Epoch Times
The Rhetoric of China's Booming Capitalism
written by By Pamela Tsai
Monday August 24, 2009
China’s high-powered economic engine continues to drive discussions about its influence on the world. During last month’s US-China talks, President Barack Obama said the relationship with China “will shape the 21st century.”
James P. Muldoon Jr., a senior Fellow with the Center for Global Change and Governance at Rutgers University offered his view of China and how its influence will shape the new century. He spoke in a recent forum “China: Implications of a New World Order” held at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
The new century, according to Muldoon, is the Pacific or Asian century. Muldoon believes America is losing world power leadership to Asia. He said Asia is gaining power, economically and politically while America is declining in morality and lacking the backbone to be a leading nation.
Comparing China’s high Gross Domestic Product growth and the stagnant economy in the West, Muldoon argued that China’s state controlled system works and the free economy in the West has stopped working.
A Fast Growing Unhealthy Economy
“This is a mistaken point of view,” said Dr. Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of Freedom House and the Jamestown Foundation. Professor Waldron is a consultant for the Department of Defense, and for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He often testifies before Congress.
According to Professor Waldron, there are three problems with the Chinese economy:
1) Heavy reliance on exports: As much as 39.7% of China’s GDP is foreign exports - making China by far the largest economy dependent on selling overseas.
2) Extremely low domestic demand: China's personal consumption rate was 35% in 2007 compared with 70% for the US and 56% for Japan
3) Massive government spending: 55% of China’s GDP is government spending and investment on large infrastructure projects, i.e. building roads, buildings. This is more than double the US percentage (20%).
Professor Waldron said large government projects are often not profitable. The Chinese government simply takes away Chinese people’s savings to build these large projects for self-glorification.
“It is not a healthy economy,” he said.
Dr. Jason Ma, a China-born analyst who often appears in New Tang Dynasty Television’s commentary program said the engine of China’s fast growing economy is millions of migrant workers. “About 80% of China’s population lives in the rural areas – called ‘peasant population.’ Most of them live below poverty. They are hungry for jobs to make money and feed the family. Millions of them come to cities to find work in construction, factories and rough conditions.”
Ma said these migrant workers are the world’s cheapest, largest and most productive workforce: they are like China’s non-stop working machine – besides eating 3 meals and sleeping for a few hours, they have nothing else to do – they don’t have family and friends in the cities. Besides life’s necessities, they don’t spend money and consume.
Ma said these migrant workers are the unsung heroes for China’s economic miracle. They also explain the extremely low domestic demand (personal consumption) in China’s GDP.
The profile of Chinese construction worker Wei Zhongwen earned The Wall Street Journal the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. According to Paul E. Steiger, Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Wei’s story is “of the two million migrant laborers behind Beijing’s mammoth preparation for the 2008 Olympics. It is a story of Dickensian deprivation, one that brought strong response and many donations from readers around the world.”
Chinese Government - Efficiency or Deficiency?
Chinese government’s adroit use of the controlled economy has created many large investment projects. Ma said it is easy for the outsiders to see the “efficiency” of the Chinese government, but not the sufferings of the Chinese people. For example, to do the Three Gorges Dam Project, the government seized farmer’s land, evicted tens of thousands of people from their homes and displaced them with little or no compensation. Ma said such efficiency could never be matched by any government in a democratic society.
The Chinese government is also very efficient at handling complaints and petitions from aggrieved workers, farmers and civil rights activists’ protests – the Party simply sends troops to put them down. In 2004, 90,000 farmers in Sichuan Province, frustrated by a lack of response to their complaints over the seizure of their land for the Dam Project, staged a protest. The government sent 10,000 paramilitary troops to solve the problem. The security measures were not much different from those that led to the Tiananmen Massacre 20 years ago. For decades, the Chinese government has successfully maintained the social “stability” and “harmony” - essential for the Party to sustain China’s economic growth.
In last month’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-authored a view about US-China relationship. The opinion piece ended with a famous Chinese saying “When you are in a common boat, you need to cross the river peacefully together.”
Ma said “With 58 million Chinese people rocking the boat of the Chinese Communist Party (http://quitccp.org), it is wise to pause before jumping into the boat.”
“Not only can water float a boat, it can sink the boat also,” is a famous saying by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty (599 – 649 AD). His dynasty was the pinnacle of China’s prosperity in economy, government, cultural and arts. In this analogy, the relationship between people and their government is likened to that of water and a boat. People (water) can float the government (boat). People can also sink the government.
