In a little-noticed mid-summer announcement, the Asian Development Bank presented official survey results indicating China's economy is smaller and poorer than established estimates say. The announcement cited the first authoritative measure of China's size using purchasing power parity methods. The results tell us that when the World Bank announces its expected PPP data revisions later this year, China's economy will turn out to be 40 per cent smaller than previously stated.
For a rapidly growing economy like China's, with major income and consumption increases in all regions, inequality can serve to provide incentives for labor to move voluntarily to locations and occupations where it is more productive and hence better able to earn a higher standard of living.
Asia’s resurgence is revolutionary; Asia will contribute 43% of world GDP by 2020, is the second global hub of innovation, and has amassed a tremendous amount of military power. But the resurgence is also incomplete. Large swaths remain outside of Asia’s economic “miracle,” political systems remain at various stages of development, and Asian nations face many religious and ideological challenges.
You can always count on the Olympic Games to provide drama. Next year’s games in Beijing will be no different; they too will produce powerful stories and riveting television. But this time the images will not just be athletes overcoming the odds or breaking records. They will also focus on the clashes between the Chinese police and the activists who will arrive from all around the world.
After much behind-the-scenes horse-trading, China’s Communist party this week unveiled the country’s new top leadership for the next five years. Hu Jintao, president, and Wen Jiabao, premier, remained in their posts, while four new members, including the possible successors to Mr Hu and Mr Wen, joined the nine-strong Standing Committee of the Politburo, the party’s top echelon.
With President Hu Jintao's record, one might assume that he should face little opposition in installing his favoured successors at the party’s congress. But politics in Beijing is never so simple. When it comes to succession politics, China still has a long way to evolve politically.
Failure to contain endemic corruption among Chinese officials poses one of the most serious threats to the nation’s future economic and political stability. Minxin Pei argues that corruption not only fuels social unrest and contributes to the rise in socioeconomic inequality, but holds major implications beyond its borders for foreign investment, international law, and environmental protection.
For days, thousands of average Burmese and respected Buddhist monks have paraded through the streets of Burmese cities, calling for democracy and picking up supporters as they march. The events of today are reminiscent of 1988 when the Burmese military took power, convinced that there would be no sanctions from the international community. Twenty years on, history is in danger of being repeated.