Week 6: China and the WTO

An underlying thread running in this week's topic was the difference between academic theory, bureaucratic policy and the reality. One of the questions we discussed in our tutorial on Thursday was whether China's entry into the WTO has been of benefit to everyday citizens, and one aspect we looked at was that while there is no doubt that China's entry into the WTO has changed decision-making in China (Guo, 2008, p. 343), are the general public aware of this? How many of them are aware that there is more openness, and if they are aware, are there actually any actions stemming from it?

Another thing is the difference between what democracy advocates were hoping for, and what has actually happened in China.

"Moreover, the openness resulting from the reforms is predominantly economic openness, which has not posed a serious threat to the dominance of the CCP or translated into a demand for political liberalization and democracy. These findings cast doubt on the common assumption that external openness somehow leads to internal openness or that political openness inevitably ensues from economic openness." (Guo, 2008, p. 341)

Again, what sounds good in theory doesn't necessarily translate to real life. For many Western people, democracy and freedom of speech etc. are not just a way of life, they are life. However, the Communist party has spent several decades indoctrinating a mindset and cultivating a lifestyle for the Chinese people, so that such freedoms are not expected. While economic openness and reforms are one step towards democracy, they will not change the mindset of a people. What's more, is forced democracy truly democracy? Perhaps what the think tanks of the 21st century need is to recognise that both social paradigms and political paradigms play a part in changing and shaping a country, and that a balance between the two is needed if any "progress" is to be made towards democracy in a country, not just China.


Image: JingWei/ImagineChina