38. Urbanization Is Making China Wealthy— But Is It Sustainable?

http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/05/urbanization-is-making-china-wealthy-but-is-it-sustainable/276202/

On May 24th, Matt Schiavenza wrote an article addressing the problems China is facing regarding its plan to increase the country’s wealth. In the first half of the article, Schiavenza first presented the suggested urbanization plan and explained how it has and how it may continue making the Chinese wealthier. He makes comparisons with the United States in respect to the percentage of people in rural to give some perspective and moves to explain the problems behind this plan. The second half of the article focuses on the several problems behind urbanization in China and some possible solutions the government is turning to. The author says that the two main problems is that the governments are in huge debt, so they may not be able to handle the support for such a large migration and the second is that the income gap between the rich and he poor is extremely high. Schiavenza ends by stating what the Chinese government has been doing in order to solve some of these predicaments, giving a hopeful preview of what China may be able to overcome by saying that it has become more willing to make reforms.

The author’s purpose in writing this article was to inform his readers about the dilemma China is facing. He uses many examples and refers to the history of the country in order to support his claims about urbanization in China and in the world and how it is able to increase the wealth of a nation. He compares China to the United States to make his ideas clearer since most readers are probably Americans and he also uses a rhetorical question in the end to introduce the idea that China has become more open-minded regarding reforms.