중국의 인구문제와 지방정부의 전략적 행위에 관한 연구

Abstract

China is the world's most populous country. The surge in the Chinese population was largely influenced by “Mao, Zedong”, but “Deng, Xiaoping” started to implement a thorough birth control policy followed by the destitution of economic situation due to the Great Leap Forward Movement and the Cultural Revolution. The overly strict birth control policy, however, has caused some side effects such as a rapid decrease in the productive population and an increase in the elderly population. Therefore, the Chinese government has been reshuffling its population policy in recent years. Meanwhile, in the early days of China's decentralization reform, a contractual relationship was formed between the central and local governments through their consultation and compromise. Thus, the central government allowed local governments to contribute to China's economic growth along with the development of the region without major conflict and confrontation. However, China has attempted to shift its development paradigm from focusing solely on “quantitative expansion” to “qualitative growth” since the opening of the twentieth century. In this process, the central government expressed its intention of “policy normalization” to distinguish clearer authority and responsibilities than in the past in establishing relations with local governments. The local governments, on the other hand, faced the dilemma of having to maintain or accelerate the development of the region by complying with the central norms while still expanding the autonomy of decentralization even further than before. As a result, the local governments are not satisfied with their role as a mere agent of policy implementation, and have revealed their purpose of being an active player of action more strongly than in the past. Thereby, the local governments tried to cope with central government policies strategically in order to recognize the interests of the regions as the top priority, and actively pursued the development of the local community. Given these circumstances, this study focused on how China’s local governments respond strategically to limited human resources to maintain their economic vitality and what the fundamental causes are in the process of China’s population structure changes.