As I mentioned last week, I had the unique opportunity this summer to study abroad as a part of the University’s Business in China program.
It’s impossible for Americans to truly grasp the People’s Republic of China’s sheer size and remarkable progress. The country’s rapid transition from a virtual Third World nation in the 20th century to one of the 21st century’s largest and most dynamic economies is entirely unprecedented.
One of our first stops, Shenzhen, was a remote fishing village only 30 years ago. Today it’s a manufacturing hub with a population nearly six times that of Houston.
Stories like this can be found all over China’s ever-evolving landscape.
Since economic liberalization began in 1978, China has been the world’s fastest-growing economy and largest net exporter. Poverty has fallen from 55 percent to 8 percent in 2001, according to the BBC.
Much like the economic liberalization that led to the economic miracle in postwar Europe — and again following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 — China has taken giant steps away from Soviet-style central planning and toward a more voluntary, free market system.
Today, China is home to many incredible technological innovations, including the world’s fastest high-speed railways, most highly advanced military technology and — most notably for China’s 15 million college students — high-definition 3D porn.
Somewhere in the world, James Cameron just got a pulsating erection.
It has also been ahead of the curve on curbing illegal immigration. While American politicians are still debating whether to construct a wall along the Mexican border, China’s ancestors had the foresight to erect their own “Great Wall” about 2,500 years ago. Mongolians be damned.
For sure, China has a fair share of problems: a totalitarian system of government, binding censorship, heavy pollution, an aging population, Godzilla and an inexplicable surplus of KFCs.
Yet in spite of these obstacles, China continues to grow and gain international prominence. China has eclipsed Japan as the world’s second largest economy, according to the New York Times.
Witnessing this rapid progress firsthand strengthened my view. China is quickly becoming the business world’s next great frontier. It offers an increasingly welcoming business environment chock-full of smart, gracious, hard working people desperate to learn from and interact with a global audience.
Which brings us home to our once-glorious land of opportunity.
Far removed from its days as the world’s freest, most dynamic economy, the U.S. is steadily deteriorating into one of the world’s most indebted nations.
After decades of undermining the free market system and promising far beyond its means, the American government is broke. Budget shortfalls are springing up left and right, and every major Ponzi — I mean “entitlement” scheme — is rapidly circling the drain toward insolvency.
And while the domestic economy stagnates, the most powerful military in world history is stuck in a figurative Chinese finger trap — trying to simultaneously dislodge itself from two drawn-out quagmires in Mesopotamia.
Anyone who has studied the collapse of virtually every major empire knows how this ugly formula invariably turns out.
The fortune in America’s cookie might keep getting bleaker. But luckily for ambitious young students, one of the most magnificent transformations in history is taking place just across the Pacific Ocean.
As America’s ship slowly sinks, China may well become the world’s next economic superpower.
There is, however, one category Americans often reference to confirm our innate superiority: On average, American men have a larger endowment than their Chinese counterparts.
Unfortunately, even that tasteless title is in jeopardy: China is now the world’s largest manufacturer of male enhancement drugs.
Yep. We’re screwed.
Scott Burns is a 21-year-old economics and history junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_sburns.
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Contact Scott Burns at [email protected]