Politics of China

Politics of China

I was able to attend the Presidential Lecture presented by James McGregor, a leading expert in Chinese business and a retired reporter for the New York Times. James McGregor focused his lecture on the politics in China and how they are affecting businesses in China and foreign investors. He discussed the overwhelming issue of corruption in the Chinese government and state owned companies. He said that in the United States corruption is regulated to a point but in China they don’t have any way to regulate it.

Another thing I liked about his discussion were some of his comparisons of China to other countries. He talked about how most countries got rich before they got old but China is getting old before they get rich. He made it seem that China’s lack of technology and innovation is heavily responsible for this occurrence. He compared our manufacturing and inventions to those of China and showed that we are excelling in inventing and struggling to manufacture.

James McGregor also made a crucial point of why China’s economy is not moving in the way that it should because of the fact that China consumes very little because of the uncomfortable feeling the Chinese get about consuming products. He pointed out that it is a part of their culture to produce and not consume and that this is hurting small businesses in China which lets the State-Owned business to come in and settle a monopoly on most goods.

Personally I found his discussion to be very interesting. It was cool to hear about the politics behind some of China’s business decisions and how well those decisions are working.