How The One Child Policy Helped Chinese Economy

China’s One Child Policy

First Published Date : October 6, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

China is the most populous country on Earth, with 1.3 billion people, or 20 per cent of the world’s population. As amazing as it is to think, that population would have been even higher if not for the one-child policy, which was implemented in 1978 by the Chinese government. This policy, while some criticize it, helped China become the world power that many recognize it as now.

The one-child policy restricts the number of children that can be born to married urban couples to just one, while there are exceptions for parents without siblings, official minorities and rural couples.

The policy was created by China as a way of alleviating the social, economic and environmental problems that were beginning to affect China. While the policy has been controversial around the world, roughly 75 percent of Chinese people agree with the policy. The policy helped the fertility rate in China fall from five births per woman in 1970 to just 1.8 births per woman in 2008. It is estimated that about 300 to 400 million births have been prevented through the one-child policy, helping to keep the resources of China from being depleted even more. Overwhelmed social services, slums and overpopulation have all been reduced thanks to the policy.

The one-child policy has helped to fuel the economic change seen in China over the past few decades in large part because there is not as much competition among citizens, allowing for more wealth to be spread around to everyone. Most of the Chinese population is now 60 years of age and over, meaning a big drop in the population will come as those people begin to die.

One benefit from this policy is that individual savings rates have increased in the past 30 years. This is due to the fact that a Chinese household has more resources because they are not being spent on multiple children in terms of time and money. As well, with only one child parents are no longer just relying on children to support them so the parents are saving more for their old age.

As well, the one-child policy has reduced the demand on natural resources, while maintained a steady labour rate, reduced unemployment, and reduced exploitation of workers.

While many look at the economic policies of China as a reason for the change in the country, one cannot dismiss the impact the one-child policy has had in helping to make the country an economic power. The decision in 1978 to limit the population has had far reaching impacts in China and across the planet. With 400 million less people being born in the past 30 years, there has been less drain on resources and an easier time for the world to adapt to environmental changes. Not to mention the fact that the economy of China has become supercharged in part because of the policy, making China one of the leading nations on the planet in the 21st century.

How The 2010 Commonwealth Games Changed India’s Image

The Changing World View of India

First Published Date : October 24, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

There was a time when India was looked at as a backward nation that no one wanted to visit. It was a nation people saw as dirty, dangerous and a place you just did not want to go. However, that has long since changed and India is now changing to a nation that is progressive and rapidly becoming a developed nation.

Yes, the economy of India is moving fast, the middle class of India is growing, cars are becoming plentiful and poverty is rapidly falling. However, there are other ways that India is changing and this comes into the fact that it is now hosting world-class competitions.

The 2010 World Cup was held in South Africa, the first time it was ever held in Africa and that helped to show that countries once thought of as Third World could in fact hold world-class competitions. Rio De Janeiro is hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics and India just hosted the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

While there were some problems with the games recently, overall the Commonwealth Games were very successful and popular. This means that India has proven it can take on a major world competition and that means the changing world view of India could be changing to the point where India may be hosting the Summer Olympics in as little as 10 years.

After hosting the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the India Olympic Association said that Delhi will be bidding on the 2020 Olympics. The Indian Sports Minister Manohar Gill stated that there would be funding for the 2020 bid and that Delhi is very interested in hosting the games. While some worry about the problems with the Commonwealth Games affecting the potential for the Olympics to be held in India, there is a good chance that India could be hosting those games.

Other countries trying to host the games include Mexico, Canada, several countries in Europe, South Africa, Morocco, Japan and South Korea. If the games end up in India, it would be the largest event ever held in the country and would go a long way to helping show the world that India has changed.

Just 20 years ago, the thought of India hosting the Olympics was unimaginable. It was just not possible given the infrastructure of the country. However, things have changed so much that it is now possible. After all, in 2008 China hosted the Olympics and they were considered to be far behind the rest of the world only 20 years ago.

The world is changing and India is changing as well. India is joining a host of countries in South America, Asia and even Africa who may be leading the world in the future. The sphere of influence is changing and with the Commonwealth Games in India, the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and the World Cup in South Africa, we can see that there are changing perceptions of these countries. This is the changing view of India around the world in the 21st century.

The Role Of The Chinese Government In The Economy

The Chinese Government and The Chinese Economy

First Published Date : November 4, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

The Chinese economy has grown immensely in the past few years, and a big part of that is because of the government and the changes it has made in the economic structure of the country.

