by Derrick Elliston

Created on: January 31, 2008

China is slowly evolving into a capitalist society. The Communist Party no longer frowns on making money, in fact it welcomes it.The thinking is that the more prosperous the people are, the happier they will be. You can see how much has changed since 1972 when Richard Nixon made his historic visit. Since then, China has opened up to the West and has become a major trade competitor.This is a strange hybrid of state control along with market forces.

The seeds were sown in 1979, when the United States gave full diplomatic recognition to Beijing.From then came the trade contacts and investment deals. The Chinese had a long term vision of where they wanted to take the country.We already talk of this century, as the one that will belong to China.Deng Xiao Peng more or less confirmed his plan for China when he spoke of cats(who cares about its colour?),its the big picture that matters.The big picture is a modern industrial state.

We hear the stories about power plants being built and China's thirst for oil.The sheer size of the population, and the size of the country means that this will become an economic giant in the near future.Rigid state control as practiced by the Communist Party in the 1950s failed. This resulted in starvation and chaos.Under the current set of leaders China has gradually embraced Western investment(if not Western democracy),but on its own terms. Google,McDonalds and Coca Cola have all invested in China. They all recognise that this is a huge market that has the potential to reap huge rewards.They too are looking at the future.

The rate of growth of the Chinese economy has ensured that China needs raw materials for its growing industry. Look at China's investments in Africa.This is country that is seeking new markets. There can be doubt that this capitalism,albeit on the terms dictated by the Communist Party. China is not there yet, but it will become capitalist in the same way that the former Eastern bloc has embraced the market economy. Who would have imagined Russia having so many billionaires? Lenin and Stalin must be spinning in their graves! In the space of then years,Russia gone from an economic basket case to a serious economic giant in Europe.

This will be China in the next 50 years.The American economy will not be the only engine that will drive the world.

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