Abstract
A huge population does not represent an advantage in human resources for economic development. This is particularly true for China, which is being transformed from an agricultural society that has used mainly traditional methods of production to an industrial society that requires not only advanced sciences and technologies but also qualified workers. A well-educated and law-abiding population that possesses a strong work ethic is the sine qua non of China’s economic growth. In addition, Chinese culture, which aims to achieve a harmonious balance between Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, worked particularly well over a very long period of time. However, early cultural achievements can sometimes hinder technological innovation…
Mount Tai did not refuse every block of soil, so it has become a great mountain, the Yellow River and the East Sea did not refuse small streams, so they achieve their depth and the Kings did not refuse a large number of people, so they enjoyed respect of merit. Therefore, land should not be divided into the East and the West and no people should be treated as foreigners… Now Your Majesty intends to abandon the people to subsidize the enemy and expel the guest scholars who might contribute to the other states’ achievements. Consequently, the Magi around the world would stop their footsteps at the entrance into the state of Qin. Ah! This is what people said, “lending weapons to enemies, and giving dry rations to thieves”
—Li Si (c.280–208 BC)
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Notes
- 1.
An estimated 36 million Chinese men, women, and children starved to death during China’s Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and early 1960s (Yang 2005).
- 2.
- 3.
Cited from Mao (1949, pp. 453–4).
- 4.
In 1953, the ratio of the population aged 65 or over was only 4.4 percent. This ratio was further reduced to 3.6 percent in 1964, but rose again to 4.9 percent in 1982, 5.6 percent in 1990 and 7.0 percent in 2000 (NBS various years). According to Du (1994, p. 88), the proportion of the aged population in China will increase steadily to 8.1 percent in 2010, 10.9 percent in 2020, 14.7 percent in 2030, 19.8 percent in 2040, and 20.9 percent in 2050.
- 5.
The definition of ‘unemployment’ differs from country to country, so it is difficult to conduct meaningful international comparisons.
- 6.
There has been a saying that without rural workers Beijing would stop running.
- 7.
According to Chenery and Syrquin (1975, p. 20), when the per capita GNP grows from US$100 to US$400 in developing countries, the ratio of educational expenditure to GNP increases from 3.3 percent to 3.5 percent accordingly.
- 8.
During the past decade, an increasing number of key Chinese officials—at central, ministerial and provincial levels—have been awarded with PhD degrees, regardless of whether or not they had academic qualifications.
- 9.
It is estimated that the total number of Chinese graduates now living in the USA may be in the range of 200,000–300,000. Of these, around 10,000–15,000 are world-class scientists and engineers (Sigurdson et al. 2005, p. 65).
- 10.
They are, for example, the Huns (Xiongnu) and Xianbei between the third and fifth century AD, the Eastern Hu and the Jurchens (ancestors of the Manchus) from the tenth through the early thirteenth century, and the Manchus through their conquest of China in the seventeenth century.
- 11.
For example, the Chinese character for the tree that produces tung oil is composed of an ideogram on the left representing a tree, and a phonogram on the right indicating that the word should be pronounced tong (as would this phonetic element if it were an independent character).
- 12.
- 13.
A full version of this research can be found in the companion site (http://www.elsevierdirect.com/companions/9780123978264).
- 14.
I conducted two surveys on these two firms in January 2001. Mr Chen Tianchi and Mr Tian Guogang (Director and Deputy Director of the General Managers’ Office of Kailuan Group, respectively) accompanied me during my field work. As requested, the two firms are named only as two abbreviated letters, J and L, respectively. Research assistance by Zhao Gongzheng and Guo Liqing are acknowledged.
- 15.
Females are not allowed to work as underground miners in China.
- 16.
It should be noted that this does not mean that wages decrease with the increase of educational levels. As a matter of fact, the staff in each educational group are also characterized by other variables such as age, gender and occupation, each of the latter also decides the level of wages. We will discuss this issue in more detail later on.
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Guo, R. (2017). Human and Cultural Contexts. In: How the Chinese Economy Works. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32306-0_3
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