Topic Essay Question on East Asia 3 pages

(Since the late 1970s, the forces of market economy have been sweeping over China, once the largest and most rigid socialist country in the world. What this force has generated in China is

liberating to some, confusing to many, and destructive, as well as disruptive, to quite a few Chinese. But no one can dispute the fact that it is change the face, and perhaps the heart of

China.)

CHINA: MODERNIZAION

In the late 1970s, after nearly three decades of the Communist rule, China’s leaders came to a painful conclusion. The Chinese Communist Party had managed to eliminate class division and

feudal exploitation that plagued Chinese society for centuries. However, as far as material life of the Chinese people were concerned, the Communist system’s performance was not impressive at all. The Chinese people enjoyed equality, more of less, but they were still poor and backward. As some critics has noted, the Chinese enjoyed equality in poverty. What should be done? In the late 1970s, China’s leader, Deng Xiao Ping (left), came up with a unique formula for economic development. He advocated a mixture of socialism and capitalism. This system came to be known as market- socialism.

This is how it works. The Chinese government, first, separated politics and economy. That means, the Chinese Community Party still ruled China with monopoly of power. The party did

not allow any challenges to its authority. People had no meaningful participation in decision- making process. Practically all the decisions regarding the lives of the Chinese were left to party officials.

Economically, however, China became a different society since then. People no longer were required to produce together in state industries and collective farms to divide evenly. Under such a collective system, productivity remained dismal because of lack of incentives for working harder or being creative. Under Deng, many state-owned enterprises were allowed to produce

whatever goods they could find markets for. Factories were no longer required to manufacture goods that the government had decreed as part of a central planning irrespective of demands or quality.

Under Deng’s “liberalization” of the Chinese economy, if Americans wanted certain factories to produce toys, shoes or jogging apparels and ship them to the U.S., that was just fine with the government as long as profits were shared with the state and the workers

were adequately compensated. Take and fill the orders for Americans and generate as much profit as possible, said the China’s “reformist” leaders. (There are two famous refrains that reflect Chinese liberalization. One came from Deng Xaiping himself, who said, it does not matter whether the cat is black of white, as long as it catches mice. Another is the mantra among Chinese new entrepreneurs that it is glorious to be a rich.)

China’s new production system is known as “responsibility system,” in which the factories were left alone to produce profit, but were responsible for paying taxes to the state as a form of

profit sharing. The Chinese government used this newly generated national wealth to promote, theoretically, general welfare of the Chinese people. China in other words, sought capitalist system to uphold a socialist ideal of eliminating class division and providing social welfare benefits. It goes without saying that the foreign companies were expected to not try to influence the “internal affairs” of the Chinese society or politicize the workers. This is one of the reasons why Chinese workers employed by foreign companies were required to partake in study sessions on

socialism so that their commitment to its ideals would not be compromised. This is the market socialism of China. (Above is a typical garment factory in China where young workers are producing products that are sold in western markets bearing major designer labels. Also, you are looking at the glittering skyline of Shanghai, which is considered economic capital of China.)

For the western economies, China’s market socialism offered a cheap but well disciplined labor force. (Chinese people are highly literate because of the Communist government’s commitment to public education.) As long as western factory owners and managers did not challenge the government’s ideological supremacy, their business was not interrupted. Actually, the government went out of their ways to promote foreign investment.

On the part of the Chinese workers, the western companies’ relatively high wage level provided a major incentive for working harder. As a result, billions of dollars of foreign investments have been infused into China and transformed it into the largest producer of light industrial goods in the world.

Reforms also took place in China’s vast countryside where farmers produce for themselves and pay taxes to the government, rather than living and producing together within their production units. (China’s lush countryside is to your right.) As a result, China’s gross national product (GNP) per capita has more than doubled, from U.S. $300 in the mid-1980s to U.S. $750 by the late 1990s. China’s GNP per capita in 2004 stands at $3,920. As many Chinese are apt to say, in the last three decades, 300 million Chinese were moved out of poverty. China today is the world’s largest foreign currency holder.

Because of these reforms that shed much of the rigid images of China under socialism, China has become a top Asian destination for travelers. Nearly 30 million visitors come to China each year. China certainly has become a “manufacturing hub and one of the growth engines for the world economy” as well as a magnet for travelers. It is not surprise that Chinese is the number one foreign language in the U.S. in terms of number of students who learning that language.

