Brand-new Dynamics and Realistic Obstacles of County Urbanization in the Context of Digital Economy

Urbanization is the road to modernization. After a long period of exploration, China has entered the stage of new urbanization “with counties as the carrier”. The digital economy permeates all aspects of national social governance and production organization. The digital economy is characterized by online aggregation and balanced inclusiveness. This is highly compatible with the connotation of China’s county urbanization, and therefore has a profound impact on it. This paper combs through the historical process of China’s urbanization construction. On this basis, combined with the characteristics of digital economy and information technology, we analyzed the momentum and obstacles of county urbanization in the context of digital economy. Firstly, China’s urbanization has gone through four phases, including smooth development, zigzagging development, high-speed development, and high-quality development. Secondly, digital economy empowers county urbanization in terms of promoting economic transformation, enhancing human capital, improving social welfare and weakening spatial disparities. Thirdly, under the background of digital economy,county urbanization faces problems such as insufficient economic resilience, lack of supporting policies, natural environmental constraints, and rigidity of digital systems. Therefore, we proposed feasible measures to promote county urbanization in the context of the digital economy, including enhancing economic resilience, promoting supporting policies, breaking through resource constraints, improving relevant facilities, introducing professionals, cultivating awareness of rights and weakening urban-rural boundaries. This paper has theoretical reference significance for the government to further promote county urbanization.