China Story

Thierry Wolton's journalistic book on China "Le Grand Bluff Chinois: comment Pékin nous vend sa révolution capitaliste; Robert Laffont, Paris 2007, 182pp" is built around a thesis. The West may believe that China is opening itself to capitalism and its practices but the country is actually more communist than ever. He then uses this idea to present various facets of recent western experience in "the kingdom of the Middle" as China has long dubbed itself. Such a perspective is helpful, he contends, because when all is said and done the numerous western players currently in China are not really making much money there, or finding the investments opportunities the large and growing population seems to promise. Everyone is trying to position themselves for a tomorrow that may never materialize.

China has more and better statistics on its economic performance than any other country on earth. As a communist country, there is rigorous reporting from educated bureaucrats. Such figures may not be accurate in the western sense of the word because there is a built-in advantage to producing reports that show growth. 7% annual growth may be the floor under which employment deteriorates - something like 3% growth in the U.S. - and because China is a third world country in absolute terms, the upcoming catch-up with the West is probably illusory.

Public property is inviolate, by the terms of the constitution. What privatisation is tolerated is on a 70-year lease model.

American pensions fund investors looking for opportunities were shown a panoply of outdated manufacturing facilities: this is a by-product of communist planning which, when the decision to invest is taken, pours a lot of money into a certain model of equipment which all falls apart at the same time.

There are huge inventory surpluses of shoddy goods.

China has been very cautious about allowing foreign banks into the country.
It has to, to satisfy world regulatory bodies but even so, an individual would need to deposit 120 000 dollars just to open an account in one. The default rate on lending is outrageously high.

...And so on, some of the documention on these assertions from anglophone sources. Putting it all together, as it were.

What struck me on reading this book is that the demography of China is still delivering massive increases in the population. Currently at 1.3 billion people. Immense cities everywhere. Mr Wolton seems shocked by the view China has of itself as the center of the world, by the idea within China that the country is hard at work to forge itself a position of world leadership.

I have a different view on this, and it also comes from France. I am an avid reader of a genre novel particular to Europe, the works of Paul-Louis Sulitzer. He writes popular books, each based of what is happening in various hot spots on the planet, meant to give Europeans - and in particular women - an idea of what is going on. A sort of catalogue of planetary angst. A current work on China "L'Empire du Dragon" shows that it is the urge to be creative, in fashion, in architecture, in cuisine that is forcing the society open. There is censorship on the Internet but it is all of a piece with drug lords, industrial espionage and profiteering bureaucrats and ultimately irrelevant. A lovely young woman commits suicide because her western husband is friends with another woman; and her family understands. China is ever itself.