Is China a Developed Country?
There are many factors to support the fact that China is a developed country, with a rising GDP and poverty levels decreasing, it looks like China could finally be developed. On the other hand, the poor in China are extremely low with people living in rural areas have to live of 30 cents a day. So with this large gap between the rich and the poor is it really a developed country?
Economically it would look like China was a developed. Since the global finance crisis it has looked very strong compared to other countries. Last year it had an economic growth of 9.1% whereas the economies of large MEDC’s had slowed down. China is also soon to take over Japan as the second largest economy and the third biggest trading power, but still with the economic success China is still a developing country. China’s GDP per capita is still 104th in the world and there is still great uneven economies in different regions. Its rapid development has benefited some but caused problems with many. Also, a developed country would have more of a steady growth to its economy, with rapid growth it shows that it is still developing, but with China’s economy on such a large scale does it mean that it would still have a rapid growing economy even if it was developed? I don’t believe so as the United States has the largest economy in the world but still grows steadily.
The industrial development has only seemed to take off in the east of China and 700 to 800 million people live in rural areas in China which shows that they are still in a period of transition to an industrial society. When more of China becomes industrialised, they will be able to develop more.
If we compare urban to rural households we can see that in 2009, 10.9% of households in an urban area had cars compared to 0.7% in rural households, also, only 7.5% had computers in rural households compared to 65.7% in urban areas. It is good to see that there has been steady improvements in rural areas in the past 30 years but
Economically it would look like China was a developed. Since the global finance crisis it has looked very strong compared to other countries. Last year it had an economic growth of 9.1% whereas the economies of large MEDC’s had slowed down. China is also soon to take over Japan as the second largest economy and the third biggest trading power, but still with the economic success China is still a developing country. China’s GDP per capita is still 104th in the world and there is still great uneven economies in different regions. Its rapid development has benefited some but caused problems with many. Also, a developed country would have more of a steady growth to its economy, with rapid growth it shows that it is still developing, but with China’s economy on such a large scale does it mean that it would still have a rapid growing economy even if it was developed? I don’t believe so as the United States has the largest economy in the world but still grows steadily.
The industrial development has only seemed to take off in the east of China and 700 to 800 million people live in rural areas in China which shows that they are still in a period of transition to an industrial society. When more of China becomes industrialised, they will be able to develop more.
If we compare urban to rural households we can see that in 2009, 10.9% of households in an urban area had cars compared to 0.7% in rural households, also, only 7.5% had computers in rural households compared to 65.7% in urban areas. It is good to see that there has been steady improvements in rural areas in the past 30 years but