In 1949, the country became a socialist country, which means that the government has been responsible for planning and managing the national economy. In the 1950s, the government monopolized foreign trade and became the owner of all the domestic enterprises. The government set the price for all commodities and controlled distribution of investment funds, output targets and more. This caused the economy of China to be stagnant and slow and it was not until 1978 when economic reforms were put in place.

Since then, the government’s role in the economy has fallen greatly, while the role of private enterprise has grown. That being said, the government still maintains an active role in the urban economy and has policies in place with agriculture procurement. The government’s management of the economy is involved through a top-down chain of command with hundreds of ministries, commissions, administrations, bureaus, academies and corporations.

Economic policies established by the National People’s Congress and the State Council and moved on to the economic organizations that work under the State Council. The State Council then implements the plans into various sectors of the economy. Direct control of the economy by the government is done through designating physical output quotas and supply allocations, while indirect control is done through affecting market incentives.

Over the past 30 years, companies within China have begun to gain more and more independence from the government in a range of activities. Large-scale construction, as well as important industries and services are still managed heavily by the government through direct management, but the rest of the economy has gained a great deal of independence. That being said, one-third of the GDP of the country is still generated through government-controlled industries.

The government these days does not heavily control consumer spending and the market forces of income levels and the cost of goods and services determine spending. Before 1978, goods and services were rationed when they were in short supply, meaning the government had more control over what people bought.

The Ministry of Commerce, customs and the Bank of China and the Chinese banking system’s foreign exchange division, which controls access to foreign currency that is required to do imports, currently manage foreign trade. Although even the restrictions on foreign trade are beginning to fall greatly as government restrictions lessen.

China has the fastest growing economy on the planet and it is expected to be the strongest and largest economy in the world by the mid-part of the 21st century. It is a growing force and it all began in 1978 when the government made the decision to lessen the restrictions in place and bring in more free enterprise into a socialist country, a model many other countries are now looking at.

What is Globalization?

A Brief History of Globalization

First Published Date : June 29, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

A concept that is becoming more and more important in the 21st century is globalization. Globalization is something that has been going on for thousands of years, but it is only now we are truly seeing the effects of a global society, rather than one based on separate countries competing for resources. Globalization is the process where economies, societies and various cultures are connected through various networks that include trade, communication and transportation across the planet. Economic globalization follows along these same lines, in which economies become connected through investment, migration, trade and flows of capital.

Globalization History

Globalization as we know it goes back to around the Hellenistic Age, when urban centers were the center of Greek culture and held sway from Spain to India with its culture. As time went on, various other empires helped push globalization closer and closer to a reality. The Roman Empire, Han Dynasty and Parthian Empire are all given as examples of empires that were globalized based on the world that that time. A good example of this is the fact that 300 Greek ships a year sailed between Rome and India, sending 300,000 tons of goods.

When Islam came into being, globalization took another step forward as Jewish and Muslim traders created sustained economies that spread across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Ideas, technology and food all began to be traded and spread over vast distances. The Mongol Empire continued this when they had an empire that stretched from Korea to Europe, helping to spread technologies across Europe and Asia. Thanks to the Mongol Empire, trade along the Silk Road greatly increased, leading to Marco Polo to make his famous journey to China.

Once the Age of Discovery began, globalization moved into the New World as European powers like Portugal, Spain, France and England began to take advantage of the glut of resources North and South America provided. When the Industrial Revolution began in the 18th and 19th centuries, globalization took another step forward, leading to the world as we know it. Vast trade in resources helped connect countries and cultures across the planet.

Following the Second World War, politicians began to break down borders that hampered trade so that interdependence and prosperity could increase and therefore prevent a future global war. Organizations like The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, along with free trade, helped to spread wealth and capital across the world. Some of the ways that economists have achieved this global trade concept through globalization include:

·   The creation of free trade areas and the elimination of tariffs.

·   The reduction of transportation costs.

·   The elimination of capital controls.

·   Creating subsidies for global corporations.

Globalization Effects

Globalization has had many different effects across the planet. These are both good and bad. A good example of the bad effects includes sweatshops and the loss of jobs as companies go to cheap countries where labour laws are relaxed. However, in terms of good effects, we have the following:

·   Foreign products have spread across the planet with the movement of goods through international trade. Since 1955, international trade of goods has increased 100 times from $95 billion to $12 trillion. A good example of this is the fact that China’s trade with Africa rose by seven-fold between 2000 and 2007.

