By Philip Yeung
China is one-of-a-kind in human history. In just over 40 years, a country was totally remade, root-to-branch, leapfrogging from a poor, backward agricultural society to an industrial powerhouse and peaking as a hi-tech society. It's a miracle made only in China.
To failed states and dysfunctional democratic ones, China offers them an irresistible remedy. What has it done right where others have gone so wrong? The UN owes its member states a serious study of this high-performance system and its field-tested formula for success.
China's reputation for good government rests on several distinct domains.
First, anti-poverty. No nation in history has lifted such an astronomical number of people out of poverty through massive industrialization. At last count, that number stands at 800 million.
Second, people-oriented economic policies. Foreign students in China are wide-eyed about rock-bottom food prices. Here, there is no sticker-shock when you go grocery-shopping or eating out. A decent meal in China costs only a measly US$3. China's GDP may trail America's, but in terms of real spending power, some economists now believe that China has in fact surpassed the US in economic productivity.
Third, public transport is state-owned. Here, it is treated as a service, not a business floated for profit. It is insanely cheap. A bus ride from one end of Zhuhai city to the other costs just 1 RMB, or US$0.13. For a 90 km intercity trip, the taxi fare is just US$15. Ten US dollars goes a long way in China.
Fourth, its tax system is people-friendly—with no sales taxes and no annual property tax. In Canada, if you own a house, you carry the burden of an escalating property tax, a cash cow for local government at the expense of homeowners.
In the West, sales tax takes a big bite out of your budget, up to nearly 15% in Quebec, Canada. Tipping is not in vogue in China either. In the US, gratuities could set you back another 20% on your restaurant bills.
Fifth, the Chinese government keeps big business's appetite for profit at bay. Utilities are government-owned. Wi-fi service is dirt-cheap, about one-sixth of what you pay in Canada. China pampers no oligarchs, unlike Russia or the West, where the super-wealthy dictate or distort policies by making mega campaign donations.
China's civilian infrastructure is unmatched. There are no blackouts, it being the world's largest producer of electricity. Even remote villages enjoy a cheap and dependable electricity supply.
The length and breadth of China is crisscrossed by high-speed trains that cut both cost and travel time.
China has spurned its tradition of literary learning for love of technology. Engineers, not bookish scholars, now run the country. Technology trickles down to people's lives. As the world's only cashless society, thieves, pickpockets and robbers have disappeared from Chinese streets, as wallets are without money. Technology has made China so safe than women feel secure to go jogging in the dead of night--unimaginable any place on earth. With a dramatic drop in violent crimes, scammers have migrated online and overseas, often operating beyond its borders and beyond the reach of the law.
The old China is changed beyond recognition. Once a sleepy fishing village, Shenzhen has grown into a world-class city and tech hub with a GDP the size of a medium-sized country, in the time it takes to count a billion dollars.
Unlike Cuba or North Korea, China is not a doctrinaire Marxist regime. It is a hybrid system that borrows the best from socialism and capitalism. Prosperity means that it no longer feeds on ideology. Its new religion is efficiency, with the country run like a goal-directed corporation.
Another sea change is underway. China, once mocked as the Sick Man of East Asia, has a craze about physical fitness. It is now an athletic powerhouse, topping the leaderboard in Olympic Games and other international sports competitions. Sporting glory powers patriotism. Its superstars are sports heroes, not movie stars.
Speaking of Chinese patriotism, America has got it all wrong. To drive a sinister wedge between the Chinese government and its people, US propaganda has painted the Chinese as an oppressed people yearning for liberation. This is a Trump-size lie. The Chinese are at one with their government. Whenever China faces foreign hostility, in whatever form, its people are ready to counterpunch with anger and determination.
US politicians resort to a cheap trick by calling the central government the Chinese Communist Party. In truth, the government and its people act in sync against external hostility. If you attack its government, you attack its people. The Chinese value their citizenship. America's "divide and conquer" approach is a big strategic miscalculation.
China may not be an electoral democracy, but it doesn't lack effective channels of communication between the government and the governed. Its three-thousand-strong People's Representative Congress and the two-thousand-plus People's Political Consultative Committee are the regular conduits. Problems, long-term and short-term, are adequately addressed through these representative bodies.
Underlying it all, there is an urgent sense of purpose that drives its people and government. China is disciplined and diligent in planning and execution, constantly measuring its progress against benchmarks.
Without opportunistic politicians, China is free to focus on its long-term strategic development. While the West fusses over quarterly reports, the Chinese executes five-year plans. Its monster achievements in infrastructure and energy production speak for themselves.
The West makes a fetish of freedom. But you can't eat political activism. What about quality of life? What about safety from gun violence? What about food on the table and a roof over your head? What about affordable education and universal healthcare? What about security in your twilight years?
Go to Vancouver Chinatown and witness the destructiveness of loony-left values. Its streets are littered with drug users who have given up on life. Yes, they have the freedom to inhale marijuana legally with approval of their government. But freedom without purpose is a form of slow suicide. The Chinese, by contrast, are driven and disciplined to a fault.
Is there an Achilles' heel in the Chinese system? If there is, it lies in an examination model that encourages short-term learning. China has a fixation on education. Chinese educators, acutely aware of the harm of exam-driven learning, are cracking down on tutorial centers that cater to examination preparation. Despite its shortcomings, its College Entrance Examination is still the meritocratic system that guarantees equal access to higher education.
China is not perfect. No country is. No system is either. Leaders who want results on a China scale and at China speed, should burn the midnight oil to study its system. Swallowing America's toxic anti-China propaganda wholesale is a game for suckers. Don't let your people pay for your folly. America accuses, but China knows better.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
Read more articles by Philip Yeung:
Opinion | The US as a rogue state—the lord of lawlessness
Opinion | What a weird war! Trump can start a war, but he is stumped for ending it
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