China's economic supertrends Writen by Jason Inch, a Canadian business consultant, teacher, investor and expert in economy. Since arriving to China in 2003, he has had a long career working as a consultant for some of the biggest multinational companies. At the same time he has taught courses in Jiaotong university, as well as in Benedictine college in Shanghai. He speaks, reads and writes in fluent mandarin, as in Japanese. I think the book writen by him is useful to gain the latest insights about the rising of the Chinese empire. It explains us the reason why Chinese are so competitive. It provides us details about the Chinese thinking and way of behaving. Often makes use of historical references and brings us into situations that happened in the past. This results into a more convincing reason why China is so competitive. In the 2012 Olympic Games they showed vast power and competed in almost any existing sport. They managed to stay in the second position in the medal standings, after the United States. In terms of GDP this country is already the second only after the United States. GDP rate of China nowadays is way ahead of any country from Europe, as of Japan, Australia, or as any of the BRICS (the emerging national economies, which are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Only the USA stays out in front. But it is prognosticated that soon China is going to become the first one, the world's strongest economy. It is an economy that is emerging at a fast pace. In less than 35 years, the nation has raised up from an overall situation of inmense and widespread poverty. The basic level of life all around the nation has significantly improved, specially in the municipalities that are adjacent to the coast. China is a state that has overcome from being a deudor to a creditor. Many states from Europe are using the credits that the chinese country offers. For these last 30 years China has enabled the receivement of plenty of foreign direct investment, but now is focusing on making investments in the overseas too.
However, the situation in the country is very far from perfect. The country is facing several problems, which all of them are commented and deeply discussed in the book. It draws my attention that whereas it's the second strongest economy in the world, the living standards are still quite poor. The general renta per capita in China is only a 10% of the renta per capita in the United States. As an example it is estimated that for 2020 the average Chinese citizen will anually earn 9000$, while in United States the average renta per capita is 57000$. Nonetheless this doesn't mean that there is not an affluent middle class growing, with higher acquisition capacity. The Chinese government has showed its intention to increase the renta per capita in 4500$ after recent 12 years plan. Although life in rural area is really poor, the state is striving to improve life to its Chinese citizens. As the author explains in the book, there is a general feeling “that the government is acting in the people's interest overall�. Even though they know government is corrupt they would never think of protesting as it is perceived that government makes every effort to help its own citizens. This is something that hardly happens in many mediterranean countries, as in many other nations throughout the world. In addition, Chinese citizens are very proud of their nation and their culture, they feel part of it and want to contribute to it. Of course, there are some notable exceptions, as for example in the olympic games the Tibet province manifested they don't want to feel part of the country of China, or something similar has been heard about the civil unrest in far Xinjiang province. But the general perception of chinese citizens towards their country is quite positive. In general terms and in exception of these two regions we can say there is common trust towards the governors of the country. I realize that in China's first tier cities there is a growing middle class which year by year recollects more money and increments their acquisition power. It is thought this situation is going to improve and that year by year more chinese citizens are going to be more affluent. As I read in the Mckinsey institute analysis, in 2010 from the total population 6% of the people's yearly incomes were in between 16000$ and 34000$ (2% were
more affluent than 34000$), while in 2020 it is predicted that 16000$ to 34000$ yearly incomes' group of people is going to be around 51% (6% of more than 34000$). So this means that experts are quite optimistic about the rise of the Chinese affluent class. China market is becoming very interesting to the world's companies eyes, so there are growing opportunities in this area. I would like be this way, and complement it with my own studies to be able to profit myself from it. I think that learning mandarin for my own future is essential, as I have a positive feeling towards this country in general. The author of this book itself does follow this perception. He strongly recomends anybody to come into China to take advantage of the existing oportunities. In his words, to take a trip of 6 months studying 6 hours a day 5 days a week in China can be very convenient, and might be enough to learn mandarin correctly. He also points out that learning chinese culture is a necessary asset, as important as learning to speak mandarin. Passion and having the right mindset is critical while living in China. Another idea that was discussed in the book is the fact that this country is not ending with the “cheap China”. The end of “cheapest China” might be more correct to say. Although the wages have increased, the same as worker rights and laboral conditions, prizes of raw materials... doesn't mean that labour cost are not still being low. One difference in respect to some years earlier is that now cheap labor cost factories are going to be ubicated far from the coast. Factories are being relocated into the interior. The future might demonstrate how many years “cheap China” is going to take. To sum up, I think it is a nation that has developed extraordinarily in these last 35 years, since Deng Xiaoping's reforms. It seems it is going to become the country of the future. The author itself is cautiously optimistic about this, as many other experts in economy are predicting. The dream of China's renta per capita increasing until levels similar as of developed countries will enable this country being undoubtedly the most important of the world. I want to be optimistic about this although there are many difficulties on the road.