The Chinese Model of Development and Its Implications
The Chinese Model of Development and Its Implications
The Chinese Model of Development and Its Implications
Merrimack ScholarWorks
12-2015
Part of the Comparative Politics Commons, and the International Relations Commons
Repository Citation
Li, H. (2015). The Chinese Model of Development and Its Implications. World Journal of Social Science
Research, 2(2), 128-138.
Available at: https://scholarworks.merrimack.edu/pol_facpub/18
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World Journal of Social Science Research
ISSN 2375-9747 (Print) ISSN 2332-5534 (Online)
Vol. 2, No. 2, 2015
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Abstract
At the end of the Cold War, scholars were pondering how far Western ideas would spread in an
international environment defined by “the end of history”. China’s rapid and continuous growth in the
past three decades alters this backdrop. Today, the debate seems to be on how far Chinese ideas (also
known as the “Beijing Consensus”) could reach. This paper focuses on the following aspects of the
Chinese model of development and its implications: What does the China model contain? What are
major critiques and limitations of the China model? Is the Chinese model applicable to other nations?
It should be noted that due to its recent economic slowdown, the China model of development is losing
some luster. Today’s Chinese leadership does not claim that the Chinese developmental model to be an
alternative to other models. China seems to enter a new era of Chinese exceptionalism. The paper
concludes that the increasingly prosperous China does represent an alternative development model that
has gained some traction in the developing world, and the fears that the China development model will
dominate the world are premature.
Keywords
China, China model, Beijing Consensus, Washington Consensus, Chinese model of development,
Chinese century, Chinese exceptionalism
1. Introduction
By the early 1970s, China was diplomatically quarantined, economically isolated, in a nearly
catastrophic military situation where it faced threats from the two superpowers—the Soviet Union and
the United States (Abrami, Kirby, & McFarlan, 2014). At the end of the Cold War, scholars were
pondering how far Western ideas would spread in an international environment defined by “the end of
history” (Fukuyama, 1989). The financial crisis of 2008 alters this backdrop. Today, the debate seems
to be on how far Chinese ideas (also known as “Beijing Consensus”) could reach and much of the
world see China as actively contending for global power and influence. China’s reforms have resulted
in a fast and continuous growth in the past three decades and half which have lifted hundreds of
millions out of poverty. In recent years China has mounted a large soft-power offense around the world
(Brady, 2008). When one searches for “zhong guo mo shi” (China model in Chinese) in Baidu.com (the
top search engine in China), one can get about 10 million results. On October 7, 2014, the International
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Monetary Fund announced that China had surpassed the United States as the world’s largest economy
measured by purchasing-power parity (PPP), a distinction held by the U.S. since 1873 when it over
took Great Britain. For decades, the United States has used its dominant influence in the World Bank
and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to strengthen relations with other countries in the West and
guided developing countries toward capitalism and liberal democracy by conditioning aid on the
U.S.-backed reforms. Those countries had no choice; there was no credible alternative to the
U.S.-dominated system. That is changing. As of July 2015, more than 50 countries decided to join the
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) led by China. Beijing holds a stake of about 30% in the
new institution. By providing project loans to developing countries in Asia, the bank will extend
China’s financial reach and minimize U.S. negotiating leverage.
The Soviet Union has disappeared and the U.S. superpower is arguably on the wane. There has been an
increasing number of publications suggesting that there is an inadequacy in the American economic
model. Meanwhile China has slowly been evolving into a soft-authoritarian state and stands in sharp
contrast to the liberal democracy espoused by the West. In a recent study by Shambaugh, he claims that
China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will collapse unless they adopt Western-style liberal
democracy (Shambaugh, 2015). However, now that a strong and authoritarian China has emerged, one
not compliant with the standard “liberal democracy model” advocated by the West, it is seen as a threat
(Chen, 2015).
In recent years, China has become one of the potential competitors to Western liberal democracy. A
small but growing number of countries in the developing and post-communist world are looking at
China as a model for “growth with stability”. Given a choice between market democracy and its
freedoms and market authoritarianism and its high growth, stability, improved living standards, and
limits on expression—a majority in the developing world and in many middle-sized, non-Western
powers prefer the authoritarian model (Halper, 2010).
In the meantime, disappointment with corruption, environmental degradation, increasing economic
disparity, social unrest prompted the people to re-examine the China model in a new and more critical
light. China stands at a critical juncture. The country’s developmental model—strong state role, heavy
focus on investment, and export-oriented economy has produced nearly four decades of remarkable
growth. But the recent slowdown has suggested that this model might run its course, a victim of a sharp,
cyclical downturn and structural flaws laid bare by the 2008 global financial crisis. The Chinese
economy became energy intensive but is energy inefficient, a toxic combination that damaged both the
economy and the environment. Nationwide, China has sixteen of the twenty dirtiest cities in the world,
a mostly befouled freshwater system, and growing desertification (Abrami, Kirby, & McFarlan, 2014).
