Dan Steinbock — Guangdong: The Epicenter of China’s Rebalancing

China’s southern province, Guangdong, is emerging as a globally important innovation zone and consumer market. It moves into the future as it builds a post-industrial society.

The forces that once boosted Guangdong’s dramatic economic boom – industrialization, booming world trade, cheap labor and low-cost manufacturing – are fading. With the slowest growth pace in 25 years, economic anxiety is said to be spreading. That standard narrative is part of the story, but not the full story.

Today, Guangdong’s economy is a dual story about the demise of industrialization and the rise of the post-industrial society. If the focus is on the former, the story is about decline. If it’s on the latter, the story is about rejuvenation. The real narrative has two sides.…

Good article. It seems to me that Western analysis of China makes two egregious mistakes. The first is judging non-Western countries to conform to Western ideology. Secondly, they also fail to take into account that China is consciously and intentionally going through a social, political and economic transition as China approaches "the Lewis turning point." This is a crucial phase in development and China no doubt has a plan to address it — a plan with "Chinese characteristics."

Moreover, owing to the size of its population, China plays a unique role on the global stage along with India, the only other country of comparable size. China is acutely aware of its historical role and organizing for it, while India is just waking up to it and lacks organizational structure to deal with it.

BTW, for those who do not remember it, Guangdong was the test case for China's planned transition to market socialism. The experiment was wildly successful and now the push is on to bring that model to the rest of China. One of the areas the Chinese leadership realizes that China lags is in quality of eduction and higher education in particular. So the push is also on to compete with the developed world in this regard, since education is the foundation for innovation.
Economonitor
Guangdong: The Epicenter of China’s Rebalancing

Dan Steinbock