Since 1979, economic and social forces on the Chinese mainland have slowly come to realize the folly of the violent “Cultural Revolution” that Mao Zedong inspired across the country for two decades that purged the country of any independent thinkers, scholars, capitalists, or dissidents from the Communist Party. In only 30 years, China has transformed itself from being a minute player in the international arena to becoming the world’s second largest economy and a very important global stabilizer when the international financial crisis hit in the late 2000s.[1] Deng Xiaoping, a paramount leader in the Chinese Communist Party, advocated throughout the 1970s to open up certain aspects of the Chinese economy and to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in select areas of the country that would allow foreign investment and entrepreneurs to establish private businesses without the direct oversight of the state. Today, Deng Xiaoping Theory (and particularly “Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”[1984]) is recognized as the foundation of reform in China: the political rock upon which all subsequent political theories have been built.
Deng Xiaoping Theory created a “socialist market economy” to which subsequent leaders and economists such as current President of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party Hu Jintao have been able to modify and add their own version of a socialist market. President Hu has advanced his “Scientific Perspective of Development” in order to tackle the problems of sustainable development, the rising income disparity, and environmental disintegration so that the “Harmonious Society,” the ideals of which are based in the founding of the People’s Republic of China, may be able to flourish. In fact, “over the 30-year period ending 2007, China grew more than 8% a year and has accelerated to about 10% growth over the last five years despite recessions in the wealthy nations with which it trades.[2]”
The result of the last 30 years of economic reform has been astonishing, particularly the urbanization of the previously agrarian workforce. “In a report last year, the consulting firm McKinsey estimated that an additional 350 million people — more than the population of the United States — would move to the cities by 2015. More than 220 cities will have more than one million people. (By comparison, Europe has 35 such cities now).”[3] Such staggering development has caused many problems in development such as the sustainability of energy consumption and environmental degradation, which Chinese authorities must address if such a high rate of growth is expected to continue.
The jumpstart to the Chinese economy over the past 30 years has also created a highly visible social consequence which the international community must recognize if they wish to assimilate China into the global economy with ease. China, unlike most other states, is not only a country but also a civilization. It is one of the most ancient and powerful societies with roots going back over 5,000 years. The Chinese were leaders and innovators in science and technology when Europe was still a backward region of the world, until they suffered a terrible humiliation at the hands of western imperialists at in the mid-19th century. With the start of the Opium Wars with the British and the continuation with special “spheres of influence” by western nations and the outright invasion of Manchuria by the Japanese in the early 20th century during which the Rape of Nanking and other brutal atrocities occurred, the Chinese have long been subjugated to foreign control and domination. The Chinese people have seen their economic explosion as a way to regain confidence and honor in themselves as a society, and it has also served as a reminder that it cannot happen again in a new era of global integration and technology. The Olympics were viewed by many Chinese as a restoration of the great civilizations which had ruled for millennia, except now in a more global and modern capacity.
The Chinese are ready to emerge again as the great civilization they once were. With the modernization and mobilization of 1.3 billion people into the global workforce, the US economy will have its work cut out for it in order to retain supremacy. China is not only developing economically and socially but intellectually as well. “In Asia alone, the number of English-users has topped 350 million—roughly the combined populations of the United States, Britain and Canada. There are more Chinese children studying English—about 100 million—than there are Britons.”[4] Chinese students are realizing their potential to engage the world and come out on top. China is still a developing country; Who knows what the world will look like when China has a fully developed economy with workers who can consume the products they make instead of just exporting them to the rest of the world? If the past 30 years are an indication of the next 30 years, then the citizens of the world, especially the west, better be ready to engage the Chinese as partners in the formation of a new global era.
[1] Barboza, David. “China Passes Japan as Second Largest Economy.” New York Times. 15 Aug 2010
[2] Davis, Bob. “Economic Growth Hard to Maintain.” Wall Street Journal. 17 Jul 2010
[3] Wassener, Betina. “Taking the High Road, With 1,200 Aboard.” The New York Times. 17 Aug 2010.
[4] Power, Carla. “Not the Queen’s English.” Newsweek International. 7 March 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment