China’s Urban Question: The Other Side of the Agrarian Question

At the turn of the twentieth century, European Marxist theorists grappled with the 'agrarian question': is the peasantry disappearing and, if not, what should we do?The question evolved through changing historical contexts and, by the 1920s, had made its way into the policy discussions of the Chinese Communist Party.Now, after decades of rural land conversions fuelling breakneck urbanisation, we see its face from the other side.The 'urban question' has become central to Chinese policy discussions of development and social organisation: are the cities filling up as planned and, where they are not, what should we do?China 2017.