China has failed to match its rapid economic growth with comparable improvements in health and education, according to the UN’s Human Development Report 2010, which was released in New York on Thursday. China ranks first in terms of economic expansion since 1970 but only 79th out of 135 nations in increasing life expectancy and adding years of schooling over the same period, Bloomberg reported. The UN said the disparity stems from the country’s “single-minded pursuit of economic growth,” often at the expense of delivery of social services. “Slow progress was associated with decentralizing the financing of basic services without providing adequate national support or increasing the fees levied on families,” the report said. “Public social services deteriorated and in some places even collapsed.” China ranks 89th in the report’s Human Development Index, which combines figures on income per capita, life expectancy and years of schooling.
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