Economy of China

The economy of China is a Mixed Socialist market economy composed primarily of state-owned enterprises and that uses economic planning, while still allowing for many private businesses to flourish, as well as private investment.

Quotes

• Chinese economic growth today also has several commonalities with both the Soviet and South Korean experiences. While the early stages of Chinese growth were spearheaded by radical market reforms in the agricultural sector, reforms in the industrial sector have been more muted. Even today, the state and the Communist Party play a central role in deciding which sectors and which companies will receive additional capital and will expand—in the process, making and breaking fortunes. As in the Soviet Union in its heyday, China is growing rapidly, but this is still growth under extractive institutions, under the control of the state, with little sign of a transition to inclusive political institutions. The fact that Chinese economic institutions are still far from fully inclusive also suggests that a South Korean–style transition is less likely, though of course not impossible.
  • Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (2012)
• [suspended by authorities due to] a change in the regulatory environment on financial technology
  • Ant Group according to Where is Jack Ma? Chinese billionaire suspected ‘missing’ after Ant Group IPO suspension posted January 4, 2021

• Regarding the Africa’s Business Heroes competition, Mr. Ma had to miss the finale due to a schedule conflict
  • Alibaba according to "Jack Ma's absence from public eye spark" Twitter Discussions posted January 4, 2021

• [Ma is] lying low for the time being
  • CNBC according to Barron's What the Stock Market Is Saying About the Georgia Runoff posted January 6, 2020

• After the Japanese withdrew, the combination of the communists’ proven nationalist fervor and their program for wealth redistribution resulted in a mounting tide of popular support. This support facilitated the relatively quick defeat of the GMD, and the People’s Republic of China was established on October 1, 1949. Subsequently China collectivized its agricultural, industrial, and commercial systems. After Mao died in 1976, China’s new leaders embarked on a policy of economic reform, including the personal responsibility system and market socialism. Innovations involved allowing farmers to cultivate land for personal profit at prices set by market demand (once state quotas were met), permitting privately owned businesses, and allowing state-controlled foreign investment.
  • James DeFronzo, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements (2018), p. 319
• The economic reforms and related government policies unleashed spectacular economic growth. As China’s economy rapidly expanded, so did its need for energy, and after 1993 China dramatically increased oil imports. The booming economy permitted some citizens to become enormously rich while drastically reducing the percentage of the country’s people living in poverty. It also led to major environmental problems. Partly because China has made enormous economic progress and has improved the lives of the large majority of its people, the government appears to enjoy significantly more popular support currently than it did in the late 1980s. Contemporary public protests center on issues that have arisen from economic reforms or have resulted from the accompanying excesses and corruption. Many demonstrators appeal to national officials for help in combating local problems, and in recent years the central government has responded with policies to address some of their major concerns, like improving conditions for people migrating from rural areas to cities and reducing air and water pollution. Political change in China, including democratization, appears to be an ongoing but long-term process.
  • James DeFronzo, Revolutions and Revolutionary Movements (2018), p. 320
• The financial fallout would be far reaching. Evergrande reportedly owes money to around 171 domestic banks and 121 other financial firms
  • Economist Intelligence Unit "Evergrande: Embattled China property giant sparks economy fears" (September 20, 2021)

• China's fourteen percent growth rate does not mean it's going to be a world power. It means that coastal China, where the economic growth is taking place, is joining the rest of the Pacific Rim. The disparity with inland China is intensifying.
  • Thomas Homer-Dixon, as quoted in "The Coming Anarchy" (1994), by Robert D. Kaplan, The Atlantic

• [It would be] naive to think that the turmoil in the market doesn’t have the potential to have second-order and third-order impact. Clearly with the changes that are taking place in the Evergrande situation, it’s concerning.
  • Noel Quinn chief executive officer of HSBC "How Canada is exposed to ripple effects of Evergrande debt crisis" (September 24, 2021)

• Today, China’s economic power makes U.S. lectures about morality and human rights imprudent. Within a decade, it will make them irrelevant. Within two decades, it will make them laughable. By then the Chinese may threaten to withhold most-favored-nation status from the United States unless we do more to improve living conditions in Detroit, Harlem, and South-Central Los Angeles.
  • Richard Nixon, Beyond Peace (1994)
• I think the [Chinese government] wants to step in further to solve this situation.
• The economy's still going but the short term will be a bit painful.
  • Patrick Wong "China's real estate house of cards could be brought down by Evergrande, the world's most indebted company (September 21, 2021)

• The problem is that you don’t restructure the world without restructuring the Chinese economy and you can’t restructure the Chinese economy without restructuring the political system all the way up to the very tippy top. The people at the tippy top have some say in how that all goes down... the question is how much.
  • Peter Zeihan and Melissa Taylor, "The Cutting Room Files, Part 6: The Future of the China" (18 December 2019), Zeihan on Geopolitics

• In China, money – capital, to be more technical – is considered a political good, and it only has value if it can be used to achieve political goals. Common concepts in the advanced world such as rates of return or profit margins simply don’t exist in China, especially for the state owned enterprises (of which there are many) and other favored corporate giants that act as pillars of the economy. Does this generate growth? Sure. Explosive growth? Absolutely. Provide anyone with a bottomless supply of zero (or even subzero) percent loans and of course they’ll be able to employ scads of people and produce tsunamis of products and wash away any and all competition.
  • Peter Zeihan, "A Failure of Leadership, Part III: The Beginning of the End of China" (15 May 2020), Zeihan on Geopolitics

• In this struggle we are inspired by the example of those countries where staunch supporters of the socialist option are in power. They are China which has the world in awe of its spectacular successes in the economy and the social sphere. Cuba, which the US imperialism has vainly tried to strangle for six decades. The dynamically developing Vietnam. These countries challenge capitalist globalization, refuse to submit to their diktat and score successes on the socialist path. The experience of fraternal Byelorussia is highly instructive.
  • Gennady Zyuganov, "Socialism Is Genuine Freedom" (22 November 2017)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Economy of China on Wikipedia