How can China beat capitalism at its own game?

What does it say to you when, a Communist country can out do... most of the Capitalism? while seeing most of the western world now begging for China to support them in there economies. Was it not the west who once claimed that a state Communist economy would never work? That a communist structure could never support a capitalist economy? yet here it is? Not that I am a communist myself.... but how come they could beat the West at its own game? and before you say cheap Labour this cannot not explain this at all? its at best only part of it.

So how could this of happened?


The People's Republic of China (PRC) ranks since 2010 as the world's 2nd largest economy after the United States. It has been the world's fastest-growing major economy,[clarification needed] with consistent growth rates of around 10% over the past 30 years. China is also the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods in the world. The country's per capita GDP (PPP) was $7,544 (International Monetary Fund, 94th in the world) in 2010. The provinces in the coastal regions of China tend to be more industrialized, while regions in the hinterland are less developed. As China's economic importance has grown, so has attention to the structure and health of that economy

By 2010 it was evident to outside observers such as The New York Times that China was poised to move from export dependency to development of an internal market. Wages were rapidly rising in all areas of the country and Chinese leaders were calling for an increased standard of living. China's economy surpasses Japan's in second quarter

In 2010, China's GDP was valued at $5.87 trillion, surpassed Japan's $5.47 trillion, and became the world's second largest economy after the U.S. China could become the world's largest economy (by nominal GDP) sometime as early as 2020.

China is the largest creditor nation in the world and owns approximately 20.8% of all foreign-owned US Treasury securities.

The PRC government's decision to permit China to be used by multinational corporations as an export platform has made the country a major competitor to other Asian export-led economies, such as South Korea, Singapore, and Malaysia. China has emphasized raising personal income and consumption and introducing new management systems to help increase productivity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China

Easy!!!!! Pay their workers peanuts, Jail anyone who speaks out and completely ignore the many millions of poor people

Are these policies you would us to adopt?

In order to compete with China, the West would have to give up being Western. It's really that simple. Coming from Asia, I understand the Asian mentality. They are fiercely competitive to the point of overt aggression, and they can be particularly ruthless. I don't mean to say that they are ALL like that - or that there are billions of Al Capones running around. However, when you live in either China or India, each with a nation of a billion or more people, what do you think your odds are of getting into college? Or getting a job? Competition is fierce because it HAS to be, and I think Westerners simply do not understand how much freedom we truly do enjoy.

Naturally I often made friends with fellow Indians while in college here in the States, and being a nosy busybody, I usually asked them what they thought of life in America. Well, most who come here for school come from wealthy parents. School is not cheap here when paying with dollars much less rupees. What most of them, no, what ALL of them said was: The most striking thing about life here was how much freedom we had. Not in the legal sense, but time-wise. The curriculum here was not easier, there was just less of it. In India, you don't go to parties at night to get drunk at the frat house; you don't hang out with friends; you don't go on impromptu road trips to Daytona Beach on spring break. Nope. In India, you study ... and study ... and study ... and study ... and study ... and study. If you're awake and not in the shower, you had best be studying - while you eat or even when you're taking a dump on the loo. It really is that intense.

It's not because the schools in China or India are harder or because the teachers are harsh taskmasters. It's because there are SO many people trying to cram into colleges that they can give you the boot for very little reason, knowing there are 500,000 other people vying for your seat.

I remember reading a story a few years ago about one of the massive earthquakes China sometimes have. Some children not more than 14 or 15 years-old were sitting in the rubble of their homes ... studying. Yep. A big exam was coming up in a few days and they had to study - and the exam was still scheduled earthquake or no. Even if they had to use the same concrete slab that crushed their parents as a desk, they had to take the test.

Now contrast that with the Western ideology. At the end of my 10th grade year, my town experienced a tornado that killed six people. The last 1.5 weeks of class were cancelled altogether and any scheduled final exams were simply shelved. We don't make our kids sit in the rubble of their homes to study for tests ... we'll even close down schools if the roads are too bad in the winter.

But most of all, our ideology here is to let children be children. In many Asian nations, including China, the culture is so competitive that children have to begin competing almost immediately, and I feel they lose something, a part of their soul perhaps, in the long run.

The competitiveness in education has churned out adults that have stimulated the populations of many Asian nations to the point where most of them have standards of living on par with the West. They are global contenders now, China most of all - but they have achieved this by sacrificing their childhoods upon the altar of prosperity. Is this what we must now do to compete?

There are other factors, of course, such as rigid discipline, a much more deeply rooted respect for elders, etc. etc. that influences how Asians (especially China) do business, but the instilled competitiveness that begins at such an early age has A LOT to do with it.

The sheer number of Chinese explains whatever success they achieve. After a series of wrong starts, the current trend is towards Western-style Capitalism, whatever they choose to call it. The World will look rather different at the end of 2025.

Most of what Russia and China have achieved, has been gained on the back of plagiarism. They never / rarely bring out ideas for patent, depending on the West to do the research and development of whatever product their attention is aimed at.

once the west gets sick and tired and companies close doors to 'visitors' China is going to find it very costly to keep up. It has been shown over and over again that these asian countries have no intention of keeping to agreements, if it don't suit them!

no intention of keeping to agreements, if it don't suit them!

Sounds very like the British Diplomatic Service.

astra wrote:Most of what Russia and China have achieved, has been gained on the back of plagiarism. They never / rarely bring out ideas for patent, depending on the West to do the research and development of whatever product their attention is aimed at.

once the west gets sick and tired and companies close doors to 'visitors' China is going to find it very costly to keep up. It has been shown over and over again that these asian countries have no intention of keeping to agreements, if it don't suit them!

Cannot agree more with you astra, I believe China will change quite a lot over the next 20 years. all the signs are there in my mind.