clifton W. Pannell

Youqin Huang Shuming Bao

ROWMAN & L ITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

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Published by Rowman & Littlefield A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com

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Copyright ! 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield Second edition 2011. First edition 2007.

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Names: Veeck, Gregory, 1956– Title: China’s geography : globalization and the dynamics of political, economic, and social change /

Gregory Veeck, Clifton W. Pannell, Youqin Huang, Shuming Bao. Description: Third edition. ! Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2016. ! Includes bibliographical

references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015043589 (print) ! LCCN 2015044209 (ebook) ! ISBN 9781442252554 (cloth :

alk. paper) ! ISBN 9781442252561 (pbk. : alk. paper) ! ISBN 9781442252578 (electronic) Subjects: LCSH: China. Classification: LCC DS706 .C51138 2016 (print) ! LCC DS706 (ebook) ! DDC 915.1—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015043589

""#The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/ NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

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Companion Website

Full-color versions of this book’s maps, figures, and photographs are available on the China’s Geography website at http://chinadatacenter.org/chinageography along with a number of additional maps and data sets that can be used for class exercises or as the basis for student presentations. The site also offers links to the authors’ favorite YouTube videos, sources of statistical data on China, and a mapping website.

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Contents

List of Illustrations and Tables ix

Acknowledgments xv

1 Introduction: China’s Path and Progress 1 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

2 Physical Geographies: Landscapes of Diversity 21 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

3 History: Ancient Roots and Binding Traditions 50 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

4 Politics: The Central Kingdom in a Globalized World 86 Clifton W. Pannell and Gregory Veeck

5 Cities: The Road to an Urban Revolution 117 Youqin Huang

6 Population: Demographic Changes and Challenges 155 Shuming Bao

7 Inequality: Rising Social, Economic, and Spatial Divides 182 Youqin Huang

8 Economy: A Preface to China’s Changing Economic Geography 212 Clifton W. Pannell and Gregory Veeck

9 Agriculture: From Antiquity to Revolution to Reform 241 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

10 Industry: Transition to the Factory of the World 267 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

11 Trade and Transportation: New Pillars of Growth 292 Shuming Bao

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viii Contents

12 The Environment: Crises and Response 309 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

13 Taiwan: An Enduring East Asian Miracle 340 Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

14 Hong Kong and Macau: Postcolonial Futures 364 Clifton W. Pannell and Gregory Veeck

Index 397

About the Authors 403

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Illustrations and Tables

FIGURES

1.1 China and Its Asian Neighbors 5 1.2 China’s Emerging Economic Regions 6 1.3 China’s First-Order (Provincial-Level) Administrative Regions 13 2.1 China’s Topography 22 2.2 China’s Annual Precipitation 25 2.3 China’s Water Surplus and Water Deficit Regions 26 2.4 Isoline Maps of China’s January and July Mean Temperatures 29 2.5 China’s Physical Features 30 2.6 China’s Rivers 33 2.7 Flooding and Levee Construction on the Huang He (Yellow River) 35 2.8 Potential Water Diversion Routes, Either Hypothesized or Under

Construction 39 2.9 A Generalized Map of China’s Major Vegetation Types 40 3.1 China’s Paleolithic Sites 52 3.2 Deposition and Geological Formation of the North China Plain 54 3.3 China’s Neolithic Sites 55 3.4 China’s Longshan Sites 57 3.5 Examples of Longshanoid Pottery 58 3.6 Shang-Influenced Areas 59 3.7 Chinese Language Distributions 63 3.8 Qin Dynasty Territory 65 3.9 Han Dynasty Territory at Greatest Extension 68 3.10 Tang Dynasty Territory 69 3.11 The Grand Canal Routes 71 3.12 The Song Dynasty 72 3.13 Greatest Extent of the Mongol Empire 75 3.14 The Great Wall with Ming Territory 77 3.15 The Ming Voyages 78

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x Illustrations and Tables

3.16 Qing Dynasty China at Greatest Extent 79 4.1 China and Its Asian Neighbors 88 4.2 China’s Claims in the South and East China Seas 90 4.3 China’s Expanded Security Zone and the ‘‘Second Island Chain’’ 97 4.4 China’s Strategic Sea Lanes in the Indian Ocean and South and

Southeast Asia 98 4.5 China’s First Order Administrative Units 100 4.6 First Order Administrative Units for Minority Nationalities in China 101 5.1 Urban Population and the Level of Urbanization in China, 1950–2013 120 5.2 A Typical Design for Traditional Chinese Cities 124 5.3 The Twenty Largest Interprovincial Migration Flows, 2005–2010 135 6.1 The Percentage Minority Population by Province in Mainland

China, 2010 157 6.2 The Population Density of Mainland China, 2014 162 6.3 The Natural Population Growth Rates by Provinces of Mainland

