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China Does Capitalism Better Than America

From the Panel

  • For: Orville Schell

  • Capitalism, Chinese Style-Part I and Part II Orville Schell interview, Real News Network, April 7, 2011 & May 14, 2011 Schell discusses American debt and what’s happening inside China in an interview with Real News Network.
  • When a Rising China and a Humbled West Meet, Who Bows Deeper?
    Orville Schell, Atlantic, February 14, 2012 From here on, as China's wealth and power increases, its national challenge will be to start letting itself feel sufficiently reinstated in the congress of great nations that it does not need to wallow in narratives of victimization, or be so militant about grasping symbolic demonstrations of its equality or superiority.
  • How Walmart is Changing China
    Orville Schell, Atlantic, December 2011 The world’s biggest corporation and the world’s most populous nation have launched a bold experiment in consumer behavior and environmental stewardship: to set green standards for 20,000 suppliers making several hundred thousand items sold to billions of shoppers worldwide. Will that effort take hold, or will it unravel in a recriminatory tangle of misguided expectations and broken promises?
  • Orville Schell on China and the U.S.
    Orville Schell, FiveBooks Interviews, Browser, September 9, 2009 The changing relationship between China and America will be one of the defining foreign policy issues of our times. To understand its dynamic, says the sinologist, we must take account of China's lingering sense of victimhood.
  • The China Investment Challenge
    Orville Schell, Project Syndicate August 23, 2010 The bitter new reality is that the US and “old Europe” have recently edged closer to becoming “developing countries.” If the Obama administration and EU officials cannot figure out the proper mix between economic engagement and protecting national security, investment capital from China will go elsewhere.
  • China's Hidden Democratic Legacy
    Orville Schell, Foreign Affairs, September 9, 2009 China is finding it ever more difficult to straddle the divide between its anachronistic political system and its booming market economy. A reconsideration of the country's political future must come soon. Fortunately, China can find guidance in its own history: a previous generation of reformers who sought to balance the imperatives of modernity with the best aspects of Chinese tradition.

  • For: Peter Schiff

  • Excuse Me, But Your Democracy Is Ruining My Capitalism
    Katy Waldman interviews Peter Schiff, Slate, March 9, 2012 Why Euro Pacific Capital CEO Peter Schiff will argue that China does economic policy better than the U.S. at the Slate/Intelligence Squared live debate on March 13.
  • How Should the U.S. Address its Chinese Trade Imbalance?
    Peter Schiff, et al., Council on Foreign Relations, March 9, 2011 Schiff discusses the U.S.-China trade imbalance at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting, a part of the McKinsey Executive Roundtable Series in International Economics.
  • Video: China More Capitalist than America
    Peter Schiff on CNN Schiff on how China is more free market and a better place to start a business than America.
  • China’s Inflation Problem Looms Large
    Peter Schiff, Euro Pacific Capital Inc., January 19, 2011 The global economy has become so unbalanced that even government ministers who would normally have trouble explaining supply or demand clearly recognize that something has to give. To a very large extent the distortions are caused by China’s long-standing policy of pegging its currency, the yuan, to the U.S. dollar.
  • The Peter Schiff Show Posts on China from Peter Schiff’s radio program website.

  • Against: Ian Bremmer

  • Full Speed Ahead, Without a Steering Wheel
    Katy Waldman interviews Ian Bremmer, Slate, March 6, 2012
  • State Capitalism
    Ian Bremmer and Aldo Musacchio, Economist Debates, January 24, 2012 Bremmer and Musacchio debate, “This house believes that state capitalism is a viable alternative to liberal capitalism,” for the Economist.
  • The Secret to China's Boom: State Capitalism
    Ian Bremmer, Reuters, November 4, 2012 A new study prepared for the U.S. government says it’s not capitalism that’s powering China, but state capitalism — China’s massive, centrally directed industrial policy, where the government positions huge amounts of capital and labor in economic sectors it intends to nurture.
  • Whose Economy Has It Worst?
    Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini, Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2011 With Europe, China and the U.S. in crisis, the real question is which of them will stumble first.
  • Searching the World for Good Governance
    Ian Bremmer, New York Times, November 27, 2011 America has the worst system of governance on Earth — except for all the others.
  • China's Bumpy Road Ahead
    Ian Bremmer, Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2011 Unrest, inflation and an aging populace stand in the way of the Middle Kingdom's touted domination.
  • A G-Zero World
    Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011 We are now living in a G-Zero world, one in which no single country or bloc of countries has the political and economic leverage -- or the will -- to drive a truly international agenda.
  • China vs. America: Fight of the Century
    Ian Bremmer, Prospect, March 22, 2010 The world's two great powers are growing dangerously hostile to one another. Could this be worse than the cold war?
  • State Capitalism Comes of Age
    Ian Bremmer, Foreign Affairs, May/June 2009 Across the world the free market is being overtaken by state capitalism, a system in which the state is the leading economic actor.

  • Against: Minxin Pei

  • A Pox on Both Your Houses
    Katy Walman interviews Minxin Pei, Slate March 7, 2012
  • Nixon Then, China Now
    Minxin Pei, Project Syndicate, February 13, 2012 China’s long march toward global integration remains unfinished.
  • The Diplomat
    Swimming Naked in China, China's Achilles' Heel, Occupy Beijing, and China's Not a Super Power
  • Why Beijing Votes with Moscow
    Minxin Pei, New York Times, February 7, 2012 Ever since the Arab Spring brought down long-ruling dictatorships in the Middle East, the party’s propaganda machine has spared no effort in portraying the events in the region in the most negative light. The overthrow of the Assad regime, especially should it happen as a result of Security Council action, would inspire the pro-democracy opposition — in Beijing and in Moscow.
  • Five Myths About China’s Power
    Minxin Pei, Washington Post, January 26, 2012 To understand China’s new role on the world stage, it helps to rethink several misconceptions that dominate Western thinking.
  • Video: Is Authoritarianism Compatible with Continued Economic Development?
    Minxin Pei, World Affairs Council, May/June 2009 Pei’s speech for the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth.
  • Great Party, but Where’s the Communism?
    Minxin Pei, New York Times, June 30, 2011 China’s economic revolution is unleashing powerful social forces that will make maintaining a one-party state more tenuous.
  • Think Again: Asia’s Rise
    Minxin Pei, Foreign Policy, July/August 2009 Don't believe the hype about the decline of America and the dawn of a new Asian age. It will be many decades before China, India, and the rest of the region take over the world, if they ever do. 

Articles For & Against

Related Articles

  • China's Economy

  • New Push for Reform in China
    Bob Davis, Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2012 An exclusive preview of an economic report on China, prepared by the World Bank and government insiders considered to have the ear of the nation's leaders, offers a surprising prescription: China could face an economic crisis unless it implements deep reforms, including scaling back its vast state-owned enterprises and making them operate more like commercial firms.
  • IMF Warns China’s Banks
    Gordon G. Chang, Forbes, November 20, 2011 In its first-ever assessment of China’s banks, the International Monetary Fund declared its financial system “robust overall,” though “the system could be severely impacted if several major shocks materialized concurrently”—specifically, exposure to credit, property, and currency risks.
  • Can Asia Save the Sinking World Economy
    Choong Yong Ahn, GlobalAsia, December 2011 While Asia’s leading economies have been largely immune from the current European economic crisis, the long-term prospects are perilous unless the region uses its strength to assist the global economy. Greater Asian economic integration can stimulate regional demand, boost growth and create more export opportunities for the US and Europe.

  • Chinese Communist Party

  • 5 Myths About the Chinese Communist Party
    Richard McGregor, Foreign Policy January/February 2011 Market-Leninism lives.
  • The Battle for China’s Top Nine Leadership Posts
    Cheng Li, Washington Quarterly Winter 2012 China is set to undergo a major turnover in leadership at the 18th National Congress of the CCP in the fall of 2012. The composition of the new Politburo Standing Committee—especially the generational attributes and individual idiosyncratic characteristics, group dynamics, and the factional balance of power on the committee—will have profound implications for China’s economic priorities, social stability, political trajectory, and foreign relations.
  • China’s Communist Party at 90
    David Shambaugh, New York Times June 30, 2011 Nationwide ceremonies and a deluge of media coverage have been mobilized by China’s ruling Communist Party to mark its 90th anniversary today. But all the hoopla cannot conceal the party’s insecure state.