Clearly, China faces formidable challenges in the decades ahead. At present, whether China’s
experience provides useful lessons for other countries is fiercely debated both in and out of China. This
article seeks to understand the ideals and the reality of this unique political system. The paper focuses
on the following aspects of the China model of development and its implications: What does the China
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model contain? What are major critiques and limitations of the China model? Is the Chinese model
transferable to other communist/post-communist and developing nations? It goes without saying, the
competition between economic models is a battle of political ideologies; debates about a China
development model replacing the Western model are nothing less.
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China’s political economy has stabilized around a model where most sectors are marketized and
increasingly integrated with the global economy; yet strategic industries remain firmly in the grasp of
an elite empire of state-owned enterprises (Naughton & Tsai, 2015). In short, as Ferchen states rightly
China does not have a competitive political party system and it does seek to strategically regulate
certain sectors of the economy in order to create national champions (Ferchen, 2013).
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strong. As a matter of fact, compatibility in governance approaches led China to seek Singapore’s
assistance in training Chinese civil servants. Such training programs cover a wide-ranging set of topics,
from economic policy to project management, from community management to fighting against
corruption; virtually every aspect of governance was covered in these programs. Transfer of
ideational/technical expertise from Singapore to China has become systematic (Zha, 2015).
The ideas of modernization theory, especially the version expounded by Samuel Huntington, resonate
with an increasing number of the Chinese scholars and the Beijing leadership. Huntington’s emphasis
on institution-building reverberates throughout the Chinese discourse on democracy. In the words of
Zhang Weiwei, a professor at Fudan University, “democracy is a universal value, but the Western
democratic system is not. The two things cannot be mixed. The core value of democracy is to reflect
the will of the people and achieve good governance” (Zhang, 2011). For Zhang, good governance
matters most. The new emphasis on good governance suggests that the CCP sees a need to address
social issues through a combination of better services and stronger police work rather than through
Western style electoral democracy. Dingding Chen’s study demonstrates that, for the most liberal
Chinese, the desire for liberty and democracy quickly weakens as long as the Chinese government does
a good job of tackling corruption, environmental pollution, and inequality. Democracy is seen as a
means, rather than as an end (Chen, 2015).
Chinese scholars in this camp hold that China should promote democracy through good governance not
via direct national elections. With this in mind, an increasing number of scholars are paying attention to
the importance of good governance rather than focusing on electoral democracy (Yu, 2014). In the
words of Yu Keping, “We must innovate social management and at the same time prioritize the
self-governance of society, mutual governance by the government and the people is the basic path to
good governance” (Bandurski, 2012). The proponents of good governance are reformers by and large in
that they work with the party-state and seek incremental change to it, representing good governance as
a non-threatening and feasible option for the party-state’s marked course of reform. For them, good
governance is a prerequisite for higher-level political reforms such as the electoral reform. It is worth
noting that although China’s economy has leapt far ahead of its processes of good governance, its
human rights record is far from satisfactory.
2.4 Gradual and Pragmatic Reform
The reform in China is marked by incremental and piecemeal changes. Compared with that of the
Soviet Union, China’s reform shave been executed more cautiously and more slowly. Over the past
three decades the CCP has been undertaking “incremental changes”, drifting away from the orthodox
Marxist ideology. The popular term in the post-Deng’s era among the CCP leaders is yu shi ju jin,
meaning that the party must be adaptable and flexible to the changing governance environment. There
is no reform blueprint. Instead, China’s reform is known as “crossing the river by feeling the stone”,
partial reform composed of economic liberalization and political conservatism. Since then, China has
been “feeling the stones” for more than three decades. The ultimate outcome of China’s ongoing
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reforms remains to be seen. Nonetheless, all existing indicators point to the development of a stronger
and more effective system of governance within China. In the words of Zhang Weiwei, like with its
economic reform, while China does not have a roadmap for democracy, it has a “compass”. The broad
orientation of the “compass” toward a new type of democracy in China is to establish (1) a first-rate
mechanism for selecting the right talents at all levels of the Chinese states, (2) a first-rate mechanism
for exercising democratic supervision, and (3) a first-rate mechanism for carrying out extensive and
intensive social consultation (Zhang, 2011). However, the CCP has realized recently that as China
entered the “deep water” of reform, structural defect of the existing system such as lack of checks and
balances and the entangled role of the state and the market has emerged, spurring the nation to deepen
its reform comprehensively.
The liberal writers, in contrast, work against the party-state and demand radical change in the hope of
replacing China’s one-party rule with liberal democracy (Guo, 2013). Liberals who embrace universal
liberal democracy contend that the so-called China model promote enlightened authoritarianism. They
argue that the proponents of the China model need more empirical evidence to help people understand
how the China model really works and operates and gives readers into the causes and effects that are
related to the China model. According to them, what the China model means in practice is unclear. The
biggest problem facing the model will likely come from within China itself. There is little internal
consensus on what the China model consists of, beyond a few generalities. In addition, liberal scholars
believe the main goal of the China model is to affirm and support the current system of governance
which stresses the authoritarian value of state power. In fact, in May 2015, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang
acknowledged that using stimulus to generate growth is “not sustainable” and “creates new problems”.