China, 2014 164 6.4 China Birthrate and Death Rate Change, 1949–2014 164 6.5 The Birthrates by Provinces of Mainland China, 2014 165 6.6 China, a Population Pyramid, 2010 167 6.7 Interprovincial Migration Flows for China by Province, 2010 174 7.1 Income Inequality in China, Measured by Gini Coefficient,

1981–2014 183 7.2 Urban–Rural Per Capita Disposable Income Ratio in China,

1978–2013 186 8.1 China’s Employment by Sector, 1952–2013 217 8.2 Increase in Gross Domestic Product by Sector, 1978–2013 218 8.3 China’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Open Coastal Cities 224 8.4 China’s Historic Macroeconomic Regions 229 8.5 Treaty Ports and Other Major Cities in China 231 8.6 Per Capita Gross Domestic Product by Province, 2013 233 8.7 China’s Regional Scheme for National Development 234 9.1 Geographic Distribution of Major Food Crops in China 243 9.2 Fertilizer Use in China by Type, 1978–2013 249 9.3 Changes in Irrigated Crop Area for China, 1978–2013 250 9.4 Percentage Share of Total Corn, Wheat, and Rice Production in China

by Region, Selected Years 256 9.5 Meat Production in China, 1979–2013 257 9.6 Changes in Farmland Devoted to Vegetable Production in China,

1978–2013 258 9.7 Fisheries and Aquacultural Production in China, 1978–2013 261 9.8 Rural Per Capita Incomes by Province for China, 2013 263 10.1 China’s Gross National Product and Share from Industry, 1978–2013 268 10.2 China’s Per Capita Gross Domestic Product by Province, 2013 278

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Illustrations and Tables xi

10.3 Average Annual Wage for Manufacturing by Province, 2013 279 10.4 Snapshot of Changes in China’s Heavy Industry Indicators,

1978–2013 181 10.5 China’s Energy Budget: Production and Consumption, 1978 and 2013 284 10.6 China’s Coal Deposits 285 10.7 China’s Annual Energy Production by Type, 1978 to 2013 286 11.1 China’s Trading Shares by Regions, 2013 296 11.2 Total Imports and Exports by Provinces in Mainland China, 2013 299 11.3 Growth in Freight by Type of Conveyance, 1990–2013 300 11.4 Map of China’s Railway Network, 2015 302 11.5 Map of the One Belt and One Road Initiative 306 12.1 Central Government Expenditures Related to Pollution Prevention and

Mitigation and Share of China’s Gross Domestic Product Devoted to Pollution Control 311

12.2 Mean per Capita Water Resources by Province, 2013 314 12.3 CO2 Emissions in 150 of the Largest Chinese Cities, 2012 315 12.4 Map of the Number of Smog Days Per Year in China, 2013 322 12.5 Map of Rainfall Acidity for China 323 12.6 Levels of Antibiotics in Fifty-Eight River Basins in China 328 12.7 Comparison of Provincial Mean Per Capita Water Resources and Area

Sown to All Crops, 2013 330 13.1 Location Map of Taiwan 344 13.2 Taiwan’s Indigenous People 345 13.3 Taiwan Population Density by County, 2015 346 13.4 Topography of Taiwan 348 13.5 Contemporary Rail and Highway Transportation Network of Taiwan 355 14.1 Guangdong Province and the Pearl River Estuary, with Locations of

Hong Kong, Macau, and Other Major Cities 365 14.2 Hong Kong and the New Territories 367 14.3 Historical Map of the Macau Peninsula 379 14.4 Macau’s New Infrastructure and the Cotai Fill Area, Site of Many of

the New Casinos and Hotels 388

PHOTOGRAPHS

2.1 The Yellow River in Jingtai County, summer 2014 34 2.2 The Chang Jiang (Long River) near Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu

Province, spring 1987 37 2.3 Fenglin Forest Preserve in northern Heilongjiang Province, summer

1998 42 2.4 Karst (limestone) landscape in Guangxi Autonomous Region (near

Liuzhou City) in Southwest China, fall 1996 44

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xii Illustrations and Tables

2.5 Arid pasture areas in central Gansu Province, 2014 46 5.1 Tiananmen Square in the heart of Beijing 125 5.2 The urban landscape of Shenzhen 130 5.3 The skyline of the Pudong New District, Shanghai 131 5.4 The largest migrant enclave in Beijing, ‘‘Zhejiang Village’’ 136 5.5 New private housing in suburban Beijing 138 5.6 Highways and subways in the eastern suburbs of Beijing 139 5.7 The Wang Fu Jing Shopping Center in downtown Beijing 140 5.8 Renovated Qianmen Shopping District in Beijing 144 5.9 A Walmart Supercenter on a busy street in Shenzhen 145 5.10 The National Stadium (Bird’s Nest) and the National Aquatic Center

