Shanghai's Meglev, baskeball player Yao Ming, Chinese fashion models and the Long March rocket due to put a man in orbit this month.

China's economic experience:
social tension, controlled privatization and sustained economic growth

   
Nipawin - Tuesday - October 7, 2003 - by: Mario deSantis

new
world
order

I realise that we are living in the New World Order, an order which is regressively evolving into a more divided world. We have had the news that Israel has bombed a supposed Palestinian terrorist camp in Syria, another country, after a horrible suicide bombing in Haifa, Israel. I also learned today that American Exxon-Mobil could be purchasing a 40 percent stake in Russian Yukos-Sibneft for US$25 billion, after Russian president Vladimir Putin met recently with president George Bush at Camp David Presidential retreat in Maryland.

 

 

war and
mergers

So we have now precedents for the most powerful warmongering countries, irrespective of international law, to pre-emptively attack weaker countries they discretionally label terrorist countries. At the same time we continue to have global corporations of any country merging themselves to further monopolise the global market.

 

 

Korten

This situation reminds me of the book "When Corporations rule the World" where author David Korten explains the depravation of the Free Market.

 

 

China
rising
GDP

I have explained the Race to the Bottom of the Free Market as the global corporations have been moving their manufacturing factories to low wage countries in their 'competitive' pursuing for higher profits, and global and local markets. China, as the biggest country with the lowest worker wage, has become the manufacturing factory of the world; however China has not experienced this race to the bottom. In fact, China has seen its gross domestic product rise tenfold over the past 25 years to US$1.3 trillion. We must also understand that something is the value of the international dollar, and something else is the value of the local currency in the local market.

 

 

diversified
and
growing

So we have the paradox that China, by slowly and progressively entering the market economy and contrary to the gospel of the Free Market to restructure immediately, has consistently increased its gross domestic product while having the lowest worker wage in the world. At the same time China's economy is relatively diversified and its scientific and technological advances can be appreciated when we consider China's space plan to put eventually a man on the Moon and China's achievement in the completion of the Maglev Train, the fastest in the world, connecting Shanghai to its international airport.

 

 

state of
tension

Rapid economic growth as for any radical change in any natural phenomena occur always in a state of tension. Therefore, it is natural that China is experiencing ongoing social problems as its economy continues to grow at the highest pace in the world. The United States doesn't understand the meaning of growth in a state of creative social tension and peace. Instead it wants to grow in a state of negative tension and war. The last negative tension caused by the Bush administration against China is the complaint that its loss of domestic jobs and wide trade deficit are a consequence of an undervalued Chinese currency being artificially pegged to the dollar. This complaint is definitely not true as the root problem is the wage differential between American workers and Chinese workers in an economy driven by the Free Market.

 

 

root
problems

Economic and social growth can only be healthily guided by taking actions to offset root problems, and certainly not by reacting to superficial problems as the Bush administration proves.

 

 
 

Mario deSantis

   
References:
  Pertinent articles published in Ensign
   
  Reynolds, Paul Prising open the Syrian file October 6, 2003 BBC News,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3167742.stm
   
  Belton, Catherine Yukos Targeted In 3 New Raids October 6, 2003 The Moscow Times, http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/10/06/001.html
   
  Korten, David C. WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD April 2001,
http://www.pcdf.org/corprule/corporat.htm
   
  deSantis, Mario The Race to the Bottom of the Free Market October 2, 2003 Ensign
   
  Cheng, Allen T. Analysts warn of dangerous days ahead for the economy October 1, 2003 China Study Group, http://www.chinastudygroup.org/newsarchive.php?id=2803
   
  Hennock, Mary Legal aid for China's workers October 5, 2003 BBC News,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3159732.stm
   
  BBC News China details space plans October 6, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3166832.stm
   
  Gluckman, Ron Is it a Bird? A Plane?
http://www.gluckman.com/Maglev.html
   

 

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