GDP miracle results in per capita myth

• Source: Global Times
• [02:08 December 09 2009]
• Comments

Since the beginning of this century, coal, rare earths, natural gas and petroleum reserves were discovered and processed in Ordos. The land where Genghis Khan once rode became industrialized overnight. Enterprises remarkable for high-energy consumption and heavy pollution mushroomed and flourished. Ordos grew rich, as the locals put it, "by digging holes in the ground and erecting chimneys in the air."

The result of the industrial development was paradoxical.

Some enterprises, with modern manufacturing facilities, hired few local employees. Instead they brought in skilled workers from other parts of China. These workers, who had families and hukou in their hometowns, did not spend or splurge in Ordos.

The residents lost large tracts of grassland due to excessive exploitation. Many gave up their original nomadic lifestyle, although some have not abandoned it. The migrants, without good training and education, are doing their best to survive as city dwellers whereas shepherds have become even poorer with the sheep suffering from neglect.

The Ordos model is replete with lessons. For most people in Ordos, the improvement in living standards was little or short-lived. The miracle itself is meaningless.

The GDP of Ordos surpassing that of Hong Kong, or even New York is, at best, a "figure" of speech. It foists the myth of per capita income on people who may have no income.