China's county economics offers developing nations insights on easing urban-rural divide: report

A drone photo taken on Nov. 3, 2024 shows wind turbines in Rudong County of Nantong City, east China's Jiangsu Province. (Xinhua/Song Yanhua)

BEIJING, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The theory behind the economic development across China's counties offers valuable insights and lessons for developing countries to reconcile the urban-rural dual structure and achieve sustainable development, a think tank report said.

The report, titled "New Era County Economics," was released on Friday by Xinhua Institute, a national-level think tank affiliated with Xinhua News Agency, at the Belt and Road Forum for International Think Tank Cooperation held in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province.

The "polarization-trickle-down effect" theory posits that a polarization effect exists between economically developed and underdeveloped regions, the report said, noting that as developed areas grow, resources and factors of production flow from underdeveloped regions to these economic centers, weakening the economic capacity of the latter and exacerbating their developmental challenges.

The development of the Chinese county economies demonstrates that counties are not merely peripheral units passively receiving spillover from central cities, but can, like central cities, foster independent growth poles by harnessing endogenous dynamism, according to the report.

Counties are no longer mere "appendages" of urban clusters but foundational economic units with autonomous value-creation and self-sustaining capabilities. Their development trajectory marks a transition in regional economic patterns from "peripheral followership" to "multipolar coexistence," which offers developing countries in Latin America, Africa, and beyond, grappling with urban-rural dualism, a valuable experience of "non-exploitative urbanization," the report said.

The document also highlights pioneering innovations by China's counties in renewable energy, ecological compensation, and low-carbon agriculture, showcasing their role in offering technical and managerial expertise to small and medium-sized towns worldwide for climate change response and green transformation.