China, 'Critical' or 'Flawed'

The article that I chose for this week's topic is called China's Great Uprooting. In the article, the author sheds some light on China's recent push towards urbanization. The Chinese government is moving an astonishing 250,000,000 people to new urban centers that it has created in an effort to speed up the urbanization process. That number of people nearly equals the population of the United States, and these are just rural citizens! There are already many massive urban centers within China to begin with.

The thought process behind this push for urbanization is two-fold. On one hand, if this large number of people becomes urban, then growth will inevitably follow due to the sheer number of people that will need goods and services in these urban centers. On the other hand, China's economy is based on domestic trade, and for domestic trade to flourish, it needs to have demand. By creating these centers that contain millions of people, China's government hopes that there will be large amounts of population growth that will increase demand for it's countries domestically produced goods.

The topic for the week is Human security and failed states. The Failed States Index has China listed as a 'critical' state, ranked at number 66. But is it really in such dire straights? I do not believe so. China's situation is certainly not ideal, with half the world's population, and about half of it still considered rural. The country is taking a gamble that it can create massive growth by forcing its population to migrate to these urban centers. This endeavor can really only end two ways, either it works or it doesn't. I would consider China to be more in the category of 'boarderline' at present. The country has a growing economy, is secure, and has a government that can function day to day. One area where China falls short is in the area of providing basic services for it's people. There are millions of people who live in horrid conditions within China, and often times the Chinese government overlooks human rights issues within its own boarders and abroad, but to me it does not seem to be anywhere near 'critical.'

Perhaps if it fails its ambitious project to accelerate the urbanization process, then I would consider it to be in more of a 'critical' position, as their finances will certainly struggle and with it the economy would turn for the worse and the people would turn on their government. The fact that China is considered to be critical in the FSI discredits the map to me somewhat. If we are trying to discern what states are 'failed' there surely must be a distinction between states like China, who I would consider 'flawed but functional,' and a 'failed' state such as Somalia. They are both considered 'critical' by the FSI, and even though they are 65 spots apart, surely they do not merit the same ranking. Seeing China ranked this way made me recall the 'Rethinking Failed States' video that we watched this week, when one of their viewers brought up the fact that states with western ideals seem to have a more stable ranking than states with other ideology. Perhaps there is some truth to that observation?