The Great Big World and China Essay

Words: 4455
Pages: 18

The Great Big World and China

Since its inception, the Chinese people and leaders have referred to their homelands as the ‘Middle Kingdom.’ This name reflects the long-held belief that China is the center of the world. For thousands of years, Chinese foreign relations consisted of subjugating countries that were unable to stand up to the powerful Chinese military and walling themselves off from empires which threatened the control the various regimes had over the economic and cultural lives of the people of the Middle Kingdom. With the growing power of the Western nations, these solutions became less and less tenable. The Chinese empire found itself at the mercy of the British and saw its borders forced open and its peoples exposed to
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A myriad of underlying national problems have been highlighted and exacerbated by the radical shift towards the new international economy. The first problem plaguing the government is the emerging inequities among the regions within China. Due to the new nature of the global Chinese economy, there have been certain areas that experience economic growth and increases in income that are up to twenty times that of poorer regions. (Economy, 13) The solving of this troubling disparity between Chinese regions falls to the state government. However, the state’s role in directing financial resources has diminished because the reforms that lead to the dramatic economic rise of these regions also crippled the central governments ability to directly police the local governments. (Harris, 23-24) The situation developing between the national and local governments illustrates underlying weaknesses present in the current global China model. The inability of the state to intervene and resolve the rampant economic inequalities is indicative of, “an inefficient state apparatus that controls the dominant share of national wealth further undermine[s] leadership legitimacy and stability.” (Feng, 45) While these problems are threats to the continued stability of the government, they pale in comparison to the problem that corruption in China poses to its continued political and economic success. Corruption