Jeremy Wallace

I think that it is a generally accepted fact that the CCP instituted policies with a distinct urban bias throughout its rule; however, that does not lessen the joy of finding evidence of it, especially when that evidence accords with my dissertation’s principal narratives.

From MacFarquhar and Schoenhal’s Mao’s Last Revolution, pp. 374-5:

Indigence led to migration. In theory, travel and movement, across provincial borders in particular, were firmly regulated…. In reality, significant segments of the rural population, particularly in impoverished ares, remained unaffected by such regulations and migrated….

Poverty in the countryside impinged on the towns. A prime concern of the central authorities was to prevent waves of unsightly beggars and petitioners from entering major cities, where they might disrupt law and order and … give an unfavorable picture of China to the increasing numbers of Western visitors. …

This migration to the cities was hardly surprising. Urban living conditions were indeed better. Untold numbers of peasants would have been overjoyed to change their social status to that of an urban proletarian.