People’s Republic of China – Sixty Years On
On 1st October, 2009 the People’s Republic of China marked its 60th anniversary. Sixty is a very auspicious number for Chinese – the astrological cycle runs for 60 years and when a person turns 60 they are blessed, or as Confucius put it they know the truth: “At sixty, my ear was an obedient organ for the reception of truth” (James Legge). For China another wonderful spectacle unfolded as the entire country celebrated this milestone kicking off the event with a 60-gun salute. The clouds were seeded to prevent poor weather raining on the parade, 200,000 performers in unison, a heavy emphasis on armed forces and even nuclear missiles and a float celebrating China’s achievements in space rolled along Chang’an Avenue. As we witnessed in the Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, precision and prowess were in abundance, however most of China’s audience was forced to watch on TV with security tight.
I find it interesting to reflect on how the China I grew up understanding has continued to evolve over the past several decades. In the new millennium where climate change and the Global Financial Crisis occupy our thoughts and in an age where the world grows smaller every year, China has remained in the headlines.
Leaps Forward and Steps Backward
The People’s Republic of China has always been about modernization even while embracing communist ideals. The past 60 years have seen many attempts at modernization, and while most have been unsuccessful, for example The Great Leap forward from 1958 to 1960 which had disastrous affects for both human life as well as the environment, their dedication to this ideal has succeeded over the past 30 years as the Chinese economy is now the one to watch and millions of citizens have been lifted out of poverty.
The Economy - Heading to Number One
Globally China has solidified itself as the 3rd largest economy after Japan and the United States (and second if judged by purchasing power parity) and economists predict that China’s economy will overtake Japan’s number two global economic position very soon and the United States’ number one position is up for grabs in the first half of this century.
Europe and the United States have been pressuring China to allow its Yuan to be revalued as opposed to the strictly enforced exchange rate which is controlled by China’s Ministry of Commerce. The belief is that by revaluing the Yuan global economic stability will be gained more quickly, America’s ever growing foreign deficit will be rebalanced and that it will further strengthen China’s internal consumption. China has been considering a tax on savings as it attempts to spur their citizenship to consume more. But China resists the idea that their policy on exchange rate control is a major factor in their country’s ability to pull out of the recession faster and insists that they have done a substantial amount already to contribute to the turnaround that has occurred during 2009 in the global economy.
In December 2001 China became the 143rd member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). While this membership opened up China for an increase in multinational investment and growth within Chinese borders this was already occurring; so membership has had little direct effect on the expansion of China’s foreign direct investment which totalled $852.6 billion from 1979 to 2008 making it the number one country for foreign direct investment among developing nations. From about 40-50 million dollars in the late 90s (second in the world) to around $92 billion in 2008, flows fell in the first part of 2009 but have subsequently started to pick up.
This foreign direct investment has made China the largest manufacturing country generating over 50% of many of the everyday items citizens of the world use like shoes and mobile phones. For example, Chinese manufacturing firms, both foreign and domestic, are “producing two-thirds of all photocopiers, microwaves and shoes; 60% of cell phones; 55% of DVDs; over half of all digital cameras; 30% of personal computers; and 75% of children's toys, plus a wide variety of other goods.” (Time)
Benefits to Australians
A report produced by the Australia China Business Council in 2009, The Benefits to Australian Households of Trade with China put the benefits to Australian households of the trade and investment relationship with China at as much as $3400 per annum for the average Australian household. Furthermore lower prices have dampened inflation and Australians have also benefitted from goods of higher quality than would otherwise have been available.
China’s economic policy has direct benefit for their mass citizenship. Mao Zedong, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, abolished economic disparity between the classes. With the influx of foreign direct investment and the relaxing of state controlled agencies which has allowed business to thrive, China has the fastest growing middle-class in the world. This capitalistic boom has an affect which Mao would certainly dislike, a new widening class disparity which is growing to levels not seen in decades creating a fear that this may create domestic unrest like what was seen in the 1940s.
In order to attempt to combat this disparity China continues to develop new policies in order to assist its citizenship’s growth. In 1949 literate citizens made up only 20% of the population. Today China has one of the fastest developing educational systems with over 20 million students enrolled in university, high numbers studying abroad and primary education numbers increasing annually. China is also building new state-of-the-art universities with massive injections of funding that will leave Australia in the dust.
