About China (politicis,social development,economics,S&T)

[morpheous]

this thread morpheous starts on China (any issues,comments on its politics,social development,economics,science and technology).

begin quoting morpheous shall ....
got this from book "rise of japan and the pacific rim" by stewart ross..


The Chinese way
Deng's policy was to mix Chiese communism with the aspects of Western capitalism that best suited China's need.His program had five main aspects.
The first was to stimulate China's economic development.One way that this was done was by allowing limited private enterprise,particularly in agriculture. The communes were broken up and individuals permitted to sell surplus production on the open market. Foreign capital was welcomed and foreign firmsencouraged to go into partnership with Chinese business.Two of China's first commercial treaties were with Japan (1978) and USA (1979). In 1980 the government designated Special Economic Zones (SEZs).Here what is called "market socialism" was to be free to flourish, backed by Chinese and foreign capital. New emphasis was placed on efficiency,enterprise, and market place.
Hand in hand with economic liberalization went a degree of political relaxation. Mao Zedong, the great revolutionary, was no longer hailed as a god, but as "70% good and 30% bad". A new constitution was introduced in 1982. Efforts were made to improve the legal system to make it less of a political weapon .The Communist Party was distanced from government and the determination of economic policy. A degree of free speech was accepted and attempts were made to turn talk of human rights into reality.
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The third part of Deng's policy was to cut China's birthrate. As the population of China was estimated to rise 2 billion by 2035 and 3 billion by 2075, undermining all chance of economic advance,the government introduced a One-Child policy in 1980.
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The fourth aspect of Deng's policy was the modernization of China's armed forces. However, with the ending of Cold War in the early 1990s and with ever-increasing cooperation with the West,by the 1990s this drive had become less important than the other three.
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Finally, Deng called for China to catch up with the rest of the world in science,technology, and education. By attacking all things Western and encouraging students to despise their teachers, the Cultural Revolution had all but destroyed China's education system. A whole generation had grown up with little scientific knowledge and research projects had been starved of funds. The task facing the government was gigantic.Nevertheless by 1987, 83% of all Chinese enjoyed some sort of basic education and the adult literacy rate had risen to 73%.The universities were flourishing once more. In 1990 twice as many engineers graduated in China as in United States.Gradually China was beginning to develop the skills and technology necessary to compete in world markets.

.......China's achievement, however, must not be overestimated.In 1993, the economy was still only one tenth the size of Japan's. Moreover,there were those who believed China's development was doomed to failure. They cited two basic reasons for this. The first was the population problem. Despite the One-Child Policy,the population continued to grow at too fast a rate for the economy to keep pace for long.The second was China's precarious political position.The balance between political repression and economic liberalization was tricky to maintain.
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few pointers,noticed deng's attempts on the 5 elements of "the wheel of socio-economics change"....(government(legal&military), social development(one-child policy),education(S&T) and economics)

anyone like to chip in comments or discuss further...??

[morpheous]

another interesting quote morpheous found..
from Fang Lizhi, the world-renowned Chinese astrophysicist and human rights activist, this is.


Democracy,Reform, and Modernization

In democratic society, democracy and science- and most of us here are scientists-run parallel. Democracy is concerned with ideas about humanity, and science is concerned with nature. One of the distinguishing features of universities is the role of knowledge; we do research, we create new knowledge, we apply this knowledge to developing new products, and so forth. In this domain,within the sphere of science and the intellect, we make our own judgements based on own independent criteria.

This is the distinguishing characteristic of a university. In Western society, universities are independent from the government, in the sense that even if the money to run the school is provided by the government, the basic decisions-regarding the content of the courses,the standard for academic performance, the selection of research topics, the evaluation of results, and so on- are made by the schools themselves on the basis of values endemic to the academic community, and not by the government. At the same time, good universities in the West are also independent of big business. This is how universities must be. The intellectual realm must be independent and have its own values.

This is an essential guarantee of democracy. It is only when you know something independently that you are free from relying on authorities outside the intellectual domain, such as the government. Unfortunately, things are not this way in China. I have discussed this problem with educators. In the past, even during "the seventeen years" [1946 to 1966, the era prior to the Cultural Revolution], our universities were mainly engaged in producing tools, not in educating human beings. Education was not concerned with helping students to become critical thinkers, but with producing docile instruments to be used by others. Chinese intellectuals need to insist on thinking for themselves and using their own judgement, but I'm afraid that even now we have not grasped this lesson.

In physics, for example, you'd assume that the evaluation of physicists is what matters in determining the merits of one's research. But in China, the work of physicists has long been subject to the evaluation of officials who know nothing about physics, and moreover we're ecstatic if they deign to say a few good words about us. This leads to a "docile tool" mentality that is still a major problem. Things are even worse in the social sciences. Naturally, we physicists check out the latest "philosophical" writings in order to keep ourselves out of hot water, but much of the writing of philosophers and social scientists in this country is little more than recapitulation of the latest official pronouncements. If our leaders were experts in philosophy-or experts in anything, for that matter- their words might carry some weight as academic authorities. But if they aren't philosophers, what is the value of quoting them? This is a worthless enterprise and it doesn't prove a thing, but we quote the leaders nonetheless because we need the sanction of political authority before we dare to open our mouths.

The opposite relationship obtains in the West. At Princeton I met with some Chinese economists. They delved into their subject in whatever manner they saw fit, and they came out with whatever theories they found appropriate, without any interference. But contrary to our situation in China, when the American government was making policy, it requested the opinion of these academics; the government wanted to know if they had obtained any relevant results on which to base policy. What a far cry from our situation- officials needing the sanction of college professors to lend them credibility! This is what I mean by intellectual independence. Knowledge must be independent from power, the power of the state included. If knowledge is subservient to power, it is worthless.

hmm..in malaysia,weak education system becoz of politicians/bureaucrats/officials meddling too much in academic matters..recent case:cabinet directed UPM to change their agriculture courses syllabus.

[masterof_none]

I'm not well versed in China's affairs, but, I do think that China's economic boom is the result of too much hype among Americans Media.
It's something that happen to Internet Boom years in 99-2000 in Silicon Valley. As a result, the economy would overheating. if China is not careful, the whole country's economy may collapse.