Poverty in China

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Poverty in China

 

 

200 million people in China live below the international poverty line of $1.25/day.[i]

 

468 million people in China live with under $2/day.[ii]

 

By contrast, Sub-Saharan Africa has 380 million people who live with less than $1.25/day.[iii]

 

55% of China’s population lives in the countryside.[iv]

 

China is ranked #99 in the world for GDP per capita, which is behind El Salvador (#92), Albania (#94) and Namibia (#98).[v]

 

China ranks #103 among countries for infant mortality, behind Albania (#91), Nicaragua (#98) and Samoa (#102). [vi]

 

The poorest 40% of people in China earn 16% of China’s income, while the richest 20% of people in China earn 48% of the national income.[vii]

 

There are 63 NGO’s operating in China.  By comparison, there are 3284 in Africa, 3605 in South & Southeast Asia, 882 in Latin America and 652 in the Middle East.[viii]

 

Each NGO in Africa serves about 300,000 people, while each NGO in China serves about 30 million people.[ix]

 

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China confirmed in 2010 a report that some local governments are specifically targeting migrant workers for forced abortions.[x]

 

A surplus of men leads to higher savings rates as well as an increased labor supply, which in turn causes the exchange rate of the Chinese yuan to be much lower than in economies with balanced gender ratios.  Empirically, those economies with a high sex ratio tend to have a low real exchange rate, beyond what can be explained by the Balassa-Samuelson effect, financial underdevelopment, dependence ratio, and exchange rate regime classifications.  As a result, the Chinese yuan is only undervalued by 2% to 8%, since the surplus of men is driving the undervaluing most heavily.[xi]

 

This saving of money also leads to an increase in demand for US Government Bonds in China.[xii]

 

The uneven sex ratio in China can explain half of the increase in private saving between 1990 and 2005.[xiii]

 

Shang-Jin Wei, Professor of Economics at Columbia University, argues that the high gender imbalance in China is leading to the trade imbalance between China and other countries such as the U.S[xiv]

 


[i] UNICEF and U.N. Human Development Report 2009, http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/103.html

[ii] UNICEF and U.N. Human Development Report 2009, http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/indicators/103.html

[iv] The Economist, The war on baby girls:  Gendercide:  Killed, aborted or neglected, at least 100m girls have disappeared—and the number is rising, March 4, 2010

[vi] UNICEF, United Nations Population Division, http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/china_statistics.html

[viii] World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, http://www.wango.org/

[ix] World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, http://www.wango.org/

[x] U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Annual Report 2010, http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_house_committee_prints&docid=f:61507.pdf

[xi] Sex Ratios and Exchange Rates , Qingyuan Du, Shang-Jin Wei, Columbia University, National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper #16788, February, 2011.  Referenced in the Globe and Mail, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/the-economists/currency-manipulation-sex-ratio-drives-yuan-lower/article1933949/.

[xii] Justin Lahard, “Preference for Sons in China May Lead to Bubbles in U.S.,” Wall Street Journal, June 5, 2009, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124415971813687173.html

[xiii] Referenced in The Economist, The sex trade imbalance; March 10, 2011. http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/03/trade

[xiv] Referenced in The Economist, The sex trade imbalance; March 10, 2011. http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2011/03/trade

 

 

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