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1) "An antiquated land-ownership system, also from the era of Mao Zedong ... suppresses social mobility for China’s rural poor. In contrast to urban real estate, which can be rented or sold at market rates, rural landholdings are “collectively owned.” https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons
2) "Migrants and farmers cannot rent or sell their property for nonagricultural purposes. This difference has helped make the country that was once known for its egalitarianism one of the most unequal countries in the world." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
3) "According to the economists Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, the proportion of total wealth held by the richest one percent of Chinese grew from just over 15 percent in 1995 to 30 percent in 2015." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
4) "This rate of consolidation is roughly in line with that of oligarchic Russia, where the richest one percent of the population saw its share of total wealth double over the same period to 43 percent." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
5) "So why doesn’t China simply jettison these decades-old policies and free its hinterlands to drive productivity and growth? After all, that is exactly what the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) announced that they would do back in 2013." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons
6) "But since then, efforts to reform the hukou and land-ownership systems have been limited." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
7) "Only the smaller, often economically unattractive cities have been opened for permanent settlement by migrants, and little progress has been made toward giving farmers more control over their landholdings." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
8) "City officials who oversee social welfare programs, including education and health care, see the cost of integrating new families as exorbitant." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
9) "Local governments in rural areas, unlike individual landholders, are allowed to sell and lease collectively owned tracts for commercial purposes. They have become highly reliant on that revenue stream" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
10) "To make matters worse, officially registered city dwellers, including urban government officials, tend to view migrants as aliens and tolerate them only as long as undesirable jobs need to be filled" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
11) "Waidiren, or “outsiders,” as migrants are derisively called, are commonly blamed for all manner of urban ills, from rising crime rates to traffic jams to communicable diseases, such as COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons
12) "Chinese who were lucky enough to be born with urban residency have little interest in competing with migrant families for spots in already overcrowded schools and hospitals." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
13) "China’s leaders, pursuing their grand vision of rebalancing to a more consumption-driven economy, have attempted to choreograph the changes from above" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
14) "rather than loosening household registration and letting migrants live and work where they wish, officials have mostly opened up small cities that they view as likely to benefit from an influx of people." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs""
15) "Too often, these cities suffer from low growth and offer few employment opportunities. Beijing seems to think it can rejuvenate these depressed regions by simply pushing migrants toward them" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
16) "—as if the new residents will magically find jobs or create small businesses—and at the same time solve the problem of excess housing stock with high vacancy rates." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
17) "The hope among Chinese economic planners is that they can boost rural consumption without launching sweeping reforms of restrictive Mao-era policies." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
18) "Real reforms that would unleash the productivity of China’s hinterlands would require a significant relaxation of CCP control over cities, as well as the countryside" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
19) "—a concession that party leaders, intent on tightening rather than loosening their grip on power, are unlikely to embrace." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
20) "Not only would rural governments lose valuable revenue streams and urban ones acquire new economic burdens, but the party would lose one of its most powerful tools of social control: the ability to dictate where half the population lives." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons
21) "But unless the CCP can integrate rural-born people and enable them to join the ranks of the middle class, China’s economy is unlikely to maintain the transformative level of growth that has defined the last two decades." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
22) "And the shadow over China’s economy will darken prospects well beyond its borders." https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs
23) "Even as the country shakes off some of the damage done by the coronavirus, it won’t be able to lift the global economy out of recession. It will be lucky to avoid one itself. " https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-04-08/dont-count-china-lift-global-economy?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter_cta&utm_campaign=cta_share_buttons via @ForeignAffairs /ends
