Will China’s economic and social experiments end in success or disaster? Either way, the rest of the world can expect a bumpy ride.
“China represents something akin to a laboratory,” philosopher Daniel Little wrote more than twenty years ago. And for understanding human organization and behavior, present-day China remains as intriguing and instructive as ever. Indeed, the country now feels like a steamy laboratory undertaking grand experiments that are profoundly shaping the country – and the world.
Of course, experimenting is nothing new in China. Ever since the country was forced open by the West some 170 years ago, it has tried all kinds of foreign and native ideas. Contrary to the official label, the “century of humiliation” was really a century of experimentation. The wholesale import of modern sciences and technology aside, politically and socioeconomically there were the failed effort to imitate the Japanese Meiji Restoration in 1898, and the frustrating experience of building an American-style republic in the 1910s to 1920s. Vladimir Lenin, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and Benito Mussolini were all used as models by various Chinese leaders, until the invading Japanese disrupted everything in 1937.
Backed by Moscow, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) experimented with a communist-led peasant rebellion to establish the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The spectacularly incompetent but unrestrictedly ambitious and despotic Mao Zedong ran China to the ground in his terrible experiment of the Great Leap Forward, which resulted in the death of tens of millions in just three years. Then, in order to preserve his personal power and place in history, Mao launched the even more “innovative” political experiment of the Cultural Revolution, which hurt Chinese culture beyond description.
The pragmatic Deng Xiaoping opened new rounds of experimentation, focusing on imitating East Asian neighbors to get rich via trial and error. Imported institutions, technology, and ideas flooded the country, despite vigilant political filtration. Unlike other rising powers in the past, the “Chinese Lab” has a limited ideological master plan or blueprint beyond the highly experimental hubris of rejuvenating Chinese civilization. It’s also clear on peeling through the thick propaganda that only one thing now remains off-limit to experimentation – the CCP’s monopoly of political power.
So what exactly is going on in China’s grand experiment? A few profound potential changes are underway.
First there’s the grand experiment of getting rich through imitation rather than innovation, and the effort to develop a dynamic capitalism under state monopoly. Then politically, China has become an empire without hereditary emperors. Internally, Beijing relies on nationalism to govern, yet suppresses the identities and demands of the numerous nationalities. Externally, China professes to rise peacefully, but toys with running a different shop for a new world order. Each of these experiments could lead to huge shifts of power across the globe, yet none of them is certain to succeed.
Photo Credit: White House
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POW WOW
BTW—
everyone noticing? —-Hollywood has BALKED and BURIED
the —20th
——–30th
———40th
———-50th
———–and NOW 60th Anniversary of the awesomely relevant
———————-KOREAN WAR———————-.
Even Korea era draftee, who got out of going, ‘REAL American’
Clint Eastwood.
CREEPY
Liang1a
Quote froam the article:
In recent years, Beijing has launched expansive programs of “indigenous innovation” that in fact look, according to a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, like a “blueprint for technology theft on a scale the world has never seen before.”
This experiment has rapidly brought to China the latest technology, booming manufacturing capabilities, and rising living standards. Imitation rather than invention has been a key ingredient in China’s not-so-secret formula of economic boom. Some Chinese futurologists have even proudly mapped out a bright future for China through replacing the long-dead Communist Revolution with a new “Counterfeiter Revolution” to capture the world’s top power position. To quote the biting satire by a popular Chinese blogger, China has already risen to be a “great power of counterfeiters.”
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Liang’s comment:
This author is obviously another one of those sons of compradors who feel they must demonize China to gain favor with their new masters. This article is obviously nothing more than another “entertainment” to stroke the ego of the Americans who feel soothed by the evilness of the Chinese and their “imminent doom.” There are many problems in China mainly due to too many eunuch compradors, an example of which is this author.
As to China’s attempt to create indigenous technologies, it is absolutely the right way to go. As I’ve always said, China cannot advance without its own high technologies. Productivity can only increase with the use of more efficient tools and machines and only higher technologies can provide more efficient tools and machines. Therefore, China can only develop predicated on technological advancements.
As to the denigration of this author that China’s technological advancement is nothing more than “blueprint for technology theft”, it is obviously false and nothing more than specious tendentiousness. For one thing, many technologies cannot be reverse engineered. Many technological products can only be created whole. An example is a computer processor which cannot be copied but must be created whole with unique designs of thousands of components that must fit and work as a whole. Therefore, it is not possible for China to duplicate a computer processor by changing one single item such as the clock and have the whole thing work perfectly. If the clock speed is changed then all the other components must also be changed to conform to the different clock speed. This is only possible by creating an entirely new processor.
Another example is a jet engine. A jet engine is made of thousands of individual components that must be fitted together perfectly. You cannot just take a jet engine and make it longer or shorter without changing all the other parts of the engine. Also the materials of the engine must be made of special alloys and fabricated in precise unique ways. And there are also computer software programs that help to control the engine. You cannot just instal the software of one jet engine to control another jet engine with a different set of operational characteristics. Therefore, a jet engine must be created whole and unique and cannot be duplicated with a few minor changes.
Another example is the creation of J-20 which has been disparaged by the West as nothing more than a reverse engineered copy of American stealth fighter. But this is nothing but sour grape since all objective experts have judged it to be just as good as America’s F-22 and superior to it in many performance characteristics such as electronics and internal design as well as range and speed. And the J-20 is powered by China’s own jet engines.
