As a follow up to the post on why we have decided to stay another year in China, I am borrowing a list of what China is doing right from Jeremy Goldkorn, a well known China expert. While many of the items I had not thought about specifically, I found myself nodding my head and thinking “yeah, I have noticed that…”.
- Continuing to lift millions and millions of people out of poverty (that’s the big one).
- A culture of hard work, thrift, and diligence that emphasizes the importance of education.
- The fapiao, a state-issued invoice system that is a work of genius which allows a massive more-or-less unregulated informal economy to thrive and still contribute taxes to the state.
- Investing in Africa, seeing developing countries as potential markets rather than basket cases.
- Dreaming big.
- Infrastructure.
- Increasingly professional emergency response systems for bird flu scares, earthquakes etc.
- Internet humor, Internet-based literature.
- State atheism, broad state support of science over superstition and religion.
- Ecommerce: you can buy anything, get incredible service, and often same-day delivery in big cities.
- Real family values: China is a culture that supports families; you can take a baby anywhere and no one will give you nasty looks about crying, etc.
- Food.
- Basic health care system (You’ll only laugh at this one if you’re from a rich country).
- Acknowledgement of climate change and environmental problems at highest levels of government.
- Active state support for new energy and renewables.
- The Beijing-Tianjin Anti Dust Storm Reforestation Program.
- No liquor licensing laws.
- Ease of opening bank accounts, online banking.
- Visa policy that treats Nigerians and Americans (or in my own case, South Africans) the same.
The complete article that includes Mr. Goldkorn’s list as well as other well known China-hands can be found at:
http://www.chinafile.com/china-what-s-going-right
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