Towards A Global Economy & Society
( For a Chinese language version, please go to
www.dajun.com.cn )
From: Hongyi Yin
Date: 14 Nov 2002
Time: 20:39:46 -0600
Comments
Towards A Global Economy & Society
As a scholar, I am
dismayed with the recent clamors by the New Left economists in China for a
return to state control and protecting and nurturing national industries
independent of, competing with and duplicating those in advanced countries.
While I may not like America to be the center of the world, I have noticed
recent studies on the inevitable and rapid centralization of all systems,
especially those in a competitive economy. While I hate all colonialists, I have
found the obvious lack of inner drives for development in the “developing”
countries. I feel ashamed to recall that just two decades ago, as you walked on
the streets of many major cities in China, you would be told by your host or
friend in the neighborhood that “The prettiest buildings here are those left
behind by the British (the Germans, the French, or the Americans).” You would
probably argue that there are also some left by the Chinese emperors. But that
is another part of the story. While these scholars may have a point here and
there, they may also be crying wolf by arguing that globalization jeopardizes
China’s national or economic security. For are we also reasonable to say that
by allowing or facilitating the moving of American factories abroad, Americans
are endangering their own national and economic security? There is no denying
the fact that some people are lamenting the decline of the nation state, but
also the evidence that a globalized world, with the global division of labor, is
reducing duplication and the waste of resources. Already, what does it mean to
maintain a strong Chinese Nation when the very rich in China are depositing
billions of dollars in Western banks annually (with capital flight from China
amounting to 15 billion dollars last year), and when wealthy Americans are free
to live after the fashion of Bill Gates in the very capital of this nominally
Communist country? We should be starting to think more about the individual
human being in his or her relations to humanity as a whole, instead of some
faceless and cold carcass called “the State”.
Return to Commentaries
List | Return to Top of Commentary |