Chinese officials are now taking pains to say that new spending announcements do not represent more
stimulus. In his annual report to China’s legislature in March 2015, Premier Li Keqiang set the target
for 2015 growth at just 7%—the slowest rate in 25 years. China is engaged in a historic transformation,
a politically fraught effort to reboot a $10 trillion economy beset by debt, overcapacity and structural
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inefficiencies. By any measure, turning such a ship around is no small or simple task.
The widespread view in the West is that China’s success results from its “vast, cheap labor supply”, its
“attractive internal market for foreign investment”, strong government support, and its access to the
American market, which provides a perfect spendthrift counterpart for China’s exports and a high
savings rate. China has an enormous population, a huge number of low-cost labor, and gigantic
domestic market. The vast domestic market gives China leeway to negotiate the introduction of
technology. Beijing has used the carrot of its potentially huge domestic market to persuade foreign
investors to share their technology. Small countries do not have this option, so many of them offer
fiscal incentives instead (Economist, 2001). Critics at the Economist have called the China model
“unclear and an invention of “American think-tank eggheads” and “plumage-puffed Chinese
academics” (Economist, 2009).
Some studies find that as China still confronts many challenges it is too early to suggest a Chinese
development model. What happens since the late 1970s does not show a continuous upward trend.
China has managed its vulnerability to the crisis well so far, there is no guarantee that it will continue to
do so. After expanding at an annual clip of more than 10% a decade ago, China’s economy growth has
slowed, growing at just over 7% in 2014. That is expected to fall to 6.5 in the next couple of years. In
addition, there is a dark side of the China model. Rampant official corruption and social injustice have
violated the principles of what the people believe to be good governance, and threatened the Party’s
legitimacy, which presents daunting challenges to its model of economic development.
The most disappointing aspect of China’s reforms is the underdevelopment of the rule of law, which
leads to institutionalized state opportunism, self-dealing of the ruling class, and rampant corruption. If
not for indigenous Chinese firms possessing relationship capital and cultural know-how to help foreign
firms navigate China’s murky business environment, foreign investment would have been deterred.
The liberal scholars in China believe that promotion of the so-called China model would only serve
despotism and nationalism and would prevent China from merging into the mainstream of human
civilizations. In their view, a distinctive Chinese path that emphasizes placing China outside the
“mainstream of human civilization” could only intend to and result in prolonging the present political
autocracy. And without democracy and the rule of law, individual freedom and liberation and free
development of market economy would be only empty words. Therefore, how to understand the theory
and practice of the Chinese model has become the focus of the present ideological and even political
struggle in China (Cao, 2005).
To sum up, in the Chinese intellectual discourse, the New Leftists believe that the pursuit of
modernization in China should take a unique path. They maintain that China could challenge the
Western model of capitalism and liberal democracy (Li, 2010). On the contrary, the liberals doubt on
whether China is to overcome its accumulating problems, and offer a genuine alternative to the Western
model of development (Li, 2015). In their mind, due to the limitations in the Chinese model, China is
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5. Conclusion
Twenty-plus years after the “end of history”, China’s growth remains a bright spot for the global
economy. The European Union stumbles from recession to recession. America has yet to achieve full
recovery from the effects of the 2008 financial crisis. China has become richer, more powerful, more
prominent, and more vexed. As countries in the developing and post-Communist world continue to
search for new models of development and governance, the China model is a temping option.
It should be noted that due to its recent economic slowdown, the China model is losing some luster.
The debt hangover of the 2008-2009 stimulus is worrying. Many believe that the state-led program of
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massive infrastructure investment is financially unsustainable. Total debt to GDP ratio of China jumped
from 147% in 2008 to over 282% now, according to a recent McKinsey report (McKinsey, 2015).
China is still only 89th in the world in per capita GDP, and its Gini coefficient, a measurement of
economic inequality, is among the highest in the world. The bottom line is, the CCP is facing major
challenges that it has not seen for decades. Whether and how it can weather them is uncertain. The
“core socialist values” that China has embraced include Western ideas of “democracy” and “freedom”.
In contrast, China has yet to produce any value that has gained international acceptance (Zhao, 2015).
The concept of soft power is taken seriously in China as it seeks to improve its image abroad. Yet,
unlike in the 1960s, Beijing has not shown many interests in promoting the “China model” abroad.
Today’s Chinese leadership does not claim that the Chinese developmental model to be an alternative to
other models. China seems to enter a new era of Chinese exceptionalism. Many Chinese scholars share
the view that there’s not a one-size-fits-all model of development. In comparison with the rising
economic power of China, the ideational influence of the “China model” has much less global sway. In
conclusion, the fears that the China developmental model will dominate the world are premature and it
is too early to predict the arrival of the Chinese century now.
Acknowledgements
This study is supported by a faculty development grant from Merrimack College. Author would like to
thank Baogang Guo and Joseph La Torre for their valuable comments on earlier versions of this article.
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