What is a small power Is international development a different issue for small powers - Essay Example

China Development Challenges Introduction The People's Republic of China as it is formally known is located in eastern Asia and is the third largest country in the world in terms of total area (after Russia and Canada). China's population is by far the largest in the world. "In 1998, it was estimated at 1.24 billion people and growing at a rate of 12.5 million a year. But this annual population growth rate has dropped by nearly 44% from 2.3% in 1973 to 1.0% in 1998.China's population will reach 1.6 billion in 2025 and 2 billion by 2050" (Todaro, 2000). China's economy, culture, science and technology and navigation had reached a peak that was unequaled anywhere else in the world. Its skilled navigators and the "Silk Road" linking western China with western Asia had introduced advanced Chinese technology and civilization to Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, the Middle West Asia, the Middle East and Europe. However, years of war and long periods of centralized ruling and a closing down of borders have slowed down China's development. China re-emerged recently as the fastest growing economy in the world. World markets have been flooded with Chinese goods. The development goals of China are not without its challenges and this paper seeks to explore different challenges facing China with regard to challenges. Brief Background Cultural Revolution began in the mid-1960s in China. With the start of this revolution many people started having radical leftist thinking. Initially, intellectual achievement and foreign ideas, and the professions, including management, were not considered important. Formal management education was hard to find in China and those having a yearning for managerial education were discouraged. Social, political, and economic changes have brought about new development in the republic of China. Initially problems like poverty, illiteracy, and premature mortality haunted China because of the feudal structure of the society. Progress and development were not the key features of this society. Land reforms started in the 1950s and 1960s brought some changes in the society with the help of modernization. Class and gender inequalities that existed before started diminishing with the passage of time. Though China opened up itself to many Western concepts but the way different concepts have been adopted and used in China differ a lot from the West. The change was initiated but it could not be sustained at the level it was initiated. The Chinese Communist Party has not been able to shun the values and influence of feudal background. Population & Development In any discussion of the world population problem, China is usually first country mentioned, along, perhaps, with India. As the first nation with more than 1 billion people, China's impact on its own as well as global economy and environment promises to become larger with each passing year. Population explosion has been the biggest concern of China with respect to its development. As the population increased the demands on the infrastructure and the environment also increased. It has been estimated that China's population will increase to 1.5 billion by 2030 causing extra strains on the capacity of the environment and natural resources. "China's population will continue to grow in the next 40 years as a result of its huge base of fertile population. It is well known that the dynamics are determined not only by the current levels of fertility, mortality and migration, but also by previous levels of these components of change, which effect the current age-gender structure" (Shen, 1998). Problems of living space for families, access to potable water resources, health, education and many other issues come up as a result of unbridled population explosion. Pace of modernization has been greatly affected by population pressure. The immense employment pressure also results because of increase in the working population. Unemployment thus becomes another challenge. Despite growing population efforts have been made to curtail the problems that crop up. For example infant and under-five mortality rates have improved. But to attain such results government had to have tight implementation of family planning programs. In this regard the example of controversial, the 'one-child' policy is given which was launched in 1978. Participation of Female Population In today's modern world both males and females contribute to the development of any country. Many Western countries the participation of women in development is a norm. Countries like China took quite some time to challenge its traditional norms. Gender relations have improved over the last fifty years as women got rid of many of the shackles of an old patriarchal system with the help of the Constitution and legislation. Women have entered almost all walks of life and created one of the highest female employment rates in the world. Now China has almost equal enrolment of boys and girls in primary schools as an effort to reduce the disparities with respect to education. However, women still have to face discrimination despite the whole opening up scenario. One of the most important sources of discrimination against women is the difference in the retirement ages of both men women as women retire at an earlier age (60 years) than men (65 years). If China has to move ahead on the path of development then it must ensure