ABSTRACT
The Chinese economy has grown rapidly, a growth which does not show any signs of subsiding yet. Of course, high growth rates can be sustained if the start level was low and the gap between the Chinese and other major economies is still large. The low age profile of the Chinese population means that the large majority of the population is in the working age groups (this will remain so until well into the twenty-first century) so that the burden of the nonproductive population on the economy is relatively light. The political management which has led to this growth has shrewdly used the imbalances and barriers in the economy to promote rapid sectoral growth, which has invigorated other parts of the economy. Reforms of the state-owned enterprises seem to be being carried out, reforms which will probably increase productivity and profitability of the state sector, while at the same time necessitating a degree of urban unemployment. The continued absence of proper social security frameworks may lead to some destitution among urban residents; this will affect the least-productive and most frail elements who had an existence within the danweis, but who are likely to form a destitute substratum of urban poor if their relation with the danwei system is broken. The more-productive elements will, if they are forced to leave state employment, be able to find other legal sources of income.
