The Real Problem in Rural China

Newswise — "China's fabulous growth since the 1980's was achieved through environmental destruction and social and economic polarization which now threaten its continuation. This paradox puts the state in near panic as it tries to hold down the resulting widespread unrest in the countryside -- China's biggest political problem today. Unless overall policies are altered to address the needs of China's vulnerable rural majority, Beijing will surely face protracted and violent challenges from the victims of the country's development 'success.'"

Mr. Muldavin is available to comment on:

Globalization and changes in China's national level policies and the social and environmental impacts these changes are having at the local level; comparative socialist transition; vulnerability and resource use in the Himalayan Region; resource and development conflicts in Central Asia and international aid to China since 1978.

Joshua Muldavin is a knowledgeable source on China and East Asia particularly regarding comparative rural development, international development and aid policy, agriculture, environment, political economy, social theory and political ecology. A recipient of Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Fulbright, UCLA and Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation grants, Muldavin has been an invited lecturer at Oxford, Johns Hopkins, University of Havana, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, among other noted institutions. He is the author of numerous scholarly publications including, most recently, "Aiding Regional Instability?: The Paradox of Japanese Development Assistance to China," "The Paradoxes of Environmental Policy in Reform Era China," "The Limits of Market Triumphalism in Rural China," and "The Assessing Environmental Degradation in Contemporary China's Hybrid Economy: State Policy Reform and Agrarian Dynamics in Heilongjiang Province," among others. He has more than 20 years of field research primarily in rural China, but also in Japan, Russia, Hungary, northern Europe, Cuba and Mexico.