The Chinese Challenge
This is a blog post that I have long been promising my partner Maree that I would write, but which has taken longer to formulate than I had hoped. However it seems more topical than ever, so better late than never! The Backdrop: The Dragon Awakes The role of China in the world’s economy has been probably the biggest economic story of the past forty years. In the late 1970s China had by far the world’s biggest population, and a long and illustrious history of imperial military conquest, overseas economic ventures, and cultural and technological achievements. Unfortunately, most of that long and illustrious history had ended around 1840, when the Qing dynasty’s grip on the country loosened and a series of internal revolts ( Taiping , Dungan and Boxer ), along with invasions by Western countries (the two Opium Wars ) left China weakened and impoverished, prey to Western imperialists. The 20 th century didn’t start out much better, with the 1911 Revolution overthrowing the last Qing...