China

The 1980s may be characterized by two demographic issues which are receiving rapidly increasing attention.

China currently is the country with the largest population in the world. The Fifth National Population Census in 2000 reports that the total population of mainland China stands at 1.27 billion (Zhuang and Zhang, 2003), while the 1 Percent National Population Sample Survey (mini-census) carried out in November 2005 reports the total population to be at 1.31 billion (National Statistics Bureau (NSB), 2006).1 China is also the country with the most stringent and government-directed family planning programme and fertility policy, having experienced a dramatic decline in fertility from 5 to 6 children per woman in the 1950s to less than 2 in recent years. The 2000 census reports China’s total fertility rate (TFR) to be at 1.4 (NSB, 2003). The rapid changes occurring in China’s population dynamics call for a review of the fertility transition in China in terms of trends, policy and impact. This article will first discuss the population dynamics ongoing in China in terms of growth, birth rate and fertility and then examine the fertility policy implemented by the Government of China, before exploring the impact of fertility decline in terms of population ageing, gender equality, sex ratio at birth and labour supply.

Since the late 1970s, China has been making strong efforts to accelerate the pace of modernization. Because the Chinese Government considers poor economic development and rapid population growth to be the main obstacles to modernization, it has emphasised both of those aspects.

Increasing attention is being paid to the rapid change of population age structures in developing countries, even though population growth has long been considered as the main issue in those countries. As a result of the consistent decline in fertility over the last two to three decades, the working age population currently claims a large proportion of the total age structure. Soon, however, rapid growth of the elderly population will be one of the most conspicuous characteristics of population change in the developing countries. It is estimated that currently the total world population increases 1.7 per cent annually, whereas the portions of the population aged 55+ years and 65+ years increase 2.2 per cent and 2.8 per cent, respectively. Eighty per cent of the increase in the 55-t population occurs in the developing countries. In the next three decades, the population aged 65 and over in the developing countries will be twice as great as in the developed countries (Kinsella, 1988).

Breast-feeding is almost universal and lengthy in China, especially in less developed areas (SSB, 1986; Tu, 1989a). Breast-feeding serves as an effective means of birth spacing in traditional Chinese society where the reproductive potential is enormous owing to early and universal marriage. It also provides protection against malnutrition and infectious diseases that is very important for child survival, especially in rural areas where access to modern medical facilities is quite limited and infant formulas are not available (Tu, 1989a).

In recent decades, many third world countries have been experiencing rapid rates of urbanization resulting in an explosion in the siae of their urban population. China, however, has been a striking exception to the general patterns. The Government of China has intervened in order to keep the process of urbanization under control. Since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, the Government has taken measures to control gradually the rapid growth of population and to regulate by various means the increase of the urban population and the level of urbanization. The low level of urbanization in China has thus been well recognized in recent studies of the demographic, geographic, social and economic development of this country (Chen, 1973; Thompson, 1975; Chang, 1976; Chiu, 1980; Yeh and Xu, 1984; Chen, 1988).

A major issue in all societies, especially those that are ageing, is the extent to which the elderly can live independently. Cognitive functioning is a crucial factor in the degree of independence of the elderly, while cognitive impairment can predict the loss of functions and even death. There is a close and direct relationship between social support and cognitive functioning, and social support-preventable cognitive impairment (Bassuk and Berkman, 1999). A recent cross-sectional study demonstrated that intergenerational support improved the cognitive functioning of the elderly in rural China (Wang, Li and Zhang, 2005). However, within the context of high levels of migration of working-age adults from rural to urban areas of China, multivariate analysis of longitudinal data on changes in the cognitive functioning of the elderly is required. This article presents an analysis of selected data from a 3-wave longitudinal survey conducted from 2001 to 2006 among 997 parents aged 60 and older living in rural Anhui Province, China, showing that intergenerational transfers, especially financial transfers, have a significant influence on the changes in the cognitive functioning of the elderly. As such, the findings bring a new dimension to the current scientific discussion on the impacts of changing traditional patterns of intergenerational support for elderly persons in China.

Worldwide, stigma and discrimination have been identified as tremendous barriers to addressing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, beginning with Jonathan Mann in the 1980s (Mann, 1987), and by others (UNAIDS, 2001, 2008; Reidpath, Brijnath and Chan, 2005; APN+, 2004). Stigma was defined by Goffman (1963) nearly half a century ago as a discrediting attribute about an individual or group that serves to devalue that person or group in the eyes of the society. More recent theoretical frameworks suggest that stigmatization and discrimination are manifest in a number of contexts, including within families, communities, schools, employment, travel/ migration opportunities, health-care settings and HIV/AIDS programmes (Parker and Aggleton, 2002), and in religion and the media (Malcolm and others, 1998). A study in four countries in Asia found pervasive discrimination, with 80 per cent of respondents having experienced AIDS-related discrimination, including nearly one in five facing discrimination within their families and in their workplaces (APN+, 2004). In a review of interventions to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma, Brown, MacIntyre and Trujillo (2003) noted that stigma affects prevention behaviours, test-seeking, care-seeking, quality of care provided to positive clients, and perceptions and treatment of people living with HIV and AIDS by communities and families. Parker and others (2002) contend that HIV/AIDS-related stigma is often layered upon other stigma, for example, the one associated with engaging in illegal behaviour, such as sex work and drug use. Furthermore, families with HIV-positive members often face stigma from the community. In order to combat stigma and the associated discrimination, it is important to understand the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes and how they vary across groups within a country. Such knowledge is critical for designing interventions to reduce stigma and discrimination.

With the development of its family planning programme, China has achieved great success since the 1970s in slowing the growth of its population. This is evident in the rapid decline in fertility: the total fertility rate (TFR) declined from the 1960s average of 5.68 to 4.0 in the 1970s and to only 2.46 for the first eight years of the 1980s.

The last decade has seen increasing interest in population ageing, especially in the more developed countries of the world (Tinker, 1989). The explosion of books, journals and articles on ageing gives an indication of this growing interest. There are plenty of reasons for this interest: the profit motive, the debate about the provision of social services and health care, the involvement of elderly people themselves, and most importantly the changing age structure of the population, which will result in increasing dependency of the elderly on society.

Since 1978, economic reforms have brought about dramatic increases in temporary migration.

China’s birth control programme did reduce couples’ demand for children, but it did not change their attitudes about ’male superiority’

The dramatic changes in fertility that occurred in China during the past few decades are well known. The 1982 One-per-Thousand Fertility Sampling Survey of China reveals that the total fertility rate fell from 5.81 at the beginning of 1950 to 2.63 in 1981.

The effects of the development of township and village enterprises are not yet evident, but their potential is enormous, especially with regard to the need for urban planning

Besides living arrangements and enacted instrumental support, proper emphasis should also be given to various aspects of interpersonal exchanges and their interrelationships

The high growth levels projected for China and India will make these two countries the most important pole of the global economy for the next few years, creating a market of great potential for Latin American and Caribbean exports. These markets had remained largely untapped until recently, with the exception of certain South American primary products. Latin America should strengthen its ties with the two Asian countries, in order to increase production synergies with them. Free trade agreements and trade and investment partnerships should also be established, in order to increase access to both markets and facilitate insertion into Asian production and export chains.

The entry of China into the World Trade Organization, if it takes place, will unquestionably have a major impact on many nations. What is focused on here is the impact it would have on trade between the United States and the countries of the Caribbean Basin. The problems caused to the latter by Mexican membership of the North American Free Trade Agreement could be exacerbated by the shift of forces that would result from this new situation. The major expansion of textile and clothing exports from China to the United States that is in prospect would intensify the competition faced by the countries of the Basin and Mexico in that market. Nonetheless, the recent expansion of the trade benefits granted by the United States to the Caribbean Basin, which came into effect on 1 October 2000, gives a short respite (five years or so) in which these countries can seek to consolidate their exports, particularly of wearing apparel. In the case of footwear, increased trade between China and the United States could have adverse effects on the exports of the Dominican Republic to the United States market. As regards medical instruments, Chinese exports would compete strongly with those of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic in that same market.

