As China continues to boom in the coming decades, it would be well advised to think big. Big cities, that is. So far the migration from rural areas that has driven China’s growth has fed the rise of many cities, and this scattered pattern is magnifying the key problems of urbanization: pollution, environmental destruction and the dislocation of farmers from land around cities, which is producing a growing number of agrarian protests. The development of megacities–which, granted, have produced chaos in other countries–would in fact produce a cleaner, more socially stable and faster-growing economy in China. Bigger is better for China due to its unique development pattern. Some foreign observers assume that China has urbanized successfully, so far, because it has a strong central government that can impose conformity even in the smallest village. And that was true in the past. However, after China began to embrace economic reform and openness after 1978, it relaxed the internal passport system called hukou to ensure a plentiful supply of labor in economic hot spots. To this day, China’s economic liberalism has gone hand in hand with a policy of unleashing local dynamism, and explicitly encouraging entrepreneurial city leaders.

Authors: Diana Farrell, Janamitra Devan and Jonathan Woetzel

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