Urbanization not all that good

Urbanization has become synonymous with China's modernization. The country's urban population will reach 52 percent in 2015 and grow to 65 percent by 2030, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' annual urban development report, issued last week. By the end of last year, the urbanization rate had already reached 46.6 percent, with 620 million people living in urban areas.

A pro-active urbanization strategy has become popular both in academic and policymaking domains, because theoretically, it reduces farmers' population and prompts them to produce on larger scales and earn more.

But the government-driven urbanization could create a situation in which the countryside would be exploited further and the younger generation would become more dependent on their parents and elders, says He Xuefeng, director of China Rural Governance Research Center, affiliated to Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan. What He is referring to is the migration of rural workers to urban areas, which is draining rural areas of their valuable human resources.