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http://www.forbes.com/2011/01/24/barack-obama-china-hu-jintao-p
What Obama And America Should Learn From China
Shaun Rein, 01.24.11, 12:15 PM EST
There are ways in which Hu Jintao is being wiser than us.
More from Shaun Rein
There has been much discussion lately of how China survived the financial
crisis much more robustly than the United States. Many credit Beijing's
centralized power structure, which Sen. Harry Reid mistakenly (and foolishly
) calls a dictatorship under President Hu Jintao. Political scientist
Francis Fukuyama recently wrote that China's command system allows for a
fast response to problems while America gets bogged down in partisan turf
wars. In a shocking turnaround, Fukuyama even now argues that he was wrong
to say democracy is the only path forward. You know Americans are
questioning their core values when Fukuyama says that.
It is true that China's system can quickly push through changes like health
care reforms while America's remains in gridlock. However, America should
absolutely not move toward any kind of command structure for short-term gain
. In the longterm, the checks and balances of a democracy are needed to
prevent tyrants from rising and to ensure creative thought. Yes, President
Hu is focused on improving human rights and has the support of the Chinese
people, but who is to say that will remain the case in five decades under
other leaders?
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Yahoo! BuzzNo, the American way is not in definite decline, nor should China
's rise be seen as a threat to our core values. Any political system must be
viewed in the context of decades, not mere months. However, there are
definite lessons in governance that President Obama and the U.S. can learn
from President Hu and China to help get America's mojo back.
First, although China's leaders are not elected democratically, they are (
contrary to what many Americans believe) very attuned to public opinion.
When trouble brews, they issue statements and new laws quickly. Skeptics say
they do this because they fear being overthrown and executed, like former
Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, rather than from true humanitarianism.
Whatever their motivations, China's leaders do in fact for the most part
listen to the will of the people. Of course, they can't always fix problems
immediately, but they do show that they care about the wants of ordinary
folks.
For example, our research suggests that two of the greatest concerns of
ordinary Chinese are rising real estate prices and food costs. Leaders show
they are addressing these worries by regularly announcing how much square
footage of new low-income housing is about to come onto the market or is
under construction, and they use taxation to force real estate developers
through to product affordable units. Likewise they put price controls on
food for low income families, or exempt farmers from road tolls.
America's political system, on the other hand, is increasingly beholden not
to the wants of the majority but to minority special interest groups that
hijack the national discourse. Take for instance our absurd gun laws. Our
elected officials are so scared about the power of the National Rifle
Association that no one is willing to take it on and do what most Americans
want--limit the proliferation of weapons like the one Jared Loughner used in
Tuscon. Somehow we can regulate how high shrubs should be or how often
someone needs to shovel snow in front of a building, but not how safe our
streets should be, because of the outsized power of a minority.
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Your Rating Overall Rating Reader Comments
Whether it is dictatorship or democracy, the key for success is leadership
quality. Democracy just make the citizens feel better but it has little to
do with success.
Read All Comments (3)Post a CommentSimilarly, Wall Street needs a major
overhaul along the lines of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932 to avoid excess
risk and leverage in the system. Most Americans know that the problems we
face started with behavior on Wall Street, yet our officials are unwilling
to go against the deep pockets of executives from Goldman Sachs ( GS - news
- people ) and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM - news - people ) to make the changes
that are needed. They want election dollars, and they don't want to risk
losing out on a lucrative post-government career, like former Obama advisor
Peter Orszag's with Citigroup ( C - news - people ) or Dick Cheney's with
Halliburton ( HAL - news - people ).
Obama and our political elite need to learn from China to start representing
the needs of the majority, not of the shrillest commentators on Fox News or
the deep pocketed few. Until then we will have not a true democracy, but a
system that is stacked against the majority.
Finally, President Hu has repeatedly said that no country should be worried
about China's rising power, despite its increased investment in its military
. He has focused on creating goodwill with soft power while investing in the
military to create economic growth and jobs. He came to the U.S. and signed
$45 billion worth of contracts with companies like Boeing ( BA - news -
people ), and he visited Chicago because of its public school program to
teach thousands of students Mandarin Chinese. China is giving the children
of African leaders scholarships to study in China, much as the British co-
opted local elite in the colonial period by getting their kids to study at
Eton and Oxford.
What Obama And America Should Learn From China
Shaun Rein, 01.24.11, 12:15 PM EST
Page 2 of 2
More from Shaun Rein
In contrast, America's rhetoric concerning the Korean peninsula and South
China Sea is getting more heated, and its military spending is going up
rather than down, despite its limited economic benefit for the country.
China's military spending goes right back into the economy, while ours goes
largely to corrupt officials in Pakistan, Afghanistan and other dubious
regimes. America is spending 10 times more than China on its military, and
that doesn't even include the costs of running our ongoing wars in different
countries.
Aware of how America is willing to use military power in Afghanistan or Iraq
, other nations bend to its will not because they are aligned ideologically
but because they fear being attacked. That is no way to create long-term
allies. Soft power backed by strong military capability, as the Chinese are
pursuing, is the better approach, both economically and humanistically.
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Yahoo! BuzzIn today's difficult economic situation, we are right to question
our core values. However, reports of America's inevitable decline greatly
exaggerate the problems we face. By its nature the American system will run
into bumps, and sometimes serious ones. Yet if the U.S. continues to evolve
and can learn from some of the successes and failures of China's growth, the
nation will be sure to increase its strength and continue to be a beacon
for oppressed peoples.
Shaun Rein is the founder and managing director of the China Market Research
Group, a strategic market intelligence firm. He writes for Forbes on
leadership, marketing and China. Follow him on Twitter at @shaunrein. |
