The article compares different ideas about how cities are growing in China and around the world. By looking at data from 118 countries, the researchers found that urbanization in the world, excluding China, is slowing down. They also noticed that China's urbanization and economic development are not growing together very well. In the past, China's cities grew slowly because the economy was not very strong. But since 1995, China has been getting rid of this gap by urbanizing quickly. This means that China is catching up in terms of urbanization compared to other countries. The findings challenge the usual ways of thinking about urban growth in China and show that it's getting more complicated.