participation of women at all levels. "Chinese women suffer the same types of discrimination that appear in many other societies. They are under-represented in management and politics, they are concentrated in low paying jobs that offer few possibilities for advancement, and they perform most of the household chores and child care" (Summerfield, 1994). Regional Inequities Whenever development takes place at a faster pace the tendency is that these development activities remain based in certain area that is mostly urban areas of the country. In China also the rapid urbanization took place in recent years. After the reform period, Government policies regarding urbanization and migration changed. Due to urban-rural population shift, future development gets greatly affected. Disparities in the region occur in different areas for example urban population may have a lower total fertility rate than the rural population. The real challenge for a developing economy is to reduce regional inequities in the country and to distribute the effects of development equally. Strain on Resource Destruction and pollution of the natural resources is the biggest danger that results because of development activities. Urbanization results in greater use of natural resources, urban land, housing, employment and education. "Throughout China, cities of all sizes reclassify agricultural land for urban development and lease it out, making considerable income on road building and tolls. Land grabs for urbanization have become a major distorting driver of municipal finance and have caused considerable protests at the local level as farmers or poor urbanites lose land and homes with little compensation. Protests over road building have become particularly violent in southern China, where farmers are aware how new roads bring more factories, which ultimately contaminate water and soil" (Kim & Turner, 2006). Expanding population also requires greater amount of agricultural produce to satisfy the food needs of the population. However, the land remains constant while population increases is a fact that becomes a big development challenge. Even though technical progress may help to boost agricultural production, but the decline in arable land may lessen the effects of this technical progress. Arable land reduces greatly because of urbanization, housing and other constructions. In order to meet part of the domestic demand China will have to resort to imports from the international market. There are also concerns with respect to dependency on imports from the international market. For example, China has been very wary of increasing grain imports and considers dependency on foreign grain production a national security issue. Hence under given circumstances improving agricultural technology and land resources management become important challenges. Legislative Structure Chinese legislations have always supported a controlled approach rather than a market approach. There are gaps in present legislative structure. There is a constant need to update the existing laws and improve the current legislature to promote good governance. The legislations cannot change overnight but to improve them is a big challenge as foreign firms trying to enter Chinese markets still have to face many problems regarding legislations. "Foreign firms will have unprecedented access to geographic regions and economics sectors but must contend with China's general lack of codified laws, the regional diversity of "legal systems" and practices, and the absence of case precedents. A literature survey and in-depth interviews with business and legal experts in China make it clear that firms entering China must be fully aware of these challenges and quickly establish the personal connections and procedures needed to operate successfully" (Ahlstorm, Law, Nair & Young). Managerial Competencies & Economic Transition After the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, Deng Xiaoping assumed the position of national leadership in China. This new leadership again worked to bring about changes. A number of reform programs were started to push China on the path of modernization. Deng gave more importance to the world economy and wanted China to compete on the global level. Since 1978, the fundamental premise of China's economic policy has been that consumer welfare, economic productivity, and political stability are indivisible. Emphasis has been on raising personal income and consumption and introducing new productivity, incentive, and management systems. Industrial reforms increased the variety of light industrial and consumer goods available. The leadership demonstrated its ability to adjust the economic pressure by adopting a variety of fiscal and administrative measures. The result of these policies changes and mixtures of central direction and local initiative was the creation of the hybrid economy, which the Chinese call a socialist commodity system influenced by market mechanisms. Much of the success represented a recovery from the economically disastrous Cultural Revolution period. Many modern management concepts like decentralization of planning and decision making; the responsibility system with emphasis on individual accountability for production, the encouragement of private enterprise and increased technological development were then introduced. These reforms improved the status of management function in Chinese corporate or business culture. China still has greater challenges to face