China’s Outrageous Economic Growth
By Morgan Impola
China has been a long time player in the world economy, but China itself has been stagnant in its’ economy for hundreds of years, often failing to compete with global powers like the British, French, Russian, and Japanese Empires, which often abused the region to exploit resources or to exert domination of China. But over the past 60 years, The “People’s Republic” has grown to one of the largest powers in the world, dominating industries that factor into production whilst also having a bounty of natural resources to boot. This lucky combination of resources, labor, and domestic industry have allow China’s GDP to grow at insane rates, topping at 6.9% during the last quarter of 2017, in comparison, the GDP growth of the United States was around 4%.
With the increase of GDP growth means that the overall GDP will continue to grow if they expand their domestic production, leading to and increase in consumer spending, which further cycles into the Nominal GDP of China each year it continues to grow.
One of the less-known factors of China and their insane GDP growth is the fact that with overall GDP growth ties in GDP per capita: Many Chinese citizens are moving toward the middle class. The shift from rural farming, to urban development not only advances the society as whole, but also provides a bountiful land of opportunity for many newly endowed urban dwellers. This focus on urban development has created many issues socially. First and foremost is the issue of peasants who have been farming for a large chunk of their lives suddenly being thrusted into a society that revolves around skills that consider technical prowess- something that rice farming does not require in any manner. There also is the issue of housing, most of China’s coastal cities are larger than some countries, and this isn’t even considering if the inhabitants have proper housing; Take the city of Hong Kong for example. Hong Kong is a former protectorate the British Empire and is an economic gem for China, but regarding housing, many city dwellers are relegated to up 40 square feet apartments for multiple people! (To put this into perspective, an entire apartment could be the size of a king-sized bed for three people). This type of housing predicament seems odd considering Hong Kong is also home to some of the most luxurious and exclusive housing in the world.
While the economic gains of China are pretty significant, with the insa every nne GDP growth rate, there are a significant amount of underlying issues that are often hidden from the public eyes, mainly the plight of the lower classes. But what can be said is that China is no longer the laughingstock of the Orient, rather they are carving their own path in every nook and cranny across the world, even if you don’t know it yet.
Works Cited
Bradsher, Keith. “China's Economic Growth Looks Strong. Maybe Too Strong.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/business/china-gdp-economy-growth.html.“Hong Kong's Shocking 40-Square-Foot Apartments Photographed by Chinese Human Rights Group.” Inhabitat Green Design Innovation Architecture Green Building, inhabitat.com/chinese-human-rights-group-releases-shocking-aerial-photos-of-hong-kongs-locker-sized-apartments/.
Your article was very well written and very compelling to read. It's interesting to hear about economies not just in the United States but in this case in China. To read about how other countries are dealing with economic issues and economic growth. The switch from from rural farming, to urban development like said, is going to be a difficult switch. In comparison, imagine living in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and then the next day you are told you are moving seven hours up north, in the Northern woods of Wisconsin. You have to switch the way you live. Although, there's benefits and positives to every situation. Like stated, it "advances the society as whole, but also provides a bountiful land of opportunity for many newly endowed urban dwellers." I think that although their is housing issues and as a whole economic issues from the switch for China it will help economic growth and only be a positive for the citizens of China. It'll take time to get used to and take work but with the economic growth they will then increase GDP. Like said, then the overall GDP will continue to grow if they expand their domestic production, leading to and increase in consumer spending, which further cycles into the Nominal GDP of China each year it continues to grow.
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I'm not particularly surprised that China has a high GDP growth rate because population density is often correlated with overall growth and China certainly has a high population. I do however wonder if this growth is sustainable and if it is at the expense of the people. While you do mention that many Chinese people are moving into the middle class, I also know that China is one of the kings of cheap manufacturing, which implies that workers are being overworked and underpaid. In addition, China’s cities are currently running into overpopulation issues and the issue will likely be aggravated more by a class shift from lower to middle class.
ReplyDeleteThis article is very interesting. I never thought about the possible concerns of China’s fast urbanization, and how people, mainly in the lower class, would be affected. I think that if China wants to continue to decrease the level of agriculture they need to provide some service to the farmers in order to equip them with the skills they need in order to be successful in a necessary job (manufacturing, business, ect.). Also the concern of housing for all of these people, and the possibility of shrinking the size of living spaces to fit all new members of the labor force. If China is going to provide people with incredibly small apartments, how will people react? How will this change affect the economy as people move into big cities in search for work?
ReplyDeleteChina’s steady and rather quick economic growth seems like it’s great for them, but those living conditions look unsuitable for humans. It almost seems though like this is similar to the immigration in the early 20th century, and that these 40 ft apartments are similar to the tenement houses that we had in the US. So it looks like that this is a part of industrializing a nation, needing to try to fit everyone in cities that are too small to look for a job.
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