Asia at the centre of globalisation: costs and benefits

Benefits: China's transformation

• Close to 800 million people in China were lifted out of extreme poverty (below US$1.90 a day) over 40 years, close to three quarters of the global fall in extreme poverty (World Bank, 2022).
• Drivers: rising agricultural productivity, industrialisation, managed urbanisation and rural-to-urban migration, large infrastructure investment and targeted support for poor regions and households.
• Factory and construction jobs brought waged work; rising incomes funded education and training, moving the economy towards higher-skill industries.
• SEZs from 1980 attracted FDI and export manufacturing (see the IGOs lesson). India has followed a path more based on services and outsourcing such as IT.

Environmental costs

• Global: rising carbon emissions; China accounted for about 35% of global energy-related CO2 in 2023 (IEA).
• Local: air pollution from coal power, industry and traffic; water pollution from industrial waste; land contamination and loss of farmland.
• Outsourcing locations bear pollution from producing goods consumed elsewhere.
• Responses: Beijing's air pollution control programme, intensified from the late 1990s, cut PM2.5 by 35% in Beijing and 25% in surrounding regions between 2013 and 2017 (UNEP).

Worked example

Explain how globalisation helped reduce poverty in China.

1. SEZs and liberalisation attracted FDI and export manufacturing.
2. Millions moved from farms to waged factory and construction jobs in cities.
3. Higher incomes and government infrastructure investment raised living standards and funded education.

Answer: FDI-led industrialisation created waged jobs that drew rural workers into higher incomes.

Check yourself

1. Close to 800 million people left extreme poverty in China, about three quarters (0.75) of the global fall. Estimate the global fall in millions, to the nearest whole number.
   Show answer

   1067 million. 800 / 0.75 = 1067 million.

2. Practice question: if a city's PM2.5 concentration was 90 micrograms per m3 and it fell by 35%, what would the new value be?
   Show answer

   58.5 micrograms per m3. 90 x 0.65 = 58.5.

3. Which was a driver of poverty reduction in China identified by the World Bank?
   • Rural-to-urban migration and industrialisation
   • Closing the economy to trade
   • Reducing infrastructure spending
   • Ending agricultural improvements
   Show answer

   Rural-to-urban migration and industrialisation. Broad-based economic transformation drew workers into higher-paid jobs.

4. Which is a local environmental cost of rapid industrial growth?
   • Global sea-level rise
   • Ozone recovery
   • Lower carbon emissions
   • River pollution from factory waste
   Show answer

   River pollution from factory waste. Local costs are felt where production happens.

5. According to the IEA, about what share of global energy-related CO2 did China emit in 2023?
   • 75%
   • 35%
   • 10%
   • 50%
   Show answer

   35%. IEA: 35%.

6. Explain how globalisation has brought costs as well as benefits to Asian outsourcing locations.
   Show answer

   It created jobs and higher incomes, but factories also caused air and water pollution and workers often faced low wages and poor conditions.. Benefit (jobs, income) and cost (pollution, conditions).

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Sources

• Pearson Edexcel International Advanced Subsidiary/Advanced Level in Geography specification (Issue 3, September 2025)
• World Bank press release: Lifting 800 million people out of poverty, lessons from China's experience (1 April 2022)
• IEA: CO2 Emissions in 2023, the changing landscape of global emissions (2024)
• UNEP: A review of 20 years' air pollution control in Beijing
• World Bank: Global experiences with special economic zones, with a focus on China and Africa (February 2015)

Last updated 8 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.