Abstract
Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels write in the Communist Manifesto, “the bourgeoisie, during its rule of scare one hundred years, has created more massive and more colossal productive forces than have all preceding generations together.” Now in a similar tone a scholar claims that “[t]he country has accomplished in three decades what many developing nations have taken half a century or more to achieve.”
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- 1.
Guthrie (2012).
- 2.
According to Angus Maddison’s estimates adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP), China accounted for 26.2% of the global economy in 1 A.D., 22.7% in 1000 A.D., 25% in 1500 A.D., 29.2% in 1600 A.D., 22.3% in 1700 A.D., and in 1820 A.D. reached the highest ever of 32.9%, almost a third of the overall GDP of the world. Even in 1870, a year after the Opium War, China still accounted for 17.2% of the global GDP, for all external exploitations of Western countries and internal convulsions of the Taiping Rebellion. Maddison (2006).
- 3.
World Economic Outlook Database, October 2014.
- 4.
In the late 1970s, Harvard Professor Ezra F. Vogel published a book entitled Japan As No.1: Lessons for America, which turned out to be a bestseller at the time.
- 5.
- 6.
Brooks and Wohlforth (2016).
- 7.
Ministry of Finance: China’s GDP surpassing the United States: a big gap in quality. http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-10/10/c_127079590.htm.
- 8.
National Bureau of Statistics: Disagree with the statement “China surpasses the United States in GDP”, http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2015-01/20/c_1114063170.htm.
- 9.
The author holds that “though PPP calculation is not perfect, it provides a valuable reference in the sense of an estimated order of magnitude.” In the meantime, he points out that China is in need of improving the portion of technology in GDP and the GDP per capita. See Liu (2014).
- 10.
For relevant data and statistical caliber, see http://data.worldbank.org.cn/indicator/TX.VAL.TECH.CD?order=wbapi_data_value_2012+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc.
- 11.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Gompert et al. (2016).
- 15.
Reuters (2016).
- 16.
Subramanian and Kessler (2012).
- 17.
SWIFT: RMB taking place of Euro as the second most commonly used currency in trading and financing. SWIFT RMB Tracker, November, 2013. http://www.swift.com/assets/swift_com/documents/products_services/RMB_tracker_November2013_SC.pdf.
- 18.
Bank of China: BOC CRI Monthly, May 19, 2015. http://www.bankofchina.com/aboutboc/bi1/201505/t20150519_5047034.html.
- 19.
Arunma Oteh, World Bank vice president, says, the Mulan Bond named after the legendary female hero, Mulan, reflects the expectations of the World Bank for the goals of peaceful and sustainable development. See Song, Yikang and Zhou Ailin. 2016. Interview with the vice president of the World Bank: Issuing SDR bonds will continue, G20 should encourage globalization. Yi Cai. September 2, 2016. http://www.yicai.com/news/5084820.html.
- 20.
Zhou, Ailin. 2016. A surprise before G20 summit: the World Bank issues SDR bonds named Mulan. Yi Cai. August 31, 2016. http://www.yicai.com/news/5080127.html.
- 21.
Xi (2016).
- 22.
Xi (2016).
- 23.
Xi (2014).
- 24.
Information Office of the State Council of China (2011).
- 25.
Xi (2014).
- 26.
Shi Ji records that Xiang Yu committed suicide in East City, not by the bank of Wujiang River. Recently some scholars propose that the Wujiang story started to prevail since Jin Renjie’s play Xiao He Chasing after Han Xin under Moonlight in the Mid-Yuan Dynasty. However, it is what people believe that matters. The belief may not correspond to historical facts, but becomes a memory of history, reflecting the cognitive structure based on social contents and psychological development. With the method of “archeology of knowledge”, the memory can be analyzed. See Hu (2004).
- 27.
Rudd (2015).
- 28.
Scobell (2002).
- 29.
Xi (2014).
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Kynge (2007).
- 32.
Subramanian (2011).
- 33.
Jacques (2012).
- 34.
Nolan (2012).
- 35.
Uckert (2012).
- 36.
Stavrianos (2005).
- 37.
Fairbank (1985).
- 38.
The measuring unit yuan here means the then current silver dollar. The same below.
- 39.
Fairbank (1985).
- 40.
Ibid., p. 201.
- 41.
Ibid., p. 209.
- 42.
Ibid., p. 221.
- 43.
Zhang (2003).
- 44.
During years from the 1860s to the 1890s, officials of the central and local governments in the Qing Dynasty worked hard to introduce advanced military equipment, machines and science and technology from the West, hoping to “learn from foreigners so as to ward them off” with the guideline of “treating Chinese values as essence and Western knowledge as tools”. These officials are called “westernizationists”, and the movement they led is called the “Westernization Movement”. The Beiyang Fleet (or the Northern Navy), which was a significant fruit of the movement, was wiped out in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, symbolizing the failure of the movement.
- 45.
Licbcrthal (2010).
- 46.
Information Office of the State Council of China (1991).
- 47.
CPC History Research Center of the CPC Central Committee (2011).
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Zhang, Y., Feng, W. (2019). The China Miracle: Facts and Process. In: Peaceful Development Path in China. China Insights. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1439-1_1
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