(Water Cube) built for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games 147 7.1 A gated community (Near Forest Garden) and a nearby migrant

enclave (Henan Village) in Beijing 188 7.2 An old inner-city neighborhood in Nanjing with newly built private

housing in the background 192 9.1 CAD-funded program in northern Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region

in Northwest China, 2010 248 9.2 Loessial terrain in Shanxi Province during a dust storm, 1991 251 9.3 The Grand Canal in Jiangsu Province depicting factories and farmland

in close proximity 258 10.1 Contemporary sea salt production near the harbor for Shouguang,

Shandong, in 2014 269 12.1 Greenhouses constructed on an urban construction site in Changchun,

Jilin Province, 2008 325 12.2 Plastic mulch used to grow tomato plants in sandy soil near

Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, 2002 326 12.3 Sanluenche (three-wheeled motorized cart) used to haul water to

livestock near Mandula, Damao, Inner Mongolia after the local wells all failed, 2006 331

13.1 Statue of Kuomintang president, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, in the CKS Memorial in Taipei, 2014 347

13.2 View of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial with Taipei skyline in background, 2014 352

13.3 Diorama of the mountains of northern Taiwan as seen from Yangmingshan, suburban Taipei, 2014 358

14.1 Weekend holiday activity for amahs in Hong Kong’s Central District, HSBC Building, 2014 372

14.2 Memorial statue to the student martyrs in Beijing, June 4, 1989, located on the campus of the University of Hong Kong, 2014 374

14.3 Hong Kong Island’s skyline of the Central District, 2014 375 14.4 Praia Grande Bom Parto Fort 383 14.5 View of the Monastery of Saint Francis 383

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Illustrations and Tables xiii

14.6 Macau dwellings with Saint Joseph Church behind 384 14.7 Modern Macau skyline view from the Wynn Casino and Hotel, 2014 391

TABLES

2.1 Temperature and Precipitation for Selected Chinese Cities, 2013 28 2.2 Drainage, Length, and Flow of China’s Major Rivers 32 3.1 Population Estimates of Major Chinese Dynasties and Periods 56 4.1 2010 National Census Estimates of China’s Largest Minority Groups 104 5.1 Population and Change over Time in Major Cities 128 5.2 Migrants in China’s Fourteen Largest Cities, 2010 133 6.1 Demographic and Urban Trends in China, 1950–2014 156 6.2 China’s Estimated Populations, AD 2–1949 159 6.3 Total Population and Birth, Death, and Natural Growth Rates in China

by Region, 2014 163 8.1 China’s Gross Domestic Product Growth, 1952–2013 213 8.2 China’s National and Agricultural Labor Force and Production Output

by Sector, 1952–2013 215 8.3a China’s Structure of Production, 1985–2013 216 8.3b China’s Employment Structure, 1985–2013 216 9.1 Grain Production and Proportional Shares by Crop 254 9.2 Changes in Yield for Major Crops in China 255 11.1 China’s Total Value of Imports and Exports, 1978–2014 295 11.2 China’s Foreign Trade with Key Trading Partners, 2013 296 11.3 Major Indicators for China’s Transportation System, 1980–2014 303 12.1 Annual Per Capita Energy Consumption in China, 1983–2012 321 12.2 Growth in the Use of Plastic Mulch in China, 1991–2013 327 12.3 Increases in Forest Cover, Wetlands, and Nature Reserves by

Province, 2003 and 2013 333

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Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments tend to be either very short or very long. Those who know me should hardly be surprised that I always opt for the latter. There are many people who have my respect and gratitude for help with this book and the career on which it is partly based, and it is a pleasure to note these kindnesses. This book is the product of true collaboration among four scholars with markedly different areas of expertise and perspective. But we are kindred in our enduring respect for China’s great history, culture, and peoples as well as through our shared belief in the importance of present- ing the complexities of China as clearly as we possibly can at this particular time. It has been a privilege to work with all my coauthors, but especially my friend and mentor Clifton W. Pannell.

From an early discussion at the real Billy Goat Bar in Chicago, Susan McEachern of Rowman & Littlefield has displayed patience and enthusiastic support for the proj- ect even into, surprisingly, this third edition. Many others at Rowman & Littlefield, especially Audra Figgins, Janice Braunstein, and Matt Evans, have helped and guided us through this edition. With little doubt, they go home at night and wonder how we get fed and dressed each day. We gratefully recognize the important contributions of several anonymous reviewers and our series editors Alexander Murphy and David Keeling. Don Sanetra of Gamut Graphics (gamutgraphics@aol.com) took over the cartographic duties for the third edition, and we are very appreciative of his creativity and willingness to meet tight deadlines. Thanks also to Jason Glatz of Waldo Library at Western Michigan University for his excellent renditions of the three new maps in chapter 14 (Hong Kong). Mary Lee Eggart’s fine cartographic and artistic work is still very much alive in the third edition as well. The wonderful librarians at Western Michigan University are always willing to find what I need in a timely manner, no matter how obscure, and I am sure this holds true for the librarians at the University of Georgia, the University of Michigan, and the State University of New York, Albany, as well. I want to particularly thank Kerry M. Harrison (WMU) for her many contributions to the book project, including checking references, typing in data, and organizing bibliographies (Great!). My department colleagues are a pleasure to work with, and Mary Lou Brooks and Leesa Jaquays of the Department of Geography office help me more times each week than I can count.

