Chinese economic growth in the past few decades has been truly remarkable. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth per annum on average reached 9.4% in the period 1978 to 2002, the total GDP in 1998 was 6.4 times the GDP in 1978 . Official stats may overstate growth by understating inflation but growth of at least 6% a year is still quite impressive. Prior to 1949, GDP per head was no higher than in 1820 and between 1949 and 1978, growth was only around 2.3% per capita per annum . China’s Gross National Product (GNP) grew 7.2% annually from 1978 to 1990, averaging 9.7% per capita from 1982 to 1988 and was among the best in the world . However, “past growth is a poor predictor of future performance” and the considerable volatility in China’s economic growth has prompted the question whether this growth is genuinely sustainable. China’s high savings rate, its advantages as a developing country, as well as its disciplined and literate labour force should prove its critics wrong. However, there are other underlying factors which determine the sustainability of growth such as the type of growth, the state of the environment and the transition of the economy from planned to market. China’s growth may not appear to be as sustainable when these factors are also taken into account.
The Chinese economy has some of the highest saving rates in the world, it averaged 37% of GDP between 1978 and 1995 . The stable and high savings rate supports vigorous rates of investment and capital accumulation – crucial for economic growth. Households currently contribute half of total savings. The rapid rise in GDP per capita has reduced the level of subsistence consumption. Rising aspirations have led to people saving a greater proportion of their income. E...
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...as individual economies, the twenty fastest-growing economies in the world between 1978 and 1995 would have been Chinese . China’s high savings rate will ensure continued increase in investment, its status as a developing country will ensure its ability to take advantage of available technology developed by advanced economies and improvements in the quality of human capital will ensure sustained rises in productivity. Despite the current lacklustre effort by the government to minimise environmental damage, there has been relative improvements. In addition, as China transforms fully into a market economy, its capability for sustainable growth will no doubt improve. In conclusion, the current rapid growth in the Chinese economy is sustainable to a great extent. Sustainable growth is significant as it is crucial for the survival of the Chinese economy in the long run.
Is the lifestyle of people in Europe and the USA a major cause of China’s environmental problems?
Sitting close to the edge of being a “developing” and a “developed” country, China is a difficult country to define neatly. It is a country with an ancient and traditional culture trying to position itself higher within the international community. Plus it is also a communist country that has come to embrace its own form of capitalism to fuel its economy. China’s economic boon has been beneficial to many people within the country. But not to all people within China evenly.
China’s trade with the world grew substantially in the first three decades of the 20th century, marking a historic time for the country. In the 1840s, the Chinese economy was strongly closed; however, when Great Britain and other powerful countries pressured their economy, China was willing to open international trade within their own economy. Over the next 60 years, China experienced a small opening of trade amongst other foreign powers, allowing transactions amongst foreigners allowed. The funded railroad aroused industrialization, as well as publicity and overseas shipping (Yan, 2014). The main reason for moderation in China is because they are so much more focused on production rather than consumption. Last year, China’s consumption accounted for 35 percent of their economy; a little over 10 years ago, it was rated that 50 percent accounted for their overall consumption (Reich, 2010). Foreign exports and imports arose dramatically, increasing the yearly expansion rate of trade to about 7.4 percent. The Chinese economies share in world trade grew a little under 2 percent from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. By the early 20th century, comparative advantage was presented all throughout their economy (Yan, 2014).
Coates, B., Horton, D., & McNamee, L. (2014, January 1). CHINA: PROSPECTS FOR EXPORT-DRIVEN GROWTH. Economic Roundup Issue 4. Department of the Treasury (Australia).
by a world power can be felt by practically every nation of the globe involved
Sustainable prosperity is a very controversial topic. There are a lot of differing opinions about what it is or how it affects us. What is sustainable prosperity? Let’s break it down. Prosperity, it is the idea that all humans needs are met, and they are able to follow a life of happiness. Sustainability, means being able to continue something over generation after generation. We live in a globalizing world today, but to what extent does globalization contribute to sustainable prosperity? Globalization promotes sustainable prosperity, but at the same time it is holding it back. But over all it limits the prosperity of all people in many ways. Globalization affects the way we live, and it has negative affects that cause people to live miserable lives.
