The fall of Communism
This is an excerpt from the paper...
The fall of Communism in most of the world has had little effect on the government of the People's Republic of China, a nation which has resisted any move toward democracy or any other significant change after the demonstrations in Tiananmen Square ended in the violent suppression of dissent. Yet China has to change in terms of its degree of modernization in order to compete in the world markets, and the nurturing of trade ties with the United States and others in the West is one aspect of trying to modernize the industrial and manufacturing sectors of China. The leadership may also hope to do this without raising any serious challenge to the political and social structures they have built, but it is not clear that this can be accomplished. Indeed, U.S. trade policy has been based on the belief that increased trade will have a salutary effect on the Chinese leadership and produce democratic reforms over time. The modernization effort is being carried forth not only by those within China or by her trading partners but also by Chinese living abroad and finding ways to increase business for the home country or to develop China in a wide variety of fields, including the scientific, financial, artistic, tourism, and so on. These Chinese are accomplishing their tasks in a number of different ways as they try to alter the course of their homeland and improve the lives of their people. Part of the effort is an attempt by China to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), and bo
. . .
the playing field" that lie behind the pressures for putting these new issues on the trade agenda have been ridiculed by economists. But once it is recognized that trade has implications for domestic norms and social arrangements and that its legitimacy rests in part on its compatibility with these, such notions are not so outlandish . . . Free trade among countries with different domestic practices requires an acceptance of either an erosion of domestic structures or the need for some degree of harmonization or convergence (Rodrik 28).
From China's point of view, the long-term trade policy has been set and includes export promotion and import liberalization. In addition, there has been a desire on the part of some of China's leaders to regain membership in GATT and the WTO, and this has created pressure to liberalize, especially with respect to imports, which is what much of the world wants. At the end of 1995, for example, President Jiang Zemin announced a trade liberalization plan to decrease tariffs on 4,000 imports and to end import controls on 170 tariff categories, an announcement that came one day after meetings with the United States concerning China's GATT/WTO status. In April 1996, tariffs were cut on 5,000 item
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
WTO Weissman, White House, United West, WTO China's, Organization WTO, Prime Park, China's GATT/WTO, Jiang Zemin, MFN China, Tiananmen Square, foreign exchange, world trade, world trade organization, trade organization, trade organization wto, foreign trade, uruguay round, china's foreign, mfn debate, trade policy, china's foreign trade, organization wto, companies foreign,
Approximate Word count = 1323
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)
More Essays on The fall of Communism
|