The Rhetoric of China's Booming Capitalism
written by By Pamela Tsai
Monday August 24, 2009
China’s high-powered economic engine continues to drive discussions about its influence on the world. During last month’s US-China talks, President Barack Obama said the relationship with China “will shape the 21st century.”
James P. Muldoon Jr., a senior Fellow with the Center for Global Change and Governance at Rutgers University offered his view of China and how its influence will shape the new century. He spoke in a recent forum “China: Implications of a New World Order” held at Drexel University in Philadelphia.
The new century, according to Muldoon, is the Pacific or Asian century. Muldoon believes America is losing world power leadership to Asia. He said Asia is gaining power, economically and politically while America is declining in morality and lacking the backbone to be a leading nation.
Comparing China’s high Gross Domestic Product growth and the stagnant economy in the West, Muldoon argued that China’s state controlled system works and the free economy in the West has stopped working.
A Fast Growing Unhealthy Economy
“This is a mistaken point of view,” said Dr. Arthur Waldron, Lauder Professor of International Relations at the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the boards of Freedom House and the Jamestown Foundation. Professor Waldron is a consultant for the Department of Defense, and for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He often testifies before Congress.
According to Professor Waldron, there are three problems with the Chinese economy:
1) Heavy reliance on exports: As much as 39.7% of China’s GDP is foreign exports - making China by far the largest economy dependent on selling overseas.
2) Extremely low domestic demand: China's personal consumption rate was 35% in 2007 compared with 70% for the US and 56% for Japan
3) Massive government spending: 55% of China’s GDP is government spending and investment on large infrastructure projects, i.e. building roads, buildings. This is more than double the US percentage (20%).
Professor Waldron said large government projects are often not profitable. The Chinese government simply takes away Chinese people’s savings to build these large projects for self-glorification.
“It is not a healthy economy,” he said.
Dr. Jason Ma, a China-born analyst who often appears in New Tang Dynasty Television’s commentary program said the engine of China’s fast growing economy is millions of migrant workers. “About 80% of China’s population lives in the rural areas – called ‘peasant population.’ Most of them live below poverty. They are hungry for jobs to make money and feed the family. Millions of them come to cities to find work in construction, factories and rough conditions.”
Ma said these migrant workers are the world’s cheapest, largest and most productive workforce: they are like China’s non-stop working machine – besides eating 3 meals and sleeping for a few hours, they have nothing else to do – they don’t have family and friends in the cities. Besides life’s necessities, they don’t spend money and consume.
Ma said these migrant workers are the unsung heroes for China’s economic miracle. They also explain the extremely low domestic demand (personal consumption) in China’s GDP.
The profile of Chinese construction worker Wei Zhongwen earned The Wall Street Journal the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. According to Paul E. Steiger, Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, Wei’s story is “of the two million migrant laborers behind Beijing’s mammoth preparation for the 2008 Olympics. It is a story of Dickensian deprivation, one that brought strong response and many donations from readers around the world.”
Chinese Government - Efficiency or Deficiency?
Chinese government’s adroit use of the controlled economy has created many large investment projects. Ma said it is easy for the outsiders to see the “efficiency” of the Chinese government, but not the sufferings of the Chinese people. For example, to do the Three Gorges Dam Project, the government seized farmer’s land, evicted tens of thousands of people from their homes and displaced them with little or no compensation. Ma said such efficiency could never be matched by any government in a democratic society.
The Chinese government is also very efficient at handling complaints and petitions from aggrieved workers, farmers and civil rights activists’ protests – the Party simply sends troops to put them down. In 2004, 90,000 farmers in Sichuan Province, frustrated by a lack of response to their complaints over the seizure of their land for the Dam Project, staged a protest. The government sent 10,000 paramilitary troops to solve the problem. The security measures were not much different from those that led to the Tiananmen Massacre 20 years ago. For decades, the Chinese government has successfully maintained the social “stability” and “harmony” - essential for the Party to sustain China’s economic growth.
In last month’s Wall Street Journal Op-Ed, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton co-authored a view about US-China relationship. The opinion piece ended with a famous Chinese saying “When you are in a common boat, you need to cross the river peacefully together.”
Ma said “With 58 million Chinese people rocking the boat of the Chinese Communist Party (http://quitccp.org), it is wise to pause before jumping into the boat.”
“Not only can water float a boat, it can sink the boat also,” is a famous saying by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty (599 – 649 AD). His dynasty was the pinnacle of China’s prosperity in economy, government, cultural and arts. In this analogy, the relationship between people and their government is likened to that of water and a boat. People (water) can float the government (boat). People can also sink the government.
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