Congratulations to Tony Wu, TC ’13, for his submission!

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

The year 2010 saw China surpassing Japan and becoming the world’s second largest economy by nominal GDP – merely one spot away from what most Chinese feel is their country’s inevitable position as the leading global superpower. As the son of two Beijingers, I am proud of how far the nation of my heritage has come since the beginning of Deng Xiaoping’s economic reforms in 1978, but China’s growth is fractured.

Annual growth rates have averaged 9% for the last decade, and yet China’s GDP per capita hovers below $4,000, lower than that of Botswana, South Africa, and even Algeria. Corruption spans 15% of the entire economy and the wealthy elite exploit privatization to further perpetuate and widen the socioeconomic gap. Economic liberalization has hardly occurred – the state still has absolute power to censor, prosecute, and kill on a whim. All of these problems thrive behind the mask of China’s status as the poster child of globalization.

TIME TO STOP BARKING

There’s no doubt that China wants to assume the helm of world leader. It craves unrivaled global recognition and power that once defined (and perhaps still does) the United States at the dawn of the postmodern age.

China today has the money and might to accomplish great things, but while Chinese leaders complain about the West’s antagonism toward their country’s questionable development, their own behavior, in the words of the The Economist, has “done too little to reassure the outside world that China’s rise is something to be celebrated everywhere.”

For a country with as much to fix as it has gained, China retains a century-old nationalistically defensive attitude against international opinion and desperately needs a lesson in utilizing the soft power that has secured the longevity of the Western World. China is militant in its suppression of domestic transgressions (take Tibet) and hypocritical in its desire for tolerance from the global community – the PRC is openly critical of Western political and cultural standards without being able to stomach reciprocal commentary. The country as a whole seems just as ready to war with the world as it tries to garner respect.

In 2010, China may have become the second richest country on paper, but as an international leader it remains far from exemplary.