Thread: The Chinese love their Government

East does not meet West on China's self-image

CHINESE people are overwhelmingly satisfied with the direction of their country, a Pew Centre survey published yesterday shows.

The survey results, which rank China first among 24 nations, point to an enormous gulf between domestic and Western perceptions of China that has widened in the aftermath of the Tibet riots and troubled Olympic torch relay. China's country satisfaction rating soared to 86 per cent from 48 per cent in 2002.

Analysts said the results should not be dismissed merely as Chinese people saying what the Government wanted them to say.

"Even if you take away 10, 15 per cent for that kind of bias you still have a very strong result," said Susan Shirk, a professor of political science at the University of California and a former deputy assistant secretary for China in the US State Department.

The results are a vote of confidence in the administration of the President, Hu Jintao, and the Premier, Wen Jiabao.

The Pew survey is an important source of political information because China does not have democratic elections, opinion poll surveys or free media reporting on political issues.

It was conducted after the Tibet riots in March but before the Sichuan earthquake in May - both of which generated an increase in patriotism across mainstream China.

The survey shows China is not without its political and economic problems.
Inflation topped the list of national concerns, with 96 per cent of people identifying prices as a big or moderately big problem, followed by China's enormous rich-poor gap, official corruption and air pollution and unemployment.

People in the poor areas of central and western China were less satisfied than those in the richer eastern provinces. While seven in 10 respondents said they were better off in a free-market economy, six in 10 said they worried about a loss of tradition.

China's propaganda and security response to the Tibet riots has contributed to a sudden and significant loss of global goodwill this year. Extreme security measures surrounding the Olympics are exacerbating the international perception problem.
While many Western politicians and analysts believe next month's Olympic Games have been tarnished, 96 per cent of Chinese people said they thought the Olympics would be a success.

Remarkably, 93 per cent of Chinese people said they thought the Olympics would help China's image around the world.

Only 3 per cent of Chinese said China is hurting other countries.

The survey found that Chinese consider Australia to be the best migration destination to lead a good life - preferred by 22 per cent of people - well ahead of Canada and the US.

When questioned about their personal lives, Chinese people said they were less satisfied than respondents in most other other countries.

East does not meet West on China's self-image - World - smh.com.au

Very happy with their government and the direction of their country, but not happy with their personal lives. Life in China is not so bad maybe.

China is so massive most non-Chinese can't fathom it, with the possible exception of India.

Unlike most TD posters, I admire the steps China is taking to become a world leader. The lilly-left is fast to denounce China's human rights. The rigid-right slams their trade and currency policies.

I think China is the new world order within 20-30 years. Get used to it.

Their government has traveled the hard road and will increasingly be in a position to call the shots as they continue to develop.

Those that wish to stand on the sidelines wringing their hands (we know who they are) will be swept aside.

The Chinese business tenticles have been spreading throughout the western world for the past 40-50 years.
No surprise to me that they are now trying to clean up their own shop floor and so as to consolidate the tactical global business gains made already and outside of the mainland.
20-30 years? The yellow peril is already upon us.

If you can't beat em, join em!

I think China is the new world order within 20-30 years. Get used to it.

All sounds rather ominous! Can't see it myself, the article highlights one of the main issues that China is facing and one that will only continue; a gap between the haves and have nots. Similar scenario that lead to the Cultural Revolution in the first place actually.

Those that wish to stand on the sidelines wringing their hands (we know who they are) will be swept aside

I don't, who are "they"?

Under Mao the Chinese people were amongst the poorest and most desperate people on earth. Within 30 years the prospects of the majority have increased dramatically and now the future looks brighter than ever. I'm not surprised by this survey.

Originally Posted by Texpat

I think China is the new world order within 20-30 years. Get used to it.

We can only hope you are wrong again,

EU is more likely,

Being satisfied with the direction of a country like China speaks volumes about the docility and stupidity of its inhabitants. Today's China is an antfarm, a police state overseeing grinding rural poverty and sweatshop industrial serfdom at its worst. Would anyone on this forum prefer to be born an average Chinese as opposed to an average Westerner or even a Thai? A population that can't think for itself and happily accepts such oppression will never lead the world in anything except making cheap plastic crap for Walmart.

China’s success should be celebrated, the country’s recent economic policies have helped raise hundreds of millions of Chinese out of extreme poverty ($1 a day, well actually $1.08 is used for the actual World Bank measurement). Considering where China’s economy was under Mao (30 million starved to death in the Great Leap Forward), it is easy to see why most Chinese are pleased with the direction their country is going. However, China’s success needs to be put in perspective and those of us who remember the hyperbole about Japan in the 1980s have reason for caution.

