ABSTRACT
Since the beginning of economic reform in 1978, with the adoption of the ‘open door policy’, the performance of the Chinese economy has been impressive: from 1978 to 2005 GDP per capita increased almost nine-fold (in constant US dollars at purchasing power parity), with an average growth rate of 8.4 per cent per year (World Bank 2007). At the same time, life expectancy at birth increased from 66 to 72 years, the mortality rate under five years more than halved, the poverty rate (measured by the proportion of people living with less than one USD a day) dropped from 64 per cent in 1981 to 10 per cent in 2005 (ibid.), and the percentage of urban dwellers within the total population has more than doubled (NBS 2006). As a result, China is constantly increasing its ranking in the Human Development Index: in 2005, China ranked eighty-first (UNDP 2006), gaining four places over previous years and heading towards the high human development countries.
