{"id":162532,"date":"2013-09-08T22:36:28","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T05:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=162532"},"modified":"2013-09-08T22:36:28","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T05:36:28","slug":"urban-left-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2013\/09\/urban-left-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban, But Left Behind"},"content":{"rendered":"

Premier Li Keqiang has stressed that there should be a “human focus” to the urbanization drive<\/strong><\/a> on which Beijing is pinning many of its hopes for future development. From Jonathan Standing at Reuters:<\/p>\n

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China’s premier, Li Keqiang, wants his plan to turn more Chinese into city dwellers to be “humanity-centered”, focusing on quality of life and the environment and driven by job creation, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Sunday.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] Li, who wrote a doctoral thesis on urbanization in the early 1990s, said the government should first identify areas of consensus, such as the redevelopment of slum communities on the edge of cities, as a base for further steps towards urbanization, the paper said.<\/p>\n

“Quality is the key and reform should be the impetus,” the paper quoted Li as saying. “We should be guided by ordinary people’s hopes, and be active and orderly in pushing the process forward.” [Source<\/a><\/strong>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

So far, at least, people’s hopes have not always been the foremost priority. At The New York Times, Jonah Kessel shows the predicament of displaced farmers who have lost their old livelihoods<\/strong><\/a> and received none of the promised compensation:<\/p>\n