In 1976, Mao Zedong died and China’s isolation ended. Its next leader, Deng Xiaoping, opened the gates of China for overseas investments and companies that made China an economic powerhouse.
Contrary to the communist ideals that Mao fiercely opposed during his seat in power, Deng have turned China from a backward agrarian economy into a capitalist system.
Leading in exports and manufacturing has given the nation a great economic advantage and in the world market. A lot of western businesses outsource their work force in China specifically because of the country’s low-cost labour.
Over the last ten years, the transformation of China has become a testament to its elaborate form of economy. A GDP growth of about 7-9 percent has been the recent forecast for the year 2009.
The Chinese are also recognized for their business aptitude. In every country around the world where there is a large Chinese population or China towns, a lot of them make their livelihood through selling all kinds of consumer goods and most of their businesses are stories of success.
In spite of the optimistic views on China’s economic growth, a lot of finance experts still see plenty of hurdles that could get in the way of its economic growth.
There is a certain economic imbalance that still occurs in China. One of which is the inner-city and rural areas’ imbalanced development. Even though the quality of life for people living in urban areas have somewhat improved, a lot of China’s rural population still experience hardships particularly the lack of good agricultural equipments and housing conveniences.
Taking quite a few page from “The Great Leap Forward” where the chairman converted farmers to become steel workers resulting to China’s starvation. Today’s China, however, have a more balanced food production than ever before but it could use some more improvement before it can attain perfect balance.
Another obstacle is China’s tense political and societal environment. So far, every dissent in the country has been suppressed with no mercy in its mainland and other places they allege to be theirs such as Tibet.
China is also primed to keep Tibet under an iron grip and their way of doing this is by building infrastructures, encouraging Chinese from the mainland to migrate, and crushing oppositions.
Another region known as Xinjiang, and a home for minority Uighurs who are Muslim, is also experiencing both economic and political unsteadiness because of strife.
Climate change is an important factor that poses the most serious threat not just to China but the whole world. The pollution and carbon discharge China produces has risen just over the last 20 years and has now overtaken America. The consequences brought about by this could not just upset China, but also to countries near or far. The amount of carbon dioxide getting stuck on the planet will cause rising sea levels will definitely cause problems in China’s south, and could even melt glaciers from China’s western part and the Tibetan region which will eventually be a cause of flooding and fresh water shortages.
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