ABSTRACT
This chapter helps the readers to gain a better understanding, both conceptually and empirically, of why, in the People’s Republic of China, the progress of industrialisation, defined as an increasing share of industrial output in the total national output, does not necessarily lead to increased urbanisation. It proposes that analysis can be supplemented with reference to relationship between party and state interests and the inherent characteristics specifically of the Chinese socialist system, which lead to unavoidable state control. The chapter illustrates Mao’s rural bias, but, nonetheless, in order to achieve industrial progress China had to strengthen its urban centers. Mao’s famous statement of “simultaneous development of industry and agriculture” and the goal of ultimately eradicating rural-urban differentials was mentioned as the theoretical assertion for the “rural bias” school. the fundamental reasons behind the peculiar pattern of China’s urbanisation in Mao’s period – rapid industrialisation without urbanisation – must be explored under an institutional framework of ‘State Bias’.
