Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
With that said, there is also a growing poverty gap with over 300 million
Chinese still living in impoverished conditions. As aluence in the commer-
cial centers continues to mount, the disparity between rural and urban qual-
ity of life is of growing political concern.
6.4.2 Economic Landscape
Sociocultural justiications aside, there at least three key economic reasons
for China to be optimistic regarding its economic future. First, it is a nation
of abundant natural resources. Water resources rank sixth in the world, sup-
porting both hydropower generation (that ranks irst in the world) and wide-
spread agricultural activity (which has established China as a major producer
of wheat, corn, rice, and cash crops). China's proven deposits in tungsten,
titanium, zinc, rare earths, magnesite, plaster stone, graphite, tin, mercury,
asbestos, coal, nickel, lead, iron, manganese, and platinum all rank within the
top ive globally. Given the natural resources and diverse workforce found in
China, its position as “factory to the world” is duly justiied.
Second, China's level of private, public, and corporate savings eclipse
that found in most other nations, giving China growing inancial clout.
hroughout the 2000s, gross national savings in China ranged between 39.2%
to 54.3% of gross national income. On average, the nation saved one out of
every two dollars that it generated. his level of inancial prudence becomes
particularly striking when one contrasts this with the gross national savings
rates in aluent nations such as Japan (26.8%-33.2%) and the United States
(12.1%-17.7%) or with savings rates in developing nations such as Mexico
(18.6%-25.5%) and India (21.4%-37.6%) over the same period.
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hird, the inlux of foreign investment in China is staggering. In 2010,
China ranked second to only the United States (US$236.2 billion) in foreign
direct investment attracting US$185.1 billion. To put foreign direct invest-
ment in China into proper perspective, $15 out of every $100 invested glob-
ally in foreign markets was invested in China.
6.4.3 Technological Landscape
China's diverse workforce, its natural resource wealth, and the inlux of foreign
investment have fostered a unique technological environment where rudimen-
tary agricultural practices, low-tech manufacturing, and high-tech industry
thrive simultaneously albeit in diferent regional proportions. In many impov-
erished rural areas, rudimentary agricultural practices undertaken by poorly
