Lausanne World Pulse – A Focus on Northeast Asia: 624 Least-reached People Groups Remain
Background
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There is a deep spiritual |
As the Wealth Gap Widens, the Spiritual Void Deepens
(Written by Keith Carey, managing editor of Global Prayer Digest)
The Han Chinese peoples are noted for their business savvy and their love of gambling. Perhaps the two dovetail when considering China’s urbanization efforts. According to a 7 November 2006 article in the BBC News, about thirteen million rural Chinese move to the cities each year. That is the same number as the entire population of Beijing. In the same article, it was also noted that at the current rate, China’s population will be fifty percent urban by 2010. Has there ever before been such a rapid rate of urbanization?
Ironically, the Communist Revolution of 1949 glorified the rural peasant. Millions of urbanites were sent to the countryside during the disastrous Cultural Revolution to learn proper communist values from the peasants. Millions of lives were ruined, and starvation was rampant.
Fortunately, after Mao’s death in 1976, China’s new leaders understood that they had to make drastic changes. They immediately began to soften the hard-line communist economic policies that were destroying China. The Chinese were once again free to do what they have always done well: run businesses. As time went on, the Chinese government learned that the country could greatly benefit were they to switch to an export-driven economy. Some, ironically the communist elite, were allowed to own their own businesses.
Brent Fulton is president of China Source, an organization that provides consulting and research on China’s societal trends mainly for humanitarian, business and educational organizations. In a 2000 interview with World Pulse, Fulton commented, “China is moving more toward a service, information-oriented economy. And you need a critical mass of people and in one place to make that happen. The agricultural economy is declining.”
The Wealth Gap Widens
There is a downside to China’s rapid urbanization. One obvious problem is the increasing gap between urban and rural China. According to a 17 December 2006 article in the Los Angeles Times, the average amount of disposable income for rural dwellers is less than a third of that for the urban population. It is clear that the gap between the rich and poor is also widening, especially since a capitalist economy does not offer the same guarantees as a socialist economy. To make matters worse, corrupt local officials are grabbing up land from farmers who have no recourse. It is no wonder that the rural population is fleeing to the cities. In 2005, the Chinese government reported eighty-seven thousand public disturbances, up fifty percent in two years.
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