There continues to be a significant number of the population living in extreme poverty.

While the population is huge making China’s economy huge, the strength of China’s economy compared to its size is small; the average GDP per capita in China is roughly 50% of what it is in Thailand.

Demographics are working in China’s favour now but in the future they will work against the country. China’s one child policy has resulted in decreasing the percentage of the population taking up non-productive roles and of course (just like when the Baby Boom generation in the USA came of age) has resulted in increased economic growth, however in about 20 years the generation before the one child policy will be retiring resulting in an increasing percentage of people in non productive roles. Studies indicate that an aging population has been a key reason Japan’s economy has stagnated and has played a role in slower growth in Western Europe, and China’s problem with an aging population will be more severe than either Japan or Western Europe has faced.

China’s government has now ruled over about two decades of fast economic growth, however no economy is history has been able sustain high growth rates indefinitely. China’s economy will have some down turns; how well the government responds to these downturns will probably determine how long Communist Party rule will last in China.

China has done well recently, but the country has a LONG way to go before anyone could realistically consider the Country’s economic model one that should be exported to other nations of the world.

The concept of a developed economy controlled by a dictatorship called the Communist Party while using market-based economics is still an unproven theory.

Theoretically, and practically, there are many doubts about the how far China can develop economically without further reforms.

Anyone considering investing huge in China should be cautious.

^^That's what people said about Japan in 1940.

China . . . a place everyone wants to go and see, and no-one wants to see a second time. (within reason)

Another crucial element missing here is that China is regarded as a united country . . . it isn't.

The potential for implosion is definitely there, be it on racial, social or economic grounds - and I'm not just talking about Tibet which is sadly really no longer able to call itself a separate entity.

Norton again makes a good point by comparing the 'successful soaring' of wealth . . . in cities . . . the income and wealth gap between the city and country/have and have nots is huge and cannot be bridged.

Many reported and unreported protests by the people against corrupt party officials.

With 1.3 billion people, you should expect more reports of corruption, no?

More people in jail, more protests, more crime, more everything.

Originally Posted by Texpat

With 1.3 billion people, you should expect more reports of corruption, no?

More people in jail, more protests, more crime, more everything.

Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it's not going on.

Originally Posted by cujo

Originally Posted by Texpat

With 1.3 billion people, you should expect more reports of corruption, no?

More people in jail, more protests, more crime, more everything.

Just because you don't hear about it doesn't mean it's not going on.

Exactly, with a tightly controlled media anything is possible. My brother and his wife (both diplomats) were in Beijing for four years - many, many things going on which never make it to the media.

The place is ripe for a whole can of trouble.

Governing China is no easy task-

- 1.3 bn people, many clannish and parochial. Chinese tend to place a high emphasis on their regionality- Cantonese, Mandarin etc- while remaining very aware of their 'Chineseness'. Then you have a significant minority that are not Han Chinese- ethnically diverse. Tibetans, uighurs, mongols etc.
- A growing rich/ poor divide.
-A growing city/ Country wealth divide.
- A growing affluent coastal east/ poor inland west wealth divide.
- Decentralisation of power. Contrary to many Western peoples perception, China is not a centralised, monolithic system of political power centred on the Communist party at national level. Regions and provinces have a fair amount of autonomy, even the PLA is a major power base in it's own right.

All things considered, these results are quite a positive endorsement on the job the central government is doing. The fact that it is a Communist, one party country, gradually adopting a market economy, makes it quite unique in modern history- and perhaps an interesting challenge to those of us who believe that nothing but a pluralistic, democratic, free market based system can survive and prosper.

China is changing, for sure, but at it's own pace and in it's own fashion.

^

Interesting observation, it is inline with a recent study I was reading.

Hasan, R, Mitra, D. and Ulubasoglu, M. (2007). Institutions and Policies for growth and poverty reduction: The role of private sector development. Asian Development Bank Review 24 (1). 69-116.

The conclusion was that economic freedom was correlated with economic growth and poverty reduction while political freedom did not appear to have either a positive or a negative effect.

But I still am not completely convinced, while a number of dictatorships have shown rapid growth when opening up their economies, none of them (except oil rich Middle Eastern countries) have yet come close to becoming a developed economy.

It is one thing to make a rapid rise from the very depths with a non-functioning or poorly-functioning economy (Afghanistan had a 40% increase in GDP the very first year the Taliban were removed from power) but it is another thing to improve an already efficient economy.

China has made some big steps, but it is way too premature to claim their system is a success in my opinion.