- 20 Aug 2015 17:18
#14592612
The government is heavily involved in their economy, corruption and nepotism are rampant. China has laws on the books regarding pollution for example but because their government is so corrupt they ignore the vast majority of the pollution that does happen in that country because companies pay off officials to look the other way.. Only in very recent years after several high profile incidences occurred as the Chinese government given lip service to actually enforcing the laws. Whether they do enforce laws remains to be seen.
As far as comparisons go China has a very large middle class now so comparing China to Taiwan or Singapore is not the same as comparing North Korea and South Korea. The per capita rates are different simply because China still has hundreds of millions of people that need to rise to middle class. That doesn't happen overnight but considering that over 7 million people per month rise to the middle class it is happening very quickly. Taiwan has some of the most effective government services in the world precisely because they moved to privatize much of it to get it out of the hands of the KMT.
One thing that should be noted is that there is no independent judicial system in China. No one can sue a company or even another person that is protected by the Party because the Party runs the judicial system. Thus corporations in collusion with the government can run rampant which is the fear that you seem to have. That is no the case in the US or in the rest of the developed world. You can in fact sue companies for negligence or causing harm. Everyone has heard about the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit years ago. The legal system is far more effective at handling things of this nature. You can google all the pollution that empties into the Gulf. That is all legal and the fisherman cannot sue anyone for damaging their livelihoods. Farmers are essentially a protected class in this country. Imagine if fisherman could sue the farmers for using all those pesticides and herbicides. How quickly would they move to adopt better designed crops that require less chemicals. Imagine if people could sue farmers for growing ethanol corn which is horrible for the environment.
The examples that you give don't really work in your favour on this. As much as China is State capitalist it is not well regulated while countires like Honk Kong and Taiwan are highly regulated countries with norms for working hours, safety standards etc. The only reason companies could do that in China is because of either no oversight or no regulation. Also the example is not fully comparable, your comparing 2 countries with different levels of economical development. Its fair to compare lets say Western Europe and USA. Not South Korea and North Korea.
The government is heavily involved in their economy, corruption and nepotism are rampant. China has laws on the books regarding pollution for example but because their government is so corrupt they ignore the vast majority of the pollution that does happen in that country because companies pay off officials to look the other way.. Only in very recent years after several high profile incidences occurred as the Chinese government given lip service to actually enforcing the laws. Whether they do enforce laws remains to be seen.
As far as comparisons go China has a very large middle class now so comparing China to Taiwan or Singapore is not the same as comparing North Korea and South Korea. The per capita rates are different simply because China still has hundreds of millions of people that need to rise to middle class. That doesn't happen overnight but considering that over 7 million people per month rise to the middle class it is happening very quickly. Taiwan has some of the most effective government services in the world precisely because they moved to privatize much of it to get it out of the hands of the KMT.
One thing that should be noted is that there is no independent judicial system in China. No one can sue a company or even another person that is protected by the Party because the Party runs the judicial system. Thus corporations in collusion with the government can run rampant which is the fear that you seem to have. That is no the case in the US or in the rest of the developed world. You can in fact sue companies for negligence or causing harm. Everyone has heard about the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit years ago. The legal system is far more effective at handling things of this nature. You can google all the pollution that empties into the Gulf. That is all legal and the fisherman cannot sue anyone for damaging their livelihoods. Farmers are essentially a protected class in this country. Imagine if fisherman could sue the farmers for using all those pesticides and herbicides. How quickly would they move to adopt better designed crops that require less chemicals. Imagine if people could sue farmers for growing ethanol corn which is horrible for the environment.