Urbanization in China or 37 percent of the total population in the mid-1980s—was relatively low by comparison with developed nations, the number of people living in urban areas in China was greater than the total population of any country in the world except India. The four Chinese cities with the largest populations in 1985 were Shanghai, with 7 million; Beijing, with 5.9 million; Tianjin, with 5.4 million; and Shenyang, with 4.2 million. The disproportionate distribution of population in large cities occurred as a result of the government's emphasis after 1949 on the development of large cities over smaller urban areas. In 1985 the
Environmental governance in China of the 21st centuries, there was an explosive growth in China’s economy. New government policies encouraged the privatisation of agriculture, the wholesale urbanisation of China’s rural population, the development of tens of thousands of small-scale rural industries and an influx of international investment. The results have been staggering: hundreds of millions of Chinese have been lifted out of poverty; China’s economy continues to grow at a rate of 8–12 per cent annually, as it has for two decades and by the end of 2005, China was the fourth largest economy and third largest exporting nation in the world, after the