Chinese Urban Development under the “New Type Urbanization” Policy

Abstract

The Chinese 7th national population census (2020) was held in the recent year of the "urbanization of a new type" state program. The successful management of the entire complex of urbanization processes becomes an important social and political task. Improving the living standards and social security of migrants acts as important components of the reduction of inequality and development of human capital. Census data shows that the program helped the government not only to support the growth of the number of urban dwellers but also to improve the quality of the process. The share of urban dwellers in Chinese population increased from 54.3% in 2014 to 61.4% in 2020, the number of cities larger than 5 million inhabitants reached 21. The Government lifted restrictions on obtaining permanent registration in cities less than 3 million inhabitants and issued more than 100 million intermediate type registration documents (juzhuzheng). Transparent and unified point-quota registration rules have been introduced in large cities, which usually rank applicants according to their age, education, length of residence, tax history and other parameters. These measures made possible expansion of the coverage of rural and nonresident migrants and their children by the social protection system. At the same time, contrary to the program's guidelines, population of the largest cities continued to grow rapidly, and significant interregional and intraregional imbalances remained sharp. Share of the north-eastern part in the urban population of China continued to decline. The continuation of the program "urbanization of a new type" was not formally announced, however it is clear, that the urban system of the PRC will develop in line with the program’s guidelines in the next decade.