Unprecedented growth and unseen challenges
The leadership change in China has been orderly and in accordance with the schedule. The Communist Party Congress has elected Xi Jinping as the party Secretary General. He will assume the post of the president of the world’s most populous country at the annual session of the parliament in March. China has made breathtaking economic and social progress during the last decade under the outgoing Hu Jintao. From a country whose economy was only a little larger than Italy’s, China passed Britain in 2006. Continuing on the trajectory, it passed Germany in 2009 and Japan in 2011 to become the second-largest economy in the world. It was during this period that China was recognised for the first time in recent history as the emerging superpower. In the past 10 years, its GDP has grown more than fourfold. In case the new leadership is able to grapple with the challenges it faces, it could take the country to new heights.
The new administration faces several challenges. China is ruled by the Communist Party which is unwilling to turn the country into a multiparty democracy. The party seeks legitimacy from the prosperity, internal peace, and the prestigious standing China has acquired in the comity of nations under the Party’s rule. With near hundred percent literacy rate, more than 1.4 million Chinese students studying abroad and nearly 39 million mainland Chinese heading overseas as tourists in the first half of this year alone, China cannot neglect political change for long. The new administration has to overcome corruption, particularly in the ruling party. While prosperity has increased, so has the gap between the richest and the poorest. Meanwhile, perceptions of Han ethnic domination have given birth to separatist tendencies in Sinkiang. China will also have to find innovative ways to keep the economy growing.
Changes in China need to be correctly analyzed and their implications understood by Islamabad. The Peoples Republic of China emerged as a united and independent country two years after the creation of Pakistan. It faced enormous problems at its birth, a long history of civil war and foreign occupation leading to destruction of most of the country’s infrastructure, several currencies circulating in the country with low par value and an extra large population difficult to feed. A visionary and dedicated leadership paid full attention to the improvement of the country’s economy, putting the otherwise emotional issues like the return of Hongkong and Macao on the back burner. Despite later shifts in the country’s political orientation, successive administrations have remained focused on the country’s economy to improve the livelihood of the people. It is time Pakistani politicians learned from their neighbour.
