In Shaanxi province, the government wants to move 2.8 million residents from their homes. The policy is about more than just alleviating poverty
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In the south of Shaanxi province, a mountainous region of China, floods and landslides are a constant peril for people living on the steep slopes of hills. Poor conditions in the area have been greatly exacerbated by man-made causes, especially farming on dangerous slopes, as well as mining and quarrying. To address this issue in late 2010 officials announced an ambitious plan to move some 2.8 million people out of poverty stricken and disaster prone areas over the course of 10 years.
This is twice as many as were relocated for the construction several years ago of the Three Gorges Dam - making it the biggest government arranged migration in China's history. Large-scale relocations are a common tactic in China's approach to poverty alleviation. The southern province of Guizhou plans to move some 1.5 million people out of poor mountainous areas by the end of the decade. The western province of Ningxia aims to resettle more than 350,000 by 2015.
Local leaders have another big incentive too. The Han River which flows through southern Shaanxi is to provide water for a massive diversion project which will channel water from southern China to the arid north. Officials fear that farming on the hillsides, and the landslides it causes, will pollute the water with chemicals.
They want to move farmers off the mountains and replant them with trees. Massive slogans have been erected on mountainsides in southern Shaanxi urging citizens to protect the environment and send clean water to Beijing. Many young people have already left the mountain villages to look for work elsewhere.
Those left behind are mostly elderly people or children. Moving the elderly is proving most difficult. Many are deeply attached to the land where their ancestors are buried - they get money from their children working in distant factories as well as small government pensions. They see no reason to move. Officials have tried to move them to old people's homes but some have returned to the mountaintops where they feel more at home.
Officials say the only way to get the old folk to move permanently is to destroy their houses after they leave. Finding enough land on which to build more houses like these will be difficult. Peasants who farm it will need to be compensated. Rural officials in China have a habit of giving far less compensation than peasants expect. Protests are often the result.
Even though the government is paying for part of the cost of building the farmers new houses farmers still have to pay a lot themselves. They can get low-interest loans but for poor farmers this means adding massive debt to their already strained finances. But compared with other provinces with large pockets of poverty Shaanxi has an advantage.
In recent years its economy has received a massive boost from demand for its oil natural gas and minerals. Most of the profits from these businesses are sent to Beijing but Shaanxi gets to keep some.
In the last couple of years an expressway has been built through the impoverished south. This has helped open the area to new business opportunities including, officials hope, a boom in tourism. The key to this achievement however has not been government arranged resettlement programs. Rather it has been market forces migrants from southern Shaanxi have been using their earnings in factories and mines to send money back to their villages.
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In the south of Shaanxi province, a mountainous region of China, floods and landslides are a constant peril for people living on the steep slopes of hills. Poor conditions in the area have been greatly exacerbated by man-made causes, especially farming on dangerous slopes, as well as mining and quarrying. To address this issue in late 2010 officials announced an ambitious plan to move some 2.8 million people out of poverty stricken and disaster prone areas over the course of 10 years.
This is twice as many as were relocated for the construction several years ago of the Three Gorges Dam - making it the biggest government arranged migration in China's history. Large-scale relocations are a common tactic in China's approach to poverty alleviation. The southern province of Guizhou plans to move some 1.5 million people out of poor mountainous areas by the end of the decade. The western province of Ningxia aims to resettle more than 350,000 by 2015.
Local leaders have another big incentive too. The Han River which flows through southern Shaanxi is to provide water for a massive diversion project which will channel water from southern China to the arid north. Officials fear that farming on the hillsides, and the landslides it causes, will pollute the water with chemicals.
They want to move farmers off the mountains and replant them with trees. Massive slogans have been erected on mountainsides in southern Shaanxi urging citizens to protect the environment and send clean water to Beijing. Many young people have already left the mountain villages to look for work elsewhere.
Those left behind are mostly elderly people or children. Moving the elderly is proving most difficult. Many are deeply attached to the land where their ancestors are buried - they get money from their children working in distant factories as well as small government pensions. They see no reason to move. Officials have tried to move them to old people's homes but some have returned to the mountaintops where they feel more at home.
Officials say the only way to get the old folk to move permanently is to destroy their houses after they leave. Finding enough land on which to build more houses like these will be difficult. Peasants who farm it will need to be compensated. Rural officials in China have a habit of giving far less compensation than peasants expect. Protests are often the result.
Even though the government is paying for part of the cost of building the farmers new houses farmers still have to pay a lot themselves. They can get low-interest loans but for poor farmers this means adding massive debt to their already strained finances. But compared with other provinces with large pockets of poverty Shaanxi has an advantage.
In recent years its economy has received a massive boost from demand for its oil natural gas and minerals. Most of the profits from these businesses are sent to Beijing but Shaanxi gets to keep some.
In the last couple of years an expressway has been built through the impoverished south. This has helped open the area to new business opportunities including, officials hope, a boom in tourism. The key to this achievement however has not been government arranged resettlement programs. Rather it has been market forces migrants from southern Shaanxi have been using their earnings in factories and mines to send money back to their villages.
Get more The Economist
Follow us: https://twitter.com/TheEconomist
Like us: https://www.facebook.com/TheEconomist
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The Economist videos give authoritative insight and opinion on international news, politics, business, finance, science, technology and the connections between them.
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