Beyond Lead in the Paint: China Has Its Own Problems, Too

(This is a revised version of the same article published Aug 28, 2007)

BICKERING ACROSS THE POND

I write these words in a time when America and China seem to be having problems with each other. Pets have been killed with tainted food, children's toys are being recalled, the prison- and slave-labor issues still rage, and political tensions are mounting surrounding America's trade debt with China.

With all this negative spin and finger-pointing lately, it's time for a new perspective, folks. Here's the deal... You think we've got problems?

China has loads more.

SIZE DOES MATTER

With 1.3 billion mouths to feed (and many more on the way), China has problems of a scale that no other country in the world has.

These issues range from the easily classifiable topics that bean-counting geeks love to ponder - like the population boom - to more abstract issues that would confound the very best of us - like the alarming rise of teen suicide in China.

To appreciate China's dilemma, let's have a look...

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Within the last decade China has enjoyed an internal growth in GDP to the tune of at least 7% annually. And this is with governmental constraints in place. Without such regulation, GDP growth could have been as high as 15% or more.

With a country that has had so much going for it, much of its growth proceeds at an unchecked pace. With this success there have come massive costs, some of which China's government has identified as seven major social problems.

· Large-scale homelessness and displacement: With as much rapid industrialization and urbanization as China has seen in the last 10 years, at least 40 million farmers have been displaced, many of whom are not able to find new work. At least 1 million were displaced in China's massive Three Gorges hydroelectric power project, which was completed in 2006. To exacerbate this, people from all walks of life are moving into the cities (SEE IMAGE 1), which concentrates this and all other problems into smaller areas. In this way urbanization compounds the intensity of these issues in a markedly geographic way.