Urban bias, rural bias or state bias? Urban‐rural relations in post‐revolutionary China

The authors aim to evaluate the relevance of ‘urban bias’ and ‘rural bias’ to the Chinese case. They present empirical evidence on the nature and extent of differentiation in rural‐urban living standards, examine the political basis of relevant economic policies and investigate the relationship between these policies: both the changes in labour productivity in each sector and the inter‐sectoral savings transfers. Both ‘urban’ and ‘rural bias’ hypotheses illuminate certain dimensions of Chinese development strategy. But the realities of rural‐urban relations have been complex, and analysis must be supplemented by a focus on the divide between state and society, and the question of ‘state bias’.