Debating China's Economic Growth: A Western Perspective

An interesting debate has been going on in the West since the Great Recession which embroiled the Western economies but which had a marginal effect on the Chinese economy. This starkly different effect of the Recession on the West and on China has drawn attention to the strength and resilience of the Chinese economy and spawned this debate. Two ideas on China can no longer be denied attention. Firstly, that despite the stated ideology, the capitalistic nature of the Chinese economy can no longer be denied. Secondly, the astonishing Chinese growth of last 3 decades is not merely an objective fact, but when examined in comparative terms it has hugely important strategic dimensions. Chinese economic power has quickly changed global power equations and the West cant believe that it has to grapple with a China which threatens to outstrip Western power levels. Many in the West still do not realize that things could be going out of hand.

The main issue  which has sparked debates and discussions on this topic were:

China Does Capitalism Better Than America   (video & transcripts)
For the motion:  Orville Schell - Prof, UC, Berkley and Peter Schiff  - CEO & chief global strategist of Euro Pacific Capital and TV contributor. Peter Schiff is a legend. He predicted-dissected the American mortgage bubble with superb clarity long before it became a global crisis.
Against the motion:  Ian Bremmer - founder and president of Eurasia Group, Teaching at Columbia University; Minxin Pei - Prof., Claremont Mckenna College

The Outcome - At the beginning of the night, 17 percent of the crowd at NYU’s Skirball Center voted for China’s state-based capitalism, 50 percent backed America’s market-based capitalism, and 33 percent were undecided. Two hours later, the pro-China ranks had dwindled to 9 percent, 85 percent favored the United States, and 6 percent were undecided.

Debater Orville Schell's articles/interviews on the issue

• When a Rising China and a Humbled West Meet, Who Bows Deeper?
  The Atlantic, February 14, 2012
• How Walmart is Changing China
  The Atlantic, December 2011
• Orville Schell on China and the U.S.
  FiveBooks Interviews, Browser, September 9, 2009
• The China Investment Challenge
  Project Syndicate article, August 23, 2010
• China's Hidden Democratic Legacy
  Foreign Affairs, September 9, 2009
• Capitalism, Chinese Style-Part I and Part II - Two interviews of Orville Schell, April 7, 2011 & May 14, 2011

Debater Peter Schiff's articles/interviews on the issue

• Excuse Me, But Your Democracy Is Ruining My Capitalism
  Katy Waldman interviews Peter Schiff, Slate, March 9, 2012
• How Should the U.S. Address its Chinese Trade Imbalance?
  Council on Foreign Relations, March 9, 2011 (a part of Mckinsey Roundtable on International Economics)
• Video: China More Capitalist than America
  Peter Schiff on CNN
• China’s Inflation Problem Looms Large
  Euro Pacific Capital Inc., January 19, 2011

Debater Ian Bremmer's, articles/interviews on the issue

• Full Speed Ahead, Without a Steering Wheel
  Katy Waldman interviews Ian Bremmer, Slate, March 6, 2012
• State Capitalism
  Ian Bremmer and Aldo Musacchio, 'The Economist' Debates, January 24, 2012. Debate - This house believes that state capitalism is a viable alternative to liberal capitalism.

• The Secret to China's Boom: State Capitalism
• Reuters, November 4, 2012
• Whose Economy Has It Worst?
  Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini, Wall Street Journal, November 12, 2011
• Searching the World for Good Governance
  New York Times, November 27, 2011
• China's Bumpy Road Ahead
  Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2011
• A G-Zero World
  Ian Bremmer and Nouriel Roubini, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011
• China vs. America: Fight of the Century
  Prospect, March 22, 2010
• State Capitalism Comes of Age
  Foreign Affairs, May/June 2009

Debater Minxin Pei's, articles/interviews on the issue

• A Pox on Both Your Houses
  Katy Walman interviews Minxin Pei, Slate March 7, 2012
• Nixon Then, China Now
  Project Syndicate, February 13, 2012
• The Diplomat: Swimming Naked in China, China's Achilles' Heel, Occupy Beijing, and China's Not a Super Power
• Why Beijing Votes with Moscow
  New York Times, February 7, 2012
• Five Myths About China’s Power
  Washington Post, January 26, 2012
• Video: Is Authoritarianism Compatible with Continued Economic Development?
  World Affairs Council, May/June 2009
• Great Party, but Where’s the Communism?
  New York Times, June 30, 2011
• Think Again: Asia’s Rise
  Foreign Policy, July/August 2009

Does China do capitalism better than America? by Tim Swanson

This is a review by a Libertarian on the I2 debate mentioned above.

Other articles related  to this topic are:

Why China Does Capitalism Better than the U.S. by Tony Karon in TIME

The U.S. Must Learn From China's State Capitalism to Beat It 
Richard A. D'Aveni, Prof., of Strategy at  Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College in The Atlantic.

Can Asian-Style Capitalism Save the West? by Michael Schuman in TIME

State capitalism vs the free market: Which performs better? by Michael Schuman in TIME

How America Can Beat China's State Capitalism by Richard A. D'Aveni, Prof., of Strategy at  Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College in The Businessweek.

A Dying Model: Chinese Capitalism By Dr. Minqi Li , Prof, Economics at the University of Utah

Prof. Li has a Leftist orientation.

China’s neo-capitalism beating U.S. free markets by Paul B. Farrell

The China paradox: communist capitalism?

Book Reviews of Books on related topic

1. How China Became Capitalist by Economics Nobel Laureate Ronald Coase and Professor Ning Wang. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.
i) http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/how-china-became-capitalist
ii) http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0305741012000938 Review by Yongshun Cai in The China Quarterly 2012

iii) http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2012/12/13/book-review-how-china-became-capitalist-ronald-coase-ning-wang/

Luke McDonagh, Fellow LSE.

iv) http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/book-review-how-china-became-capitalist

By Alberto Mingardi, CATO Institute (Liberal think tank)