right An employee
supervises production at a
chip factory in Dongguan,
indicative of the leap forward
in innovation and technology
Working in much the same way as Japan did in the
1980s and 1990s, Chinese companies are producing
products with similar features to those from their
competitors – at cheaper prices – to gain market
share in a world burdened by the economic crisis.
And, thanks to their huge consumer base at home and
China’s reserves (at USD3 trillion), they have started to
buy foreign companies: Huawei telecommunications
and electronics, Lenovo computers (owner of IBM),
Geely cars (owner of Volvo), Wanda real estate (owner
of America’s largest theatre chain, AMC), PetroChina
Oil (owner of 50 percent of Singapore Petroleum),
Li Ning Sports Apparel (owner of Kason), CNR Trains
(with multiple contracts for high speed railways) and
COMAC commercial aviation (with close to 1,000
orders for its new ARJ-21 and C919 jets) – these are just
a few of the names making headlines worldwide.
The statistics painting the picture of China’s
economic miracle are astonishing. Their compromise
to embrace a market economy in tandem with socialist
ideals leaves analysts to ponder whether China can
remain classified as a communist country.
It’s a heated debate. Xu Bin, Associate Dean of the
China-Europe Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai,
elaborates: “It has features of both systems. It’s a
hybrid. And we can argue that China has beaten the
West at its own game with the weapons designed by
traditional colonial powers to keep their supremacy,”
he says. “Communism doesn’t equal poverty, or lack of
ambition. We still have features of a planned economy,
like state-owned enterprises, and a social welfare
system which, despite its flaws, has lifted hundreds
of millions of people – 400 million according to the
United Nations – out of poverty, and gives at least basic
assistance to all in need.”
In fact, China’s per-capita GDP has almost tripled
since 2002, while many Western powers have seen
theirs decline due to the global financial meltdown.
That, Beijing argues, shows that China’s system works.
“Communism doesn’t equal poverty,
or lack of ambition. We still have
features of a planned economy”
Xu Bin, China-Europe Business School