China' economy

  China's economic growth has been increasing over the few years. It has overtaken Japan to be ranked no. 2 in the world in terms of total GDP( Gross Domestic Product).

There are many reasons for this... 

  Firstly , it has a huge population size and hence there will be more manpower which results in more work being done.It has a big land size which allows more space for office buildings, residential and commercial building. Secondly,China is also endowed with natural resources such as coal,natural gas and steel therefore they can cut down on costs from importing these goods from overseas.China's corporate tax rate is relatively low at 25%, and this attracts foreign investors to the country to do business. Lastly, China has joined WTO and this allows them to have access to more international markets for their exports and allow more foreign investors to trade with them .

  Although China's GDP is very high , its GDP per capita is very low, in fact even lower than Singapore's. This means that although China is rich, but the people may not be rich,due to the fact that money has to be distributed to many more people. The income gap widens and unfortunately, the rich gets richer and poor gets poorer. 

    This is a positive sign for Singapore as we are one of the closest trading partners with her. Thus, if China prospers , we would prosper too and vice versa. Some Singaporeans may be even migrate to China to start a new life there .

3⃣China's Economic Growth

During class we learnt about China's economy. China is 2nd in the world in terms of total GDP(Gross Domestic Product), and its economy is increasing rapidly with an average of 10% for the past 3 decades.China's population is about 1.4 billion, thus with China's massive population, there are more people to do cheap labour.
China's land mass is 3854082 square miles, thus building spaces for economic activities to be conducted(factories) will be cheaper than in other countries, enabling mass production of products. 
China's corporate tax rates at 25%, is one of the lowest in the world, resulting in more foreign investors being attracted to do business with China. With its low tax rate, it attracted more and more countries to trade with China at cheaper costs compared to its greatest trading partner, USA, which has a higher tax rate.
 China joined WTO(World Trading Organization) in 2001, which benefitted China as they gained access to more international markets for exports, and enabled more foreign investors to enter China freely for business. These factors helped to slowly increase China's GDP.
Singapore trades with China and other countries, due to the lack of natural resources. However, even though China is ranked higher than Singapore in terms of total GDP,  Singapore is ranked higher than China in terms of GDP per capita, proving that the income inequality gap(rich vs poor- rich get richer, poor get poorer) in Singapore is smaller than in China. This shows that Singapore is more prosperous than China, which could be due to its small land size, as the government can take care of the citizens' needs better. All in all, I think Singapore should maintain good relations with other countries to bring trade into our ports, as it could be helpful in the future.

China's Economy

China's economy is the world's second largest economy by nominal GDP, and the world's largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is the world's fastest growing major economy, with growth rates averaging 10% over the past 30 years. China is a global hub for manufacturing, and is the largest manufacturing economy in the world as well as the largest exporter of goods in the world.China is also the world's fastest growing consumer market and second largest importer of goods.

China is the largest trading nation in the world and plays a vital role in international trade, and has increasingly engaged in trade organizations and treaties in recent years. China became a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)  in 2001. China also has free trade agreements with several nations, including China–Australia Free Trade Agreement, China–South Korea Free Trade Agreement, ASEAN–China Free Trade Area, Switzerland and Pakistan.

I think that the main reason why China is on its road to success is because they were willing to open up their country to international trade. In my opinion, I find that investing in such trade would indeed bring its citizens into prosperity because its goods are being circulated worldwide. Not only that, because many items are produced in China, many countries are willing to export goods from them at a very reasonable price and market it in their own countries.  

The vast majority of China's imports consists of industrial supplies and capital goods, notably machinery and high-technology equipment, the majority of which comes from the developed countries, primarily Japan and the United States. Regionally, almost half of China's imports come from East and Southeast Asia, and about one-fourth of China's exports go to the same destinations. About 80 percent of China's exports consist of manufactured goods, most of which are textiles and electronic equipment, with agricultural products and chemicals constituting the remainder. Out of the five busiest ports in the world, three are in China. 

To me, these statistics just prove how important China has become in the world today. As mentioned, most of China's exports consist of manufactured goods, most of which are textiles and electronic equipment. We get most of our manufactured goods from China through our own local market. Even though we may not be aware of it, most of our household items or even the things we use in our daily lives are exported from China because of their efficiency in mass production and their cheap costs of the exports. Export growth has continued to be a major component supporting China's rapid economic growth. To increase exports, China pursued policies such as fostering the rapid development of foreign-invested factories, which assembled imported components into consumer goods for export and liberalizing trading rights. This further tempts other countries to seal deals with China and engage in business with them. 

