{"id":108222,"date":"2020-10-31T14:35:36","date_gmt":"2020-10-31T21:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108222"},"modified":"2020-11-01T16:38:39","modified_gmt":"2020-11-01T23:38:39","slug":"the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-pt-2-b1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/31\/the-pohottuwa-government-of-sri-lanka-pt-2-b1\/","title":{"rendered":"THE POHOTTUWA GOVERNMENT OF SRI LANKA Part 2 B1"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

After\na long march, a great leap, a cultural revolution and \u2018Tiananmen Square\u2019, China\nis today emerging as the most powerful country in the world. China is the\nworld\u2019s first Communist state with a capitalist economy. China has managed to\nstay Communist while engaging in free market enterprise. This is considered\nunique and not to be replicated anywhere else. No other country plans to\nimitate China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nthe\n19th Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017, the Party declared that\nits philosophy is   based on\nMarxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong thought, Deng Xiaoping theory and Xi Jinping\u2019s\nThoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\nis ruled by one party, Communist Party of China.\nAnalysts   observed in 2016 that the ruling Communist Party is very strong and is\n\u2018unlikely to fall in the next ten years\u2019. There is a sort of recruitment\npolicy. A person joining the Chinese Communist Party must satisfy many\nconditions. His background is scrutinized very carefully. He is not allowed to rise\nin politics very fast. Third rate persons get excluded early on, said\nanalysts.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s\nmiraculous economic growth, which started around 1980,  has enabled China to lift more than 850\nmillion people out of extreme poverty. in 2015\nChina created 11 million jobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China moved\nrural people into urban settlements without waiting for it to happen as a\nnatural outcome of the development process. This brought rural people out of\npoverty and allowed them to engage in more productive jobs in the industry and\nservice sectors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The quality\nof life  improved. There is almost\nuniversal literacy today, in China.  many\nattend primary and secondary schools. life expectancy has shot up and infant\nmortality has plummeted, said TIME in 2009. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But China is\nnot complacent. China has further to go, said the Congress in 2017.China still\nneeds to cater to the peoples \u2018ever-growing desire for a better life.\u2019 There are a lot of poor areas still in\nChina, announced officials.  The economic\ndevelopment achieved so far, is inadequate and unequally distributed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A two stage\nplan was formulated for the period 2020 to 2050.  From 2020-2035 China would    build a moderately prosperous society and\nfrom   2035 onwards, china would \u2018fully\nbuild\u2019 a modern socialist China.   The Party will \u2018develop China into a great\nmodern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally\nadvanced, harmonious, and beautiful.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China became\nrich through exports. Export production was  \ninitially through FDIs.    China\u2019s factories were set up by foreign\nmultinational corporations, said analysts.   \nThese MNCs had direct access to world markets and they produced goods\nthat would sell.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Production\nwas on a large scale. The industries\nwere supported by vertically integrated state owned enterprises in logistics,\nenergy, roads, shipping and ports.  State\nowned banks financed the infrastructure needed. China also started many Special\nEconomic Zones such as Shenzhen and these were used as a model by other\ncountries, including Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China now\nproduces everything from stuffed toys to IPads, said analysts in 2015.  China is the largest producer of ships,\nsteel, aluminum, furniture, clothing, textiles, cell phones, and computers.\nChina has become the manufacturing powerhouse of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also a\nleader in technology. Alipay, the Alibaba payment system, is more sophisticated\nthan anything in the west. Then there is Huawei whose 5G technology is\nconsidered superior and cheaper. The successful  5G provider will also have a head-start into\n6G and 7G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has\nalso become the world\u2019s largest consumer. China imported more oil, consumed\nmore energy, and installed more solar power than any other nation, said\nanalysts.  China has the world\u2019s largest\ninternet users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There are new consumer groups who have\ncapacity to spend on sports, entertainment, clothes and shoes. Chinese consumers are now setting the pace\nfor global commerce. For consumer product companies, you can’t win the world if\nyou are not winning in China. China encourages domestic consumption and much of\nthe spending is moving back into the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China was\nexpected to overtake the United States as the largest fashion market in 2019,\naccording to a report by McKinsey & Company. For example, Italian brand Ermenegildo Zegna\nnow looks to China, instead of the US, as the place for testing new products,\nbefore deciding whether to promote them globally. The website said many luxury\nbrands already depend heavily on Chinese customers, who have for some time been\nthe world\u2019s biggest buyers of luxury goods. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has presided over the greatest economic\ntransformation in modern history, said China\u2019s admirers. China has\nvaulted to the top in a single generation. In 1980, China\u2019s GDP was less than\n$300 billion. By 2015, it was $11 trillion, making it the world\u2019s second\nlargest economy by market exchange rates. In\n1980, China\u2019s trade with outside world amounted to less than $40 billion. By\n2015, it was $4 trillion.  Hong Kong is\nnow only 2.9% of the Chinese economy, TIME observed in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China is now\nthe world\u2019s second largest economy and the world\u2019s top trading nation. It has\nmore billionaires than the US and more high speed rail than the rest of the\nworld combined, said TIME in August 2020. China\u2019s march towards becoming the\nworld\u2019s largest economy is just a matter of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has now\novertaken the US to become the world\u2019s largest economy according to the IMF\u2019s\nWorld Economic Output 2020. Using the more reliable and now widely accepted\nmeasurement, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), IMF has determined China\u2019s economy\nat $24.2 trillion compared to America\u2019s $20.8 trillion. This is a massive leap\nfrom less than USD 200 PPP in 1970. The PPP calculation method enables you to\ncompare how much you can buy for your money in different countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2017, on\nmost indicators, China had already surpassed the United States. Chinese consumers bought twenty million cars\nin 2015, three million more than were sold in the US. . TikTok, a leading\nsocial media app in the United States, is owned by the $75 billion Chinese tech\ngiant Bytedance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015,\nTsinghua University passed MIT in the US News and World Report rankings to\nbecome the number one university in the world for engineering. Among the top\nten schools of engineering, China and the US each had four. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is an increasing emphasis on Buddhism in China today. China\nis emphasizing Confucian and Buddhist values, said TIME in 2009.  Buddhism is encouraged by President Xi in\norder to fill China\u2019s moral vacuum. \nmembers of the Chinese elite including Xi Jinping\u2019s wife, Peng Liyuan,\nare interested in Buddhism.   growing number of wealthy Chinese, have been\ndrawn in recent years to the mysticism of Tibetan Buddhism, said the media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a chain of Buddhist clubs and Tibetan gurus like Geshe\nSonam preach in China. The travel   guide DK Eyewitness travel\u201d (Dorling Kindersley\n2012) listed around 63 Buddhist monuments and temples for tourists to visit.  There is hardly any mention of mosques,\nchurches, Confucian or Taoist temples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has\nland borders with 14 countries and maritime borders with at least nine other\ncountries. Since 1960, it has settled its \n boundaries with 12 of the 14\ncountries with which it shares land borders. They are Myanmar, Nepal, North\nKorea, Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Laos, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,\nTajikistan and Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its land\nboundaries remain unsettled only with India and Bhutan. The territory in\ncontention with Bhutan is not large but is of strategic significance. once\nIndia settles the boundary dispute with China the boundary with Bhutan will automatically\nbe settled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has\nvery strong connections with other countries. Of\nthe 53 states in Africa only Lesotho has no connection to China, the other 52\nstates all have connections with China. \n China\nhas signed agreement to allow Nepal to use Chinese harbors and roads for\nsupplies. But those ports and roads are far away, observed analyst. China\u2019s\ninvestments and presence in the Indian Ocean have increased, and no country can\nmatch China in that respect today, said analysts . <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The countries\nwhich have benefited from Chinese assistance in Asia, Africa and Europe have\nnot suffered a breach of their independence and sovereignty or lost any\nsignificant extents of resources. China has not dictated to any of these\ncountries on how to run their country, how to change their constitutions, how\nto look after their security, or preached on democracy, human rights, minority\nrights and other internal affairs. China has not forced or pressurized any of\nthe recipients of its aid to fall in line and join the B & R I. They have\ninstead requested them to evaluate the pros and cons of the project and join if\nthey agree with its broad principles, said .N.A. de S. Amaratunga. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\ndoes not interfere in the internal affairs of any country agreed analysts.\nChina never considers themselves to be a model. \nChina does not have the evangelistic approach of USA, which says Be like\nus, said analysts. China strategy for south East Asia is , come grow with me,    said Lee Kuan Yew. