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It is clear that consumer's confidence is a key to market stabilities.
The confidence itself is a fragile substance that is extremely
susceptible of the future perspectives in the society. When government releases
a set of dismal economic data, arbitrary analyses and debates in the
media may greatly exaggerate seriousness of the situation and negatively
impact consumer's sentiment. Any decline in consumer's confidence in a
economic down turn inevitably will cascade the recession and
consequently, a terrible domino effect will occur.
This type of negative media effects can not happen in China. In
contrary, the Chinese government has fully utilized its propaganda power
to stabilize and even lift consumer's sentiment since the global
recession was declared. They have repeatedly emphasized, "we are
confident our economy will maintain its sustained growth although we are
facing some challenges from the global economic crisis". As long as
the consumers keep spending, broad aspects of the economy are at lease
manageable.
Therefore, the unique social structure makes China more resistant to the
global recession than any western nations.
In a separate note, many may argue, democracy
and freedom have their supremacy in a democratic society and must be
upheld. Yes, I agree. But I can also give you logical reasons why the government
in a critical time could and should hide certain economic information from the
general public without compromising the fundamental democratic spirit. Let me use a
frequent saying by President Bush, "we are fighting two wars, one is
against terrorists, the other is against economic crisis."
Indeed, it is a tough war to fight against any economic crisis. It is
much
tougher to fight against the global recession of such a magnitude that
could slip easily into a depression.
Crisis, recession and depression are all our enemies. When we are are
fighting a war, the government has all the reasons to keep certain
information pertaining to war field top secretes, while the war
field we are in today is economy.
Political System
China has been under one party ruling since 1949. Politicians from the
capitalist world
have condemned its dictatorship for decades. As a long
term ideological republican, I can neither afford to fully endorse such a
controversial political system. However, from a philosophical point of
view, I, so do all of us, must concede this system has indeed made a
significant contribution to China's strong resistance to the current
global recession.
Unlike taking politicians in the US several weeks to hand down the
heavily compromised seven hundred billion financial bailout legislation,
It took Chinese administration virtually overnight to unveil a four
trillion yuan economic stimulus package when the global recession was
determined. This massive plan has been viewed even by many western
economists as a great shot that immunized China from infecting fatal recession
disease.
The plan, containing no ideological elements, collectively adopted the
wisdoms of the most prominent economists in China. The plan precisely
aimed at stimulating domestic demands through massive government
investments in industrial restructuring, technological innovation,
social security, education and infrastructural developments. As I
discussed in article "Real Causes For US Financial Meltdown and Global Recession",
proper and direct government investing is the most effective approach to
rescue an ailing economy. A series of recent reports indicate China's
four trillion yuan stimulus package is now taking effect. According to the median
projection of fourteen economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, China's
economy will expand 6.6 percent in the second quarter, 2009.
China's interim achievement in crisis management in such a short period
of
time is almost beyond imagination in the western world. Habitual
ideological fighting in the political arena often prevents government
from taking any swift actions. Compromising between different ideologies
tends to compromise effectiveness of the actions in the end. This might
not be a negative point in the prosperous era, but during any crisis it
does put a heavy brake on the recovery that could be rather fast otherwise.
Crisis is a fire. If not being contained immediately, a fire can be
catastrophic. We should have learnt the same lesson more than once in
the history. Perhaps, we will have to learn the same lesson again and
again in the years to come. Let's pray for permanent disappearance of
crisis. Let's call for all politicians to abandon their ideological
beliefs and do what is best for the society when the country is in
crisis.
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