«Contemporary China» - Free Essay Paper

Question 1

China is one of the most powerful countries in the world with the intensive manufacturing. As a result, China has caused many environmental problems that the government tries to solve in the most effective way. The most important issues concern the water pollution, deforestation, and heavy pollution of land. However, these problems are not only belonging to China but they are the part of the global environmental challenges. Accordingly, China is a part of global environmental change but it is most notable because of the large manufactory and industrial policy, which is necessary due to the large territory and population.

The first issue regards the environmental problem of water pollution as a result of intense population growth. China does not control the use of water properly because the uncontrolled use of water has led to its reduction in many provinces. For example, the North China is completely dry due to the metallurgical use of water and the permanent reduction of production, and the innovative technical means virtually do no help (Albert, 2016). In addition, the result of the deterioration of water is the intensive use of pesticides and agricultural fertilizers transforming water into a swamp or a chemical poison. According to statistics, about 300 million Chinese lack access to clean water, and 70 percent of rivers and lakes are polluted and unusable for life (Albert, 2016). Another environmental problem is deforestation, which caused a decrease in the natural purification systems in China. Since the territory is less covered with the forest (20 %), the deforestation caused the specific environmental consequences. It is also important that such a small area of ​​forest has many rare and old trees which are included in the framework of the UN (Albert, 2016). As a result of intensive deforestation, rare animal species are disappearing and some species are on the edge of extinction. The third problem concerns the heavy pollution of land, which reduces the land for agriculture. Desertification occurs mainly in the Western China and is associated with the intense urbanization of China, which also destroys the land for the construction of large cities.

In fact, China is not the only cause of the environmental problems but a fragment of the whole global situation, which is especially true concerning the first challenge because the water issue is becoming increasingly significant for many countries. The geographical position of China is also pivotal since it consists of a dry and rocky land where there is not much water. Despite this, the country also has powerful rivers and lakes but they are not always suitable for drinking. The problem of water pollution for China is crucial as well as for the USA or Russia. It is less evident in sparsely populated countries where the same situation exists. On the other hand, China also suffers from the activities of the other countries, particularly in the perspective of water change.

In addition, China is also a part of global environmental problems including climate change, which resulted in the intensive changing of natural balance. However, the use of cars in China is much lower than in the USA and, thus, the air pollution is not equivalent. On the other hand, China has more factories that emit a harmful vapor (Albert, 2016) but the country receives maximum measures to establish the filters. In fact, the Chinese government is trying to take various agreements and laws that control the emission of gases, desolation of land, and water pollution. This has become especially true after the economic boom that occurred at the beginning of 2000s, when the intensive production of goods caused the extensive pollution (Albert, 2016). China is currently the leader in the production of coal but it requires the use of harmful extractive technologies or less effective workforce.

In conclusion, China finds itself in a difficult dilemma because it should produce the alternative technologies on the basis of harmful sources for climate. In fact, the natural cleaning system does not always help because it requires time, which is impossible in the modern environment situation. In addition, the population growth is not an objective cause because China started to control the increase many years ago and, thus, established the rational use of resources. At the same time, the country belongs to the global economy so pollution is the inevitable consequence of intensive production of goods for international export. Therefore, China is not the only reason of the ecological crisis but also an integral element of the complex global processes, some of which do not depend only on the country.

Question 2

China is now one of the most developed countries in the globalized world fully participating in the difficult geopolitical game. In this context, the country faces many challenges, particularly in terms of internal and external economy, the environmental situation, the processes of urbanization, and the socio-economic misbalance. One of the primary problems regards the socio-economic inequality, which leads to many contradictions between the common people and the government. The main challenge of the socio-economic inequality lies in a big difference in profits in the village and in the city resulting in a gap between social classes and internal closed provinces in the country.

The biggest reason for this is different incomes in rural and urban areas because their economies develop in different ways. While the economy of agricultural sector is focused on the commodity-exchange type of export production, the economy of large cities gains goods for further profit. In this case, Chinese farmers receive less money from the government and businessmen when the latters have much more income on the exchange. According to the latest statistics, the citizens earn almost three times more than the villagers (Xie & Zhou, 2014, p. 6928). The farmers survive and the citizens accumulate capital to develop their businesses. Moreover, China since the early nineties, has directed its policy on the agricultural strong investment in the sector to achieve the maximum effect with the production and sale of various goods from the village.

Another important cause of income inequality is different income from the Chinese regions. For example, the difference between the incomes of various provinces is 12 percent of the total income inequality in China (Xie & Zhou, 2014, p. 6930). Today, that number is growing due to the rapid development of provinces, especially in the context of coastal provinces, where there is a particularly high level of economic development. The access to trade routes, transitive global processes, and global banking system allowed the coastal cities to achieve a great level. Instead, the Chinese regions in the depths are isolated from the global flow of funds and, therefore, generated a large income gap in China. Hence, many people are still in need for education because it gives a chance to somehow get the job and, thus, the China government tries to implement free courses for the poorest people.

Chinese and the Chinese government react differently to these challenges. First of all, the government tries to affect the rich people setting higher taxes and increasing the rate in buying goods from the village. China continues to invest in agriculture trying to balance the income in the poorest areas (Xie & Zhou, 2014, p. 6930). Besides, the Chinese government also controls the urbanization, which leads many Chinese to travel to big cities leaving their homes. At the same time, many rich Chinese also try to control their revenues not abusing with a cheap labor from the peasants. In fact, the largest segment of changes in comprehensive income is related to changes in education. The Chinese government partly helps to receive a free education for farmers, and many citizens simultaneously should pay for education in order to maintain a balance (Xie & Zhou, 2014, p. 6931). In addition, the government tries to make a strong communication between the inland and coastal areas. However, China must respond more effectively to the gap between the cells. In addition, the population control leads to a small number of able-bodied people. Not only the Chinese government but also ordinary Chinese should respond to these challenges in the most sufficient way.

To summarize, the socio-economic inequality is the most crucial question in modern China because it integrates many other problems, especially such as intensive urbanization, excessive exports, lack of education, and a significant difference between age groups. The country should increase intensive exports and navigate over to the domestic economy, which will help farmers to receive decent wages. It will also reduce the accumulation of capital in large cities. In addition, the intensive and systematic funding in education is also possible because China has enough money but mostly spends it on manufacturing. One more vital step is to invest money in the internal regions since there is still a significant social and economic gap. In social terms, reducing birth control will solve the problem of aging population and, therefore, aiming at liberalization. Thus, China has the opportunities and prospects for overcoming the socio-economic inequality as well as it possesses powerful resources fro achieving the intensive democratic development.