as it moves from a centrally planned economy to a socialist market economy. WTO Challenges Whenever any country is about to enter into WTO, WTO provides that country with a set of rules to follow. These rules are designed to apply in the operation of market economy. These rules treat the modern economic market according to its needs. These rules have utmost significance in improving the economy. They solve the problem of poverty and improving the condition of economy as well as boost up the growth of economy. The challenges with which the China has been required to deal can be characterized and define as follows: Eradication of Monopoly System: WTO requires the country to quit monopoly system from the economic market. A monopoly decline the rate with which the economy of a country prospers or grows as well as it brings poverty and backwardness in the economic culture. Monopoly system discourages a competitive environment in the market and encourages rule of one which in turn slows down the progress of economy. WTO rules condemn monopoly in market; according to WTO an anti-monopoly takes the market towards success and growth firmly, and uniformly. So, China has been required to eradicate monopoly system from its economic culture as it is one of the important rules of WTO. Removal of official based culture: WTO requires each of its member country to make the business system in their countries fair, adequately transparent and pure. The most difficult task that China needed to do was the transformation of its operation of control of services. Every business unit in the country should be free to decide and take actions according to their own will. The government should not interfere in any decisions of business units which may lead the country towards the success. Reduction of infringement culture: In China both of planned and market economy system exist and after entering into the WTO the difference between these two system became wider. Infringement culture always created problem for the economy of the country and so the country had to deal with this challenge. Political & Cultural Challenges Sometimes cultures themselves pose big problems in development. Some Chinese cultural aspects in their historical background have also been problematic. The change in cultural ideas is a big development challenge. "Some traditional ideas formed under the planning economy still linger. For instance, seeing somebody getting rich, people may think of corruption, bribery and nepotism. Also people sometimes discriminate against privately-owned or collective economies. All this results from the idea of belittling commerce in traditional Chinese culture, in the media and in people's attempts to seek balance in mind" (Xiaochong, 2002). On the political front, the economic reforms of the 1980s occurred without concomitant political reform as cries for greater democratic participation began to be sounded. Unfortunately for both the Chinese people and their economy, the harsh repression that culminated in June 1989 in the Tiananmen Square massacre set back the pace of political reform and social progress. Still today China is criticized for not encouraging true democratic values. Improving the political infrastructure of the country can also be considered a big issue in development of the country. Conclusion China has emerged as one the fastest developing economies. Its vast population comprising both women and men has contributed immensely to its economic agenda. Today China is emerging as global economic power on the world map. Its success has not been easy. There has been different reforms and changes that finally spurred China on its path of development and progress. The goal has not been achieved yet. The transition is taking place but still China has to get into serious development planning and must act to counter different challenges. "China is wedded to an overall purpose of increasing the well being of its people. Changing economic and social conditions over the next decade, partly spurred by leaps in technological applications, will open many possibilities for improvement in both societal and personal well being. However, there remain a host of important national goals, partly inspired by global initiatives, the sustainable achievement of which would bolster both national and international development efforts" ('U.N.'s Brief Assessment'. 2001). References: Ahlstorm, D., Law, P., Nair, A. & Young, M. (2003). Managing the Institutional Environment: Challenges for Foreign Firms in Post WTO China. SAM Advanced Management Journal. 68(2): 41+. Shen, J. (1998). China 's Future Population and Development Challenges. The Geographical Journal. 164(1): 32+. Summerfield, G. ( 1994). Effects of the Changing Employment Situation on Urban Chinese Women. Review of Social Economy. 52(1);40+. Todaro, M. (2000). Economic Development. Seventh Edition. Addison Wesley Longman. Xiaochong, Z. (2002) Real WTO Challenges for China Will Be Cultural, Economics Professor Says. Retrieved on March 16, 2007 from: http://www.china.org.cn/english/2002/Mar/28871.htm Kim, J. & Turner, J. (2006). Urban Transport Development in China - Trends and Challenges. Retrieved on March 16, 2007 from: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfmtopic_id=1421&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=207527 'U.N.'s Brief Assessment of China's Development Challenges' (2001). Retrieved on March 16, 2007 from: http://www.unchina.org/about_china/html/about.shtml Read More