The government is still using Marxist philosophy to level the gap between the classes but they are adapting this to a new era where controlled capitalism and an opening of borders is taken into consideration. They have removed themselves from being an isolationist country with illiteracy and poverty being the rampant state of existence to an economic power, a manufacturing leader and soon, a wealthy class of citizens.
China the One to Watch in Renewable Energy
China however is reaping the costs of this economic boon. China is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases and has a massive air and water pollution problem and these environmental issues affect public health with an increase in malignant cancers. But renewable energy is being adopted in great force and with big targets to meet in hydro, wind (largest in the world), solar (a world leader in producing solar cells), and biofuels (third largest producer of ethanol bio-fuels), China is one to watch as it aims to generate up to one-fifth of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Finding itself a global economic powerhouse also means that China now has global responsibility. A powerful global leader China’s new entry into the global elite means it needs to assist in keeping global peace. China is a peaceful neighbour to North Korea, with long established blood ties and support of their ideology. China and North Korea pledged ties to maintain their long-standing military alliance and with North Korea’s nuclear program continuing the rest of the world looks on with concern.
These bonds that China is determined to protect does give other global powers pause. In wanting to restrain North Korea they do not wish to ostracize China. This relationship, this brotherhood between the two countries changes the global perspective on North Korea in regard to peace talks and nuclear disarmament. China is a negotiator, a dealer of power with those who seek to control it. No longer can the US and Europe through the power of the UN alone control what country does what. They now require China’s blessing. This is a shift in power that has not been seen since before World War II and one which continues to solidify China’s position in the global power house.
China Rebirth
But the question had been sitting out there; with a global image of what China was and has been over the past 60 years how do you rebrand yourself? China had long been laying plans for its party debut.
These plans culminated in the summer of 2008 when the Olympic ceremonies put the spotlight on Beijing and a world stood in awe. China opened itself to the world as it reintroduced itself not as a closed off nation of poverty and censorship but as a modern powerhouse, a new nation with new ideology for its people and with open borders for the citizens of the world. For sixteen days the world saw amazing venues, beautiful ceremonies, and a new country. The preconceived notions of what China had become shattered in a single night as the Olympics opened on 8th August, 2008. The beauty and splendour shocked as host cities already named for future ceremonies wondered how to top something so amazing.
China was determined to reintroduce itself to the world, to change all ideals of what China was, of what its people were and how China existed. For 20 years the world had remembered the images of the Tian’anmen Square uprising in 1989 as protests against China’s authoritarian rule and rising class disparity were violently shut down. Images of China since have often been negative. The Beijing Olympics shattered those memories with beauty and harmony as the central theme.
It achieved this because China learned a great deal from Tian’anmen Square and the subsequent collapse of communism in the former USSR and Eastern Europe. It learned that communism without change would fail. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) saw that dogma for the sake of dogma without the ability to evolve couldn’t survive. The CCP has managed to not only hold on but they have learned to evolve. The party has forced retirement for party leaders instead of allowing their country to be ruled for the lifetime of a single individual. The CCP is about globalization and has asserted their presence and power in countries like Africa and within Latin America and the European Union (EU). They have 2100 peacekeepers worldwide, more than any other member of the UN’s Security Council and they are a proactive advocate on global security issues.
A Global Force for Good
As proven with the tsunami in 2004 in Southeast Asia and then with the earthquake in Sichuan in 2008 which left nearly 90,000 dead or missing, China was quick with physical and financial assistance to put things right again.
In sixty years China has come a long way, from a country torn by internal turmoil and foreign invaders to a modern ‘communist’ country living and breathing an economic system that is quickly dominating the rest of the globe, further adapting the capitalistic ideal into something that can work with the utopian Marxist notion of equanimity, and is going to become a wealthy nation about to overtake the premier global superpower. China’s leadership has achieved a great deal in advancing their acceptance in the UN, the WTO and as a member of the Security Council to assuring that relations between countries requires their input.
The last sixty years for China has seen a beginning fueled with turmoil to growing pains which caused loss of life and environmental destruction to a rising financial and economic, political and peacekeeping power. If they have achieved so much in sixty years what will the next sixty years bring? Will the CCP manage to hold onto power or will the capitalism and globalization they have embraced evolve them into a new kind of power? Will the growing class disparity create problems they have not faced in several decades or will they adapt to the state in which the rest of the world exists? China now is in possession of two key elements which make change difficult – power and money. It has done well so far and despite political dissenters in other countries who fear China’s rapid growth, has achieved phenomenal developments in a short amount of time; so again, what will the next sixty years bring? |
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