ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the changes and continuities of Chinese urbanisation policies between 1949 and 1989. The policies are categorised into four groups: policies that control the population flow between cities and the countryside; policies that guide the development of cities; policies that guide the development of the countryside; and policies that guide regional allocation of industries. Although the influences of these policies and strategies on Chinese urbanisation are widely discernible in the literature, a systematic understanding of the urbanisation policies is still lacking. The chapter describes the understanding of Chinese urbanisation studies by presenting systematically a detailed account of Chinese urbanisation policies. Chinese urbanisation policies worked together as a means of controlling Chinese urban development. The Chinese government believed that the uneven distribution of production forces was against Marxist principles and was the cause of social tensions between Chinese and other ethnic groups.
