Economy of China

The economy of China seems to be, from afar, thriving off of the world’s needs and demands using what China’s communist party refers to as “socialist market economy”. While capitalists take a large part in China’s economy the Chinese party does not believe the capitalists run the economy. This is a topic of debate in China and will be one for the foreseeable future unless China changes their political and economic views as a whole, which without a groundbreaking event is extremely unlikely.

China has been communistic for a long time, even having a socialist economic view is relatively new for China. China’s socialist economy is different from most; China does not use “state socialism” it uses “people’s socialism” which is nearly identical to “people’s capitalism”(Woo W., The Economics and Politics of Transition to an Open Market Economy: China) China, of course, would never admit this.

Chinese Industry and Threats

China is a hugely industrialized country.

In fact, it outputs nearly a quarter of all manufactured goods that are exported throughout the world, pumping out roughly 70% of all mobile phones and 60% of all shoes, (Susan M. Beddoes, Made in China?). This intense focus on industry has made China’s economy flourish in those aspects. In 2017, to the United States alone, it exported 18% of all of the products it made. That’s huge amount, considering that Hong Kong received 14%. In the same year, China earned its place as having the largest economy in the world, having produced 23.

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12 trillion dollars in goods and exported 2.2 trillion of it, (Kimberly Amadeo, China’s Economy and its Effect on the U.S. Economy). For all the goods it exports to so many countries, many of them have fallen deep into debt with China – namely the United states, which as a nation owes 21 trillion dollars to China. But while China has made great strides toward bettering their economy, it isn’t without its shortcomings. China exports a massive amount of goods, but it also has a huge amount of good imported. While becoming the number one exporter in the world, it also became the number two importer, importing a total of about 1.23 trillion dollars of goods in 2017, (OEC, China). On top of the costs to have goods imported, it also has debt of its own. As a nation, China has a total debt of about 36 trillion Chinese Yuan, or about 5 trillion USD, (China Debt Clock: What Is The National Debt of China?). With their imported goods and the debt it owes, China isn’t actually making as large a profit as it may seem. Comparatively, however, China is doing much better than most other countries in the world in almost every economic aspect, and is only continuing to better its own economy. I don’t see anything but a prosperous economy in China, and the future of China is for the most part, locked down. One major internal threat to China is the declining pure Chinese population, but they are already attempting to combat this by allowing each family to have one more child than they did previously. This is not only adding to their population but also keeping China in a better male to female ratio as compared to before where males vastly outnumbered females due to the one child per family law, families would usually get rid of their female children because they want to pass on the family name. Heritage is very important in China, the people in charge were getting unhappy that China was becoming less pure in that regard.

Threats, Liabilities and Workers’ Mistreatment

For any given country, there are numerous threats and liabilities that must be faced and dealt with; however, not all problems are so easily solved. China is the center of one of the most controversial debates around the world today for many more reasons than one. To name a few, there is China’s role in the dispute between the United States and North Korea, and Chinese industries’ mistreatment of its employees. The United States has only just recently settled a dispute with North Korea, and some may still argue that the dispute still has yet to be settled. However, China has close ties to North Korea, and can have a lot of influence over the country’s actions. Therefore, it was asked of China to try and get Kim Jong Un, the current leader of North Korea, to give way to peace and stop building up its nuclear arsenal. On the other hand, North Korea expected China to have its back and defend their side, especially since China is currently one of their only allies. China was then stuck between two countries with which it was allied. In the end, China chose to encourage the United States to ease off on the pressure it was putting on North Korea, but ultimately put itself in the background to let its two friends solve their problem on their own. On a more internal matter, the people of China are enduring very poor working conditions. First off, their safety on the job is almost never guaranteed. The value of their lives, in the eyes of the industry owners and the government, are not worth more than the value of the products they make, and so they do the bare minimum to keep their workers safe. On another note, they are paid much less for the work they do than they would in other countries. In America, for example, the average worker makes about 122 dollars a day. In China, the average worker only makes about 27.50 dollars a day. For most, this is more than enough money. To the rest of the world, they are being conned. The Chinese government allows this, however, because it drastically increases the income that the country receives, and it isn’t particularly upsetting the people. However, the conditions in the workplaces are a different story. There are stories told of children working in conditions so poor, and being treated so badly, that they actually leapt from the tall buildings in which they worked, to their deaths. To combat this, they didn’t attempt to make conditions better. Instead, they placed safety nets on the ground where the children would have otherwise fallen to their deaths.