Entre los años 2002 y 2008, el auge de los precios de los productos básicos hizo que aumentaran notablemente los ingresos derivados de las exportaciones de América Latina, en parte debido al incremento de la demanda china de esos productos. Se han estudiado exhaustivamente los efectos directos de las mayores exportaciones latinoamericanas a China, pero el efecto indirecto de la acrecentada demanda china de los productos básicos en los precios mundiales ha recibido menos atención. Aquí se estima la contribución del crecimiento de dicha demanda al alza de los precios de los 15 principales productos básicos exportados desde la región. Estas estimaciones permiten calcular para toda la región la ganancia total en ingresos derivados de las exportaciones a raíz del “efecto China” en los precios mundiales. También se ofrecen cálculos de la repercusión neta de los incrementos de precios inducidos por China en las balanzas comerciales de 17 países latinoamericanos.

Dado el aumento de la participación de China en la agenda comercial de América del Sur desde 2001, el crecimiento de aquel país adquirió una enorme importancia para las economías sudamericanas. Se procura analizar el efecto derrame del crecimiento de China en el crecimiento de las principales economías sudamericanas (Argentina, Brasil, Chile y Colombia) entre 1981 y 2014. Se analiza si el aumento de la participación china en la agenda comercial de estos países a partir de 2001 ha alterado dicho efecto. Este efecto es positivo, si bien no se han producido cambios significativos al respecto. La expansión de las exportaciones de los sectores tradicionales de las economías sudamericanas (productos básicos) no resulta suficiente para ampliar las ganancias con el crecimiento de China. Se destaca la importancia de las políticas públicas que diversifiquen la cartera de exportaciones sudamericanas hacia China, como los incentivos a las exportaciones de sectores no tradicionales.

The commodity boom between 2002 and 2008 played an important role in increasing export earnings from Latin America. Growing demand from China for primary products was one factor stimulating the boom. While the direct effects of the growth of exports from Latin America to China have been extensively explored, the indirect impact of higher Chinese demand for commodities on global commodity prices has received less attention. This paper estimates the contribution made by the growth of Chinese demand to the rise in the prices of the 15 main commodities exported from the region. On the basis of these estimates, it calculates the total gain for the region as a whole in export revenues from the “China effect” on world prices. It also provides estimates for 17 Latin American countries of the net effect of Chinese-induced price increases on their trade balances.

China and India are the two most populous countries in the world and together they account for almost 38 per cent of the global population. China’s population has already crossed the 1.2 billion mark and India’s is expected to exceed 1 billion around the turn of the century. However, in recent years, the annual growth rate of the Chinese population has slowed down, to about 1.1 per cent, whereas in India it continues to be almost 2 per cent. The available evidence shows that China has experienced a large and remarkably rapid fertility transition in recent years, whereas although fertility in India has also fallen, the decline has been much smaller. Why has India not been as successful as China in achieving a fertility decline?

At a time when globalization is increasingly challenged, it is rewarding to read a book that touts the promise of globalization, in particular the benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI). While international trade takes centre stage in the popular media, FDI is not only related to it but also at least as important in its own right, not just economically but also politically, geopolitically, socially, and otherwise. As most economic and social phenomena, it has multiple facets, of which the author chooses to highlight one, namely its critical role in economic growth and development.

El alto crecimiento pronosticado para China e India mantendría a estos países como el polo más importante de la economía mundial en los próximos años, ofreciendo a América Latina y el Caribe un mercado de gran potencial para sus productos de exportación. Esta posibilidad ha sido poco explotada hasta ahora, salvo en el caso de algunos sectores de productos primarios provenientes de América del Sur. América Latina debería fortalecer los vínculos con ambos países asiáticos, buscando una mayor complementariedad productiva con ellos y estableciendo acuerdos comerciales y además alianzas de comercio y de inversión, lo que le daría nuevo acceso a esos dos mercados y propiciaría su incorporación a las cadenas asiáticas de producción y exportación.

