social/economic change benefitted people of china

Question 1

benefits from social change

Answer 1

• before 1949, literacy rate 20% in 15-24 year olds, now it is 99%
• Healthy china 2020 aims to create an NHS like healthcare system
• hukuo system now being relaxed/dismantled, allowing migrant workers access to public services in cities

Question 2

limitations of social change

Answer 2

• access to school still hard for migrant children, huh families struggle to get enough points, despite relaxed system
• 61 million left behind children
• education only free until 15, bribes are normal

Question 3

benefits from economic change

Answer 3

-china lifted 700million people out of poverty since 1978

• chinese tourists abroad are now most in the world,, 100million in 2013
• shows a growing middle class, evidence of growing wealth

Question 4

limitations of economic change

Answer 4

• gini coefficient, 0.46, one of the most unequal economic countries in the world
• 13% of population live on less than 1.25 dollars per day while there are more than 594 billionaires
• in 2009, 130million migrant workers travelled to cities to find work, 20 mil had to return to urban villages with no work
• in some urban town unemployment as high as 40%

Question 5

conc

Answer 5

chinas social and economic changes have largely benefited many people in china, however have negative consequences coinciding too and a long way to go to achieve an equal society as with their increasing population, the inequalities amongst their nation are just going to worsen as more people are desperate to find work in overcrowded cities

• also need to address the mass discrimination that the 277million migrant workers must face, as they leave their families and homes in the rural villages to enter the cities to face harsh living and working conditions and are subject to dangerous machinery and chemicals, leaving behind 61million children who are often left up to one year without their parents to receive unfair wages
• although gov has recently introduced a minimum wage which largely benefitted many people and planned to increase the wage by 13% up until 2015, many people experienced a more healthy living wage and government introduced tax cuts to improve rural incomes and lift more people out of poverty
• however with inequality being ingrained into there lives of Chinese people from infants with 70% of children in urban areas attending high school compared to 10% in rural areas, still unequal, and the government still condoning forced evictions and 45% of chinas huge population living in overcrowded cities, some major changes are still necessary to make china an equal nation