China has eschewed the enabling approach in favour of robust top-down housing supply in support of massive rural migration and rapid industrialization since the mid-1990s. In 1997, 79 million square metres of new urban housing were  built, and over four billion square metres between 2000 and 2010, or more than twice as much as needed to keep up with population growth. The enabling approach reflected the predominant market led political and practical thinking of the late 1980s: governments must take care of the elements of housing supply they could control or handle best. they were to focus on the regulatory framework, and five housing related markets: land, finance, infrastructure, the construction industry/ labour, and building materials, 5 eradicating bottlenecks and optimizing housing sector performance. The private sector, communities and households were to take over the supply side. government was to remain active only in a different way enabling instead of doing.