How did China do it, without firing a bullet, without colonising or terrorising any country, while all the time under pressure from the West, isolated by the West, with a broken down economy, no talents, no money, no infrastructure, no technology...to rise to become an economic super power in less than 40 years?
Putting aside the will and determination of a people that wanted to succeed, China then was a huge country with a lot of hungry workers willing to work for a dime, all just wanting to have a decent job, a decent pay, to bring food on the table. Yes, a very hungry workforce looking for work. But this factor alone cannot be a major reason to turn China around. Many countries also have a lot of hungry workers.
And China was under a communist party, the Communist Party of China, with a political doctrine that spelt ruins to any country, any economy, according to the wise men from the West. Communism, communist party means everything negative, oppression, lack of freedom, lack of choice, lack of individual enterprise, opposes everything that is about growth. No creativity, no innovation, a dead end ideology that would not succeed but destined to poverty.
The CPC leadership had been experimenting with many developmental models of growth but getting no where. You cannot blame them for not trying. There were a lot of retrospection and introspection, a lot of self criticism, learning from their failures, to want to find a new way forward. Then came the four modernisation, and Deng Xiaoping, that took a dramatic policy change, to embark on pragmatism, to learn from the world, even to accept western practices and capitalism. This is huge for China, for a people in a way trapped in a different world, different time frame, isolated and sanctioned by the West, trapped in old ways of thinking and approaches towards economic growth and development. Deng opened up China to the world. The Chinese stepped out to learn from the world.
Singapore did a vital role in showcasing to Deng the possibilities of what China could do, could be in a microcosm. Singapore was a fine example of the best in the region, something that China could emulate. Batches of Chinese leaders from all the provinces arrived in Singapore over several years, to learn everything they could from this island. But that was not enough. A working model of an industrial park was mooted and rose from the agricultural backyard of Suzhou, the Suzhou Industrial Park was born.
The Chinese were not contented just with the success of Suzhou. They wanted to build many more industrial parks across China, and every park is going to be bigger and better than Suzhou. SIP was just an experiment in the lab and found to be workable. Not only China wanted industrial parks like Suzhou. China wanted every city in China to be like Singapore, clean and green, and extremely efficient, cutting out the red tapes of bureaucracy, to replicate the success of Suzhou Industrial Park and Singapore all over China. Every province of China is as big as a nation state and one SIP would not do. Suzhou was a catalyst, a model to organise an industrial park, and to replicate all over China. In China, anything that works is replicated, improved and scaled up for economy of scale, from industrial parks to Special Economic Zones.
This became a key motivating factor for the rapid industrialisation and economic growth of China. But the story was not as simple as that. Rapid industrialisation cannot be wished upon to happen. The real work must be done, the foundation of a country and people must be there to feed the industries and the systems. Infrastructure, an educated and well trained and disciplined workforce are vital to what China set out to achieve. Next came the Chinese political and administrative system, plagued by inefficiency and corruption, must go and be replaced by an efficient and result oriented administration, and an army of dedicated party cadres.
The CPC leadership played an extremely critical role towards the Chinese success story. Without a dedicated and committed leadership to helm the ship, everything would be hogwash, or would be another Titanic. China was a tight ship helm tightly by a committed leadership of good and able men and women that created a miracle that had not been seen in the history of humankind. A steady team of men and women in charge, and with continuity and certainty, and a mission, allowed China to carefully plan long term, in great details, to achieve their objectives. The Chinese leaders are men and women carefully honed over decades, like good steel, thrown into the crucible of fires, not charlatans and clowns, car salesmen or Hollywood actors. Unlike the USA where anyone can lie and cheat and make the voters feel good would be good to lead the country.
Another big contributing factor to China's continuous growth is to keep the cost of living down, holding down the wages, cost of doing business, so that Chinese businesses can compete in the world market. If China would to let its costs of doing business rise too quickly, it would prematurely shorten the span of its economic miracle. Labour cost, infrastructure cost, administrative cost, cost of living etc etc were controlled and kept within reasonable limits. This is a secret that many would have missed. China is competing in the world market, selling into the world market, it cannot have corporate leaders being paid in the millions and billions and want to stay competitive. Even the income of the Chinese leaders are puny compares to the rest of the world leaders.
The Americans and Europeans have lost control of their costs and are no longer able to compete with China in the manufacturing of goods and services. A good example is the EVs. China could sell their advanced and high quality EVs at much higher prices. But no, they are selling them at prices like ordinary cars, way below the prices of American and European cars that are much inferior to the Chinese EVs. China passes the benefits and savings of production efficiency, low manufacturing cost and innovation to the consumers...to stay relevant and competitive, to give good value to their consumers. Chinese products and services are cheap and good, of great economic and functional value. China is not looking for quick profit, to make a quick buck. It is a long and never ending journey of innovation and competition to be the best in everything.
When the industrial base is firmly secured, the population well educated, skilled and trained, poverty eradicated, China is taking off from a higher level of existence. Now it is innovation and challenging new technologies and new frontiers. China has left behind the days when it had to copy, to follow, to imitate. Now it is leading the world with new ideas, products and services that the West are trying to catch up.
The rest is history, and every day new history is being written in China. The whole world benefits from China's innovation and creativity and gets value for their money, making the world better, and making everyone richer. This is China's success formula. No runaway inflation and cost of living to price itself out of competition.
Oh, one last point, China uses all its resources, manpower, funds and technology to create goods and services for the world. Unlike warlike terrorist countries, spending their resources in wars, propaganda, meddling with countries internal affairs, sanctions, toppling govts, bitching everyday for a fight, all the unproductive pursuits, instead of simple economic growth and to improve the lives of their people. China is not at war with anyone. Simply put, China avoided wars to grow and rise as a world power.
