
A lot of
this last is due to the manipulation of the Chinese currency, the Renminbi or
Yuan, by the purchase of US dollars, when required, to maintain an exchange
rate that competitors for global exports in the US, and the US government, regard
as artificially in favour of the Chinese unit.
When he
visited Ireland
prior to taking up his position as Chinese president, Xi Jinping was quoted as
saying that if the Chinese economy could not maintain its growth, then the
people who have flocked into the great cities of that great nation would have
to go back to their villages. This is a chilling thought, as it that were to
happen they could not all be supported with food and other essentials, and the
result would be catastrophic.
While there
are now many very wealthy people in China , there are still many who
subsist at a much lower level of economic wellbeing. While Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) in absolute terms may have outstripped that of many Western
nations in Europe and the Americas ,
average GDP per capita, or per head of population, is still only a fraction of
what it is in the developed world.
A lot
depends on China
in global economic terms, but it would be wrong to assume that its economy and
its other national characteristics were exactly the same as we have come to
expect in the West, the recent great financial crisis notwithstanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment