China Comes Of Age

[Lonan3]

If anyone still doubts that China is now a major power in today's (and tomorrow's) world, just consider the following recent achievements (source: Guardian, 20-09-2005)

 

Three Gorges Dam: The $24bn Three Gorges dam on the Yangtze river is the largest hydroelectric dam project in the world, and China's biggest construction project since the Great Wall. It will span nearly a mile across and tower 185m above the world's third-longest river. Its reservoir will stretch more than 350 miles and will force the displacement of between one and two million people. It is scheduled for completion by 2009.

 

Shenzhou spacecraft: China launched its first Shenzhou or "divine vessel" spacecraft on an unmanned flight in November 1999. Shenzhou V (October 2003) was the first manned flight, carrying Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei, making China the third country to send a human into space. The Shenzhou spacecraft, launched with Long March rockets, is modelled on the Russian's Soyuz spacecraft.

 

Oriental Pearl Tower:At 468m tall, Shanghai's 10-year-old Oriental Pearl tower is the highest TV tower in Asia. The main structure is formed by three columns and a series of spheres, the largest 50m in diameter. With its revolving restaurant, hotel and observation decks, it attracts 3 million visitors a year.

 

Lupu bridge, Shanghai: With a main arch span of 550m, the Lupu bridge is the world's longest steel-arch bridge. It spans the Huangpu river and connects the Shanghai north-south expressway between Pudong airport and the city centre. It took three years and cost 2.5bn yuan (£171m) to build.

 

Terminal 3, Beijing Airport: British architect Norman Foster and British engineering company Arup are building the third terminal at Beijing airport, to be opened before the 2008 Olympics. The complex, funded mainly by the Chinese government, will be the world's largest and is worth £1.2bn. The airport will handle up to 60 million passengers and 500,000 planes a year. Foster has described the scale as "truly awesome".

 

Tibetan Railway: They said it was impossible to build a railway to Tibet. There were 5,000m-high mountains to climb, 12km-wide valleys to bridge, hundreds of kilometres of ice and slush that could never support tracks and trains. How could anyone tunnel through rock at -30C, or lay rails when the least exertion sends you reaching for the oxygen bottle? But that's the sort of challenge today's China relishes. Next month, three years ahead of schedule, more than 1,000km of fresh track will link the garrison town of Golmud in China's 'wild west' and the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

 

We've become so used to seeing the 'world powers' as being the USA and Russia - with Europe trailing in their wake - but now it looks as though we're going to have to adjust our sights and that the 'sleeping giant' in the East has finally woken up.

[P.K.]

A "recent achievement" you seem to have missed:

 

A few countries accounted for the majority of executions carried out during 2004. China executed at least 3,400 people, but sources inside the country have estimated the number to be near 10,000.

 

Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact500112005

[K.os Theory]

Can't wait to get over to China, thanks Lonan, I was just going to hit Xi Ang ( terricota army ) and Shanghai, but now it looks like my trek to tibet is that bit closer ( and easier )...

[Lonan3]

A "recent achievement" you seem to have missed:

 

A few countries accounted for the majority of executions carried out during 2004. China executed at least 3,400 people, but sources inside the country have estimated the number to be near 10,000.

 

Amnesty International http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engact500112005

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Their human rights record is indefensible - only a very few would dispute that, but there are very few countries anywhere in the world that can look back through their history with an entirely free conscience. All we can hope for is that it's part of the 'coming of age' process and that it will get better as it becomes more exposed to examination.

[Tugger]

Can't wait to get over to China, thanks Lonan, I was just going to hit Xi Ang ( terricota army ) and Shanghai, but now it looks like my trek to tibet is that bit closer ( and easier )...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

When are you going, and have you already been to Beijing?

 

I plan on doing that train jhourney as well, I think, although I'm fairly concerned about altitude sickness

[ButterflyMaiden]

If anyone still doubts that China is now a major power in today's (and tomorrow's) world, just consider the following recent achievements (source: Guardian, 20-09-2005) ..............

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The achievements you mention mirror the type of project which Stalin & Co completed in the former Soviet Union. They are, in fact, the hallmark of a command economy rather than that of a super power.

 

However, I would agree China is on course to being one of the world's major powers probably sooner than later.

