Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Global Economic Issues
Sebastian Ashley
9/5/2013
Rise of China

China: one of the oldest countries, and at the same time one of the newest. It has millennia of history and is one of the most influential countries in the world. It has had an average growth rate over the past thirty years of more than 10%, making it the fastest-growing major economy in the world. The socialist market economy of the People's Republic of China is also the second largest economy in terms of GDP (Gross Domestic Party), making up approximately one-eighth of the global GDP. However, China has gone through some pretty major upheavals to get to this point.
This economic turnaround began in 1949, in a post-war China where frequent foreign invasions, revolutions, restorations, and civil wars had left the economy in tatters and no infrastructure to mention. Mao Zedong and the Communist Party put almost all their efforts into boosting the economy while also eliminating anyone who might oppose any of their decisions. These often coincided through the many policies that were introduced, especially the Three-Anti/Five-Anti Campaigns. These campaigns basically punished the private sector (those controlling major industries and companies) by confiscating the businesses and publicly humiliating these “capitalists”. Though the entire Maoist Era brought famine and civil unrest to China, it also provided the base for industrialized China. From there, with time, China began to settle. Leaders like Li Xiannian and Deng Xiaoping introduced a more pragmatic system, incorporating capitalism and encouraging foreign investment. China utilized it's resources and has done terrifically as a nation.
However, China has a relatively low GDP per capita rate, with an average of about $6,076 USD ($9,162 Purchasing Power Parity, the international conversion currency used for calculating relative GDPs, which can be shortened to PPP). This, as well as a host of other problems, is primarily due to China's enormous population. In this blog, I hope to reflect on China's roots that turned it into a major economic force and China's modern problems, and try to see where it's going, what it should be doing, and what went wrong.

Works Cited

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