Prospects

An iconic billboard in the quintessential boom city of Shenzhen features Deng’s famous statement that China's “basic line will not waver for 100 years.” If Deng was right, we are less than one-third of the way into the era of “reform and opening.” But four challenges identified by Premier Wen Jiabao in 2010, that growth becomes “unbalanced, unstable, uncoordinated, or unsustainable,” threaten the boom. The key to balance lies in increasing the consumer share of GDP, allowing China to create a modern consumer economy. Stability will depend on the government's ability to address grievances as the gap between winners and losers widens. Coordination is the great test facing the ruling Communist Party, of whether it can manage the politics of growth without fundamental changes to the system. Sustainability is an issue that has global implications, as citizens of a warming planet watch anxiously to see if China is successful in greening the boom. The fifth great challenge, left out by Premier Wen, may be the external one: whether the world is successful in making room for China.

US and China Are in the Same Boat

Period: Prospects | Making Room for China

Only Africa Can Save China Emmanuel Ojukwu The Paradox of Chinese Nationalism Kaiser Kuo China Still Has Many Places to Develop Emmanuel Ojukwu China is a Maturing Dancer Chen Ailian US and China Are in the Same Boat Yao Yang

Yao Yang Professor, China Center for Economic Research, Beijing University  Yao Yang is a professor of Economics at the China Center for Economic Research (CCER) and at the National School of Development (NSD), Peking University. He currently serves as the Deputy Director of CCER and Deputy Dean of NSD in charge of academic affairs, and the editor of the center’s house journal, China Economic Quarterly. His research interests include economic transition and development in China. He has published widely in international and domestic journals in addition to authoring books on institutional economics and economic development in China.   Click to expand collapse transcript There is a social theorist named Giovanni Arrighi, he is teaching at Johns Hopkins. He has a book that was recently published; the title is very interesting, it is “Adam Smith in Beijing.” And he says Western Europe benefited from China and India in the past, benefited from the world system centered in Asia in the last millennium. But, now, the current world system is built and protected by America that China is part of this system. China benefits from this system. I think he’s very right, he’s a true thinker on that. He realizes, not a single country can escape from globalization, it’s a fact you have to take. Now of course, it’s upon yourself [to decide] how to utilize the chances and opportunities that presented by globalization, and China, somehow, has taken full advantage of this round of globalization. So, my opinion is that China benefits from the current world system, and the US and China, the world, is in the same boat. I do not like the idea of delinking China from the world system. Of course, there’s a strong voice in China trying to say that China should delink from the world system. I think that’s a very short-sighted view. Add New Comment comments powered by Disqus

Cite this Source >> “US and China Are in the Same Boat | Yao Yang | Prospects | The China Boom Project.” The China Boom Project. The Asia Society Center on US-China Relations. 1 June 2010. Web. 12 May 2025. <https://chinaboom.asiasociety.org/period/prospects/34/185>. Map the interviews Click on the map to see where inteviews took place