[germann]

And they all seem to be wanting to learn English:

 

Teaching Jobs in China

[K.os Theory]

Can't wait to get over to China, thanks Lonan, I was just going to hit Xi Ang ( terricota army ) and Shanghai, but now it looks like my trek to tibet is that bit closer ( and easier )...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

When are you going, and have you already been to Beijing?

 

I plan on doing that train jhourney as well, I think, although I'm fairly concerned about altitude sickness

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm flying out to Hong Kong on the 5th October, gonna really play it by ear, although the guy I'm stayin with has us booked to travel into china early October for a couple of days. No definate plans as of yet but I'll be logging onto the forums to see what's going on I'll keep ya posted...

[VinnieK]

If anyone still doubts that China is now a major power in today's (and tomorrow's) world, just consider the following recent achievements (source: Guardian, 20-09-2005) ..............

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The achievements you mention mirror the type of project which Stalin & Co completed in the former Soviet Union. They are, in fact, the hallmark of a command economy rather than that of a super power.

 

However, I would agree China is on course to being one of the world's major powers probably sooner than later.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'd say that whilst I think China is a major power, a lot of the coming of age celebrations are premature. The problem is that China's economy isn't nearly as stable as it at first looks. Whilst investment has been flooding it recently, China's institutions and procedures aren't equipped to deal with it all effectively. Corruption has been reported to be endemic, with little protection for the investor, and the chinese banking system is woefully inadequate for the task its been set. The result is that a number of firms have already returned from china muttering 'never again', and undoubtably others are taking notice and beginning to feel a little more cautious before throwing their hat in the ring. Secondly, the economic rise of China is based primarily on cheap manufacturing for export, which places it at the mercy of the economies of its trading partners. Were a global recession to occur, which some forecasters view as likely, China would be hit inordinately hard.

 

In short, what's happening in China could be seen as the beginning of an economic bubble. Should the price of the vast resources China is currently consuming in its manufacturing industry rise at a point coinciding with a global economic downturn then China's prospects are very likely to spiral.

 

Also, don't be fooled by monumental building and prestige projects. Most fairly large nations are capable of impressive feats of engineering if they have a government determined to force them through, come what may. What matters is whether the nation in question has the capability to sustain the kind of economic growth and prosperity that warrant such projects.

 

To take on one example, it would be easy to say that the Shenzou spacecraft represents China's stepping up to the global stage. But let's not forget that at the time of the spacecraft's construction and launch China was receiving $1.8 billion every year in aid payments. Furthermore, the launch of the craft was funded from the military budget which, as can only be expected in a militaristic authoritarian regime, is disproportionately large compared with the national budget as a whole. It's relatively easy for any large nation to launch a manned spacecraft if it's willing to take the money from areas on which actual economic success are dependent (such as infrastructure, education, etc), and certainly that and other prestige projects alone are not evidence of the kind of stability and prosperity that helps ensure superpower status.

[Tugger]

K.os Theory: Beijing is definitely worth a look, if you have the time, and October is probably the best month to visit China. Have a good time!

[theintelligentthug]

 

Their human rights record is indefensible - only a very few would dispute that, but there are very few countries anywhere in the world that can look back through their history with an entirely free conscience. All we can hope for is that it's part of the 'coming of age' process and that it will get better as it becomes more exposed to examination.

 

 

meh. its thir country, who are we to intefere?

[ButterflyMaiden]

Also, don't be fooled by monumental building and prestige projects. Most fairly large nations are capable of impressive feats of engineering if they have a government determined to force them through, come what may. What matters is whether the nation in question has the capability to sustain the kind of economic growth and prosperity that warrant such projects.

 

Communist nations have been particularly fond of such projects. We might also take note of the impressive projects built by Idi Amin (before my time Im afraid) in Kampala.

 

China has significant problems trying to feed its massive population and water is actually more expensive than oil at the moment .... they have a long way to go to catch up with the West ...but they will do

[Tugger]

Shanghai's MagLev train is also fairly impressive, although the know-how is all imported (German, I think)

[Gladys]

Like all emerging economies China probably has a long way to go to stamp out the inevitable corruption, the asset seizing, the neglect of the poorer parts of the nation denied the ability to share in the country's new-found position; the list could go on and on. I do hope "liberalising" means liberalising for all in China.

