From the perspective of the theory of sustainable development, this dissertation gives a comprehensive exposition of the Chinese rural area as a whole, which is on its way to modernization, and selects three aspects as focuses for further discussions.Chapter one gives a systematic account of the theory of sustainable development emerging as a new theory of development, briefly deals with three basic issues of sustainable development at its practical level, namely, population, resources and environment, and summarizes three mistaken views on sustainable development, namely, " theory of narrow irrelevance", "theory of natural transition" and " theory of positive harmlessness" , which serve as a foundation for the following divided discussions.Chapter two deals with township enterprises acting as the principal part of the Chinese rural industrialization, not in the general way, but from a new viewpoint of sustainable development. From the starting point of the Chinese industrialization, we can see the glorious process of the booming of township enterprises , their outstanding achievements, and their steady steps up to the present time. However, we also find the incidental negative effects at times, causing great losses, of which some can not be measured economically and can never be redeemed. This chapter explores the causes, describes the current status, seeks to offer a theoretical evaluation, and puts forward suggestions on policies and systems. It also illustrates that, in dealing with the problems of resources and environment, it is not enough to have governmental "resolute coercion", and what is more important is turn enterprises from the "wait-and-see type" to the " voluntary beneficial type".Urbanization is the only way to modernization through the transformation of social structures. The urbanization discussed in Chapter three is the one with Chinese characteristics. It points out that the lagging behind in urbanization results from the suppression by the government in the past period of time. But viewing the development of cities and townssince the founding of New China, especially since 1979, we should emphasize that the government plays a positive rather than suppressive role in the process of urbanization in keeping with the objective of sustainable development. This chapter devotes two sections dealing respectively with two major issues, namely, planning and directing the combination of non-agricultural industries and the development of small cities and towns, both of which are what the government should do and have close connection with sustainable development.Since chapter two and chapter three both concern issues closely related to elements of sustainable development such as agricultural resources, chapter four and chapter five deal directly with issues of the protection and construction of ecological environment. Since ecology and environment are inextricably linked, ecological environments in the urban and rural areas have great relevance, the discussion in these two chapters shows comprehensiveness, though it focuses on the rural area.Listing facts means to show that the ecological problem in the rural area is more serious than people can imagine, and the exploration of its causes is made through case study on poverty.Environment policies, from market-orientated theoretical analysis, experiences drawn from foreign environmental administration to the assessment on the Chinese environment policies, are a key content of this part.The three case studies on the Three Gorges and the Western Development are intended to explore the market-orientated mechanisms of ecological construction. The case involving the suburbs of Nanjing provides 18 relatively operational indices for instituting comprehensive examinations on rural environment. The investigations in Shanxi Province are aimed at exploring a way to regional sustainable development. The rule of law and administrative system are natural conclusions, but are not given extended exposition due to time limits. |