President of China

Xi Jinping is the president of China, yes you read that right, China has a president, and as of 2013 it is Xi Jinping. His full title is the President of the People’s Republic of China and he acts as the head of state. The presidency in China’s constitution though is mostly just a ceremonial office and his powers are limited greatly. The National People’s Congress, the legislature of China, is the real rulers of China’s government, not even giving the president the power to take any sort of executive action of is own free will. The president is; however, the commander in chief of the Chinese military. China’s military is not only extremely numerous,but it can gain more people at any time because of the mandatory draft that the chinese government can conduct at any time, this allows them to take any able bodied person in China into the military, effectively making the entire country prospective soldiers. The President of China was, not too long ago, translated as Chairman. As of this year, 2018, the two consecutive term limit on president of China has been lifted and now there is no term limit attached to the office whatsoever meaning the same person could be in office until the day that they die, effectively making it a monarchy but as I stated previously it is mostly a ceremonial office, so this lift of the term limit isn’t as bad as it would be in America of a different presidential country. But all that you have to be in order to run as president in China is Chinese citizenship with full electoral rights and a minimum of 45 years old. The president is not elected by the people as is the case in America, it is elected by the National People’s Congress, they can also remove the president whenever they choose by a simple majority vote. The president is also elected by a one name ballot, the same as all officers of the state that the National People’s Congress elects. The simple fact is that the National People’s Congress is the supreme power in China and that is as it will be for the foreseeable future. Any power that it seems is given to the President of China is either falsities, exaggerations, or theory of what should be, but in reality the Communist Party of China holds all real power in the country, using the president as a face to act under from time to time but mostly being blatantly open with the power they hold in the countries politics.

Path of Stability and Peace

There is no real reason that the country would not continue a path of stability and peace other than a revolution, but in my opinion that would be completely against what the Chinese people would want. They live in a good mix of capitalism and communism, of course the country would prosper greater if they used true communism rather than the breed that they use today but that version of communism is extremely idealistic so I doubt it would work in today’s world without strict reinforcement until the population molded to the new system. China has existed for so long prospering in its place in the world that it would be extremely unpredictable for something to occur that puts that out of place and causes them to collapse. Some historians mark 6000 BC as the beginning of Chinese civilization, that would mean that the Chinese civilization has existed for 8000 rough years as compared to America’s measly 500 years you can see why I would be hard pressed to find a reason that China would collapse after such a long and powerful existence. China is one of the biggest trade sources in the world so the economic standing is also much better than America, as a matter of fact we owe them so much money that we will most likely be in debt to them for all time because the debt just keeps getting bigger with no signs of stopping.

Fun Facts about China

A fun fact about China that most people don’t know is that while China does in fact eat dog, the other Asian countries typically do not even though they are widely thought to by Americans. Another is the fact that not only did the wall cost an enormous sum of money that the country couldn’t spend but it also didn’t even work for its intended use, the mongols getting in anyway.

References

1. Fullerton, Jamie. “Suicide at Chinese IPhone Factory Reignites Concern over Working Conditions.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 7 Jan. 2018, www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/07/suicide-chinese-iphone-factory-reignites-concern-working-conditions/.
2. Woo, W. (1999), ‘The Economics and Politics of Transition to an Open Market Economy: China’, OECD Development Centre Working Papers, No. 153, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi-org.esearch.ut.edu/10.1787/322178001745.
3. Beddoes, Susan M. “Made in China?” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 12 Mar. 2015, www.economist.com/leaders/2015/03/12/made-in-china.
4. Amadeo, Kimberly. “The Surprising Ways China Affects the U.S. Economy.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance, 20 Oct. 2018, www.thebalance.com/china-economy-facts-effect-on-us-economy-3306345.
5. “China.” OEC – Brazil (BRA) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners, 2016, atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/chn/.
6. “China Debt Clock: What Is The National Debt of China?” National Debt Clocks, 12 Nov. 2018, www.nationaldebtclocks.org/debtclock/china.
7. Martin, Michael. “Is China an Ally of the U.S.?” Metro US, Metro US, 23 Feb. 2018, www.metro.us/news/the-big-stories/is-china-an-ally-of-the-us.