Development matters to ordinary people

Growth and development can mean the same thing sometimes, but they are different, at least to my understanding. In Chinese, growth is translated as zengzhang and is related to figures, while development is fazhan and refers to progress toward better quality.

Theoretically, there can be fast economic growth without development. For example, a section of road can be renovated three or five times a year, which will consume a lot of materials such as asphalt and manpower. Such consumption will certainly contribute to the growth of gross domestic product (GDP) but it will not contribute to the development of social wealth. Neither will it improve the quality of life for residents. Instead, the lives of those residents living near the road will be badly disrupted.

GDP does not reflect improved living standards or a better quality of life. In such figure-related growth, residents do not benefit. Instead they suffer, at least those living in the vicinity of the renovated road. They have to tolerate the dust, inconvenient transport and the noise from the construction. It is the leaders who benefit from such growth, as GDP figures have become the benchmark of good governance and official performance.