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Scholars debate China's economic and social contradictions ahead of 60th anniversary at Nottingham forum
Submitted by School of Contemporary Chinese StudiesDisplayed from 11-sep-2009 - 11-dec-2009
11/9/2009
Leading China scholars from around the world gathered at The University of Nottingham this week to reflect on the “seemingly irreconcilable” images of China – its economic success and gaping social disparities under a communist one-party system – and to debate the country's future ahead of the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China next month.
The 200 scholars were attending the three-day International Forum for Contemporary Chinese Studies (IFCCS), hosted by Nottingham's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies. This was the second year of the conference organised by the School, with its China Policy Institute and Nottingham Confucius Institute.
Drawing on this year's theme “Beyond Revolution and Reforms: the People's Republic Looks Forward at 60,” participants including researchers and practitioners from the UK, US, China and other parts of the world discussed pertinent challenges facing China. Topics discussed ranged from the global financial crisis and its implications, China's relations with the rest of the world, sustainable development, political reform, the strategies of Chinese businesses, media and cultural change and rural migration.
“The world is a very different place from when the People's Republic was established; the PRC and the world economy are of course much more inextricably linked than they have been for some hundreds of years,” Nottingham University Vice Chancellor Professor David Greenaway told the conference in his opening address on 8 September 2009, predicting that “the future prosperity of the world economy will be intertwined as we emerge from the global financial crisis over the next three or four years.”
China, which is predicted to replace Japan as the world's second biggest economy this year, presents contradicting images of economic success, albeit with its attendant problems, political apathy and a “reactionary regime,” according to Professor Yongjin Zhang of Bristol University.
Those upbeat about China included Professor Peter Nolan of Cambridge University who said that China could make a “mighty” contribution towards a universal and better global world faced with a “true Darwinian threat” in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Prof. Nolan, director of the Chinese Big Business Programme at the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School, argued that China was “intellectually very well equipped” to find ways to regulate global markets in a world beyond “wild capitalism,” having resisted strong pressure from western economists to move towards a liberal free market economy as soon as possible.
At a practical level, the financial crisis has opened a “window of opportunity” for many Chinese businesses to catch up with their international peers, according to Dr. Dylan Sutherland of Nottingham University. “They have bank support, and in terms of financial size, they are much much larger,” he said.
Yet Professor Shuisheng Zhao of the University of Denver cautioned against looking to China for stability and an alternative model of development amid growing dissatisfaction with western-style capitalism and democracy.
Professor Zhao said: “China at present has a successful model of economic growth and political stability, but it doesn't mean China will be durable and replace the US model. The success of the China model has been very short up to this point. No economy can keep growing at the same pace forever. It is a transitional model of development – it has to go through a value-free to value-added transition so it has more democratic appeal.”
The Chinese state itself also acknowledges its weaknesses.
Even though China would overtake the United States in about 20 years as the biggest economic power in the world, “we as Chinese need to look at the weak side of China,” Zhang Lirong, Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in London told the conference.
Citing current Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Mr Zhang said: “Any achievements divided up by 1.3 billion people are small achievements, but any problems multiplied by 1.3 billion are huge problems.” He added: “Foreigners often look at China as a whole but the Chinese look more at averages. For although China is now an emerging power with a GDP of 4.3 trillion U.S. dollars, on average China's GDP per capita is only one fifteenth that of the United States.”
Despite the problems and challenges of China, Professor Shujie Yao, head of the University of Nottingham's School of Contemporary Chinese Studies, was upbeat about China's ability to resolve them, saying the future the Chinese nation boiled down to two words: the people.
“The Chinese people are the miracle makers,” he said. “The success of China depends on the hard-working nature of its people.” He said many Chinese people had worked hard in order to get themselves and their families out of poverty, unlike in the West where people's lives had become too comfortable. Commenting afterwards he said the Chinese Communist Party had in the reform period provided the stable environment in which its hard-working people could flourish.
Closing the conference, Prof. Yao announced that the third IFCCS conference would be held at Nankai University in Tianjin next year following a memorandum of understanding to promote collaborative research signed between The University of Nottingham and the leading Chinese university on 8 September 2009.
“The School aims to establish the Contemporary Chinese Studies Forum as the main platform for cutting-edge research and for scholars from all over the world to exchange their innovative research output,” Prof. Yao said.
This year's conference was co-organised by the Federation of Chinese Professional Societies in the UK and sponsored by The Office of the Chinese Language Council International (HANBAN), the Natural Environment Research Council, the British Academy and the Leverhulme Centre for Research on Globalisation and Economic Policy.
More information is available on the conference website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/chinese/news_and_events/IFCCS_Conference/2009/index.php.
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