 

Like many others of my age, I watched the events in Tianenem (q. spelling) Square and often wondered what happened to the student who stood up to the tank?

[Chinahand]

I think Churchill's comment about Russia now applies totally to China. Its is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

 

China's economy is certainly booming, but does this mean that the Giant is really awakening to shake the world?

 

I still think the quotation the previous sentence alludes to is one of the most amazing ones around. Napoleon, one of the most astute and powerful leaders in History, makes a trully amazing observation about China's failure to adjust to the modern world: "China is a sleeping giant. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will shake the world" But China still hasn't trully awoken nearly 200 years after Napoleon's observation!

 

The last time China had a major recession was 1989, admittedly it had some troubles in the mid 90's, but the fact is its had nearly 16 years of growth. But what happened during the last set of economic trouble: social unrest on such a scale it unleashed the Tiananmen square demonstrations and the consequent massacre.

 

China's economy is still racked with inconsistencies and the inability of its political system to deal with social conflict is a huge uncertainty hanging over China's future prosperity.

 

100 million Chinese work in deadend, bankrupt state owned companies which produce no worthwhile goods and absorb the savings of millions of more through state regulated loans. Just imagine how you'd feel if you found out your bank had been ordered to give your life savings to bail out a corrupt and badly managed company which will NEVER be able to repay the loan!

 

100 million Chinese are immigrant workers, living in some of the toughest, unsanitary and dangerous conditions imaginable. Africa and India have shanty towns and squatter camps, but China has walled workers compounds where migrant workers are coralled like animals when they finish working on the building project for the day.

 

100 million Chinese men will never find a wife due to the imbalances the one child policy has created through gender selective abortions. This mass of sexually frustrated unfulfilled men will fuel prostitition, sexually transmitted disease and the domestic violence that results when men compete for women; and could result in increased militarism as they are funnelled into the army.

 

600 million Chinese live in the country side with little access to the prosperity existing in the costal cities, they are resentful that they have little future and are ruled over by autocratic and corrupt officials. The one Child policy is a running sore with officials still arresting whole families and holding them until a pregnant mother in hiding turns herself in to be forced to have an abortion. I've recently read some of the most disturbing news reports I've ever seen interviewing a young girl forced to have her 8 month old feotus injected with poison and then go through a still birth. One of my joys was feeling our baby at the same age kicking to his dad's pokes. Just take a moment to think how that young girl must have felt. This is an evil.

 

China is a contradiction; it is booming, but NO it is NOT absorbing, overall, any investments from the rest of the world. Quite the opposite, China's trade deficit is fuelling massive capital flight away from China. Billions and billions of dollars are leaving China every year to be invested in American Treasury bonds or foreign stocks. This is an economic fact directly related to China's equally large exports of goods. China is absorbing millions of pounds due to us buying its goods, but this money HAS to turn round and leave again. Every time you buy a Chinese product; some Chinese buys a foreign bond or share; its how international exchange marketgs work.

 

The environmental damage occuring in China is trully huge and a major concern. Desertification is changing the farmland all around Beijing to dust; and air and water pollution is creating a terrible legacy in disease and habitat destruction.

 

A major reality check is that China is still a very poor country. 50 years ago the world consisted of the developed world, the emerging economies and the poorest economies in the world, then those based in Africa, the Indian subcontinent and China.

 

China has managed to move itself from the poorest group into the emerging economies group while most of Africa has mired in poverty and India has only been able to partially reform itself.

 

China is far poorer and less well organised than most eastern European countries. A interesting comparision is that the IMF estimates that in 2006 China's GNP per head will be the same as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Do people see Angola or the Ukraine as economic threats to the west. But their economies person to person are more developed than China's.

 

People will answer that there are 1.3 billion Chinese and yep that is true, but without true reform these peoples talent and effort will be inefficiently wasted.

 

China has managed to lift itself from the poorest to the middle rank, but you will have to be very brave to assume that its politicians will be able to give its people the freedom and initiative to take itself forward to true prosperity.

 

Go visit; if you can go and stay; as has been mentioned you can get a job teaching English as easily as anything ... if you've a professional qualification you can get a job out there reasonably easily and its a true fascination. The people are open and friendly; love to speak english and you'll experience what its like to live in one of the most dynamic and challenging places on earth ... oh and the food ... OH the food ... GOOOOOD!