I can give many examples of China’s true technological independence. I will just say one more thing about China’s potential for technological superirority. In the US some 25% to 30% or more of the scientists and engineers are actually ethnic Chinese. This means that the so-called American technologies are actually ethnic-Chinese technologies. And whatever ethnich Chinese can achieve in America surely the same ethnic Chinese can achieve in China itself. Of course, the Chinese government must still create an empowering system to unleash the creativity of these scientists and engineers. As the author says China is now experimenting to find a system to allow China to develop all the cutting edge technologies of the world. Such progress may not be as fast as possible due to the albatross of the old feudal mentality. But signs abound that it is changing.
China’s technological advancement is uneven. In military technologies or dual use technologies, China is advancing rapidly. But in purely civilian technologies the advancement is much slower. For example, China has developed the most advanced technologies in aerospace technologies but Chinese car makers cannot produce even a single car to compete with foreign car companies. Even as China’s passenger jets which benefit from China’s dual use technologies are being sold internationally, China’s domestic car market is being dominated to some 80% by foreign car companies. This is obviously due to the opening up policy of the CCP Dengist eunuchs’ selling out of the Chinese economy. Therefore, China can progress much faster by first cleaning out the Dengist comprador traitors from the Chinese government and withdraw China from the WTO which is nothing but a dog collar around China’s national neck that allow foreign enemies to control China and turn it into an economic colony. The author is obviously just another one of these traitorous sons of compradors who demonize China to entertain his new American masters. In the end such lies don’t help increase the safety of the Americans. It points them in the wrong direction to increase their danger. As they look in the wrong direction, China will metamorphose rapidly into a new sole ultra-superpower. But then a sole ultra-superpower China will bring peace and prosperity to the world. Even to America.
nirvana
>>”In the US some 25% to 30% or more of the scientists and engineers are actually ethnic Chinese” (Liang1a)
—
This is not very scientific. 25% to 30% is a big uncertainty already. And why the “or more”?
From the 2010 census, there were 7.6 millions STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) workers in the US. If we take the lower estimate, 1/4th of them being chinese gives 1.9 millions. Seems huge to me (?)
Chang
This strikes me as wishful thinking. Take the J-20 for example there is no way it is in even the same league as the F-22. For one thing it lacks stealth capability from some directions. Your example of jet engines and their control systems is perfect. The technology involved there is called FADEC and despite immense efforts on the part of the Chinese and more than a little intellectual property theft the Chinese are yet to develop a fully functional system. The J-20 uses Russian engines.
You say that since so many scientists in America are of Chinese descent that American technology is in large part Chinese. But you misunderstand America, the entire point of the nation is people can come from whatever country and become Americans.
There is a reason no Chinese citizen has won a Nobel prize. A system that is good at copying doesn’t necessarily have the ability to innovate. No one doubts that the Chinese people have the ability to innovate but it is up for question whether or not the Chinese government can create a system that will foster innovation.
Alex
This is deeply racist and scary and I am afraid absolutely representative of what a large number of influential Chinese people believe.
nirvana
I have done a little bit of research.
In 2008, there were 3.1 millions Chinese living in the US. This is the bureau of census link
http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_SF1_QTP8&prodType=table
How can there be “some 25% to 30% or more of the scientists and engineers [in the US] are actually ethnic Chinese” (Liang1a)? Because Liang1a is moking too much opium, of course
Haav
Through out human history, nations that became underdeveloped relative to the leading nations resorted to imitation as a strategy for closing the development gap and catching up to the leaders from far behind. Because there is no way leading nations can stop others from imitating them, innovation has always been a necessary strategy for the leading nations if they wish to keep their lead.
There is absolutely nothing unique or experimental about that.
gngottawa
This is an interesting way of looking at China, but China is not unique as a laboratory of nation-building. The USA was formed as an experiment in republicanism. For many years after the American Revolution, Jeffersonians and Federalists debated about the best type of government system and society for their new country. No one at the time seriously expected the USA to be a durable entity. Many other countries can argue that they did and still are experimenting on a grand scale. Canada’s experiment in multiculturalism since the 1970s is now a model for other countries to adapt (or avoid). The countries that are best able to lurch forward from one experiment to the next are those that create open, democratic institutions which provide the constancy and stability needed for a dynamic society.
yang zi
these are very smart words. the blogger @nirvana only says confused words :)
nirvana
The main difference I see between China’s experiment and American’s and Canada’s in nation building experiments is that, in the latter cases there is a constant ideal. China is constant in its change of objective and in re-writing its experiments log. Just read the versions of China’s constitution preambles.
nirvana
Some bloggers are masters of Yin and Yang: Readiness for warfare is peace loving. Fostering good neighborhood is to denounce past boundary treaties. Active defense is learning how to build and use forward deployed weapons. To cut seismic cables is law enforcing. To sink fishing boats is showing restrain. To draw dotted lines is defending freedom of circulation. To get rich quickly is building socialism. To produce and sell counterfeited goods is fair trade. Rules-based compliance means no acceptance of arbitration.
Yeah, does it matter? What is black or white, right or wrong, left or right, progressist or reactionary, capitalism or socialism, bourgeoisie or proletarian, Maoist or Dengist? There is absolutely no contradiction with those concepts. Yin and Yang are not opposite, they are dual. This is the greatest experiment in collective Schizophrenia of any time!