International trade makes up a sizeable portion of China's overall economy. Being a Second World country at the time, a meaningful segment of China's trade with the Third World was financed through grants, credits, and other forms of assistance. The principal efforts were made in Asia, especially to Indonesia, Burma, Pakistan, and Ceylon, but large loans were also granted in Africa (Ghana, Algeria, Tanzania) and in the Middle East (Egypt).  On November 1991, China joined the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group, which promotes free trade and cooperation the in economic, trade, investment, and technology spheres. 

Singapore may be one of those countries who export a lot of goods from China. The reason why I believe this is so is because most of the things in my daily life, such as files, pens, electronic gadgets, and household items are made in China. I think without China's international trade, Singapore may not be able to get to where it is now since we are too small to efficiently mass produce and this may lead to a lot of problems, of which include the shortage of food, gadgets, household items, daily necessities, and many other important things in our lives that we simply cannot live without. It is because of China's effective mass production and reasonable prices that lead them to their success, and yet at the same time, managed to guide many other countries, such as Singapore, to  where they are now. This is one of the biggest impacts China has made in the lives of our fellow Singaporeans. 

Economic growth of China and Singapore ---- Aloysius

During this week's CID lesson, we learnt about China's rapid increasing growth of economy. China's economy has been increasing rapidly since the past few years with an average of 10% for the past 3 decades. Well, even though other countries such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan managed to grow rapidly for quite awhile, they were unable to sustain as much as China. There are many reasons how China managed to rapidly increase its economy and I will be typing about 3 reasons.

The first reason is due to China's massive population and its great amount of land. With a massive population, there would be cheap labour as more people are available to do the job. With its great amount of land, it would allow the building of factories at way cheaper cost thus increasing productivity. Hence, allowing China's GDP to gradually increase.

The Second reason is that China has a low tax rate of 25%. With its low tax rate, it allows more and more countries to buy goods from it at cheaper costs compared to the US which has a higher tax rate(33%) thus increasing more goods bought and hence also increasing productivity of goods. Hence causing China's GDP to gradually increase.

Lastly, China's involvement in the World Trading Organisation has allowed it to gain much more reputation as well as increase its revenue as there will be other countries trading with China. Furthermore with China's low tax rate, many other countries would be very interested into trading with China and Hence causing China's GDP to gradually increase.

All in all, I feel that Singapore should aspire to be like China and also maintain good relations with China so as to increase more trade and benefit economically for both parties.

Economic growth of China and Singapore

During today's CID lesson we learnt about China's economy . China is the world's fastest-growing major enconomy , with growth rate averaging 10 % over the past 30 years . It has even overtook Japan and is now in second place in terms of GDP ( Gross Domestic Product ) .

Some of the reasons is probably China's high population and large land area . China's population is currently 1.4 billion , which results in very cheap labour as more people is available to do the jobs . China also have a large land area of 9.6 million , hence builing facteries is not very expensive , enabling mass production of goods without actually using a lot money . These factors encouraged the GDP of China to increase steadily .

China also opened up their country to international trade ， proposed to keep China open to trade with all countries on an equal basis . This opened a new and bigger market to China . Singapore was one of the countries th trades with China because Singapore do no have a lot of natural resources . This will hopefully increase and strengthen Singapore's business trade . 

However , even though Singapore's ranking in terms of GDP is not as good as China , we are doing quite well in terms of income per capita . This means that Singapore is developing itself in a bakanced way with most people being able to follow the steps . I think that being small in land area might be an advantage for Singapore too as it is easier for the government to take care of every resident and provide additional help to the poor .

 If we continue to develope this way , I feel that Singapore will eventually become one of the best countries in term of balanced society .

One Child Policy

At the beginning of 1980s, China decided to restrict its population growth in order to stabilise food and water supplies and improve individual prosperity. In September 1980, an open letter to the country was issued by the Communist party calling for 'one child per couple' rules to keep the population below 1.2 billion at the end of the 20th century. 

