[Ruvermillion]

Japan did it in roughly 30-40 years, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan also did it in roughly the same time. So why is it taking China so long to catch up with the west (in terms of standard of living, quality of life) etc.?

[Steevee]

(Original post by Ruvermillion)
Japan did it in roughly 30-40 years, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan also did it in roughly the same time. So why is it taking China so long to catch up with the west (in terms of standard of living, quality of life) etc.?

Two main reasons really.

Firstly their entire economy is based around manufacture and export or low end goods, meaning in order for China to sustain the rocketing growth it has they have to artificially keep wages low, which keeps standards of living low etc.

And hand in hand with that they still have a very authoritarian government that to this day opresses their people in a way that is closer to NK than the UK.

[Mcnubn]

south korea, hong kong, taiwan and japan didn't have to worry about military expenditure or mordernisation too much, since the US has/had them under their thumb (and UK controlled HK at the time).

and it's only been about 30 years since market reforms kicked off in China, also China tried to stick to a gradual, evolutionary approach to reforms rather than a big bang approach

edit: I don't see how having an authoritarian government stops China from growing, if anything it has helped it since they're not arguing for months about ****ing pasties and looking to the long term rather than trying to ensure they can be re-elected in 5 years -.-

[Tudball]

China's development can be considered more "stalled" than "slow", and the reasons for this go back centuries. After Deng's reforms, I would consider China's economic development pace to be rather impressive, if rather disjointed and lurching.

[pinda.college]

Too busy lining up and executing those who bring it up.

(Joke)

[Aphalleon]

(Original post by pinda.college)
Too busy lining up and executing those who bring it up.

(Joke)

hilarious

[sucess]

(Original post by Ruvermillion)
Japan did it in roughly 30-40 years, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan also did it in roughly the same time. So why is it taking China so long to catch up with the west (in terms of standard of living, quality of life) etc.?

All those countries had funding from USA

whereas China is on its on

[Whiskey]

Only one thing: people

[Whiskey]

(Original post by Ruvermillion)
Japan did it in roughly 30-40 years, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan also did it in roughly the same time. So why is it taking China so long to catch up with the west (in terms of standard of living, quality of life) etc.?

How many people do these regions or countries have? China has 1/5 population of the world..

edit: an authoritarian government is a plus for the impressive growth in China. It is called the East Asian Model. Many economies like Japan Singapore Taiwan all had an authoritarian government when a fast growth existed.

[hackashaq]

It's because China is so big and has such a huge population. Therefore, to massively improve the living standards or GDP per capita will take very long. If China had the population the size of Japan, then China would probably be level with USA right now but when you consider that there's 1.3 billion people, it's hard to keep everyone satisfied.

[Joinedup]

When are you starting the clock for the beginning of development? Japan was already quite a high tech place before ww2.

[WillowSummers]

(Original post by Ruvermillion)
Japan did it in roughly 30-40 years, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan also did it in roughly the same time. So why is it taking China so long to catch up with the west (in terms of standard of living, quality of life) etc.?

Continental drift means it will take along time for China to move as far west as the West, if it's even moving in that direction at all.

[~Sanctified]

Because unlike the Westerns, the Chinese are not basing their growth on exploiting poor countries's resource. I'm not saying that they are doing it cleaner. I'm only saying that China is not bothered about taking such path.

Hence, why they're slower.

[Aj12]

(Original post by ~Sanctified)
Because unlike the Westerns, the Chinese are not basing their growth on exploiting poor countries's resource. I'm not saying that they are doing it cleaner. I'm only saying that China is not bothered about taking such path.

Hence, why they're slower.

Your kidding right? China exploits just as much if not more than the West. People seem to have this illusion that China is benevolent when it comes to foreign policy but its really not the case

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...frica-industry

[acedlol]

Well, China has a population of 1.3 billion.

Compared to SK, Taiwan thats massive.

[Tackla]

Why do they have to?

They will do what they want, they dont have to replicate the west. Dont they have the right to think why the west arent catching up with them?

[snaptwig]

That's a pretty ambiguous question.

First, Not all of those countries began at the same "starting point", and the west is also not "constant" in terms of catching up to its level. (Or uniform, "Standard of living" measured by healthcare certainly differs between individual European countries and the United States. Technically, Healthcare in China is more universal than in the US, the only people being uninsured are unregistered urban migrant workers.)

These "Western" Countries have had relatively constant political systems, whereas China has gone through a significant period of change, both from totalitarian to communist, and now, gradually towards a more open, market economy- all in less than 100 years.

The World Wars can be seen to have set back a lot of progress in the West, but such destruction can also be a precedent to renewed focus and growth- German has twice proven their ability to bounce back with a better, stronger economy after the destruction that war begins.

If you consider either the combined populations or the combined land masses of the countries mentioned, they represent less than 20% of China.

As mentioned by various sources above; those other asian countries have all been backed, subsidised or otherwise supported by Western powers. Hong Kong is a small island and I don't think its reasonable to compare Hong Kong, an Island financial center/metropolis to the third largest and most populous country in the world.

Above are all examples of why China should not be compared to the other countries you mentioned, or to the west (perhaps comparing China to Russia is the only applicable comparison).

Nonetheless, I would disagree with the OP's point. Given the standards of living that China came from, even 50 years ago during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, to where it stands now, this change is far greater than the advance in living standards of the other countries mentioned in similar periods.

However- there are obvious challenges facing future improvements in living standard; high Inflation, a cheap-labour export economy, little or no human rights/H&S regulations to ensure workers conditions are reasonably acceptable, poor urban-rural mobility and a hindering registration system, the list is endless- but China's growth is still strong.

I wouldn't agree with the premise of the question.

Source- living in Beijing for the past 2 years.

[Vanbrugh]

This is such a bad question. China has made astounding economic progress in the past 50 years from going to a poverty stricken hole to a major economic powerhouse. If anything, the question should be "why have they managed to make the progress that they did?".

It is also good to remember vis-à-vis Taiwan or South Korea, China has over a billion people, is a vast country and it has only opened up to the world/capitalism in the past 30 years following the disastrous cultural revolution which nearly killed off a generation. That's not even taking into account their economic model.

(Original post by ~Sanctified)
Because unlike the Westerns, the Chinese are not basing their growth on exploiting poor countries's resource. I'm not saying that they are doing it cleaner. I'm only saying that China is not bothered about taking such path.

Hence, why they're slower.

I work in development, state-owned chinese businesses are now in every way as bad as western companies at robbing poor countries of their resources and worse when it comes to their treatment of the local population.

[iamkeeley]

China has achieved in 10 years what the West achieved in 50.


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[No Man]

I think having 1.1 (or more even) billion extra people than Japan did when it rose up is the biggest factor.