Chinese Lessons - Chinese Economy

Today, we had another day of lessons. The Chinese teacher was very good, and she introduced to us the economy of China. She touched on the limitations of the Chinese economy. The explanation was rather insightful and I learnt a lot. Basically, after Premier Deng Xiao Ping implemented his policy of a free China (开放), the Chinese economy grew by leaps and bounds. There is also an increasing attention of the world towards China, termed as “China fever”. In 2001, China’s GDP doubled as compared to five years before. China’s economy has grown by 7.2% yearly from 1978 to 1997. In 2003, the economy has grown by 10%!

The main reason why China’s economy was able to grow so fast was because China is the world’s factory. Indeed, with low labour costs, many corporations are able to set up factories in China and this has helped boost the economy. However, due to mass production in China’s profit-driven factories, Chinese goods had the unfortunate reputation of being unable to last long and of low quality.

The average GDP of China is low because there are too many workers for a limited market. However, there is a need to provide jobs for everyone to maintain the stability of the Chinese society.

Despite these challenges, the Chinese are still optimistic. The government aimed to overtake America by 2015! I admire their never-say-die spirit and this is indeed something that we should learn.