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xvi Acknowledgments

We also sincerely recognize the many hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students who have participated in our class discussions and who often raise the most challenging questions while exhibiting the least tolerance for artifice. The great group of scholars of the China Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers annually provides stimulating lectures and articles related to where China has been, where it is going, and what has happened along the way. Many readers and adopters were kind enough to make suggestions for the third edition, and we hope we have satisfied most of these concerns.

This book could not have been written without the help of our Chinese friends and colleagues in universities, research institutes, nongovernmental institutions, and government agencies. In my own case, researchers and students at the Rural Develop- ment Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Nanjing University, Nan- jing Agricultural University, Beijing Normal University, Lanzhou University, Hebei Normal University, and Jilin University have all contributed to my education. Profes- sor Shew-Jiuan Su (National Taiwan Normal University) helped me with clear thoughts and materials for the Taiwan chapter, although all errors are my own. My coauthors would add another dozen or so institutions that have been equally important with respect to their research in China. Further, Chinese friends far from the academy whom I so admire and respect also leave an important mark—sharing their opinions and concerns about contemporary issues and problems.

None of the research projects that provide the foundation for this book would have been possible without funding from agencies such as the National Science Foun- dation, the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration, Fulbright- Hays, the Fulbright Program, and the American Council of Learned Societies (CSCPRC). The Lucia Harrison Fund and the Milton E. and Ruth M. Scherer Fund of the Department of Geography of Western Michigan University have several times pro- vided critical support for my own work, as has the FRACAA program of the Office of the VP for Research of Western Michigan University. We are grateful for all of our funding sources, and I wish to underscore the importance of such funding at the present time. Never was there a more important time to understand China than the present.

I wish especially to thank my dear wife, Annie, and my children, Sarah and Robin. Daily, I count my blessings for my family including the pleasure and memories of our trips to China as well as their steady love and friendship. Fred and Kay Kreh- biel’s infectious enthusiasm for travel started us down this road lo these many years ago, and I will always remember this early support when support was much more difficult to locate. I also wish to recognize long-term friendships that mean so much to me, including those with Sr. Joan Correia, Jill Appel, Barclay Shilliday, John Shaw, Katie Hirschboeck, Jerry Volatile, Paul Belazis, Tim Doar, Tom King, Tom Davis, James Edward Turner, Jeffery S. Loeb, Melody Allen, Bruce Caple, Thomas R. Hodler, Deborah Che, and Marc Cunningham. Finally, everyone should know of my enduring love, gratitude, and admiration for my parents, Maryfrances and Bill Veeck, along with all their fine children, their spouses, and their children.

—Gregory Veeck

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Acknowledgments xvii

This book had its origins and evolution over a long period, and some of its concepts and ideas were originally found in an earlier volume on China coauthored with Lau- rence J. C. Ma. I wish to thank Greg Veeck especially for his enduring commitment and patience and for taking the lead in pushing to advance this larger and more com- prehensive work to its conclusion.

Colleagues and students in Hong Kong special administrative region, mainland China, the United States, Canada, and Europe have offered much wisdom and knowl- edge. Recent work at the University of Hong Kong has allowed me to keep in close touch with events in Hong Kong, Macau, and the China mainland. I am especially indebted to the colleagues at HKU from whom I have learned much, and their insights and knowledge have contributed substantially to my work, for which I am most grate- ful. Any errors of fact or interpretation are mine. I also wish to thank my old friend and collaborator on Macau and Hong Kong studies, Professor Philip Loughlin. He and I have shared in the fieldwork on these two intriguing and dynamic regions of China, and I am most grateful for his fine scholarship as well as his long friendship.

Thanks to my wife, Sylvia, for sharing in this writing, work, and travel; she has been a great and most supportive partner in our China adventure. My sons—Alex, Rich, Charles, and Tom—and their families have participated in my passion for things Chinese and Asian, and I greatly appreciate their enthusiasm and interest in visiting and learning more about China and Asia.

