How did China progress over the last 5 decades at amazing speed?

 

I received the following from someone (thank you). Someone by the moniker Rebelbadass is the writer. It is a short piece. My comments at the end.

 

How did China progress over the last 5 decades at amazing speed*?

The formula is unity, the Han being the majority did not see the other 55 tribes as inferior nor did the Han want the other 55 tribes to assimilate the Han culture and traditions.

The other tribes are free to practice their tradition and culture including their dialects and lingo while Mandarin is the official language.

The Chinese’s pragmatic definitions of NATIONALISM and PATRIOTISM differ far from ours.

Patriotism to the Chinese means looking into and working towards the future prosperity of the country where everyone gets to enjoy the outcomes.

To date, they have lifted 800 million (22 X our population) out of poverty while we are seeing an increasing B40 Bumiputra population, where billions under the NEP are allocated for uplifting and poverty eradication. Vastly and totally opposite result.

To the Chinese, nationalism is very much about developing China socially, technologically, cohesively, and harmoniously as one nation.

To achieve that China emphasised world education, particularly in English to ensure that their young and bright students can learn and absorb what the world has to offer to lift China further down the road of prosperity and unity.

They define what is needed for the nation to be developed and then they look outwardly to the world for the needed knowledge for their young and bright to acquire.

They execute their strategy to perfection,

Their leaders knew that for unity, cohesion, and harmony in the country, social and economic development are the priority, not politics.

Preferential opportunities are only given on a need basis for both the minorities and the Han majority.

While the government is involved in the economy of the country. they do it via their SOEs, these SOEs have the added social responsibility of helping the government.

Looked at how these SOEs collaborated with foreign partners to develop the world's largest high-speed train network.

The later projects were carried out solely by the Chinese from the knowledge acquired from the transfer of knowledge and technologies. It is the same with the metro train system that runs in most of their cities.

Their aircraft carriers development story is another great example. The first Liaoning was an acquired retired Russian carrier for refurbishment. From the success of Liaoning, they proceed to build their second carrier Shandong.

Compare with our LCS construction, it seemed like it is much more complex than building aircraft carrier.

The success stories of their SOEs put our GLCs to shame. Billions are allocated yet hardly tangible result is seen.

The Chinese government is shifting developments to the Western regions.

In short, no one region or ethnicity is discriminated in any of their policies. In fact, during the one-child-per-family policy, no Han family is allowed two children and a heavy fine will ensue. However, minorities are allowed two if they want.

China makes it right with a non-discriminator and incorruptible government, systems and policies, world-class STEM education, the pride of being Chinese (not ethnicity), and preference by meritocracy.

They practiced non-religious socialist democracy dictated by ancient Chinese cultural values. Every religion is equal in the eye of the government and it is kept in private space within each faith.

Religion and education are not politicised although education is high on the political agenda, not to favour one ethic but to advance the nation’s development and advancement interests.

They advanced by leaps and bounds while we regress by leaps and bounds too. They got it right with every successive leader and government, while we got it wrong repeatedly over the decades.

A case in point is our Nation Car Proton, we used to pump billions into a loss-making concern until the Geely of China bought into Proton.

Within a short few years, Geely instituted meritocracy to improve productivity to become profitable.

With a population of 1.4 billion, 56 ethnicities, a vast area of dry arid land, and a peasant economy, they marched convincingly to become the second largest economy of the world conquering the world in many areas and arenas.

Our situation cannot be more complicated and complex than theirs yet they delivered to the nation the promise of prosperity while we unbuild our potential with narrow parochial politics from race and religion politicians.

We can get our playbook and strategy right by taking a hard look at what failed us and change. A reset is definitely a must for us to rebuild our efforts to fulfill our potential.

Malaysia Boleh with the right will, as well as redefines what is Nationalism and Patriotism, away from narrow race and religion focus.

Are we capable of doing the reset?

Rebelbadass
Patriot
01 Dec 2023

PS: The definitions of Nationalism and Patriotism are collection and collation from my various discussions i had with the Chinese senior leaders in my courses when i was based there for 12 years delivering leadership and strategy courses.

 

My Comments :

So what if China is progressing at warp speed? What does that mean?

China has already left the West far behind, especially the United States of America. Technologically and socially the Chinese have advanced so far ahead that the Chinese are no more visible to the eye. The Chinese have disappeared over the horizon. So many people are simply not aware how far the Chinese have advanced. So what? Do read on.

The size of the Chinese economy reached US$18.0 Trillion in 2022. By end 2024 (this year) the Chinese economy should reach a size of US$20 Trillion. So what? 

Well in 2014 (ten years ago) the Chinese economy was just over US$10.0 Trillion. This means that in just 10 years (2014 - 2024) the Chinese economy has doubled. This means that in another 10 years (2034) the Chinese economy can double again and hit US$40 Trillion. I think the Chinese economy will double again before the 10 years. 

In contrast the US GDP was at US$17+ Trillion in 2014. By 2022 it reached US$25+ Trillion.
Over the eight years from 2014 to 2022 the US economy grew by about 47%. Unlike the Chinese economy the US economy is not going to double up by this year 2024 and neither will it double up in another 10 years. 

The Chinese are not telling us everything and they are not showing us everything. They cannot because China is so huge in area and it has a 1.5 billion Chinese population. 

The Xinjiang desert is rapidly becoming the bread and fruit basket of China. This is a new phenomenon and it has not reached its peak yet. The whole of China, despite the US$20 Trillion GDP is nowhere near its peak yet. There are places in China which did not have railroads. Now the first railroad coming through town is a High Speed Rail.  We cannot even begin to speculate how much GDP growth that will generate in the local community.

And there are technology things that China does which have become routine for them. Shooting rockets into space is one example - with minimal failure rates. 

In their spare time the Chinese do things like this (its a two minute video, worth your time) :

 

11 km below the 7 km deep ocean floor? 11km + 7km = 18 km.

If they can do this then surely they can drill any deep sea oil and gas field, anywhere in the world.  

"Some of the deepest oil rigs in the world are located in water depths of over 10,000 feet".

10,000 feet? That is only 3,000 metres or 3km. The Chinese can do 18 km. Chinese oil companies are going to bravely venture where no undersea creature has been before.

I hope you can see how the Chinese will most likely double their GDP again before 2034. In every field, and in almost every endeavour (science, technology, business, economics and also arts and culture) the Chinese are "doubling" up. They are already over the horizon.

Here is a 40 second video. A Chinese fighter jet nudged to within 10 feet of an American B52 bomber (which has EIGHT jet engines) somewhere over the South China Sea.

 

A B52 creates huge vortex and turbulence in its wake. Besides being daring the Chinese pilot was skilled in holding his plane steady. More importantly his plane (it is a Shenyang J-11 fighter, based on the Russian Sukhoi SU27) has solid control and stability. A credit to Chinese engineering.

There are no more slow boats in China.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.