China also imports large quantity of goods and raw material from outside markets to support its economic expansion, averaging 9 percent a year since 1978. According to the Asian Development Bank's annual economic report, China is the “world's biggest consumer of copper, tin, zinc, platinum, steel and iron ore; second biggest of aluminum and lead; third largest of nickels.... It is now the world's second-largest oil consumer [after the U.S.], and accounted for 35 percent of the

global rise in oil demand in 2003.” (Above is the China-Myanmar pipeline that brings natural gas into china.)

China’s market socialism however, produced a series of problems, including an uneven developmental geography. China’s market socialism is built on what is known as SEZs, Special

Economic Zones that are located along the eastern seaboard of China. In cities like Shanghai, people enjoy a level of material comfort that the people of advanced economies do. But, go west, you will find China that has not changed much since the middle of the 20

th century. As one

geographer writes, “rural workers’ wages are falling far behind those in urban areas, thus increasing the rural/urban contrast in standards of living.” In other words, China’s Pacific Rim provinces became wealthy, while

China’s inland region remains in a state of poverty and backwardness, and, sometimes, envy and jealousy. Many believe that income disparity between the countryside and cities and also between the eastern seaboard region and interior are the Achilles Hill of Chinese society. (School children in Gansu Province in northwest China.)

I recently read in the paper that in inland regions of China, bride selling (and buying) is not so rare a practice, an unmistakable sign of backwardness and underdevelopment. Such a social problem reflects the problem of corruption among government party officials who still wield enormous power in China.

The poverty is not just the problem in the countryside. China’s expanding cities suffer from the usual urban malaise such as homelessness as see in the picture above. Newly 110 million Chinese from the rural areas have moved to the cities to find jobs and better life. Many of these migrant workers have found jobs in the cities, but millions are without means to support themselves. China’s rising unemployment amid expanding economy has potential to disrupt China’s highly successful rush to development, and it hope to become a superpower in the future.

Also, as seen here, China’s economic growth has also intensified its pollution problems. One pollution specialist writes, “At least three of the world's ten cities with the worst air quality are in China (the actual number may be as high as eight). People rely on surgical mask to protect themselves from the yellow dust, a product of China’s environmental degradation. In Shanghai, tourists complain about burning eyes and sore

throats. After a rain in the once beautiful city of Chongqing, cars and streets are coated with gray slime…. Coal burning is a major source of the air pollution found in China. No other large developing country relies as heavily on coal burning to provide electrical energy and for simple cooking and heating as China does--the country currently relies on coal burning for three-quarters of its energy supply.”

In any event, in terms of its economic expansion, population size, and its military power, China is a major player in today’s world. According to Newsweek, “China’ rise is no longer a prediction. It is a fact. It is already the world’s fastest-growing large economy, and the second largest holder of foreign exchange reserves, mainly dollars. It has the world’s largest army (2.5 million men) and the fourth largest defense budget, which is rising by 10 percent annually….[I]t is the

powerful new force on the global scene.” The picture to the right shows Yang Liwei, who, in October 2003, became China's first astronaut to be sent to outer space. The launch made China the third country in the world, after the former Soviet Union and the United States, to put man in space. China certainly is a new force in space exploration too.

One of most interesting questions for historians and geographers is what kind of giant will China be

in the future. Will it be a hostile one seeking to expand its influence in the region? Or will it be a peaceful one that would contribute to the prosperity of the world? That is the question.

Knowing that the rest of the world has its attention focused on China, the authorities in Beijing is trying very hard to project its image as a nation continuing to liberalize itself, despite the fact that, politically, China is ruled by the Communist Party. One proof of this is the way China dealt with Hong Kong, the one-time British colony that was recently reverted to China. Despite some criticism, Beijing has allowed the so-called “One Country, Two Systems” arrangement and has not interfered significantly with Hong Kong’s democratic and capitalist way of life. China is arguing that the same system can be applied to Taiwan which the People’s Republic of China considers as a renegade island that must, eventually, become one with China.

China’s campaign to convince the world of its ability to behave as a leader in the community of nations has bore some fruits. In the summer of 2008, China hosted the Twenty-Ninth Summer Olympics. The Chinese government spent more than $40 billion on preparing for the games. The Beijing Olympics was a signature event and metaphor for China’s closing on its past marked by underdevelopment, international humiliation, and war. To remind the world of the cultural and historical glory that China once was, and an awakened giant that it is today, the officials of the Beijing Olympics

put together an opening ceremony that, according to one commentator, the future hosts of the games should never try to emulate.

In the final analysis, China is here to stay and it has money, skills, and ambition that will influence the course of history.