En este artículo, escrito especialmente para la Revista de la Cepal, se analizan los antecedentes y las perspectivas de la reforma económica de China y de su apertura a la economía internacional. En la sección I se describe el proceso de reforma y apertura de los últimos 15 años y se analizan sus diversos resultados. En la sección II se consideran algunas lecciones de la experiencia china, incluyendo aspectos políticos y sociales además de los propiamente económicos. En la sección III se consideran diversas perspectivas de la economía china hacia finales del presente siglo, mientras en la sección IV y final se analizan tres interrogantes: ¿Es reversible la reforma en China? ¿Se establecerá una economía socialista de mercado en China? ¿Llegará China a ser una superpotencia?

لمعلا لىإ ناهز شي لقتنا ،)ينصلا( ينليج ةعطاقم ةعاذإ في جمارب مِِّّدقم ناك نأ دعب لكش ةسرامم في 2014 ماع ذنم قلطنا دقو .ةينوتركللإا ةيعمسلا ملاعلإا لئاسو في وحن لىع ةينيصلا ةمكاحلا سرلأا خيرات ةياور في لثمتي ،ةيتوصلا صصقلا نم ديدج ياهغناش في عقت ةينطو ةطحم يهو ،.مأ .فأ ايلااميه ةعاذإ لىع ،يويحو يعادبإ.ينصلا في ةيبعش رثكلأا ةيعاذلإا ةكبشلا برتعُتو

In its 2012 survey covering 178 countries, Transparency International ranked China at 3.5 in what is called the Corruption Perception Index, the 80th country, together with Serbia and Trinidad and Tobago. To see things from another point of view, China was the fourth-lowest ranking of G20 nations with only Argentina, India, Indonesia and Russia scoring lower. At such levels, corruption poses a threat to China’s political stability and sustainable development, especially at a time when China’s ‘Gini’ coefficient, a statistical measure of income inequality, is at 0.47 close to that 0.5 threshold where inequality is severe and calls for immediate action. Many experts believe that this widening wealth gap is partly the result of large amounts of “illegal income” resulting from corruption.

« Le don de la Chine à l’Afrique ». Le nouveau siège de l’Union africaine, un imposant immeuble de 20 étages à Addis-Abeba est ainsi décrit parce que la Chine a pris en charge les frais de construction (200 millions de dollars) de ce complexe ultramoderne. Le plus haut bâtiment d’Éthiopie, achevé en décembre 2011, à temps pour un sommet de l’UA organisé le mois suivant, comprend une salle de conférence de 2 500 places.

India and China both carried out banking sector reforms in the 1990s. Despite taking a gradual approach, India’s reforms have been the more comprehensive and have been implemented at a faster pace than in China. India’s experience suggests that the following four issues would be relevant in China’s future reform agenda: (1) privatizing the wholly state-owned commercial banks (WSCBs) and introducing measures to improve corporate governance; (2) removing Government intervention to make WSCBs more commercially oriented; (3) reducing the dominance of WSCBs by rationalizing weak banks and downsizing large WSCBs; and (4) if adopted, relaxing the stringent statutory liquidity requirement, which seems to discourage banks from lending. There are also lessons to be learned from India’s reforms. First, the entry of new banks should be promoted provided they are sufficiently capitalized and are technology-oriented. Second, diversification of banks’ business should accompany interest rate liberalization in order to compensate for the expected decline in net interest income and prevent banks from taking excessive risks. Third, strict regulations should be introduced to prevent connected lending.

The paper analyses trends in fiscal decentralization in the two largest countries of the world — China and India. Both countries are in transition from a planned to a market system. The paper identifies the emerging challenges in achieving fiscal decentralization in the two countries. The challenges arise firstly from the transition to the market economy and secondly from the replacement of the old command and control systems with institutions developed to administer market-based policies and instruments. The paper argues that the approach to meet the emerging challenges has to be holistic and should deal with the sub-national budgeting system underpinning central fiscal control and not just the various components of the sub-national systems. The overall approach should ideally encompass all levels of government.

‘China’s gift to Africa.” The new headquarters of the African Union, a towering 20-storey building in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, is so called because China picked up the $200 million tab for the state-of-the-art complex. Ethiopia’s tallest building, completed in December 2011 in time for an AU summit the following month, includes a 2,500-seat conference hall. The gift prompted Ethiopia’s late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi to refer to Africa’s current economic boom as a “renaissance,” due partly to China’s “amazing re-emergence and its commitments to a win-win partnership with Africa.”

In a sweltering monsoon afternoon in Xiaobei, in Guangzhou, a city in southeast China, a group of young and middle-aged African men take positions up and down a street lined by shops, alert to the passing of potential clients. Not far from them, in an adjacent street, another group of Africans—three women and a man holding a child in his arms— huddle around bales of merchandise. As the sun slowly sets, the town square fills up with people.

This paper studies the pump-set industry in rural China, which has led to the widespread diffusion of inexpensive and readily repairable pumping technology in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Viet Nam. To do so, we first describe the rise of China’s pump-set industry, which includes hundreds of small family-owned enterprises that are doing business in a manufacturing cluster located in a single small town in southern China. We then discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with this type of industrial structure. We conclude by examining the dynamics of the industry that have emerged during the past decade and speculate on future developments of China’s pump-set industry and the ways that it may continue to support the further expansion of food production in Asia.

Ancien animateur radio de la province de Jilin (Chine), Shi Zhan s'est reconverti dans les médias audio en ligne. Il pratique aujourd'hui une nouvelle forme de récit sonore. Depuis 2014, il raconte de manière créative et vivante l'histoire des anciennes dynasties chinoises sur une chaîne nationale basée à Shanghai, Himalaya FM, le réseau audio le plus populaire de Chine.

The fourth plenum of the 18th Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee ended on 24 October 2014. For the first time in the history of China this important party session was devoted to the rule of law. Considering that the country is ruled according to the one-party system without separation of powers, the event has led many to hope that time has come for China to initiate her path toward constitutionalism and democracy.

China’s RV Zhong Shan Da Xue, is a gigantic state-of-the-art floating laboratory that will help scientists discover the deep seas. One of its first missions is to study a whale fall that was recently discovered.

Few images are more enduring in the historical imagination than a train of two-humped Bactrian camels plodding across desert sands from west to east, or vice versa, across the vast open spaces of Eurasia. Now that China is edging towards a modern incarnation of the ‘Silk Road’, it is worth remembering how this emblem of the ancient world actually came into being.

Научно-исследовательское судно «Чжуншань Дасюэ» — огромная плавучая высокотехнологичная лаборатория по исследованию морских глубин. Одной из главных задач этого гиганта станет изучение останков кита, которые недавно были обнаружены в Южно-Китайском море.

El RV Zhong Shan Da Xue es un gigantesco laboratorio flotante de alta tecnología para la exploración de las profundidades marinas. Una de las primeras misiones de este gigante de los mares será estudiar los restos recientemente descubiertos de una ballena.

خلافا لمن يكبرونهم سنّا، لا يتردّد السلاشرز، وهم من ساكني المدن المتعلمين والمتعودين على التكنولوجيات الرقمية، في مضاعفة تجاربهم المهنية والانسياق وراء رغباتهم سواء بتعلم تصميم الأزياء أو موسيقى الهيب هوب أو الرسم على الشبكات الاجتماعية.

This article seeks to contribute to the debate on China-Latin America relations. It considers whether the trade relations that exist between China and the region are mutually beneficial or, instead, reinforce Latin America’s dependency on the international scenario. The effects of Chinese growth on a group of Latin American countries are analysed using the computable general equilibrium model of the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP). Chinese growth was simulated through an expansion of the Chinese capital stock, thus mirroring the trend observed in recent decades. The results suggest a return to the commodity export model and a reduction in industrial activity in the Latin American countries analysed, particularly in the high-tech sectors. Nonetheless, well-being in Latin America also increased, mainly owing to improvements in the terms of trade (resulting from the commodity price boom).

As early as in the seventh century, what we now call autism had already been recorded in China. During the Sui Dynasty (581-618), Chao Yuanfang, an imperial physician, wrote in Zhubing Yuanhou Lun (On the Etiology of Diseases), of the so-called hun se (muddle-headed), yu chi (language delay) phenotype, saying it was “clinically manifested in a child’s lack of speech and neurodevelopmental retardation”.