Part 2: Between ‘trickle down’ and ‘ripple effects’

The People’s Republic of China (PRC), taking into account its own national realities, says it has promoted “development of the whole society” through the two following successful practices:

(1) Allowing some to get rich first and then help others get rich; and
(2) Making a bigger pie — and sharing it better.

It’s easy to say that’s akin to the failed ‘trickle-down’ theory of modern capitalism, which holds that by making the rich richer, the poor will automatically get richer at the bottom of the ladder, from an expected increased expenditure by investors richer.

But that hasn’t worked in the traditional citadels of capitalism, if only because of the nature of the highly-unequal free enterprise system, where the bottom line is always higher profit.
Traditional investors have grown applying the theory that ‘Greed is Good’ (as in Michael Douglas’ epic film ‘The Firm’ that properly depicts why Wall Street welcomes greed).
In China, however, those who earn more operate in a system where they know they are expected to contribute more to society’s development and the trickle-down effect is replaced by a ripple-effect across the system, where contributions from increased earnings don’t all go only to investors’ accounts, but some will surely go to the betterment of the community and the wider society.
Chinese media houses routinely publish related figures that the Western press has traditionally ignored, sitting on irrefutable information that can easily alter already altered global images of China today.

But the figures are available everywhere online – and they don’t count well for those still bent on presenting China and Chinese citizens as what it isn’t and they aren’t.

Here are some raw facts and figures:

• Over the past 40-plus years since the launch of reform and opening-up of its economy, while integrating with the rest of world, China has now lifted over 800 million people out of poverty
• China has also enlarged its middle-income group to over 400 million
• On the other hand, thanks to the growing and revolving crises facing the rest of the world, the United Nations (UN) has registered that over 821 million people worldwide go to bed hungry every night
• But with poverty virtually eradicated, today, the PRC is the main trading partner of over 140 countries
• China is earning US $320 million from its direct investments around the world every day
• China is also attracting over 3,000 foreign businesses every month
• In the past decade, China has contributed more to global growth than all the G-7 countries combined
• In its first 73 years, the PRC’s per capita disposable income increased from RMB 49.7 in 1949 to RMB 37,000 in 2022
• China has today built the world’s largest education, social security, and healthcare systems
• China also today has 43 items included on the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, a forerunner in the world; and
• Today, 1.4 billion people are living a well-off life, up to the standard of a moderately-prosperous society.

With the continuous improvement of living standards and the growing size of the middle-income group, China’s huge population also provides a huge market and enormous development opportunities for the rest of the world.

Interestingly, modernisation featuring ‘Material Abundance’ is not new to China, as, during the Song Dynasty (960–1279 B.C.), China’s economy was already among the world’s largest.
China entered the modern era as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal nation, due to the corruption of the Qing Government and foreign invasions.

But, living in a country of poverty and backwardness, Chinese rose to the challenges of the times and established a new China, as of 1949, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

Beijing says the realisation of Chinese modernisation today and tomorrow will bring about a fundamental change in the world’s modernisation landscape, with new approaches to human advancement and even-more opportunities for more — and better — global development.

It’s is also being pursued along what Beijing calls ‘Material and Cultural-Ethical Advancement,’ with ‘stronger confidence in ideology and culture.’
As China continues to modernise in its own way and according to its own characteristics, new businesses — mostly involving rural tourism and local specialties — are driving the development of rural areas, firming-up the progress in poverty alleviation.

Such changes are well-captured in the much-publicized case of Xihaigu, a mid-western region in China, where the Juncao technology of mushroom farming enabled a 29-time growth in per capita income in two decades — and ecotourism added more ways for locals to get rich.

Beijing is quick to correctly point out that modernisation through ‘Cultural Abundance’ starts with the fact that Chinese civilization is the only one (worldwide) that’s never been interrupted.
Modernisation featuring ‘Mutual Learning among Civilizations’ has seen China enable a transition from “Made in China” to “Smart Manufacturing by China” with 5G technology facilitating communication, high-speed railroads and other transportation solutions connecting the world.

Similarly, new-energy vehicles are also going into production overseas and cross-border e-commerce is driving digital transformation.
China has (thus far in the 21st Century) hosted the Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations and launched the Ancient Civilizations Forum, contributing to the cultural exchanges among countries.

A recent Global Civilization Initiative by China calls for “respecting the diversity of civilizations and addressing global challenges through exchanges,” as well as “mutual learning and coexistence,” also “reflecting the cultural aspect of Chinese modernization” and “providing important international public goods that help promote humanity’s cultural-ethical advancement.”
All in all, China’s modern modernisation drive is neither new, nor (allowed ever to get) old, as every step of the way is planned long in advance, with implementation also always tweaked according to circumstances, if and when necessary, to achieve the ultimate set objectives.

As the PRC’s approaches its 75th birthday next year, modernisation continues as a key component in the process leading to eventual implementation of a national system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, in 2049.