China has approximately 20% of the world’s population, which is around 1.3 billion people (Morris, 2009, p. 111). Also, China has become one of the worlds biggest manufacturing countries within 30 years (Fawssett, 2009, p. 27). However, such rapid development has come at a cost, which has created various environmental problems. Coincidentally, China has 16 cities on a list of the 20 worst polluted cities in the world (Fawssett, 2009, p. 15). Therefore, this essay will explain the reasons for China’s environmental problems, then evaluate the claim that the Chinese government and people, are tackling these environmental problems. First, crop farming techniques over the last hundred years, and their consequences will be explained. Followed by, how peoples choice in food has changed over the last hundred years, and how this indirectly affects the environment. Then, how a capitalist economy is linked to agriculture, and finally what the Chinese government and people are doing to tackle these problems.
“While there is significant variation across regions, within the cities and within the rural areas, the most significant inequality is between the urban and the rural” (Saich, 2011:316).
From the 1970s, there has been a wave of liberalization in China, which was introduced by Deng Xiaoping. This is one of the key reasons to the rise of China to be one of the economic giants in the world. In the last 25 years of the century, the Chinese economy has had massive economic growth, which has been 9.5 percent on a yearly basis. This has been of great significance of the country since it quadrupled the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country thus leading to saving of 400 million of their citizens from the threats of poverty. In the late 1970s, China was ranked twentieth in terms of trade volumes in the whole world as well as being predicted to be the world’s top nation concerning trading activities (Kaplan, 53). This further predicted the country to record the highest GDP growth in the whole world.
When the new Chinese Government was set up in 1949, the new government faced a lot of problems. First on their agenda was how to re-build the country. As Communist Party of China (CPC) is a socialist party, their policies at the time were similar to that of the Soviet Union’s. Consequently, the CPC used a centrally planned strategy as its economic strategy when it first began. For a long time, the Chinese economy was a centrally planned economy in which none other than the state owned all companies. In fact, there were absolutely no entrepreneurs. As time went on, the problems of a centrally planned economy started to appear, such as low productivity, which was the key reason for restricting the development of China. With the population growing, the limitations of the centrally planned economy were clear. In 1978 China started its economic reform whose goal was to generate sufficient surplus value to finance the modernization of the Chinese economy. In the beginning, in the late 1970s and early 19...
...st and stand in the world. It is predicted that China will one day be the largest economy growing country in world. They continually growing and rebalancing their world to be the best. The growth of economy will depend on the Chinese government comprehensive economic reforms that more quickly accelerate in China transition to a free market economy. The consumer demand, rather than exporting the main engine of economic growth; boost productivity and innovation; address growing income disparities; and enhance environmental. (Morrison, 2014,para2)
Having thrown open its doors to capitalist investment and expanded at a miraculous rate over the past three decades, China has now surpassed Japan to become the second biggest economy in the world. Since the early 1980s, China's economy has metamorphosed from a centrally planned syst...
time. As time progresses, countries seem to be able to grow at a much more rapid
The first is to encourage economic growth and sustainable development. It emphasizes the need for economic growth, the need to improve the level of contemporary human welfare through economic growth, enhance national strength and social wealth. However, sustainable development should not only pay attention to the amount of economic growth, but also to the pursuit of quality of economic growth. That is economic development, including growth in the number and quality improvement in two parts. Growth in the number is limited, and rely on scientific and technological progress and improving the effectiveness of economic activity and quality, adopt a scientific mode of economic growth is sustainable. Flag of sustainable development is the sustainable use of resources and good ecological environment. Economic and social development can not exceed the carrying capacity of resources and the
The rise in China from a poor, stagnant country to a major economic power within a time span of twenty-eight years is often described by analysts as one of the greatest success stories in these present times. With China receiving an increase in the amount of trade business from many countries around the world, they may soon be a major competitor to surpass the U.S. China became the second largest economy, last year, overtaking Japan which had held that position since 1968 (Gallup). China could become the world’s largest economy in decades.