Many Westerners assume that China is on the same development trajectory that Japan, Britain, Germany, and France embarked on in the immediate aftermath of World War II-the only difference being that the Chinese started much later than other Asian economies, such as South Korea and Malaysia, after a 40-year Maoist detour. And believing that China’s economic growth would have to be built on the same foundations as those in the West, many failed to envisage the Chinese state’s continuing role as investor, regulator, and intellectual property owner.Įconomics and Democracy Are Two Sides of the Same Coin Believing, for example, that political freedom would follow the new economic freedoms, they wrongly assumed that China’s internet would be similar to the freewheeling and often politically disruptive version developed in the West. One thing hasn’t changed, though: Many Western politicians and business executives still don’t get China. But over the next 30 years, thanks to policies aimed at developing the economy and increasing capital investment, China emerged as a global power, with the second-largest economy in the world and a burgeoning middle class eager to spend. In the countryside life retained many of its traditional elements. Even in Beijing many people wore Mao suits and cycled everywhere only senior Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials used cars. When we first traveled to China, in the early 1990s, it was very different from what we see today. The SolutionĪccept that economic development in China will not inevitably lead to democracy acknowledge that the Chinese regard their government as both legitimate and effective and recognize that while Chinese consumers have short-term horizons, their rulers are focused on the country’s long-term security. They make three plausible but false assumptions: Democracy is an inevitable consequence of economic development authoritarian regimes are never seen as legitimate and the Chinese think, behave, and invest much like anyone in the West. Politicians and business leaders continue to misread China’s strategy and politics.
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