·   Roughly $1.5 trillion is traded in national currencies on a daily basis thanks to globalization and the emergence of worldwide financial markets.

·   Thanks to globalization, the United States has enjoyed great power since the 20th century because of its massive amount of trade. China is now catching up on the United States and will soon become the leading world power.

·   Information is traded through globalization thanks the Internet, television and other mediums like telephone and radio.

·   Globalization has helped to harmonize languages. The most widely spoken language on Earth is Mandarin with 845 million speakers, while Spanish and English come in second and third with 329 million and 328 million speakers. Roughly 35 percent of all mail is in English, while 50 percent of the internet traffic is in English and 40 percent of radio programs are in English.

·   Globalization has led to greater travel and tourism, with as many as 500000 people on planes at any one time and 922 million international tourists moving about each year. Immigration has also increased and multiculturalism has become extremely common throughout the world.

Globalization is happening all around us and many do not even realize that they are experiencing it every day. A good example of this follows:

A man wakes up in the morning and dresses in clothes that were made in Southeast Asia and China. He gets coffee from his kitchen, with the coffee coming from Africa and the coffee cup coming from Europe. He has a breakfast made up of fruit from South America and milk from Canada. He gets in his car, which was made in Japan, and fills it up with gas that was originally oil extracted from the Middle East. As he gets to his office and uses furniture made in Sweden and electronics made in Asia, he surfs the net, hitting websites located in 15 different countries.

This is just a brief example of how one person, in the first few hours of a day, can be using items that come from all over the world. While globalization has received a lot of bad press, the good it has done is unmistakable. It has spread prosperity across the planet and helped get people out of poverty. Less than 12 percent of the world lives in extreme poverty now, down from over 40 percent 30 years ago. In addition, more people have food, more people are making money and more people can live the lives that they want. There are downsides, including the effect on the environment due to global trade, but overall globalization is leading to a better world and we should be happy we live in a world where the world is interconnected.

Some Facts About China’s Economy

China Economy Facts

First Published Date: July 3, 2010 ADawnJournal.com

China is one of the most fascinating countries on Earth. It has existed in one form or another for 5,000 years, has influenced the world immensely and even today it is a dominating country on Earth. While in the 20thcentury China was a developing nation, these days it is not only developed, but it may be the superpower of the 21st century.

At this moment, China’s economy is the third largest in the world, just behind the United States and Japan. With a GDP of $4.91 trillion, it is fast becoming the biggest economy on the planet and it has the second highest net-worth behind the United States with $8.77 trillion. In addition, China has the fastest growing major economy on the planet, with a 10 percent growth rate over the past 30 years on average per year. China may be a huge economy, but it’s per capita income is only $3,677, which puts it 97th in the world. That will change as time goes on though because China is the second-largest trading nation in the world, and the largest exporter, while also being the second largest importer.

The growth of China’s economy has also helped its citizens come out of poverty. The level of poverty in China fell from 53 percent in 1981, to 2.5 percent in 2005. That being said, 10 percent of the population, or over 100 million people, still live in extreme poverty. The infant mortality rate has also fallen as China has grown in economic power, falling roughly 39 percent between 1990 and 2005. Maternal mortality also fell by 41 percent in that same period, while the access to telephones increased by 94-fold to 57.1 percent of the population having telephones.

China has a lot of trade going through its borders, and its currency is highly traded on the world’s markets. Currently, foreign exchange reserves have risen dramatically. In 1999, foreign exchange reserves in China stood at $155 billion, and by 2000 that had gone up to $10 billion. In 2005 it had risen to $800 billion. By the end of 2006, that had gone up to $1 trillion, and by 2008 it was nearly $2 trillion. In 2008 as well, China replaced Japan as the largest foreign holder of U.S. treasury securities with $585 billion. This was the first time that had ever happened.

The two biggest sectors of the Chinese economy are agriculture and industry, both of which employ roughly a total of 70 percent of the labour force and account for roughly 60 percent of the GDP production in the country.

For many, the sudden emergence of China took them by surprise. The country has risen fast and very strongly in the past few years, becoming a country that is going to be very powerful in the 21st century. As time goes on, more and more people will be looking at China, rather than the United States, as the main driver of the entire world’s economy.