—Clifton W. Pannell

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Chapter One

Introduction

China’s Path and Progress

Gregory Veeck and Clifton W. Pannell

The pace of economic, sociocultural, and political change in China over the past thirty-five years has been unprecedented, but only recently have citizens and scholars started to question whether the blistering pace is sustainable. Today, given the slowing economy, growing income inequality, serious environmental pollution, and continu- ing corruption, there is palpable disquiet, anxiety, and growing uncertainty as to the ability of China’s Communist Party to continue to provide improvement in living conditions for China’s people (The Economist 2015b). This is a central question both for China and for this book.

For better and worse, contemporary China is a very different place from the country of 1978 when economic reforms began. Different economically and politi- cally, but also strikingly different in terms of culture, society, and even people’s expectations. No matter where you go in China, the landscapes and material culture seem to be either under construction or leveled in anticipation of construction in the near future. Infrastructure, at the very heart of the ‘‘China miracle,’’ is being added at an unimaginable rate, and no one seems to worry about how to pay for it. The nation’s highway network expanded almost fivefold from 1978 to 2015, while true express- ways have gone from none to 105,000 km. Rail freight as measured by tons per kilometer increased by 546 percent over the same time period, and air passengers increased from 2.3 million to 354 million per year (National Bureau of Statistics 2014, 540–69). In the past fifteen years, China has constructed the most extensive high- speed rail (HSR) system in the world.

On the back of dramatically improved infrastructure and commensurate increased industrial output (especially in manufacturing), the economy grew at 8–10 percent per year for more than three decades, outpacing all other nations during this time (National Bureau of Statistics 2014). Foreign trade (imports and exports combined) increased a staggering 728-fold from 1978 to 2013 as China became the ‘‘factory to

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2 Chapter One

the world’’ (National Bureau of Statistics 2014, 328). In a word, for much of the past three decades, China was booming. As a consequence, an estimated three hundred to five hundred million people were raised from low-income to middle-class status, although social inequality grew as well (chapter 7). Moving three hundred to five hundred million people from poverty in such a short period of time is an unprece- dented accomplishment in the history of the world and seldom receives the recogni- tion it deserves by Western media and commentators on China. Of course, many new problems have also developed. For critics, the price of this growth in terms of environmental degradation, pollution, and social equity is unacceptable, but until recently few in or out of China seemed to be listening.

As growth began to slow in 2011, however, many of the rosy predictions of China’s economic ascendance changed dramatically. By fall 2015, some analysts were worried that China was about to suffer an economic hard landing that could even lead to recession. One account labeled China’s recent decline as ‘‘The Great Fall of China’’ (The Economist 2015b). Yet counterpoised to the gloomy news and pessimis- tic outlook, China’s economy continues to offer substantial new opportunities for growth, particularly in the private sector. As a recent report titled ‘‘Back to Business’’ (The Economist 2015a) opined, there are strong indicators of growth in the private sector if only the Communist Party would allow more flexible rules and policies and stay out of the way of market forces for growth.

Perhaps most surprising is the fact that the rise of a new and much more aggres- sive leadership in international affairs has paradoxically evolved parallel with a sharp and significant decline in economic growth. In 2012 new leadership took over in China as Xi Jinping was named Communist Party general secretary and was then elected to the nation’s presidency in 2013. President Xi moved quickly to consolidate his power within the party and arrogated to himself many new responsibilities for guiding the economy as well as new efforts to curb corruption within the party ranks. At the same time, he presented his public image as a new kind of leader with a ‘‘dream’’ for China’s increasing power and influence throughout the world. Xi’s anti- corruption campaign gathered momentum quickly with the arrest and incarceration of some very high-ranking officials, including a member of the Central Committee and a former member of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, the pinnacle of power within the party. Two senior members of the military were also put under house arrest. While there was clear support for this anti-corruption campaign, it was so aggressive that it appears some of the party old guard are growing increasingly concerned that the campaign has gone too far, and President Xi has begun encounter- ing resistance within the party (Forsythe and Ansfield 2015).

Once the rapid decline in economic growth became more pronounced, the party launched monetary and fiscal efforts to accelerate growth, but these proved to be misguided. The People’s Bank of China (China’s central bank) reduced rates for lending among banks to stimulate more borrowing as well as lowering reserve require- ments. However, one reason for the slowdown was the huge debt that China’s banking

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Introduction 3

system and shadow banks have incurred, some of which is unlikely to be repaid, so such policies were not effective in a climate of slowdown. The government then intervened to devalue the official currency (the yuan) by 3–4 percent to make China’s manufactured products more competitive on world markets, a tactic that angered other countries as they strove to improve their trade balances.

Another unfortunate move was the government’s effort to advance the domestic stock market by encouraging local people to invest in margin accounts to purchase shares. After a substantial run-up in spring 2015, with price-to-earnings ratios for many stocks at extraordinarily high levels, the market bubble collapsed, and many ordinary investors were left with debts on stock purchases that they could not meet. Again, the government intervened in efforts to keep the stock prices high, but it was unable to control market prices, creating yet more concern among the populace.