  • Confrontation/Misperceptions

  • The Future of U.S.-Chinese Relations
    Henry A. Kissinger, Foreign Affairs March/April 2012 Significant groups in both China and the U.S. claim that a contest for supremacy is inevitable and perhaps already underway. They are wrong.
  • The China Bluff
    Chas Freeman, National Interest February 23, 2012 China has risen from poverty, impotence and isolation to retake its premodern place atop the world economic order. Both the strategic circumstances of our times and the more limited resources available to us demand serious reformulation of current policies.
  • The Rise of an Economic Superpower: What Does China Want?
    Peter Ford, Christian Science Monitor November 5, 2011 China's economic rise and its newly amplified voice on the international stage unnerve people and governments across the globe, despite Beijing's best efforts to assuage their fears.
  • China in the Driver’s Seat
    Robert Dreyfuss, Nation September 2, 2010 Few would argue that the rise of China has world-altering significance. But across the American left there are sharp, sometimes acrimonious differences about what constitutes appropriate and principled responses to China's emergence as a great power, and whether the country's ascendance is promising or ominous.
  • The Path of China’s Peaceful Development: What It Is About
    White Paper of the Chinese Government September 6, 2011 China has declared to the rest of the world on many occasions that it takes a path of peaceful development and is committed to upholding world peace and promoting common development and prosperity for all countries. At the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), China declared solemnly again to the world that peaceful development is a strategic choice made by China to realize modernization, make itself strong and prosperous, and make more contribution to the progress of human civilization.

  • Apple

  • Apple Defends “iPad” Name in Chinese Court
    Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press February 22, 2012 Apple defended its right to use the iPad trademark in China in a heated court hearing Wednesday that pitted the electronics giant against a struggling Chinese electronics company that denies having sold the mainland China rights to the popular tablet computer's name.
  • In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad
    Charles Duhigg and David Barboza, New York Times January 25, 2012 Harsh labor conditions in Chinese factories and the pressure on tech companies, like Apple, to improve them.
  • What Cameras Inside Foxconn Found
    David Pogue, Pogue’s Posts, New York Times February 23, 2012 Developments, progress and some new revelations in the Foxconn story.

  • U.S.-China Economic and Security Review

  • 2011 Annual Report to Congress
    U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission November 16, 2011 The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission was created by the United States Congress in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor, investigate, and submit to Congress an annual report on the national security implications of the bilateral trade and economic relationship between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, and to provide recommendations, where appropriate, to Congress for legislative and administrative action.
  • An Analysis of State-Owned Enterprises and State Capitalism in China
    Andrew Szamosszegi and Cole Kyle, U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission October 26, 2011 If anything, China is doubling down and giving state-owned enterprises (SOEs) a more prominent role in achieving the state’s most important economic goals.

  • Solar

  • Chinese Firms Selling Solar Panels for Less than Cost
    Christopher Mims, Grist January 24, 2012 A forthcoming study by the federal government reveals that Chinese solar panel makers are selling their wares at a loss, either because they have the cash reserves to take the hit or because their government is propping them up.
  • Cheap Chinese Panels Spark Solar Power Trade War
    Christopher Joyce, Morning Edition, NPR January 19, 2012 There's a solar trade war going on inside the U.S., sparked by an invasion of inexpensive imports from China.

  • Pollution

  • Measuring China’s Pollution from Space
    Angel Hsu, Guardian UK February 20, 2012 U.S. scientists have used satellite data to create the first estimates of ground-level particulate pollution in China.

  • Polls

  • Americans Still View China as World’s Leading Economic Power
    Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup February 10, 2012 This is the second consecutive year the majority of Americans have viewed China as economically dominant. By contrast, in 2000, Americans overwhelmingly believed the U.S. was the leading economic power.

  • Related News & Links

  • China’s Xi Jinping, Obama Exchange Polite Warnings
    Aamer Madhani, USA Today February 16, 2012 President Obama took direct aim at China's trade policies as Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping warned U.S. business leaders Wednesday that the U.S. needs to respect Beijing's core interests and concerns.
  • Vice President Xi Jinping’s Written Interview with the Washington Post
    Washington Post February 12, 2012 Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping of Chinawas sent interview questions by the Washington Post before his February 2012 visit to the United States. The answers to those questions were sent by the Chinese government and published by the Washington Post on February 12, 2012.
  • How I’ll Respond to China’s Rising Power
    Mitt Romney, Wall Street Journal February 16, 2012 The dawn of a Chinese century—and the end of an American one—is not inevitable. This means shoring up our fiscal and economic standing, rebuilding our military, and renewing faith in our values.
  • China's Rich Consider Leaving Growing Nation
    Frank Langfitt, Morning Edition, NPR December 1, 2011 Many wealthy Chinese are anxious because, despite China's tremendous progress, the country still faces a lot of challenges. Income inequality is staggering, corruption systemic and public protests a daily occurrence.
  • Back from China?
    Harold Meyerson, American Prospect November 29, 2011 Manufacturing once gave the U.S. its middle-class majority. Can it do it again?