Before this CID lesson, I still was not so clear about the 'one child policy', but after the lesson, it actually piqued my interest and I decided to do some research. It was just as our teacher had said, women are indeed regularly inspected to check if they are pregnant, even well into their 40s and 50s. Those who are found in breach can suffer forced abortions and even sterilisations. However, in millions of cases, families have been successful in hiding new children. This can be seen by the statistics from the 1990 census which recorded 23 million births but the 2000 census put the number of ten year olds a 26 million, suggesting at least 3 million babies had escaped thee notice of family planning officials. Simply put, during that time, while the one child policy was definitely effective, there were still people who managed to give birht to more than one child without being arrested. Not only that, those who are caught can also opt to pay a 'social upbringing fee', usually a multiple of the average income in the city where the child is born, designed to cover the cost of education and healthcare. 

I understand that it is not easy for China to make such an important decision but I do not entirely agree that such an action should be taken if they would like to stabilise people's lives as well as improve individual prosperity. Fortunately, China have started to change their mindset and concept and have started loosening the rule of the one child policy. 

It is said that by 2030, a quarter of China's population will be over 60. That is in fact a pretty big portion of the population. If the one child policy continues, there will be a lot of pressure on their children in the future because they have to take care of a lot more people and a lot more effort has to be put in to support the family when compared to having more than one child taking care of the family together. I do think the pressure and stress will eventually lead to the child finding their family a burden, sad to say, and may find it a drag to even continue his life because he will be restricted to doing very little things in his life. He has to dedicate a lot of his time trying to support his family and caring for his family because he is the only child and life may be difficult, especially if most of his family are retired and he is the sole breadwinner. I find that having more than one sibling is definitely a bliss, because then I am not so lonely and I can find company easier. That way, when we grow up, we can each lend a helping hand and support those who need our help together, rather than supporting a whole family by ourselves. The pressure put on us is definitely divided, so that we do not live under all that pressure. I still think it is better to have siblings rather than having to worry about supporting the family financially and emotionally all on my own. Things would definitely be worse if there is a financial crisis and I am the sole breadwinner in the family. 

Reflection on China's one-child policy

  In this week's CID lesson , we learnt about China's one-child policy. It is basically a policy that states that parents can only give birth to one child as there are too many children born in China every year.

  This may be beneficial to the country and parents but not to the children. China may feel that overpopulation may lead to having not enough resources and space .Parents might feel that the one-child policy is better as they do not have to spend so much money in bringing their child up , thus reducing their financial stress . However, the child might think otherwise. In my opinion, its pretty tragic that the child has no siblings , nobody to share their weal and woe and most importantly , nobody around their age who can understand them and confide into. Furthermore, they have a very huge burden; supporting their parents or grandparents when they grow old and cannot work anymore. For example, a boy has two parents and four grandparents. This means that when the boy grows up, he has to support SIX people( lets say all of them all still living)! This is very stressful and tiresome for the boy as their aren't many people to share his burden. This does not include his own family yet.

  However, it is a completely opposite situation here in Singapore. The birth rate
here is very low and the government is encouraging more couples to give birth  to babies. It is actually not suprising that couples do not wish to give birth to babies or some singles may not even wish to get married as the the cost of living in Singapore is very high. Due to Singapore's growing economy , prices of food, transport and even daily necessities increase . Thus , many couples are not willing to spend that time or money in raising their children .As the government has already introduced schemes to encourage couples to have babies like the Baby Bonus scheme,I think the situation has been improving too.

  Thus, we can conclude that a population of a country largely depends on the environment and the living conditions of the country.

Reflection on the one child policy in China

During this week's of CID lesson, we were taught that China has a "One Child Policy". This policy states that only parents could have one child in order to decrease the rapid growing population in China.
I personally feel that if the "One Child Policy" continues, there will be more pressure on the future generations as they will need to support the older generations which will be twice or maybe thrice of their population and thus an even bigger output is needed through the minimum input of workers thus adding on to pressure. Furthermore, by having "One Child Policy" , there will be more jobs but lesser people to work due to the lack of manpower, thus affecting the economy of the country. Besides, by having lesser competition in work or studies, it will cause laziness in work and thus worse work quality due to the lack of stress.

All in all, I firmly believe that we should try to have more offsprings but it is best to control ourselves to prevent over population of our country in order to benefit everyone, socially and economically.