In recent years, the ‘‘fourth estate,’’ the media and press, have been afforded much greater freedom than in the past, although there are some signs that this more liberal approach is under censure at the time of writing. As a consequence of greater coverage and the freedom of the Internet, public dissatisfaction with government deci- sion making and policies became more apparent. Citizens, scholars, and even officials began to comment more openly on shortcomings related to China’s recent fiscal man- agement decisions, public policy formulation, housing issues, corruption, environ- mental problems, and food safety. The growing middle class has played a central role in this newfound public participation in national debates.

For example, the public perception of the slowing economy along with the gov- ernment’s inability to control and manage economic growth has created new uncer- tainty and distrust. President Xi took control over economic aspects of his administration, and increasingly he is perceived as being unable to continue the rapid growth trajectory of the twenty years from 1992 to 2012, or even that of the steady growth era from 1980. Many new concerns are being raised about his leadership and about China’s future. A key question now becomes the actual decline in China’s growth rate, which is expected to drop below 5 percent, although the government has claimed it is holding at 7 percent. Given the dubious status of China’s economic statistics, there is considerable skepticism.

What does all of this mean for China and for China’s neighbors as well as the rest of the world? First, it calls into question the likelihood of President Xi’s dream of a glorious future for a rich and renewed China as a global economic and political superpower. Second, it raises the provocative question of whether China will be able to make the jump from a middle-income nation to a wealthy nation as have Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. Or will China fall into the trap of an economic stall as have Brazil, Russia, and other countries? It also raises serious concerns about the ability of the Communist Party to manage a market-based economy with its pro- pensity for interference in trying to direct market forces in a manner that is inappropri- ate for such a system. Does a Leninist state with a strong communist party have the capacity to endure and continue to demonstrate its ability to support its people with

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4 Chapter One

ever-increasing economic and social improvement? These are all serious questions that appear to be in play among the current forces at work in China’s evolving econ- omy and polity (Bradsher 2015).

China’s 1.37 billion citizens must continue to adjust to fast-changing economic, political, and social conditions while seeking to maintain connections to the threat- ened traditional values that many feel lie at the core of being Chinese.

THE CHALLENGE FOR THE AUTHORS

Our goal is to provide a fresh and distinctive view on a rapidly changing China and its geographic condition and realities. Our analysis and interpretations stand as a complement to a recent volume on China’s geographical transformation as seen through the eyes of Chinese geographers (Dunford and Liu 2015). Their local and regional case studies remind us that geography as practiced in China is typically empirically based and policy oriented, as befits a socialist system. Compared to West- ern scholarship, which in recent years has drawn more heavily on qualitative method- ologies in human geography, geographers in China have placed much greater emphasis on physical geography, including enivronmental issues.

GLOBAL FORCES AND CHINA’S DEVELOPMENT

Part of what is driving China’s rapid change is the force of globalization (Dicken 2007). Powerful new economic, political, and technological pulses are at work, and China has been quick to adapt and adjust to them. This adaptation in turn is linked to a much more open economic system, what the Chinese now refer to as ‘‘socialism with Chinese characteristics.’’ The result was not only rapid growth in trade with and exports to major economic powers such as Japan, the European Union, and the United States, but at once a more influential and powerful nation on the world stage as well. Based on low labor costs and related land, environmental, and distribution costs, China’s ability to attract investment in manufacturing was supported by a carefully crafted state policy that emphasizes innovation and high technology and has led to rapid development of a broad manufacturing base. Beginning with low-end consumer products, China has rapidly expanded this base to include a vast array of consumer and producer goods as well as electronics, transport equipment, and weapons and military equipment—all products sought by consumers throughout the world.

China’s growing manufacturing capacity, then, is paralleled by rapidly increasing trade and investment linkages with other Asian economic tigers such as South Korea and Taiwan. These new trade and investment trends have led in turn to new spatial arrangements as economic regions emerge in China that reflect new global economies and technologies (Dunford and Liu 2015). The arrangements not only include the reorientation of key trading partnerships but, equally important, new technologies in

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Introduction 5

transportation and logistics that underpin China’s ability to efficiently move and dis- tribute goods that the nation has become so skilled at manufacturing. A whole array of new transport systems is under construction as China strives to integrate its dispa- rate regions and provinces into a greater whole that will fulfill its destiny as a func- tioning modern economic and political system. The cost of building this new infrastructure of highways, railways, pipelines, ports, harbors, and electrical and com- munications grids is enormous, and the country must continue to find the revenues to expand this basic structure in support of national development over the coming decades.