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\u2019s most\nrecent linkup is with Iran. China and Iran have drafted a Trade and Military\nPartnership Agreement in 2020 which will vastly expand Chinese presence in\nIran. The  military agreement  proposes deepening military cooperation. <\/em> It calls for joint military training and\nexercises, joint research and weapons development and intelligence sharing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trade agreement\nincludes inter alia, new ports along the coast of the Sea of Oman, a 5G\ntelecommunications network, Chinese Global Positioning System and cyberspace\ncontrol by China\u2019s Great Firewall. Chinese investments in Iran would total $400\nbillion over 25 years. In exchange, China would receive a regular, heavily\ndiscounted supply of Iranian oil over the next 25 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the\nproposed new ports is at Jask, just outside the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance\nto the Persian Gulf. This will give the Chinese a strategic vantage point on\nthe oil route. The passage is of critical strategic importance to the United\nStates, as well, the US Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to US sanctions,\nChina is the only major player active in Iranian oil. China considers sanctions\nagainst Iran as an opportunity to secure huge fields and markets which might\nhave gone to Western companies. Iran needs to increase its oil production to at\nleast 8.5 million barrels a day to remain a player in the energy market, and\nfor that, it needs China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing  allows its companies to do business in Iran.\nChinese goods and services have flooded Iran\u2019s market. Iranians welcomed this.\nApart from Russia other nations were not willing to come in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\nand India are seen as rival for power in South Asia. Comparisons have been\nmade. In 2016 it was said that China\u2019s economy was five times that of India. That was not all. Inflation is low in China\nand high IN India, said analysts. There is political stability in  China, political instability in India. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese firms\nincluding Tencent, Alibaba, and Xiaomi \nhave poured more than $5 billion into Indian enterprises in 2018,\nsurpassing flows from Japan and the United States. Five of the top 10 mobile\napps in India are now Chinese compared with just two out of 10 in 2017. The\nmedia warned of a Chinese invasion\u201d of the Indian tech sector. Beijing now has\naccess to Indian social media messaging, health records, user-generated\ncontent, and consumer spending and financial information, with New Delhi\u2019s\ntacit consent, said observers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China\nfaces opposition from its \u2018enemies\u2019. There have been tensions between the\nChinese and the majority Muslim group in China, the Uighur. The Uigher are\nclaiming genocide.  They say that China\nhad been introducing Han settlers into the area and giving them privileges such\nas the lion\u2019s share of investments.  Uighur\nrights groups are demanding an independent Xinjiang. Chinese say this is instigated\nabroad. The headquarters of the World Uighur Congress   is in\nUSA and the Uighur leader, Rebiya Kadeer, lives in the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analysts say the agitation regarding the Rohingya in Burma has little to do with religion.  The west will not take an interest in the Rohingya of Myanmar unless there is some hidden agenda, they said. China has an oil and gas pipeline there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

China wants\nto build a 120-kilometre canal cutting through the isthmus of Kra in Thailand. (\nKra canal). China can then get to the Indian Ocean bypassing the Strait of\nMalacca. Now other countries  such as\nIndia, USA and Australia  wish to  join the project. More than 30 foreign firms\nhave shown an interest in investing, providing financial and technical support\n. They want to sign a memorandum of understanding with us, said Thailand.  Foreign embassies have contacted us to get\nthe latest status on the project .  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee Kuan Yew told TIME in 2013,\u00a0 China has transformed from\u00a0 a poor society to become now the second largest economy in the world on track to become the word largest economy.\u00a0 They have a culture\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 4000 years old. And a huge population\u00a0 pool to draw from. How could they not aspire to be No 1 in Asia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the  19th CPC Congress in 2017 China pledged to be\na major factor in the world.  China will\nbe called on to  play a stabilizing,\nresponsible role when it comes to questions of trade, security and\ninternational order, the Congress said.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of\nthis, China is preparing for war. Beijing will not take a single step back in\nthe contested South China Sea, China said. China\u2019s navy has become the world\nlargest navy, said Economist in September 2020. China is now working at\nbuilding a great navy, said Statesman. Navies do far more than fight. They\nprotect trade routes, observed  \nStatesman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nChina  becomes the world\u2019s largest\neconomy over the next decade the global system will be led by a non-English\nspeaking, non-Western, non-democratic state, observed Australia\u2019s Kevin Rudd. (\ncontinued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS After a long march, a great leap, a cultural revolution and \u2018Tiananmen Square\u2019, China is today emerging as the most powerful country in the world. China is the world\u2019s first Communist state with a capitalist economy. China has managed to stay Communist while engaging in free market enterprise. This is considered unique and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}