Question

China is now the second largest economy in the world, and most of the growth has occurred in the last 30 years or so. Some would argue that socialism with Chinese’s characteristics is working and others should follow. What do you think about China’s economic strategies, and what should the U.S. do to keep the U.S. leadership in place.

Answer 1

Today it is the world’s second-largest economy. Hundreds of millions of its people have been lifted out of poverty. It is home to the world’s biggest auto industry, the second-most billionaires and the largest single group of internet users. It has some of the richest and most powerful technology companies on the planet.

China succeeded by creating its own model. It borrowed some Western ideas while rejecting others. It opened itself to the world when necessary, and put on the brakes when it chose to. It set goalsand backed them with government money. It freed its people to make and spend money, but it forbade them to ask for a better deal. Entrepreneurs built modern China, and the Communist Party kept them in line.

Other potential success stories in Asia and Latin America stuck to the economic script and stumbled. They slashed budgets when international experts told them to, hurting growth. They opened up to the world before they were fully ready to compete — and were tripped up by global turbulence. China’s government, by contrast, reformed slowly and sometimes reluctantly, stepping in when external or internal forces threatened its rule. During financial crises that struck Asia in 1997 and then the world in 2008, China gained strength as other nations faltered.

China’s economy now stands as an alternate narrative to Western ideals. And yet the decisions the Communist Party made to secure its economic future have led Beijing to its biggest test since Tiananmen Square.

Its goals — a complicated mix of juicing the economy, cleaning up the country’s air and water and meeting its people’s rising expectations — have become harder to reach. Its efforts to spur growth have left the country staggering under trillions of dollars in debt, while the world is taking aim at China’s industrial ambitions.

And after three decades of balancing freedom and authoritarianism, China may be leaning too far toward state control under Xi Jinping, the country’s top leader. The Communist Party may be putting too much stock in its own abilities at the expense of the entrepreneurs who drove China’s success.

The economic, political and security strategy that the United States has pursued for more than seven decades, under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, is today widely questioned by large segments of the American public and is under attack by leading political candidates in both parties. Many Americans no longer seem to value the liberal international order that the United States created after World War II and sustained throughout the Cold War and beyond. Or perhaps they take it for granted and have lost sight of the essential role the United States plays in supporting the international environment from which they benefit greatly. The unprecedented prosperity made possible by free and open markets and thriving international trade; the spread of democracy; and the avoidance of major conflict among great powers: All these remarkable accomplishments have depended on sustained U.S. engagement around the world. Yet politicians in both parties dangle before the public the vision of an America freed from the burdens of leadership.

The economic, political and security strategy that the United States has pursued for more than seven decades, under Democratic and Republican administrations alike, is today widely questioned by large segments of the American public and is under attack by leading political candidates in both parties. Many Americans no longer seem to value the liberal international order that the United States created after World War II and sustained throughout the Cold War and beyond. Or perhaps they take it for granted and have lost sight of the essential role the United States plays in supporting the international environment from which they benefit greatly. The unprecedented prosperity made possible by free and open markets and thriving international trade; the spread of democracy; and the avoidance of major conflict among great powers: All these remarkable accomplishments have depended on sustained U.S. engagement around the world. Yet politicians in both parties dangle before the public the vision of an America freed from the burdens of leadership.