The changing locational patterns associated with the rapid economic growth of the past three decades have been most dramatic within China’s coastal regions, the areas most closely tied to the global trading system, but, as will unfold in the book, all of China has been impacted in myriad ways by the pace and magnitude of the nation’s remarkable transformation (see figures 1.1 and 1.2). Consider the four key emerging regions noted in figure 1.2. The foremost example among these is the boom- ing Pearl River Delta (PRD) region on China’s southeast coast, focused within the triangle of Hong Kong/Shenzhen, Guangzhou/Dongguan, and Macau/Zhuhai, with its

Figure 1.1. China and Its Asian Neighbors. Created by the authors.

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6 Chapter One

Figure 1.2. China’s Emerging Economic Regions. Created by the authors.

long-standing shipping, commercial, and capital links to Southeast Asia and the world economy. Hong Kong remains one of the world’s largest container ports and a major banking center, and it serves as China’s linchpin in a long-term tradition of doing business based on a legal and commercial system that has the confidence of the global business community (see chapter 14). A second emerging region is the Lower Changjiang or Shanghai/Sunan region with its powerful manufacturing and trade economy and strong links to Taiwan and the global trading system. Shanghai has attracted substantial Taiwanese and foreign investment and has emerged as a great manufacturing center, but it has not yet recaptured the banking and commer- cial functions that made it so famous as a Chinese business center early in the twentieth century (chapter 13).

The Beijing-Tianjin region is the political power center of China as well as a major commercial and manufacturing region with strong banking and high-tech industrial and research functions. Beijing is also a key educational center with a powerful research- and-development thrust that has emerged in parallel with its prestigious universities and state-funded scientific and engineering centers, such as the various branches of the Chi- nese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

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Introduction 7

The Shandong economic region, though smaller and less active than the above three, nevertheless offers a good example of China’s vibrant economy and the role of shifting foreign policy in its strong and growing trade and commercial ties to South Korea. In 2013, there were 4,700 Korean-owned or -funded enterprises in Shandong, with over one hundred thousand South Koreans living in the province (Gao 2015). More will quickly arrive due to the signing of the landmark February 25, 2015, Free Trade Agreement between China and South Korea, as more than 50 percent of South Korean foreign direct investment (FDI) in China is situated in Shandong. Only ninety nautical miles from South Korea (ROK), Shandong appeals to Koreans operating small to medium-size electronics firms that may retain competitiveness because of the availability of an educated, low-cost Chinese workforce. It is said that a crow cawing in Weihai (PRC) can be heard in Incheon (ROK) (Gao 2015).

There are numerous other large and small economic regions that reflect a dynamic pace of spatial rearrangement on various scales and the remarkable processes of eco- nomic growth at local, provincial, and subnational levels that are under way in China today. Many of these will be explored as we examine China in greater detail through- out the following thirteen chapters. While it is important to recognize the powerful impulse of the shifting global system and its opportunities for and effects on China, we must remember that China’s socialist revolution was in part about reasserting the primacy of China’s integrity as a sovereign and independent state. Consequently, in assessing the significance and role of global forces, we must call to mind China’s remarkable historical record as a central state and empire and its growing confidence as it assumes a role as a responsible and rising player in the global economic, political, and security systems of the twenty-first century (Spence 1999). Indeed, some observ- ers have asserted that China is destined in the twenty-first century to become the most powerful and influential state in the world, possibly replacing the United States as the center of global influence and economic power while also becoming a dominant mili- tary force (Jacques 2009).

While the central state and China’s Communist Party receive most of the attention from foreigners and external observers, it is the interplay among China’s central gov- ernment, the provincial governments, local governments, local enterprises, and multi- national firms and players that comprises the framework and context in which the new economic and political geography of today’s rapidly rising China appears. We must search here for a more profound explanation and understanding of the extraordinary and far-reaching changes under way in China today, and to do this, we must leave the stereotype of a monolithic homogeneous China behind.

The now-famous 1978 reforms championed by then paramount leader Deng Xiaoping that opened up the nation and radically altered its entire socioeconomic system are now more than thirty-seven years old (Vogel 2011). Maintaining values and perspective in China is not easy in these unpredictable if sometimes gilded times when fortunes are so often influenced by social connections, access to college, socio- economic status, ethnicity, gender, and certainly where one lives. As we would expect, in any place, at any time, and because social and economic systems shift rapidly, new

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8 Chapter One

conditions provide opportunities for some to succeed beyond their wildest dreams but cause others to slip from their already precarious places in society—and there is a geography to these outcomes.

As in all rapidly changing places, many people feel lost in China, overwhelmed. Imagine your thoughts if you were over forty, had not gone to college, and worked loyally for a state-owned factory that closed fifteen years ago and reported a bankrupt pension fund three years after the doors were locked for the last time. Remember that many older people in China today grew up in the propagandized ‘‘Workers’ Paradise,’’ where everyone supped from Mao’s ‘‘iron rice bowl’’—where all were provided for ‘‘according to their needs’’ and where everyone was equal, even if only equally poor. In reality, the sort of life implied by the iron rice bowl, always full and never broken, was seldom so easy, but it certainly was more predictable than the mercurial present.

