BusinessWeek on China's Economy
In a long and interesting article, BusinessWeek covers the present and the future of China's economy. As I was reading it I kept thinking back to our World Is Flat discussion and its global implications.
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One thing that immediately stood out to me was how China intends to become its own biggest consumer of its products. For some reason this surprises me... I wonder if it is a natural progression of a growing economy to enable its people to become bigger consumers, or if it's partially in response to wanting to insulate its own economy from the fluctuations occurring globally.
ReplyDeleteThis article specifically addresses one of the main points of The World Is Flat, in that it is not simply money or manpower that will determine a country's prowess in the global economy moving forward, rather it is that society's intellectual capital, improving education and high-end skills, and the collective of individuals continually advancing their own personal knowledge that will enable an economy to compete globally. The author of the BusinessWeek article addresses this, "Experts familiar with highly touted Chinese achievements such as commercial jets and high-speed trains say the technologies that underpin them were largely developed elsewhere. There is no Chinese Sony, Toyota, or Samsung on the horizon."
ReplyDeleteIn response to your question Royce, it's probably a little bit of all of the above. China is the largest population and it is probably easier to get people to buy Chinese, just like Americans will buy a Ford and an HP and avoid Honda and Sony. Also, a move towards increasing consumers helps their businesses, as well as motivates the rural lower class to seek education so that they too may benefit from the growing economy.
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