Qin Xiaoying
Shortly after the new year began, a government official in a big
city in northern China announced that his city's per capita GDP
(gross domestic product) had exceeded US$6,000, crossing the
threshold of medium-level development in developed countries.
As if to match this, a vice-mayor from a big city in the south
of the country announced that his city's per capita GDP will hit
US$10,000 in three years, equal to highly developed areas of the
world.
Good things came in bunches.
Economic officials from cities in Jiangsu, Guangdong, Zhejiang
and Shandong provinces and from the Tianjin Municipality announced
one after the other that their per capita GDP has neared or
surpassed the bar of US$3,500. These announcements suggest that the
objective of building a moderately prosperous society has been
achieved ahead of schedule.
Public opinion, however, thinks otherwise, not accepting GDP as
the exclusive standard in gauging development.
If we bother to conduct an investigation among the public in
these cities which boast high GDP, we will find that the fast
economic development has failed to bring proportionate happiness to
ordinary people.
On the contrary, many urban maladies are canceling out the sense
of happiness and satisfaction which usually goes hand in hand with
increased income.
GDP may be growing, but the environment, the climate for
consumption and the public security situation in some places pose a
headache. And people's sense of discomfort remains very strong.
Obviously, the GDP growth in some localities is not targeted at
accommodating ordinary people's needs. Many problems involving
healthcare, housing, education and employment are yet to be
settled.
The gap between GDP growth and social problems remains
unaddressed. It deserves our attention and careful study.
Some may ask: "Does this mean that all the painstaking efforts
made to promote GDP increase have come to nothing?" The answer is
"No".
At the core of this author's argument is that the word
"developed" involves a host of connotations.
GDP only offers the physical basis for the development of a city
but is far from enough. Many other "soft" factors are required to
make a city "developed".
First of all, a city should enjoy a high degree of
internationalization before it can be called "developed".
"Internationalization" in this usage means that all the service
facilities should measure up to international standards in terms of
"hardware". In terms of "software", it refers to the city's role in
helping promote economic globalization, scientific and
technological progress and cultural exchanges.
The degree of internationalization is actually a test of a
city's degree of openness to the outside world.
Second, a city's environment should be well protected before it
can be considered "developed".
Environmental deterioration and resource crises are two of the
most salient features of urban disease in China.
Making the best use of ecological resources, including taking
care of the environment, is a vitally important yardstick against
which a city's degree of development is measured. This is as
important as economic growth and social progress.
Third, residents should enjoy a high level of education before
the city can be regarded as "developed".
Education and knowledge are at the core of a good quality of
life for the urban public and the city itself. The two provide the
primary driving force powering a city's sustainable
development.
Fourth, urban development is geared to accommodating people's
needs, based on the principle of people coming first, before the
city is judged "developed".
Sensing that promoting urbanization by expanding the size of
cities and increasing their numbers is deeply defective, the
government has put forward the notion of human-centered harmonious
development, including urban development. This marks a big stride
forward in the administrative ideas of the government.
This approach finds expression in the construction of
human-centered urban facilities and services.
Constructing facilities not only involves speed and size but
also human-centered layout and consideration embodied in the
details. The best services a human-centered city can offer are wide
sharing of information, a garden-like environment and good working
conditions.
Using all these standards to measure the degree of a city's
development is no longer a topic for academic discussion. It is
time to translate these standards into bettering people's lives, at
least in mega cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and
Shenyang.
People expect that policies involving more human-centered urban
development will soon be worked out, with the exclusively
GDP-orientated development ideas, which largely overlook
accommodating human needs, fading from the scene.
The author is a researcher with the China Foundation for
International and Strategic Studies
(China Daily January 16, 2007)