For most Chinese people, urban or rural, current politics, economic opportunities, and social norms and views are startlingly different from what passed for convention in their lives only thirty-seven years ago. Many have benefited from China’s changes and others have lost considerably more than their income, but all have had to change their attitudes and ideals as the reforms roll on.

Manifestations of these changes are apparent at all levels of Chinese society, from the individual to the corporate, from the urban to the rural, and from the provincial to the national. As might be expected, these social, economic, cultural, and political changes have not evolved in a homogeneous fashion throughout China’s many regions and provinces; location matters more now than ever. Studies clearly reflect growing disparities in income and per capita gross domestic product between wealthy and poorer places (Buckley 2010; Fan 1995, 1997; Gipouloux 2000; Lyons 2000; Wei 1999). Beyond income or productivity, however, there are also important differences across regions and provinces with respect to access to housing, hospitals and health care professionals, social services, and education (Huang and Li 2014; National Bureau of Statistics 2014). The changes have resulted in an increasingly uneven landscape—socially, culturally, and economically. Social inequality is a growing con- cern, and debates about the causes and solutions are carried out in the public arena and via public media as never before since the founding of New China in 1949 (chapter 7) (Huang and Li 2014; Wang 2008).

Readers are certainly aware of China’s growing impact on the world economy. Originally stimulated by the landmark economic reforms promulgated by Deng Xiaoping and boosted by subsequent and arguably greater adjustments, the great efforts of the Chinese people have transformed a once-backward economy into one of the world’s largest (Vogel 2011). In 2015, China’s reported gross national income of US$11,212 billion ranked second in the world in absolute terms. However, if GDP is calculated using the PPP method, China has the largest economy, and the United States is a close second. A purchasing power parity (PPP) value calculated between two countries reflects the ratio of the number of units of country A’s currency needed to purchase in country A the same quantity of a specific good or service as one unit of country B’s currency will purchase in country B. On a per capita GDP basis, the

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Introduction 9

nation ranks 79th of the 213 nations that participate in the United Nations survey each year. No matter how you slice it, China is the world’s largest or second-largest econ- omy based on the aggregated value of goods and services produced, having passed Japan in 2010 (Associated Press 2010).

Ongoing reforms have also transformed the fundamental structure of China’s economy from one based largely on agriculture and heavy industry to one that is much more balanced—now including considerable light manufacturing and a fast- growing service sector. Many economists and other analysts believe that despite some significant domestic economic problems, China’s global economic role will continue to grow (The Economist 2015a). American homes and those of the people of virtually every industrial nation in the world are full of Chinese products—testimony to the benefits of low-cost labor, flexible production, and increased global trade. China’s entry into international markets for consumer durables, electronics, tools, household items, sporting goods, clothing, and even some agricultural products, such as frozen fish and shrimp, fruit juice, honey, and essential oils, has already radically altered global trade in these items (Studwell 2002; Veeck 2006; Walcott 2002).

Manufacturing and exports continue to burgeon. In 2014, for the fifteenth year in a row, the largest trade deficit of the United States was recorded with the People’s Republic of China (exports to China $123,675.7 million; imports from China $466,754.5 million; trade deficit $$343,078.8 million) (United States Census Bureau 2015). Most nations of the European Union are also running large trade deficits with China, attesting to the massive impact of China’s reforms on the global economy. With such favorable terms of trade and trade balances, it is no surprise that China had accumulated approximately US$3.4 trillion in foreign reserves as of 2015. China then invests some of these foreign reserves in the treasury bonds of countries like the United States and in that way increases its influence and power in global capital markets but keeps interest rates low for American consumers as well. China and Japan are virtually tied with regard to US treasury bill assets in 2015.

China’s role in global politics has also expanded, not only with its vital participa- tion in the potential resolution of regional issues such as North Korean instability and nuclear proliferation but also more broadly as China takes a more active role in global politics via international organizations such as the United Nations and the UN Secur- ity Council, the World Health Organization, and the World Trade Organization (Zhao 2000a, 2000b). At the same time, China’s new leadership has taken a much more aggressive approach toward its Asian neighbors. Recent claims to territorial and mari- time regions in the East and South China Seas have raised serious concerns about its relations with Japan, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Malaysia. China is also challeng- ing the traditional position of the United States in the western Pacific, and this has raised questions that will be addressed in chapter 4 over the challenges a rising power such as China poses to a traditional global power such as the United States (Wong 2015). Michael Pillsbury (2015) has argued that China is in fact deploying a long- term strategy to replace the United States as the leading global power. There is a new world order emerging, and while it is most difficult to anticipate the China of fifty