By: Ray Lee
“You Americans will look at us with fear and then, you will respect us.” I do not totally agree with those two statements. The United States already fears China. How can anyone not fear a country that has one-sixth of the world’s population? The only thing I agree with is the connection between fear and respect. The United States respects China only because it fears it. The foreign policy the Bush Administration has with China so far is to keep things at a peaceful measure without China edging too much.
Back on the mainland, everyone I spoke to would boast about how great a country China is. It was no coincidence that my being American provoked such discussions. Right away, comparisons were made and everyone suddenly became an expert with a vast knowledge of the domestic and foreign policies of China and the United States. My uncles, along with their friends and neighbors, talked down to me with an extreme amount of chauvinism, but they did not have the in-depth understanding that concerns many aspects of the topic. They don’t understand the problems China is currently facing, nor did they understand how the United States works. They get all their information from newspapers and television broadcasts, but they fail to understand that these are all mediums of their government. They are being brainwashed and all the national pride they have is a product of successful propaganda.
Will China be the most powerful nation in the world in less than fifty years? My personal opinion is No. It is true that China has the fastest growing economy in the world. It has cheap labor and the close-to-a-billion people in the labor force that make China such a powerful country. Its exports continue to grow every year, and will probably not stop growing for another decade or two. So with that on her side, how can China not become the world’s most powerful national? Two reasons—corruption and pollution.
When it boils down to it, the laws in China are very strict and flexible at the same time. It is strict in that they have severe penalties with very little or no loopholes. However, it is flexible because the one of the few loopholes around it is corruption. Since everything is run by the government, officials have a great amount of power, even when it goes all the way down to the leader of a village or the mayor of a city. Corruption could go as far down as the clerk at the administration building who is helping you push your paperwork faster. Since China is so big, everything is about connections and the best or fastest way to develop these connections is to buy it with money.
As much as China has been dealing with corruption for the past decade, it has not been putting all of its efforts into this. How can it? There are too many people and too many other things to worry about. It is a tradition to offer a banquet to meet someone who has more power than you. In these banquets, gifts or money are often offered. For thousands of years, this practice has continued. It was viewed as offering respect and when you offer respect, you will be rewarded. Times have changed, but this practice has not. I did not find it surprising when I read in Time that Wal-Mart supervisors have to make it known that they will not receive any kinds of money or gifts or even banquets. What was once viewed as offering respect is now considered offering a bribe.
Corruption has been the basics of doing business in China. If you are not willing to offer money, someone else will. If you are not willing to take the money, someone else will. However, the corruption does not help the country at all. For example, if everyone in China paid an income tax of just 1%, would the country be poor? Even if everyone made 100RMB a month,, the government would receive 12RMB a year per person. You multiply that by one billion people who work and you already have twelve billion dollars and that is only assuming that everyone made that much.
China Brief
Capital: Beijing
Population: 1,306,313,812 (July 2005 est.)
Ethnic mix: Han Chinese 91.9%, Zhuang, Uygur, Hui, Yi, Tibetan, Miao, Manchu, Mongol, Buyi, Korean, and other nationalities 8.1%
Languages: Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), more …
SOURCE: CIA Factbook
It is possible that a couple of hundred million people make that much (or that little), but most do not. In cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, the average salary is about $500-1000 RMB (about $65-130USD) a month. It’s not much money, but it’s sufficient to survive. Then, you have everyone else; those who are really poor or really rich. The gap between the lower class and the upper class is too wide and through time, it will only continue to expand. The middle class is very small and it is not growing. Without a large middle class, the economy is playing heavy favorites to those who are wealthy, leaving everyone else behind.
Real estate in cities like Shanghai (the most populated city in the world with fourteen million people and still growing) have skyrocketed. Apartments are running on an average of $5000 RMB per square meter and that’s just for low-end housing! Who can afford such housing? The average person definitely cannot.
On the whole, living standards aren’t terrible and they are picking up, but what about the government? It is losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars a year, due to corruption, that could’ve been spent on other investments and improving the country. Without the proper handling of funds, everyone, both top and bottom, is affected. It is only making the corrupt wealthy and those who offer the bribes, wealthier. The point is, tax is not at 1% and people are not making $100 RMB a month. The government should have plenty of money at its disposal.
A strong economy needs a strong middle class. As of now, the lower-class is inching their way up, while those in the upper class are taking huge strides. It is not to say that every person who is rich is corrupt, but when everyone is skeptical of every rich person in country, you have a problem. It is a fact in everyone’s mind that if you are rich, you did not achieve it legally.
Another indirect effect of corruption is dumping. Businesses are hit with huge fees for their garbage and wastes. As a result, they are dumping waste in places where it is more convenient for them. By paying off officials to turn a blind eye, lakes and rivers, along with other natural habitats are being destroyed. Combine the destruction with the smog that was created from the factories in a place with no environmental codes; the environment is paying a heavy toll from this rapid growth.
Many of the major cities in China are heavily polluted. Beijing is one of the most (if not the most) polluted cities in the world where the smog just sits over the population. It has been reported that during certain times, there is zero visibility of the city from the neighboring hills. The air is so congested and polluted that it is uncomfortable to breathe. Respiratory diseases are on the rise in major cities and all industrial areas.
As a result of the large number of factories and lack of reform to improve work conditions, it has been reported by the Health Ministry of China that as many as 200 million people are threatened by occupational diseases. These diseases, such as pneumoconiosis, which is caused by long-term inhalation of dust, mineral, or metallic dust “could be over one million,” reported Su Zhi, a senior official of the ministry. These poor working conditions not only affect those who work there, but also their families. All too often, these workers become too sick to work and whatever compensation they receive (if they are lucky enough to receive any) is not enough to support their medical bills or their families.
Those who do not work in such conditions are also affected by the great amount of pollution that is in the air and water. In many parts of China, water is pumped from other surrounding sources because the water in those areas is no longer usable. In other places, where the water is usable, there is so much chlorine that you can often smell it coming out of the tap.
In time, when the water is not drinkable because of the excessive dumping, and the air is not breathable because of the pollution, China will become a place that is uninhabitable and will need to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to correct these errors. However, by that time, it may be too late. They may not be able to fix the problems that are the result of decades of polluting. All the economic power that they have acquired by that time would not matter to a country where a billion and a half people cannot live.
China has the potential of becoming the greatest country of the 21st century. Economically, none may be able to compete with their productivity. Filled with an abundance of resources and man-power, if governed correctly, China will surpass every other country. However, corruption stunts growth. Everyday, there are more and more opportunities for corruption and if the government does not take a real initiative to combat it, corruption will be the cancer that will destroy the country like opium in the 19th century.
Until China recognizes these two threats, these bumps will swell to become hills and one day will become virtually unconquerable mountains. 
Ray Lee is the Halfway Production Manager